Kid Cudi shared his buzzworthy collaboration with Eminem over the summer, and in a new Apple Music 1 interview with Zane Lowe, Cudi talks about how the song helped inspire his upcoming Man on the Moon III album and validated his need “to be respected as an MC.”

“‘Yo, who do I f—ing get? Who do I f—ing  spar with?’” he said of what ended up being “The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady.” “‘Who do I go bar-for-bar with?’ Eminem.”

And how did he get Em on the track? “I tweeted at him,” the rapper said. “It wasn’t even in the DMs. Just my timeline. It was public. I was like, ‘Yo Rap God, help!’ And we’re really close with [Goliath Records’] Paul Rosenberg and he was able to connect us and we were able to get it done.”

The duo didn’t meet up in person to trade bars, as Eminem was in Detroit and Kid Cudi was in Los Angeles, and the Kids See Ghosts artist admitted that the process was a “nail-biter.”

“I’m like waiting, I’m waiting. And I’m like, ‘Oh sh–. They’re asking me questions,’” he recalled. “They don’t say he’s going to do it just yet. They’re just asking me questions. And I’m like, so this means he’s going to do it. Right? Because they’re asking me questions. And literally it was like every day I was like, ‘Is today going to be the day? Is today going to be the day?’ And, I got it, and I was like, ‘Holy sh–.’”

“It was something for me to get the validation from Eminem by doing that record,” Cudi concluded. “Him doing that record let me know, like he was telling me like, ‘Yo, I f— with you as an artist fully, even your bars are dope.’”

Watch the interview clip below, and catch the full chat with Zane Lowe via Apple Music 1 on Thursday (Dec. 10) at 10 a.m. PT.