Eminem: I won't rap forever
Eminem: I won't rap forever |
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Well, Eminem spoke out on the rumors of his retirement from the hip hop arena -- but he didn't say too much, According to Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press.
About a week after the Detroit Free Press reported on a possible dramatic career shift for the rapper who was born Marshall Mathers, the Detroit Michigan star offered his first public comment on the matter.
In an interview with MTV network, Mathers did clear up one point of semantics:
"I'm not retiring," he told MTV.
But after the interview aired, there were plenty of questions left unanswered and he made no definitive statements about his future as a rap artist.
"I don't know what I'm doing yet," he said. "Nothing is definite yet, you know what I'm saying? Nothing is written in stone."
The July 15 Free Press report, quoted sources close to Mathers, described his likely move out of the Eminem spotlight and into a primary role as producer and record-label chief.
Friends and associates quoted statements by Mathers himself and pointed out clues set throughout Eminem's "Encore" album.
Some interviewed said the topic was extremly sensitivity among executives behind the scenes, including Interscope Records, which has sold more than $1 billion in Eminem music since 1999.
The Eminem camp stayed completely mum in the wake of the story, with manager Paul Rosenberg giving only a brief statement to the Los Angeles Times that mirrored his statement to the Free Press.
"Encore," he told the California newspaper, "is the close of the first chapter of Eminem the recording artist. To speculate beyond that is just a guess. When he knows what's next, he will let the world know."
Since his 1999 debut, Eminem has emerged as one of the world's best-known celebrities and has become the best-selling hip-hop artist in history.
The emergence of the news that he might step back while he is still on top bounced across the media, in some cases spawning colorful -- if sensational -- headlines that claimed he had announced his retirement.
The rapper first addressed the comments during his Sunday show in Seattle, incorporating the retirement talk into an existing onstage skit about tabloid media.
On MTV, Mathers did say that "I'm not going to be rapping forever," but he wouldn't put a timetable on his future.
"I'll always make music, whether I'm just sitting behind the boards and producing and making beats and putting my other artists out there, or if I do decide to do another tour or make another album," he said in the interview.
"When I start doing that, people will know."
