In 1996 a Detroit DJ called Babe got a phone call from DJ Los.

"Los called me up. He was like, 'Yo, you gotta come to the Hip Hop Shop. Man, this is a white dude up there killing it.'"

Babe was not convinced. "I'm not gonna lie, man, I was a little hesitant. I was like, man, there's no white dude up there killing it — 'cause the Hip Hop Shop was like the crown jewel, every Saturday."

He went anyway. "Sure enough, they're going round after round. And this white boy is just slaying everybody. And he actually won that day."

Afterwards Babe went over and introduced himself. They got talking, and the kid handed him a record. "He handed me a piece of vinyl. And I was like, 'Yo, it's my new — it's my record.' And at that time it's like, okay, well, it's another person handing you a piece of vinyl."

So it went in the basement, and it stayed there. "Obviously his buzz got bigger and bigger, and then he ended up signing and doing his thing. And it was just like, one day — hey, wait a minute. I think I got something in the basement."

This is that record: Infinite, passed from Eminem's hands to DJ Babe's in Detroit in 1996, and in his keeping ever since.

On the pressing itself, Babe's recollection is that it was tiny and never repeated. "I believe that first run was two hundred and fifty copies printed, something like that. Or five hundred. They only pressed it up one time. It was re-released later, once he signed with Dre. But the original pressing — they only made one run."

The copy offered here is an original pressing, not a reissue or bootleg, carrying the F.B.T. Productions catalog number WEB714V. Side A runs "Infinite," "W.E.G.O.," "It's O.K.," "Tonite," "313," and "Maxine." Side B runs "Open Mic," "Never 2 Far," "Searchin'," "Backstabber," and "Jealousy Woes II." The label credits executive producers Jeff Bass and Mark Bass, production by Denaun Porter for F.B.T. Productions, co-production by "Slim" for F.B.T. Productions, and recording and mixing by Kevin Wilder and Robert "Flipside" Handy at Bassment Sounds Inc. in Ferndale, Michigan.

It has also, by the consignor's account, barely been touched. "Honestly, no — I wasn't playing the record. So the record's still brand new. It wasn't like I was out at events playing the record. It was sitting in the basement."

Key details & collectability

• Original 1996 pressing on F.B.T. Productions, catalog WEB714V
• Eminem's debut album, recorded and released before the Slim Shady persona
• Acquired directly from Eminem by the consignor at Detroit's Hip Hop Shop in 1996, on the day of a battle Eminem won
• A single-owner copy that has never been on the open market
• Unplayed by the consignor and stored since acquisition
• Produced by Denaun Porter, co-produced by "Slim," executive produced by Jeff and Mark Bass
• Recorded and mixed at Bassment Sounds Inc., Ferndale, Michigan
• Pressed once in a small independent run; the later reissue followed Eminem's Aftermath signing
• Eleven tracks across two sides, including "313," "Searchin'," and "Jealousy Woes II"
• Accompanied by a filmed Wax Poetics interview with DJ Babe telling the full acquisition story