Eminem and Royce da 5′9″ go head to head in Complex’s new online-only gif cover! I love the fact that this moving image promotes this week’s Hell: The Sequel release, but also pays homage to the classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck “Duck Season” cartoon (see below). Noah, Brent Rollins/Egotripland, and JLP have been teasing readers and peers for days. I promise you, these guys are only obnoxious on twitter. In real life, they’re perfect gents. But sometimes the game calls for backpatting because there’s nothing better than when creative people team up to tackle the same old album promotion cycles in new ways. Win win.

Our friends at Complex also put in work with a week of Eminem x Royce Da 5′9″ goodies, including EIC Noah’s personal “Oral History Of Bad Meets Evil” 1998 to 2011…

And Hot97’s Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg sent over another exclusive clip from their Detroit visit with Eminem and Royce: this time opening up the can of worms….”Who’s better, Biggie or Tupac?”

Listen to the Hot97 audio and check out NCB’s amazing memories of Eminem…
After the jump…

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Here’s an excerpt from NCB’s fascinating story about meeting Eminem and Royce da 5′9″ for a 1998 Blaze Magazine story…returning to NYC and witnessing the inception of the original “Bad Meet Evil” collaboration (vintage photos by NCB)….

“So when I came back to NYC, naturally, I regaled everyone that would listen about how I’d heard the future of rap. One of these people was a new friend and mentor Jonathan Shecter, who had been the founding Editor of The Source and recently launched an indie hip-hop label called Game Recordings. Sitting around his conference room listening to a copy of The Slim Shady EP, I’d burned for him, Jon, very enamored of Em’s talents, started brainstorming how he could work with the already signed rapper. We’d been laughing about how the titling of the “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star” project was kinda pretentious, so I jokingly suggested taking the piss out of it with a “Eminem & R.A. The Rugged Man Are White Trash” collaborative single. We all agreed this was a very funny, very bad idea. But it planted a seed in Jon’s brain.

He and Paul linked shortly thereafter and Paul came by Game’s TriBeCa office and played the album for Jon, myself and Game art director and graff legend Todd “REAS” James (who would later design the original Bad Meets Evil logo). Next thing I know Jon’s telling me that he and Paul made a deal for a Bad Meets Evil single with Eminem and Royce.

A few weeks later Em and Royce came to town with the Lyricist Lounge Tour and performed at the Tunnel… I ended up becoming their New York tour guide for a week and a half….”

Read the rest of NCB’s “Oral History,” here…The gif cover has great entertainment value, but this account of the people and process behind a music legend, the lost moments that are impossible to go back to, and even the unpolished snapshots of a young writer who is still closer to fan than cynic for the time being….that’s what fills the spaces in for a true Eminem fan.

Meanwhile, in this audio clip, Ciph and Rosenberg continue their sit-down with Em and Royce in Detroit….with a debate about Biggie vs. Pac. (Remember the full Hot97 interview airs tonite at midnight!

Royce: I think he’s arguably one of the [greatest] but he didn’t get as much time as Em had. Em covered everything I felt he was capable of eventually achieving during his career… Em and Jay just did it. Pac and Biggie didn’t have the same amount of time. That’s why to me [Pac and Biggie] aren’t as great as Em.

Eminem: Pac touched people in a different way. Pac was very emotionally driven. If you say Pac was a better MC, Biggie might be a better storyteller. But how can you say one is better than the other. The debate would exist forever… It’s just preference…

Previously:
Eminem, Lil’ Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Big Boi, & J. Cole At Bonnaroo 2011
Eminem and Royce Da 5′9″ Share Their ‘Bad Meets Evil’ Freedom, But Not Their Web Addiction