Uncle Kracker Recalls Rapping With Eminem In High School

DETROIT (Uncle Kracker Fans Website) - Kid Rock wasn't the only future megastar Uncle Kracker used to rap with in high school.

"There was one kid other than me in ninth grade that was into rap music," says Kracker (a.k.a. Matt Shafer) of his days at L'Anse Creuse High School near Detroit. (Kid Rock, a.k.a. Bob Ritchie, was three years older.) "Me and this kid would go over each other's houses and rap. And he introduced me to these kids on the other side of town."

One of them was none other than Marshall Mathers (a.k.a. Eminem). "Him and his friends would come in their pickup trucks, take me to their basement, and we'd do freestyle rap sessions and record them," says Kracker, who still has some of the tapes but says he's embarrassed by their quality.

"We were young. It was all, like, 'We like beer!' and 'Boy, we really like beer!' But I remember Marshall was always bad," Kracker adds. "He was always awesome. Even back then, that kid was rapping tongue-twisters and shit, you know? And he's always been very artistic. He'd sit around and draw pictures and shit."

When asked whether he thinks the tapes will ever see the light of record stores, Kracker responds, "I think some things are just better left alone."