Bassmint Productions (featuring Eminem and Proof) – “Hammer vs. Vanilla Ice“

unreleased (1990/91)

Nah Right’s been pulling a bunch of old Eminem tracks off early collaborator Chaos Kid’s Myspace pages. The first batch, from the Chaos Kid page are cool artifacts but ultimately very derivative. Eskay compares them to Big Daddy Kane and that is being generous. I am thinking more Kid N Play mixed with a vastly inferior Jungle Brothers. But maybe more interesting is another page, entitled “Bassmint Fun Times: The Infamous Suckerin Rhymes” which finds a similar lineup kicking goofier, looser freestyles. On these you can really hear Em’s style, and particularly his sense of humor start to take shape.

“Basically, the ‘Suckerin Rhyme’ was a way for us to have fun by freestylin. We would record the sessions to play back later and laugh at. They were never intended to be released to the public. They were purely for our own amusement.”

The highlight is probably “Hammer vs. Vanilla Ice,” which finds Em trading bars in character with a young Proof (Proof’s Hammer impression is considerably more accurate than Em’s Ice. Still I LOL’d at “I got a blonde streak… and that’s why people like me… because I’m hard as concrete.” There are a few more freestyles up at the Bassmint page that nobody bothered to rip. Additional Eminem minutiae of note: Bassmint recorded a lost track entitled “What Color Is Soul?” at Prince’s Paisley Park studios! After the jump is a gang of incredibly endearing photos pulled off the page. Respect to Chaos’ YZ-styled “Batman Sucks” T-Shirt. (Can any of my old heads explain the significance of that one?)