Eminem & Shady : Total Slaughter 2014 LIVE

Eminem’s Total Slaughter battle rap event, scheduled to take place Saturday, July 12, in New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, could change the course of professional battle rap.

The event may have never gotten underway, however, without Mike Herard, a Shady Records A&R, who saw passion for battle rap while touring through Europe with Eminem, Slaughterhouse, and Alchemist last November. Herard recalls a particular dinner conversation between the aforementioned artists that struck him. “The whole time they were there, like three hours, all they talked about was fucking battle rapping,” Herard said. “They were quoting guys’ rhymes like they knew them by heart, which was shocking to me.