After being in the rap game for many years, it's understandable that a mogul would have some regrets and Fat Joe recently exposed that rejecting early Eminem demos (not once but six times) is one of his biggest. Eminem is the definition of beating the odds and winning out against all else, even though when he began in the rap game, white rap was largely characterized by figures such as the running joke, Vanilla Ice. The life and times of Eminem could be a lesson in perseverance, as we all saw in his fictionalized biography, 8 Mile, released in 2002. Eminem went through years of rejection until finally signing with Dr. Dre in 1998 under Interscope Records and Aftermath Entertainment.
That signing led to The Slim Shady LP, which was praised by critics for it's unique lyrical style and being written completely in the perspective of his alter-ego, "Slim Shady." After his follow-up, The Marshall Mathers LP, the rest is history, including how he was able to get a large posse of fans to dress up like him in baggy jeans, a white t-shirt and buzzed bleach blonde hair, which was the rapper's signature style at the time.
Fat Joe is apparently not the only mogul who turned him down as he told The South China Morning Post (Sept. 4) while on tour, "Man I got so many regrets. The biggest is that Eminem gave me so many demos - six different times he approached me and I didn't sign him. Shame on me."
MTV reported that it was one of his biggest regrets in his career. Perhaps Fat Joe just didn't see the potential in Eminem from the get go. Others in the music industry seemed to have had the same opinion, but to find out that he passed not just once, but six times is shocking! That's not to say that the mogul didn't give us other great rappers from his Terror Squad like Big Pun who strangely enough passed away just a year after The Slim Shady LP was released via Interscope Records and Dr. Dre's Aftermath imprint. Eminem doesn't seem to hold a grudge against Fat Joe though since they did work together after he made it in the music industry, appearing on the "Lean Back" remix with Lil Jon, Remy Ma and Ma$e.
