In preparation of his highly anticipated eighth solo album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Eminem has been giving us insight into his creative process with the new album, and his feelings on the state of the rap game as he sees it.

In his most recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the artist also known as Slim Shady celebrates the fact that he had a chance to work with Shady/Aftermath labelmate and one of hip-hop’s most talked about new schoolers, Kendrick Lamar.

“I completely respect what Kendrick does and the fact that he’s in the same camp,” says Em. “He came to Detroit and we kicked it for a few minutes, you know, and I felt the vibe of what he’s like and everything, and you know, he’s a super cool and super humble dude.”

The “Berserk” rapper also touched on his feelings about K.Dot’s highly controversial verse on Big Sean’s “Control,” saying that his hip-hop IQ is what makes Kendrick’s approach to rap different than others. “He’s very smart and you can tell by the way he put his album together for one. He’s like a hip-hop head, man, he just loves hip-hop. And obviously the way he did the “Control” verse, it was like if you get mad at him, then you might look foolish. He set it up so that you can’t really get mad at a lot of shit he said because it was what every other MC is already thinking. Or you should be thinking.”

Although the Detroit-bred artist is coming back in the race as a pioneer of the game, Em’s fully aware of the competition that he is facing, using the track “Rap God” as his pulse on the game as he sees it. “It goes back to everybody who competitive raps and does this for just purely the sport of it wants to be the best. Again, that’s why Kendrick’s verse worked so well because he only said what every rapper’s already thinking, if you don’t want to be the best, then why are you rapping?”

Don’t forget to pick up the December issue of Rolling Stone Magazine set to his newsstands on November 22 for the full interview.