Eminem sat down with BBC Radio's Zane Lowe and went into detail about his eighth studio album The Marshall Mather LP 2. Here are some of the key points we learned from part one of the interview.

1) He didn't write Rap God.

"I freestyled it, off the dome, one take."

2) The album isn't just a continuation to the 2000 prequel. 

"It's grown up and down. Some of the themes and topics and things like that are revisited on this album. But at the same time, I feel like it's a 2013 version. All my albums, I think for the most part, pretty much tell where I'm at, at that time period. There's a lot of reflecting back on everything that was happening during that time. It's kinda like me reflecting on it and getting to the point where I am now."

3) Eminem was sent a beat and upon hearing the chorus he knew right away it was meant to be the continuation to 2000's Stan, which he titled Bad Guy.

"I knew that obviously Stan off the first Mathers LP was a big topic and I had heard a lot of chatter right around the time of doing the Recovery record, that I should do Stan 2... All I kept thinking was well, Stan's dead. He died in the story. So in the back of my mind, I kind of had an idea of who could be left from the story, but you know I needed to get the right beat."

4) Eminem had never met producer Rick Rubin and wanted to "impress" him. He was also nervous.

"My manager Paul [Rosenberg] had been talking to him and Rick had expressed that he had interest in working with me. When Paul brought it to my attention, I was like super excited, just honored at the fact that he was even thinking about it. I had my reservations just because I'm a superfan of Rick, so I'd probably be a little nervous. I don't know what the vibe would be just because I would be wanting to impress him, so it was very much the feeling that I got early on with Dre."

5) He also explained the sound he was aiming to achieve with the new record.

"I love the sound that Rick gets when he does hip-hop, even from early on Beastie Boys. And that's what I was kind of hoping to get."

He later added: "How could I make the record sound nostalgic but subliminally nostalgic? So it kind of reminded you of maybe 13 years ago, you know when you first heard me."

Tags: Eminem