In an age of ghostwriters, you can never be too careful who you let on your track. So when Kendrick really first blew up around 2012/2013 Eminem invited him to the studio to be featured on his album MMLP2, but it wasn’t without doing a security check first on K. Dot’s penmanship.
Ed Sheeran actually recalls the story who he says Rick Rubin (both a producer for Sheeran and Eminem) told him the tale of how “Love Game” came about:
“Eminem heard that Kendrick Lamar was the best rapper and he invited him to the studio to get him on a song,” Sheeran revealed. “He arrived and Kendrick came with all his mates and Eminem said, ‘I just want you in the studio, just you on your own and then my engineer is gonna come in and then record you doing it, but your mates aren’t allowed in.”
(Something tells me Em didn’t use the word “mates” lol)
Hear for yourself below around the 8 minute mark:
