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!