Eminem Rattles Off His Early influences In Interview With LL Cool J

Icon interviewed icon when Eminem appeared on LL Cool J's Sirius XM radio show Rock The Bells Radio.

During their chat, LL asked Shady what made him get into rap as a kid.

"You," Em graciously answered. "Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Ice T, Fat Boys. "I don't know It’s just something about the music spoke to me. It was so new and different and refreshing. You also didn’t really have to be able to sing. Something about the music felt empowering. It just spoke to me as a kid. I wanted to be like you. I hope that doesn’t sound weird. I absolutely wanted to be like you. I wanted to be like Run-DMC. Something about it. It was the energy — you could just say what you wanna say. You could talk about your life and talk about shit that bothers you. I just gravitated toward it and never strayed from the first day I heard a rap song."

That Eminem is a big Cool J fan shouldn't be a surprise since LL was ruling the airwaves when Marshall was a teen. LL's legacy sometimes gets lost in Hip Hop history, and a couple of years ago he triggered a debate about his place in the game with this Tweet.