Eminem: 'I'm Not Retiring'
If you bought into recent reports that Eminem has decided to hang up his mic and settle into a quiet life out of the spotlight, the man himself has a message for you.
"I'm not retiring," Em told MTV News during a recent stop on his Anger Management Tour.
Reports from the rapper's hometown of Detroit last week had sources close to Em saying that he planned to retire following his Anger Management run. He's tired of the limelight, they said. He wants to produce other artists, they said. They even gave a date — September 17, when he's slated to play Slane Castle in Ireland on the last scheduled show of the Anger Management Tour — for his last concert.
Not so fast, said the man himself.
"When I say I'm taking a break, I'm taking a break from my music to go in the studio and produce my other artists and put their albums out. That's called taking a break for me," Em told MTV News. "When I know my next move, I'll tell everyone my next move. Not some reporter who writes a story about 'This is Eminem's last album.' I never said [Encore] was my last album. I never said anything yet. I don't know what I'm doing yet. Nothing is definite, you know what I'm sayin'? Nothing is written in stone."
Em concedes that nothing lasts forever, and that the day will eventually come when he decides to devote all of his time to enjoying the benefits of being the biggest-selling hip-hop artist of all time — but that day hasn't arrived yet. "I know that I'm not gonna be rapping forever, I know that much," Em said. "As long as I feel like I got the energy in me to do it, and the spirit, and I can do it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna always make music, whether I'm just sittin' behind the boards and producing and making beats and puttin' my other artists out there, or if I do decide to do another tour or make another album. When I start doing that, people will know."
However, if Em should ever decide to step away from the game, one of his tourmates would be more than happy to pick up the slack.
"The day he retires is the day you will see me all over MTV," 50 Cent joked. "I'll be at the Movie Awards. I'll be doing news. You'll get sick of me."
The Anger Management 3 tour continues Friday in Chula Vista, California (see "Eminem, 50, Lil Jon, G-Unit, D12 Team Up For Anger Management 3 Tour This Summer").
— Robert Mancini, with reporting by Suchin Pak