Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha has been talking about his musical influences when he was growing up, in a recent interview with Kicca, saying that he tried to rap like Eminem.
The 24-year-old had to give up on his rapping after failing to keep up with the pace of artists which he listened to when he was growing up, in particular that of Eminem.
Speaking to Dressing Room DJ on Kicca.com, the Ivory Coast international said: “I was mainly into hip-hop when I was growing up. That was what I loved the most. It was the beats and the different ways they used to rap. The way Eminem could rap without breathing, literally, that used to fascinate me.”
“There’s no way of keeping up with how fast Eminem used to rap, but I used to try now and then. I could never rap. I attempted to, but I thought: ‘No, this ain’t for me’. I just left the artists to it.”
Growing up in Thornton Heath, Zaha was one of eight children growing up in the household, with his older brothers influencing the music that he listened to, with hip-hop being the genre.
“I listened to old-school songs like Tupac most of the time, because my brothers listened to him. They played 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Snoop, Dr Dre… there were so many different vibes. There were artists from Ivory Coast too, but I didn’t know their names.
“The first single I bought was probably Tupac’s Changes.”
