Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Was Eminem inspired by city rapper’s track?
HE may have had No 1 singles across the world as well as hits with superstars like Dr Dre and Rihanna, but could Eminem’s l atest a l bu m h ave taken inspiration all the way from Dundee?
One city rapper has claimed so and called out the similarities between the real Slim Shady’s new album and a piece of his own work which was released five years earlier.
On January 17, Eminem’s new album Music To Be Murdered By dropped on to his website.
It was five years exactly since Darren Stewart, 27, from Stobswell, released his own rap song which, coincidentally, was also called Music To Be Murdered By.
And if that wasn’t enough, Darren also claims the same Alfred Hitchcock samples which were used on his track had inspired some of Eminem’s new songs.
Darren said: “When I heard the Hitchcock samples, the same title and release date, I did start to get a little freaked out.
“He is one of my idols and it could well be a coincidence, but you do hear stories of richer artists with louder fan bases getting away with that sort of thing.”
Darren performs under the name Zee The Dungeonous and has recorded dozens of tracks over the years, as well as performing gigs at venues including The Dungeon in Dundee.
But his modest success is more than somewhat dwarfed by that of multimillionaire Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, although the pair do have a mutual friend in D12 group member Bizarre, who has recorded music with both artists – a fact which raised Darren’s suspicions even more.
He collaborated with Bizarre in 2013, while Eminem recorded albums with the rapper in the early noughties.
Darren said: “I had a guest feature from Bizarre on my album Murder Zee Wrote. I met him after a concert in Glasgow in 2008 and the album was released two years before Music To Be Murdered By.
“People started contacting me about the similarities between the works and that’s what got me thinking.
“We have our connections to D12 and it doesn’t put it too far out of the realm of possibility that Eminem, through Bizarre, heard my track, dug for the sample I used, and took the concept.”
Attempts were made to contact Eminem’s management, but none had been successful at the time of going to press.