Big Sean made a childhood dream come true by collaborating with Eminem.
The Better Me Than You rapper looked back on a handful of collaborations in a new Billboard interview, where he fondly recalled the first time he met fellow Detroit native Em. Their first song together was all-star cut “Detroit vs. Everybody,” but the artists would reconnect on “No Favors” and more recently, “Tobey.”
“I appreciated going into the studio with Em and talking with him. That was probably the biggest moments of my personal childhood dreams,” Sean told the publication, adding that the 15-time Grammy winner was on a hiatus around the time they first linked.
“I don’t know if he took a break or was getting his shit together ’cause I think he was still in the studio everyday, but what I remember most was watching South Park and eating pizza in the studio. We’d debate what was better between Family Guy and South Park,” Sean continued.
“We’d talk about life, and I told the story before how Slim Shady LP was the first album I bought at Costco with my birthday money as a kid. I still have it,” he added.
Sean revealed that he’s kept the CD at his family home in Detroit but “didn’t want to be a lame” and bring it to the studio for Em to sign. But the Kamikaze artist surprised him by having two of Sean’s early albums on hand.
“He took out Finally Famous, Hall of Fame and asked me to sign them. That was the last time in my life where I said I would never try to be cool,” Sean concluded.
Two years before the artists would reconnect on “Tobey,” in 2022, Em named Big Sean as one of the artists who motivates him to elevate his lyricism.
“At this point, a lot of the big achievements that could come in your career have happened for me already, so I don’t hyper-focus on numbers and being on charts,” he told XXL at the time.
“What I hyper-focus on is people like Kendrick Lamar, Joyner Lucas, J. Cole and Big Sean, and watching them and how the fuck they’re doing their shit. Because they’re also focused on being the best rappers.”
