Once in a Lifetime: The Story of Eminem's 'Lose Yourself'

It’s probably safe to say that by late 2002, Eminem was the most popular rapper in the world. 

With three full-length solo albums under his belt, Slim Shady had come quite a long way in the four years since taking the world by storm with The groundbreaking Slim Shady LP in 1999 - introducing the world to his devil-may-care madcap rhymes that ranged from insightful, to absurd, to downright offensive; sometimes all at once.

There was no denying Marshall Mathers’ talent on the mic - combining the sounds of the underground with a hurricane flow, lyrical wizardry, and pop culture irreverence - Eminem’s popularity was bolstered by the frustrated angst of the emerging nu metal, horror-core and even pop punk sounds of the era. 

Realistically, he didn’t even *sound* like anything from those genres, but his aura was so strong that he became a sort of crossover artist without even needing to actually cross over. It was just *cool* to like Eminem.

With the backing of music industry heavy hitters like Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, Eminem also had serious critical credibility - He’d won Rap Grammys for the aforementioned Slim Shady LP and it’s lead single ‘My Name Is’ in 2000; He followed it up with three more the following year for the likes of The Real Slim Shady, Forgot About Dre, and his sophomore album The Marshall Mathers LP - and would eventually go on to win two MORE Grammys in 2003 for his ‘02 album The Eminem Show and its lead single ‘Without Me’.

And, while we’re on the topic of the successes of Slim Shady - the records show that by late 2002 Eminem’s 3 Solo LPs had gone no less than 18x Platinum in America alone.

There is just one thing Em hadn’t done yet - and quite honestly I can barely believe it myself - Eminem had never had a US Billboard hot 100 Number 1 Hit.

That all changed when Eminem recorded the lead single for his feature film debut - changing how we all thought about Eminem forever.

This is the story of Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' with newly unearthed audio from Marshall Mathers himself!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Is Encore. The stories behind the songs. Here's Ihe Radio's
Miles Galloway.
Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to
listen to every episode of Encore in one moment, would
you download them or just let it slip? I'm Miles Galloway.
There's vomit on my sweater already. And this is the

(00:24):
story of M and M's Lose yourself.
It's probably safe to say that by late 2002, Eminem
was the most popular rapper in the world with three
full length solo albums under his belt, Slim Shady had
come quite a long way in the four years since
taking the world By Storm with the groundbreaking Slim Shady
LP in 99. I remember begging my dad to buy

(00:48):
that for me and he did.
I was eight. That's responsible parenting for you. Introducing the
world to his devil may care. Madcap rhymes that ranged
from insightful to absurd to downright offensive. Sometimes all at once,
there was no denying Marshall Mather's talent on the mic
combining the sounds of the underground with a hurricane flow,
lyrical wizardry and pop culture. Irreverence.

(01:11):
Eminem's popularity was bolstered by the frustrated angst of the
emerging new metal horror core and even pop punk sounds
of the era, realistically, he didn't even sound like anything
from those genres. But his aura was so strong that
he became a sort of crossover artist without even needing
to actually cross over. It was just cool to like Eminem.

(01:32):
Um What do I think I brought? Yeah,
something, something new, something, something fresh for, for, for, for
shit that was, you know, uh uh uh there's a
steady trend in hip hop that was just going and
it seemed like music was kind of hip hop was
kinda slow for a minute. And maybe I brought something
to the table that it was a, that was a
little bit different. Not just me being white, but just

(01:53):
being a fresh voice in hip hop, a new, a
new voice, you know what I'm saying? And I believe
that
I truly believe that, that I brought something to the
table that, that people can't front on. You know what
I'm saying? If you, if you, no matter how much
you wanna front on it, I had, I had to
do that on purpose. I had to make music that
you couldn't front on just to get people to listen.
I had to work twice as hard. You know what
I mean?

(02:13):
With the backing of music industry, heavy hitters like Doctor
Dre and Jimmy Iovine Eminem also had serious critical credibility.
He'd won rap Grammys for the aforementioned Slim Shady LP
and its lead single. My name is in 2000. He
followed that up with three more the following year for
the likes of the Real Slim Shady. Forgot about Dre
and his sophomore album, The Marshall Matters LP. And would

(02:35):
eventually go on to win two more Grammys in 2003
for his 02 album, The Eminem Show and its lead
single without me.
And while we're on the topic of the successes of
Slim Shady, the records show that by late 2002 M
and M's three solo LP S had gone no less
than 18 times platinum in America alone. I won't even

(02:57):
attempt to do the math for worldwide sales. There's just
one thing M hadn't done yet. And quite honestly, I
can barely believe it myself. M and M had never
had a US Billboard Hot 100 number
one hit. That's right. Even though he had come incredibly
close with the real Slim Shady without me and cleaning
out my closet. Eminem had yet to top the chart

(03:18):
with any of his singles. One of the reasons for
this may have been for as much love and accolades.
Eminem had, he also had quite a bit of heat
on him for the controversial lyrical themes in his music,
tales of violence and rage, misogyny and homophobia were littered
throughout Eminem's
early work charitably described as surreal, ultra violent trailer, trash, post,

(03:40):
gangster rap extremism that is at least a breath of
fresh air in a rap world that's despairingly low on
new ideas by the A V club or as Eminem
would explain himself. I've always said that my music to me,
for me, my music is like therapy for me. You
know what I'm saying? It's a way for me to
get stuff off my chest. Um,

(04:01):
I wasn't, I haven't always been, I haven't always been
pissed off. I haven't always been mad, you know. Um
It just came to a, I feel like right now
it's just came to a boiling point for me. You
know what I mean? I've been through so much stuff
in my life that, you know, I kinda reached a
point where I was just fed up, you know, and
just got tired of it and shows on the record,

(04:24):
you know.
All right. But the, but the masses kind have to
deal with what's going on in your mind. You know
what I mean? For some people to interpret that it's,
it can be hard for some kids who don't necessarily
understand what, what, what you've been through. You know what
I mean? I don't think nobody will ever understand what's
completely on my mind. And I'm not asking people to,
you know, I'm kinda, my album is kinda like inviting

(04:47):
you into my world if you wanna come into it.
You do if you don't, you don't. And I feel
like one of the reasons that
it's selling so many records. It's probably because there's so
many kids that can relate to what I've been through.
You know, there's kids that can listen to the music
and say I've been there, you know, I've been through
that so I think they can relate to it. You know,

(05:07):
there's a lot of, there's a lot of poor people
in the world. There's a lot of lower class people
that been through a lot of stuff, you know,
the alter ego of slim shady in and of itself
was basically created to funnel those over the top lyrics
in a way that would imply that these shocking lyrics
weren't the true views of Marshall Mathers, the man and

(05:29):
critics would defend Eminem on the basis of how artistically
transgressive his work was. Eminem
spoke on the criticism including the homophobia with much his
master tea. And although it's admittedly more than a bit
of a cop out, especially when looking at it through
a 2024 lens, you can sense that in early 2000,
this was supposed to be sort of a defensive, passive

(05:50):
aggressive mea culpa, maybe I'll let you decide,
you know, and even in the song, criminal, I go
on to explain which I shouldn't even have to. But
I still do. I go on to explain. Come on,
relax guy. I like gay men. And then at the
end of the song, I say half the shit I
say I just make it up to make you mad
to kiss my white naked ass. So it's like, it's like,
don't you get it? I'm saying these things to get

(06:11):
under your skin and you're letting me win. You know
what I'm saying? It's too easy for you.
It's, it's easy for me right now. You know what
I'm saying? If people were shut up, I have to say.
But I mean, you've sold, I mean, you know, x
amount of records and a lot of young people have your,
your records. I mean, and nobody's killed anybody listening to
my CD yet, nobody's went and gay bashed anybody yet.

(06:31):
So when they do, you know what I'm saying, then
holler at me. But until then I think that, you know,
like I said, the kids see it for what it's worth,
they take it for what it's worth, you know, what
is it with? Nothing?
I don't know about that fan appreciation for Eminem of course,
was in sharp contrast to how those in positions of
power viewed him. Sensor's parents and even governments cared little

(06:52):
for the hype of slim shady zooming in on what
they saw as excessive promotion of violence misogyny in the
year 2000. For example, the US Senate had a hearing
that largely focused on Eminem and his music with former
endowments of the humanities chair, Lynne Cheney arguing that Eminem
promoted vote
in the most degrading kind against women. He talks about

(07:14):
murdering and raping his mother, Cheney said he talks about
choking women slowly so he can hear their screams for
a long time. He talks about using O J's machete
on women. And this is a man who is honored
by the recording industry.
Now, of course, because the Republican Party that Cheney was
a part of was notably the party of quote unquote
free speech. Cheney claimed that she wasn't arguing against the

(07:35):
lyrics themselves, but more for a tighter regulation around who
was allowed to purchase music with violent or objectionable lyrics.
Definitely not eight year old miles,
the parental advisory sticker system, which had already been in
place on albums with explicit content for at least a
decade at the time was more of a voluntary system
and not federally mandated in America. There was an argument

(07:56):
for this being quite simply not enough, but ultimately, there
were no major changes made to the system. Lynn Cheney
and her husband, Vice president Dick Cheney did eventually find
herself the subject of a lyric in Eminem's 2002 hit
without me for Lynn's troubles though,
that infamous lyric. I know you got a job, Miss Cheney,
but your husband's heart problems complicating a relatively mild jab.

(08:19):
All things considered poked fun at Vice President Cheney's five
heart attacks brought on by his heavy cigarette use. Within
10 years. The former veep would have a heart transplant.
By the way, here's Eminem speaking with Rick Campanelli on
his combative nature.
I'm glad I'm, I'm glad figured I would come, come
back and stir a few things up. You know, some

(08:41):
people have some things to say about me. So I
had some things to say about them and some people
didn't have anything to say about me and I still
had to say about them. So
whatever I speak my mind, man, people ask me opinions
on people and I say my opinion, you know, I mean,
whatever my opinion is worth, you know what I'm saying?
It might not be worth anything. But you know, if

(09:02):
you ask me, I'm gonna tell you, you know, also
in 2000 up here in Canada, the Ontario attorney General
urged federal immigration officials to make sure that procedures were
followed
and to seriously reconsider letting martial matters in the country
for his history of violent lyrics as well as assault
charges that had been filed against him in the states.
The hot button issue was brought to his attention after

(09:23):
a self a pointed media violence watchdog named Valerie Smith
filed a complaint with the Toronto police stating the lyrics
of the song Kim where Eminem plays out the murder
of his wife constituted hate propaganda.
Nobody wants to curb free speech in the province of Ontario.
But some of this rapper's songs go over the line

(09:44):
where something falls outside of the marketplace, of ideas and
enters into the marketplace of causing harm to women.
Then we have laws on our books to deal
with that kind of music.
It's time for the attorney General to investigate and if
necessary prevent Eminem's concert this Thursday at Skydome.

(10:08):
Why?
Well, these lyrics suggest
suggest that violence against women is cool. Maybe even funny.
We have more than 50 years of research from the
medical community that confirms that these kind of lyrics cause harm.

(10:30):
So we need to prosecute the laws that are on
the books. We also in my view need to go
a step further.
I think it's time for us to consider whether or
not
we should apply the same standards to the music industry
as we apply to the film industry. If this song
was played in a movie, the movie would be restricted.

(10:51):
You couldn't go to the movie unless you're 18.
Well, perhaps we should apply the same standard to the
music industry as well in particular, I don't think most
parents want these songs in the hands of their kids,
but let's leave it up to them to decide. So
the music industry is already regulating itself.
If it has a kind of warning that is on

(11:12):
this CD extremely offensive material, then you have to show
ID to prove that you're 18 years old or, or older,
which means that parents will get to decide whether or
not their kids listen to this music.
I know you're going to have a lot of questions
for me. So why don't I introduce now, Valerie Smith.
She's a community activist she brought a complaint to the

(11:33):
Toronto Hate Crimes Unit
to investigate and potentially prosecute Eminem.
Something that really disturbs and angers me is that a
lot of the violence that appears in popular culture is
directed at women and girls and makes me angry because
I'm part of the target group.

(11:55):
Uh Mather's appearance here follows a series of really horrendous
domestic murders. As anybody who lived in the province over
the summer knows you could hardly pick up a newspaper
without another screaming headline.
Um It, it was his lyrics about killing his wife
that brought him to my attention. He, his name comes
up a lot in uh south of the border whenever
they're doing the committee hearings on media violence.

(12:16):
And uh so that's why he came to my attention.
But then when I actually downloaded his lyrics and, and
read through them, I realized that basically this guy is
just a low rent garden variety hate monger.
So I make no distinction between him and a hate
rock group that tries to sneak across the border. So,
uh I filed a complaint with hate crimes unit and

(12:40):
um even although gender is not included in the hate
propaganda laws, uh I'm assuming they accepted it at that
point because they told me they had passed it to
the attorney general for an opinion. There are limits to pornography.
There are limits to hate propaganda. There are limits to
advocating violence against groups. I'm saying that we need to
find out whether or not this crosses the limits and
where it does cross the limits,

(13:01):
then these people need to be charged. So, Eminem's concert, sorry.
Uh Eminem's concert takes place Thursday. This is gonna happen,
takes place Thursday crosses the border. It goes to the US,
goes wherever. What happens to you guys. The same thing
with Madonna. Did you guys just shut it down and
then it's, it's done. You guys just so I clear
II I didn't call for Madonna's concert to be shut down.
There's a very important distinction here. OK.

(13:23):
That, that is obscenity, which in my view is not
causing harm. Uh If it, if, if, if there was
somebody who is engaging in pornography, we have lots of
evidence to suggest that does cause harm to the Supreme
Court of Canada says that pornography causes harm and that's
why it's not protected speech under section two B of
the Charter.
Uh Similarly, if you come into Canada and you break
the law, you're gonna be charged, we're not gonna stop

(13:45):
the spreading of this outside of the province of Ontario.
Legislators need to do whatever they can within their own
jurisdiction instead of just pointing fingers at other jurisdictions at
Ottawa and everything else. This is what the Ontario legislature
can do. Enforce the laws that are on the books
and ensure that the same standards are applied to the
music industry as are applied to the film industry. Despite
the protests, em, and
was allowed to enter Canada for his show at the Skydome.

(14:07):
And while he didn't perform, Kim, he did perform the
equally controversial Kill You. The song that sparked the ire
of the aforementioned Miss Cheney. It must be said though,
after finishing that leg of the 2000 tour for one
reason or another, Slim Shady would not return to Canada
for over a decade anyway. Fast forwarding back to 2002,
which simultaneously feels like the blink of an eye. And

(14:27):
50 years later, you can see
y Eminem's relationship with pop culture and straight up pop
music was a complicated one. He was a huge, huge
mega star. Always on the brink of what I believe
kids these days would call being canceled. Sure, controversy served
Eminem well on one hand, but it also made him
public enemy number one, just hip hop man. It's just,

(14:49):
you know, I find, I find myself catching more flak
from my lyrical content than actually
people saying, yo, actually, you know, uh commending me or, or,
or whatever for what it takes to think of these
lyrics and, and, and, and how I put this shit
together and how I, you know what I'm saying, how
I construct my lyrics and I make my own beats
and I do, you know what I'm saying? I produce
a lot of my stuff, you know, the shit that

(15:11):
Dre don't produce, you know, and sometimes I'm even alongside Dre,
you know, producing with him. So it's like, you know,
I mean,
give me, give me some type of credit where credit
is due. I never hear nothing positive. It's like everybody's
always talking about lyrical content, lyrical content, lyrical content. Well,
let's think, you know what I'm saying? I got songs
like Stan, that,
that kind of justifies us saying, don't take the lyrics

(15:33):
seriously or this is what's gonna happen. You know what
I'm saying? When I, when I, if you know, if
I wasn't completely consciously aware and just completely didn't give
a fuck, I wouldn't make a song like Stan, you
know what I'm saying? So,
so what was it Eminem needed to do to perhaps
soften his image to middle America. Oh, nothing much just
lose himself. Production of Eight Mile. The semi autobiographical film

(15:55):
based on Eminem's Rise from the Detroit Underground actually began
in the year 2000 with shooting beginning in September 2001
in Highland Park, Michigan, which puts it somewhere between Marshall
Mathers LP and the Eminem show in the official Slim
Shady timeline.
Eminem plays Jimmy Smith Junior, a Kab Rabbit, a white

(16:15):
rapper from the suburbs connected to the black hip hop
scene of Detroit connected by you guessed it. Eight Mile Road.
The film was a spin on a zero to hero
tale kind of like a hip hop rocky film while
telling the story of substance abuse, physical violence and poverty
in a pretty profound way, pairing those themes with an
authentic look at the world of the hip hop and

(16:35):
battle rap underground from the struggles of someone who doesn't
have the luxury to simply follow their dreams. Also substantiated
the myth of Eminem as Roger Ebert would say, here
is what Eminem had to say to much back in 99.
I was an underground MC for years, you know. Um
I was doing my thing. I was in a lot
of rap contests, you know, um In Detroit, I won

(16:57):
a lot of contests. A lot of battles in Detroit,
um took second place in the Scribble Jam in Cincinnati
went to L A for the Rap Olympics was constantly battling,
you know, that was my, that was my thing. That
was my, that was the only way for me to
get known, you know, that's the only way I knew
how to get known. And then when I was in
the Rap Olympics back in 97 I took second place

(17:18):
in the Rap Olympics and gave my tape to some
kids at Interscope. Interscope, gave the tape to Jimmy, Ive. Jimmy.
Ive liked it and he gave it to Dre, he
played it for Dre
and Dre liked it. And Dre was looking for me,
you know, and found me, like three days later, Eminem
received praise for the role and the film was a
commercial success. Maybe we'll do an episode on the film.
For encore at the movies or something in the future,

(17:41):
maybe if you get the popcorn, but the real success
of Eight Mile was less the film itself and more
about the soundtrack. Yes. Before we dive into lose yourself itself,
I think the Eight Mile soundtrack on the whole deserves
its due. As you might expect. Eight Miles sold nearly
3.5 million copies. Debuting at number one on the billboard
200 albums and was given huge props by real hip

(18:03):
hop heads for the authenticity of the sound of the
be used in the film, which was set in 1995
even though sample clearance would have been quite expensive at
the time to pull off. And if you've been listening
since encore episode one, you'll know that Eight Mile was
also technically the successful mainstream debut of 50 Cent with
his song, Wanga earning a featured spot on the soundtrack. Ok.

(18:26):
Technically our 50 cent episode was episode five, but who's counting?
However, it was the opening track. That was the crown
jewel of the Eight Mile soundtrack, the film and potentially
M's entire career to date released in October 2002 Lose
Yourself was written and produced by Eminem, his constant collaborator

(18:46):
Jeff Bass and Lewis Resto,
the iconic urgent and momentous opening guitar riff was written
by bass years earlier and delivered to Shady to rap
over which as legend has it, he did twice actually,
once as a scratch track demo sometime around the year
2000
and the other during breaks while filming eight mile. What
you probably don't know is that musical riff? The Heartbeat

(19:09):
of Eminem's Lose Yourself was written by this guy Jeff Bands. Yeah.
The driving chunk guitar is what I believe, motivated m
to write those type of lyrics and, uh, it just,
it was a great uplifting feel. Just two words.

(19:30):
Piece of history. So, where did, where did those two
courts come from? Honestly. Um
I don't know. I think uh the universe threw him
in my soul that day. According to studio engineer Stephen King,
Eminem would record the song in only a single take
per verse in a mobile studio on the set of

(19:51):
the film, Eminem sat down for a shade 45 behind
the boards interview with Cipher sounds to explain his hectic
production schedule. But like, so wait, so you're on the
set of of eight mile and what you just, you're
sitting on in your trailer or something and you come
up with,
we had the workout trailer. We had the trailer where

(20:11):
I could see my kids. We had the trailer where
my niece and, and, and my daughter, we had that
trailer and then we had the music trailer. There was
a music trailer there. Yeah, there was a music recording
while you were shooting a movie. Yeah. And I was
also writing while I was like, I would memorize the
scene first the scene was memorized.

(20:32):
Then I would sit down for, for a little while, like,
if they were taking, uh, a minute to set up
lighting or whatever, and I would write more
and pretty much wrote songs or write for the movie,
write songs for the movie. And I was writing songs for,
for the Eminem Show. Ok. Ok. Um, so, yeah, so,
but Lose Yourself. You were right on the set. Yeah.

(20:54):
Lose yourself. I felt like I had to, I had
to make that song and the song, Eight Mile uh
Eight Mile Road.
I had to make those songs while I was in
the movie because once I stepped out of that movie,
then I would just be thinking back to,
you know what I'm saying. I, I wouldn't feel like
I was in it. That's why I had the crazy

(21:15):
pressure though to write the soundtrack and act in the
movie at the same time. Oh, yeah, in the soundtrack too. Yeah,
we did this, we did the soundtrack at the same time.
That's why I say it was, it was this crazy
combination of all these things that I was working on
it once I wasn't just working on one thing. And then,
you know, II, I remember being up at 530 in
the morning, like 530 in the morning, I'm running, running

(21:37):
on the treadmill and then I'm in the weight trailer
and then I run over, eat some breakfast or whatever
a little bit and then go to uh you know,
wardrobe or whatever and then go into the scene with
pen and pad and all that and, and I would
literally write and put the pen down. And when they
said at, you know, uh uh camera set, put the

(21:58):
pen down, you know, in action. So you didn't have
to go script, you didn't get confused with writing rhymes
and then you have to say part of the script
at that point,
that would have been some funny shit
going to the scene. You know, one of the scenes,
his palms are sweaty, knees, weak, arms are heavy. There's
vomit on his sweater already, you know. Oh shit. I'm sorry,

(22:20):
my bad. That's what I just wrote. Um Let me
open my lines again lyrically. The song was a master stroke,
part breakdown of the plot of the film part, Devil
May Care, motivational speech. The urgency of the lyrics played
perfectly with the layered pianos, aggressive drums and thunderous guitars
lose yourself is really the kind of song that is

(22:41):
just so aptly named because even after 20 plus years
and billions of spins and streams later, you can always
find yourself lost in its magic. It's the type of
song that can hype you up for that big sports game,
a night out with your homies psych you up for
that job interview or simply wash away the pain of
a moment lost to time.
As 411 mania would point out at the time. Lose

(23:02):
yourself was also surprisingly tender. Noting the song is as
close to a ballad as Eminem will ever get. And honestly,
I hear it, there's an underlying visceral theme and Lose
yourself that. Well, you'd better lose yourself in whatever moment
you found yourself in. You'd better give it your all
no matter what obstacles stand in your way. And, oh, boy,
there certainly are some obstacles. Don't forget, within 20 seconds

(23:22):
of the song's opening, there's vomit on your sweater. Already.
The whole track could be seen as a perverse line
blurring between self criticism and self care book ended by
Shady's opening line challenging the listener with the iconic one
shot one opportunity intro and the soft reassurance at the
end that you can do anything you put your mind to, man.

(23:42):
But what of that original demo version originally recorded as
a scratch track years before eight mile?
Unfortunately, Eminem revealed on his youtube channel that his addictions
had such a hold on him at the time. He
has no real recollection of its conception, but it does exist.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
There was another version of that song. I don't even
remember recording. I don't remember where I was at when
I recorded it. I don't remember any of the
first verse. I don't remember. I don't remember. So when
he told, he called me one day and told me
about it, I was like, what he's like remember the
scratch version of Lose Yourself. I'm like, no, I

Speaker 1 (24:13):
don't eventually unearthed them released in 2014 for the Shady
15 compilation. Thematically, the song has a strong resemblance to
the Eight Mile version,
but it's lyrically inferior to his big brother. Truly lacking
that aggressive monologue vibe in the verse and an unfocused
chorus that goes lose yourself in this music. This moment
we own it. We won't never let it go. go.

(24:35):
You better move yourself. Cos tomorrow's ask and wait. There
is no time to sit there and procrastinate. You better
lose yourself in this music
at this moment. We own it. We won't never let
it go go. You better move yourself. Cos tomorrow's as
can wait, there's no time to sit there and procrastinate
you better. OK, I'll stop. Lose yourself was an immediate hit.
Becoming Eminem's first hot 100 number one single on November 9th,

(24:58):
2002 and remaining at the top for a resounding 12 weeks.
It even kept Missy Elliott's super hit work at number
two for 10 of those weeks, which we discussed a
few weeks back in a retrospective on that masterpiece. But
if you're old enough to remember, that's not all lose yourself. Achieved.
The song was the dictionary definition of a crossover hit

(25:19):
charting impressively not only on the pop hot R and
B hip hop and rap songs chart, but also peaked
at number 14 on the modern rock tracks chart which
meant that unless you were solely listening to country music
at the time,
you pretty much could here lose yourself on any radio
station at any time. And I've got to admit it's
pretty much still the case today.

(25:39):
Lose yourself was nominated for five Grammy Awards at the
2004 ceremony, including in the prestigious record and song of
the year categories. But would only win the two genre
awards for best male rap solo performance and best rap song.
I'm sure Eminem wasn't bothered though. He'd already,
he won a much more elusive prize just under a
year earlier. When Lose Yourself, won an Academy Award for

(26:01):
best original song, the first ever rap song to win
the award. He even beat out U two for the prize,
which if you're a long time encore listener, you know,
is not an easy thing to do.
I'm on to you, Bono Eminem would not be present
at the Oscars though. A rarity in Oscars history here
he is again with behind the boards explaining why I
just felt like I had no chance of winning because,

(26:25):
you know, when I heard I was nominated,
like I thought that was for, for actors, like, you know,
um I wasn't sure what was what, like exactly that,
what a Grammy meant, you know what certain awards meant.
I wasn't sure what they meant. So,
you know, even the MTV Awards, all that stuff, like
I just didn't know what awards meant. But this, this

(26:47):
particular award I didn't go to the award show. I
just felt like I had a, a snowball's chance in
hell of, of um that's a good, good expression. I
just made that up. Yeah, it's good. Snowball's chance in hell. Yeah,
cause it's uh cause the Oscars are obviously for, for
mostly for movies and acting. Yeah. And for you to
have a song in there most it's like you probably like, yeah, whatever.

(27:11):
Yeah, I think I got it confused when they, when
they said Oscar,
they were talking about the song. But I was like, yeah,
but there's, isn't there other movies that got like rock
songs in them and stuff like that? Like, you know,
uh at that point in my life, I always felt
like
rap, never got his fair shake on anything. I mean,

(27:31):
that was one of the reasons that I didn't go
to the first Grammys that I was invited to because,
you know, I pretty much protested it and I didn't
understand why there was a, a rap category. Eventually though
Rip Van Eminem would awaken from his slumber some 17
years later performing a surprise rendition of Lose Yourself at

(27:51):
the 2020 Oscars ceremony just before the pandemic hit finally
getting his Oscars moment.
The performance was an actual shock to almost everyone with
a complete lockdown of the venue around the logistics on
MS arrival with a rumored option on M and M's
side that if any info of his performance was leaked,
he had the option to cancel m told variety magazine.

(28:13):
I kind of figured maybe since I didn't get a
chance to do it at the time, maybe it would
be cool back then. I never even thought that I
had the chance to win and we just performed Lose
Yourself on The Grammys with The Roots a couple of
weeks before The Oscars. So we didn't think it was
a good idea.
I don't even think I understood back then that you
could get an Oscar for a song. And I remember
being kind of confused about why I was even up
for one Lewis Resto my keyboard player who produces records

(28:37):
with me, went up and accepted it and I know
people were probably like, who the f is this guy.
So he called me and I remember the phone kept
ringing and I'm like mother, I'm trying to sleep, but
I answered and he's like, hey, man, you won. I
did shit cool, but that was a different time and
I was in a different place in my life
enough, Eminem would bookend pandemic lockdowns with Lose Yourself. Also
performing the track at the first full attendance allowed Super

(29:00):
Bowl halftime show in 2022 Eminem Snoop Jay Z, Kendrick,
Mary J Blige and 50 Cent among others involved would
win an Emmy for that performance by the way, which
moves Marshall Mathers one step closer to the rarified ego
status within the A Tony Award eluding him, Eminem, the musical,
anyone
even with multiple hiatuses and reinventions, Eminem's career would never

(29:24):
really slow down. Post, lose yourself. The ups and downs
he would experience both personally and professionally are stories for
future episodes of encore as the one they call Slim
Shady is truly a remarkable figure in the pantheon of
entertainment now considered by critics and fans alike as Eminem's
signature song. Only Future hits Love. The way you lie
and not afraid have outs sod. The track,

(29:45):
the cultural impact of Lose Yourself is truly unmatched. Inspiring
covers from the likes of MGK to Kyle Clarkson, a
parody from Weird Blessed personally by Slim Shady himself and
even a cheeky cover from the world's number one star
Taylor Swift. Although I don't expect to hear it on
the tour, but perhaps most importantly, in 2021 Eminem and

(30:06):
Union Joints opened up a Lose Yourself Inspired Restaurant in Detroit, Michigan.
What's it called? Mum Spaghetti? Of course.
Get your sweaters ready. Detroit mom Spaghetti is coming to
2131 Woodward Avenue. Want some road pasta after the game.
Got that meatballs. You know, we got that. What about

(30:27):
the Sketti sandwich? Mom's got that too. Get ready to
get some mom's spaghetti. Detroit opening in the alley next
to the Union Assembly. This September 3 138888388. Mom spaghetti.
It's already ready. Ready. Ready ready.
I'm Miles Galloway. And that was the story of M

(30:47):
and M's Lose Yourself.
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