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Before Eminem became one of the best rappers in hip-hop, he was just Slim Shady making noise on the underground rap scene. In 1997, he appeared on Baruch College’s ‘Solo Vibes’ radio show and threw down some crazy freestyles. Over the weekend, audio from that radio appearance surfaced online.
In the two-part video of this rare freestyle session, Eminem spits killer rhymes and flows with fellow underground rhymer A.L. (aka All Lyrics).
We’ll let DJ Sincere, who hosted the station’s ‘Solo Vibes’ program, explain the story:
Eminem comes in somewhat shy or just cool and I thought [his manager] Paul [Rosenberg] was his bodyguard because he was a big dude. Needless to say, Em killed it with a battle style that was so sharp, besides his flow and delivery, how he spit, what he spit, and how everyone in the room was so impressed. You could hear laughter, oooooo’s and ahhhs after some of his punch lines. All the emcees up there that night killed it and you could feel the energy and how raw it was just on some hip-hop shit.”
Eminem’s freestyle on ‘Solo Vibes’ came one year after the release of his debut album, ‘Infinite,’ which caught the ear of Dr. Dre who signed him to his Aftermath label. A year later, the Detroit spitfire released ‘The Slim Shady LP’ and the rest is hip-hop history.
Listen to Eminem’s Freestyle on Baruch College Radio – Part 1
Listen to Eminem’s Freestyle on Baruch College Radio – Part 2
