Eminem’s younger brother has heaped admiration on the Detroit rap legend, calling Slim Shady “the best role model” he had when he made the decision to have children.
On the Just a Little Shady podcast, hosted by the rapper’s daughter Hailie Jade Mathers, Nathan Kane Mathers discussed his relationship with Eminem.
“He was the best role model I could have had to be the dad that I am today,” said Nathan, who has three children and referred to himself as a “party animal” growing up.
When Eminem was a teenager, Nathan, who is about 14 years Eminem’s junior, lived with him. Nathan also discussed his own entrance into music and how he learned to create lyrics from his older brother.
“I started getting into music at a very young age. As I got older and thought about wanting to do it as a career, I had learned from your dad, my brother, on how to do music and how to write formulas, compound syllables, what not, and tested it out in the beginning, getting comfortable with my voice,” he said.
He continued: “I knew there was going to be a comparison. ‘Hey, how does he sound compared to his brother? Does he have the same formula? Does he have the syllables? Is he a battle rapper? Is he a freestyle? What can he do?…Is he on that level? Can he be above that?’
“And it was never about that. It was more about just having fun and being able to be around music and do something that other people would enjoy.”
Nathan continued by saying that he recorded his smash song “Slide On Over” in the same Florida studio as Rick Ross and Flo Rida as his own rap career began to take off.
