Busta Rhymes Talks About Recording ‘Calm Down’ With Eminem, Says “It’s Just That Fiery Passion That Still Burns In The Souls Of Both Of Us”
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Rapper Rhymes has impressed us with one too many sings over the past few years. He recently opened up about his acclaimed track ‘Calm Down’ ft. Eminem that released in 2014. The song that is over 6 minutes long has over 9.3 million views to date.
During a recent interaction, Rhymes opened up about how ‘Calm Down’ ended up this long and the ‘Love the Way You Lie’ rapper’s competitiveness. Read on to know all he said.
In a chat with Pitchfork, Busta Rhymes revealed that the original track was not supposed to this long, but Eminem kept coming up with ways to improve the song and challenge him. He said, “If you want a clear display of what the fundamentals of hip-hop is and the art of emceeing, [Calm Down] is the case study.”
He continued explaining the process and why it ended up being so intensive. Busta Rhymes said, “I sent the record to Eminem with 16 bar verse. He sent it back with like 40 bar verse. I’m like ‘what the f*ck is going on. You are not gonna do this to me on my song.’ I sent back my verse with 45 bars. He sends it back 56 bars. I sent mine back 62 bars. He sends back 66 bars. I’m like, look bro, who we making this record for at this point? Are we making this record for the consumer or we are just battling each other now?”
The rapper revealed that their competitive nature was the inspiration to keep going. He said that he was actually happy that Eminem took the project so seriously. Rhymes said, “But that’s the beauty and the competitive nature and spirit we both have cause we care that much. We love it that much.”
Busta Rhymes continued, “No one wants to be a weak link. No one wants to say I’m going to settle with getting my a*s bust by the other rapper on the song. It’s no longer a business at that point. It’s just that fiery passion that still burns in the souls of both of us as true incredible swordsmen of the sport and we love the opportunity of being able to display the skill set at the most highest level of just raw emceeing. That was so much fun,” he added.
Check out Busta Rhymes’ ‘Calm Down’ ft Eminem here:
Busta Rhymes and Eminem have also collaborated on other tracks like Busta’s ‘I’ll Hurt You,’ Eminem’s ‘Hail Mary,’ ‘Killshot’ and more.
