ROYCE da 59 N EMINEM BACK IN HELL

Bad Meets Evil is an American hip hop duo from Detroit, Michigan that consists of rappers Royce da 5'9" (Bad) and Eminem (Evil). They are best known for collaborating on a self-titled song that appeared on Eminem's major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP in 1999, their early association with Dr. Dre and his label Aftermath Entertainment, and their hit EP Hell: The Sequel.

The duo recorded numerous well received underground songs including the popular song "Renegade" which would later be used on Jay-Z's The Blueprint album with Royce's verses replaced by Jay-Z. They have also recorded numerous freestyles together, including a 12-minute long battle. Footage of a Bad Meets Evil concert filmed in September 1998 in Boston at the Lyricist Lounge has also been leaked onto the Internet.

Bad Meets Evil split up in early 2000s, after Royce fell out with Eminem's group, D12. They have since reunited and released their EP Hell: The Sequel on June 14, 2011, which debuted at number 1 in the Billboard 200 charts. Final numbers for the first week sales of the EP were 171,000 via Sound Scan.

Royce da 5'9" and Eminem both grew up in Detroit and were mutual friends of late rapper Proof. Royce's then manager introduced him to Eminem at an Usher concert in 1997. Their chemistry encouraged them to form a group in which Royce covers the "Bad" part and Eminem the "Evil" part. They recorded and released several tracks together, including their debut group single "Nuttin' to Do" and its B-side, "Scary Movies".^[1] Eminem would later sign a solo deal with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. On his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP, he featured Royce on the song "Bad Meets Evil".

While working on Dr. Dre's album 2001, Eminem introduced Royce to Dr. Dre and secured him a ghostwriting position on the album. Royce wrote and appeared on the first and original version of "Xxplosive" (entitled "Way I Be Pimping"), he also wrote "The Message".^[2] Royce wrote several tracks such as "The Throne Is Mine" and "Stay In Your Place" which were later cut from the final track list. The tracks have been leaked later on several mixtapes, including Pretox.^[3] Royce's then manager revealed that Royce was involved in writing for Dr. Dre, he then requested that Royce cut ties with his manager. Royce refused to fire his manager and his relationship with Dre ended resulting in Bad Meets Evil group work to dissolve.

In 2010, it was announced that Eminem was in the process of signing Slaughterhouse, a rap group of which Royce is a member. The group together with Royce later appeared on a bonus track for Eminem's Recovery album titled "Session One". The deal was finalized in 2011. The two rappers started rapping together and two of their songs, "Living Proof" and "Echo", were leaked. They later appeared on another song together, this time with the new Shady Records team, Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf, on "2.0 Boys", which is also titled "Game Over". Most recently a song titled "Fast Lane"^[4] was leaked to the internet, though it became the lead single on their latest EP while becoming their first top 40 hit as a group. The album was released on June 14, 2011.^[5]
Eminem:

"Royce and I started hanging out again and inevitably that led us back into the studio. At first we were just seeing where it went without any real goal in mind, but the songs started to come together crazy, so here we are."^[6]

Royce da 5'9":

"I'm excited to see this project come to fruition considering the long lapse in time between when we worked before and now. We had a blast doing it and we just hope everyone enjoys it while we're working on the 'Monster' that will be the Slaughterhouse album