According to Ed Sheeran on the Zach Sang Show, prior to Eminem’s 2013 track “Love Game” featuring Kendrick Lamar which can be found on the former’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Eminem was hesitant that Kendrick Lamar was enlisting the services of a ghostwriter.
Sheeran said Eminem went as far as making Kendrick Lamar write his verse for the track without anyone else in the room, according to executive producer of the album Rick Rubin. Later on Rubin would tell the story to Sheeran who then told it on the Zach Sang Show.
Think of it like this, a grizzly veteran in the rap-game assessing his potential replacement before officially handing over the crown.
It was around 2013 when Lamar started gaining mainstream appeal fresh off his 2012 release, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Though the album debuted at no. 2 behind Taylor Swift’s Red on the Billboard 200, it still managed to sell approximately 242,000 copies first week.
In fact, it was in August of 2013 when the album was officially certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping and selling over a million copies in the United States.
However, Lamar was in for a rude awakening upon greeting Eminem in the studio, an invitation extended by the latter.
According to Sheeran, Lamar arrived to the studio session with a entourage of people, but Eminem was having no parts of a group session.
“I just want you in the studio, just you on your own,” Eminem said.
Sheeran said the engineer came in shortly thereafter to record Lamar’s verse.
While he had his doubts, after Lamar fully cooperated, and wrote a dope verse, Eminem was a skeptic turned believer, declaring Lamar as the best on the spot.
Note, Lamar admitted he knew what was going on during a 2014 radio interview.
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