Redman’s legacy in Hip Hop can be largely attributed to his lyricism and writing style, and the rap veteran believes his approach to the craft is quite similar to that of one of his peers.
On Wednesday (October 18), Jeremy Hecht of HipHopDX caught up with the East Coast MC at the City Of Hope red carpet event in Los Angeles. During their chat, the 53-year-old elaborated on how his mind operates in the context of composing.
AD LOADING...
“When I’m sitting down, actually orchestrating a rhyme,” he began. “I really go into different dimensions of rhyming and word patterns and shit. It’s real intricate.
“Another person who is like that is Eminem. I seen some of his writing patterns and I’m like, ‘Okay,’ ’cause we talked about it one time and it’s very intricate how we get our wordplay.”
Earlier this year, Eminem reinstated his greatest rappers of all time list by wearing a T-shirt confirming his picks from over 20 years ago, much to the delight of Redman.
The Def Squad rapper took to Instagram in late July to share a photo of Slim Shady wearing a shirt featuring his famous “’Till I Collapse” lyrics, confirming the New Jersey native is still at the top of his list, followed by JAY-Z, 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G.
“I got a list, here’s the order of my list that it’s in/ It goes: Reggie, JAY-Z, 2Pac and Biggie/ André from OutKast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas, and then me/ But in this industry I’m the cause of a lot of envy/ So when I’m not put on this list, the shit does not offend me,” Em famously rapped on the 2002 song.
Redman, who’s selling the shirts in collaboration with the NYC-based skateboarding store Richmond Hood, wrote in the caption: “My Young Bro @eminem stay Repping and got his IT GOES REGGIE TEE ! ONLY at www.Richmondhood.com. @richmondhoodco. If it ain’t got the Yellow Tag it’s a FAKE !! Fuck with the ORIGINALS.”
AD LOADING...
Eminem previously spoke about his long-running admiration for Redman during a conversation with the man himself in 2015.
“I was cleaning out my closet, pun intended, and ran across this old picture and shit,” Em said on Shade 45 at the time. “I was like, ‘What the fuck is? Oh, shit.’ I realized, the first time I had ever went to New York, we actually, we went to Jersey [and] me and Bizarre went to record with the Outsidaz.
AD LOADING...
“And somehow, I can’t remember who we was in the car with, but I know Pace [Won] was with us and we had actually ended up stopping by your house. So I’m like, ‘Oh, shit. That’s the picture I took out the back window of your house on some fan shit.’ It was like, ‘Holy shit, that’s Redman’s house.’”
Redman replied: “You’re one of my favorite artists, too. Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ve got my support over here, brother.”
