Anthony Tremaine Dixson, also known as Westside Boogie, recently chatted with Smoothvega on the Nothing Beats Experience podcast about his relationship with Eminem, how Rihanna benefited his career, his upcoming album, the importance of mental health, and his experience with the Interscope Records, among other topics.

The 36-year-old rapper, who signed with Shady Records in 2017, has been working on a new album for quite some time. It appears that the time has finally come, as he claimed that the album is finished and only needs Eminem’s final approval.

“The beauty with working with Shady is that he just lets me do my thing,” said Boogie, “He [Eminem] just waits for me to bring it [new music] to him and don’t put too much pressure on me.” He also revealed, “The album is done, I believe so, but I still got to go through the final Eminem stage… I played the album for him a couple of months ago. My problem is I always hate my songs from a couple of months ago. I’m just always critiquing myself, always on to the next song… I probably got like 5 to 10 albums because of that.”

This was not the only time Boogie spoke about Eminem. throughout the interview he talked about the time Marshall signed him to the Shady Records. The Compton rapper recalled:

“One day, my AR was like: ‘Bro, we got to figure something out. It’s this management group called LVRN, I really feel like you gonna match good with them’ and at the same time, I randomly got a call from Eminem. I don’t know how the universe did that to me or why it did it for me but I think its cause my constant belief in myself and not giving up. Got a call from Eminem. He said he wanted to meet me. Flew me out to Detroit. Next thing you know, I was signed to Eminem and had new management.” 

He went on to explain his relationship with Slim Shady, saying,

“We went to the studio in Detroit. It’s always the same thing: ‘Marshall’s ready for you now, Marshall’s ready to see you.’ He’s like freaking president and that’s the part that makes me nervous… He’s [Eminem] dope. I think, before I met him, I was so like ‘that’s one of the biggest rappers ever, he is not gonna act like a human but then when I met him, he was like just another person trying to figure life out and that’s dope.”

Boogie also revealed that when they met, Eminem already knew some of his songs that weren’t even popular: “He knew those songs and was telling me details about those and how it rhymed and certain rhyme schemes I did.” adding: “I was like, oh, I love him. He really cares about the craft and I think that’s why I’m in such a great situation…. He is so competitive, he not going to support, he going to kill everybody, that’s what he’s doing. He’s so competitive, sometimes I be thinking he is in a competition with me, I think that’s what’s amazing about him, He ain’t lost that spirit”

Boogie also talked about Rihanna and how she helped with his career, saying:

“I was on tour with Denzel Curry when Rihanna sang my “Ni**a Needs” video. I had been signed [to Interscope] for couple of years and I still only had like ten thousand followers. So, when Rihanna posted me, I thought it was fake as hell, I thought it was fake page. She posted me and my followers went up from like ten thousand to 150k in like thirty minutes. That’s a power of Rihanna. So Rihanna singlehandedly changed my career forever. I’m forever grateful for her.”

Check out the full interview below: