Skylar Grey Talks Studio Time With Eminem, Making of ‘Don’t Look Down’ LP – Exclusive

Skylar Grey's talents are inspiring. Eminem happens to think so too. In fact, the Detroit emcee was so moved by one of her songs that he added his own set of vocals to the project.

"When I arrived at the studio in Detroit, he had cut his verse for 'C'mon Let Me Ride' and he'd thrown in a surprise, which was a Queen interpolation on the song," she tells TheDrop.fm. "I wasn't expecting that to be there, that was all him -- him singing Queen."

Having worked so closely with Em previously on songs such as 'Love the Way You Lie' and Dr. Dre's 'I Need a Doctor,' the Interscope signee had no problems reuniting with the veteran rapper. Alongside producer Alex da Kid, Marshall Mathers will executive produce Grey's upcoming LP, 'Don't Look Down.'

"Even though he's a rapper and I'm a singer, I really trust what [Eminem] hears," she enthuses. "He's got really good ears and I needed someone like that. Somebody that I could bounce stuff off of and ask questions and get good advice from. He's really well-rounded and talented."

The two meshed so well on 'C'mon Let Me Ride' that they took it to the trailer park for the filming of the video. "We had a random mixture of a lot of different people," she says of the set. "It was really playful the whole time."

Grey says that although most fans may harp on the musical differences between herself and Eminem, the value of what they've created is indisputable. "Music is music," she states. "Whether it's rap or rock music, as long as it's quality music I think that it can be respected and appreciated by people from other genres. That's one of the cool things we had from the start was combining an alternative-sounding hook on a rap song like we did on 'Love the Way You Lie.'"

'Don't Look Down' is bound to encourage a variety of emotions as Grey admits to not having one particular vibe in mind during its production. "I don't ever plan what type of song I want to make; I just follow intuition."

'C'mon Let Me Ride' incited goofiness in the studio -- a rarity since many of her songs tend to be soberly introspective. "We [Alex da Kid and Mike Del Rio] had a lot of fun recording it," she recalls. "It made me smile a lot. Most songs make me cry."

With her sophomore opus coming to fruition, she's prepared to take listeners for a ride. "I think when people listen to the album, they'll be taken on a journey," Grey admits. "By listening to it, they'll get a pretty good understanding of who I am."

'Don't Look Down' arrives in 2013.

Watch Skylar Grey's 'C'mon Let Me Ride' Feat. Eminem