Eminem Surprised Jim Jonsin By Making 'Space Bound' A Single

Behind the Beats: Jim Jonsin

Before Eminem could make the heart-wrenching "Space Bound" a hit single, the song's producer, Jim Jonsin, had to rework the track, which he had previously recorded with British songwriter Steve McEwan.

"It was actually a full song with verses, b-section, chorus," Jonsin told of the original Eminem-less version.

"Me and Steve McEwan actually wrote the song, we actually did it here in New York on guitar — it was just a guitar vocal on an iPhone," the multiplatinum producer said. "We took the idea later in Miami, like three months after, and produced the track, and we sent it out to Eminem to see what he thought about it. He loved it. So he interpreted it his own way."

The initial concept remained mostly intact, and the song's chorus acted as a guide for the Detroit MC to add his own twist. "The chorus was based off of a chase, a guy who's chasing after a woman that he's crazy about," Jonsin said of the theme. "He loves her; she's everything to him. I'm a rocket ship aiming at her heart, her heart's the moon — I'm going full-on."

It was Jonsin's manager who suggested that he send the track to Slim Shady, which he did, even though he didn't believe anything would come of it. "He had me strip down the verses, take them out, and make the track a little more hip-hop, and he sent it out," he said. "I didn't really believe that it would end up on Eminem's album, let alone be a single."

The video for "Space Bound," now the fourth single off of Em's multiplatinum 2010 Recovery album, was released last week on iTunes. The clip, which stars ex-porn actress Sasha Grey, depicts a rocky romance that eventually leads the rapper to kill himself with a single shot to the head.

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