'I Speak To Everybody Who Is Even Remotely Like Me': Eminem on 'Revival'

Eminem has been called many things; brilliant, controversial, shocking. Throughout his double-decade career, he's been criticized as much as he's been celebrated. But one thing that's not up for discussion: He is the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time, with 15 Grammys, two certified diamond-selling albums and an Academy Award to his name.

It's been more than 18 years since Em's first Top 40 hit, "The Real Slim Shady," catapulted the young Detroit MC to mainstream success. On the new Revival, his first album in four years, the 45-year-old artist focuses in on a few things a grown man like him might have on his mind. With pop-leaning guest appearances from the Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran, Revival album finds Em taking a more politic stand than he ever has before in his music, touching on politics, racial disparity and his own mortality.

Eminem spoke with NPR's Michel Martin from Detroit about why the writing process for Revival took him two years, his feelings about President Trump and where he feel he fits into hip-hop's canon. Hear the radio version of their conversation at the audio link, and read an edited version below.

Michel Martin: The last time you talked with us in 2010, you had just released Recovery, and you were actually in recovery: You'd come to terms with an addiction problem and gotten through an overdose. And so