Juvenile and Mannie Fresh have returned the love to Eminem after he sampled their classic hit “Ha” on his new album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).
On the back half of the track “Road Rage,” Em prominently samples the 1998 single which later featured JAY-Z on the remix.
Speaking with Hot 97’s DJ Drewski, the New Orleans rap legends opened up about Slim Shady borrowing from “Ha” and their thoughts on sampling.
“Shout out to Eminem. He just took ‘Ha,’” Juvenile began. “We can’t do nothing with these songs sitting down, we can’t make no money with these songs just sitting down so I applaud the artists, especially the artists that are real good at it that got talent.”
Mannie Fresh then weighed in: “I think it’s the biggest homage anybody can pay to you when it’s a credible artist. When somebody like Eminem uses your song or when Jay jumped on ‘Ha,’ that’s like, ‘Wow.’
“It’s incredible because if you’re sitting down in a barber shop and we talking, you can stick your chest out and be like, ‘But did Eminem ever rap on any of your beats?’ [Laughs]. ‘Did Jay ever rap on any of your beats?’”
Juvenile also discussed his relationship with Eminem and how he found out the song was being used by him: “Eminem is my dude. When my career started, Em was one of them guys who reached out and showed us love in the beginning so he’s my guy. But I didn’t expect that. We knew it was coming out but I didn’t hear it.”
Earlier this year, Juvenile’s most famous hit “Back That Azz Up” was sampled by Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign on their Vultures 1 cut “Do It,” which also featured YG and the late Nipsey Hussle.
The former Cash Money Millionaire was a big fan of his classic track being reused by Mr. West.
“I give everybody a chance, man, and Kanye’s a good dude,” he told TMZ. “He’s actually one of those cats when we released the Juvie, Wacko and Skip album that showed a whole lot of support. So I’m kind of flattered that the guy chose me to sample my music.”
He continued: “With me, I try to keep things on the positive, especially with the new artists and the ones that came after me. I’m flattered Drake done sampled my music too [on ‘Practice’] and I treated him the same way. It’s all love with me.”
