Eminem Annotates Song Lyrics on Genius

In an effort to amp up his profile on annotation website Genius, Eminem stopped by the popular lyric hub to share stories that go along with songs for his avid fans enjoyment. Currently, Marshall has 42 available annotations, including his Slim Shady EP, “Stan” from The Marshall Mathers LP, the truth behind 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” single, and a collection of memories about writing the hit “Lose Yourself” on the set of his film 8 Mile. Additional stories include comment on D12’s “Purple Pills,” the Shady XV cypher, the Biggie/Tupac freestyle from The Tunnel album, and more. Check out an excerpts below and head over to Genius to read the lot.

On Lose Yourself
When we were making 8 Mile, I was revisiting this old CD from two years before, going through old loops. I found the “Lose Yourself” demo on this session where me and Jeff Bass were just making beats. Jeff was just sitting on those guitar chords, and then it went into something different. I was just like “Yo, that section, right there, I gotta make a beat out of that.” I recorded the demo version of it the same day I made the beat. I didn’t like the rhyme, and put it off to the side.
But it’s one of those beats I never gave up on. That beat was definitely a highlight of my producing. I ended up doing the new version on the set of the movie, just writing between takes.
8 Mile wasn’t coming out for another year and a half, and Curtis really wanted music for the movie. He wanted it to be created from the environment, so he was pushing me to make stuff. I think “Lose Yourself” was the only thing I worked on specifically for the movie.
We filmed half of it in the dead of winter. We had a music trailer on set, designed like a studio. One trailer was music, and we had another with gym equipment in it.
We were on lunch break, and I needed to finish the track. I don’t think it was one take all the way down, but it was one take each verse. “Got the first verse, okay, punch me in at the second. OK, the whole third verse.” For some reason, I just captured something there that I didn’t want to change. I remember trying to change it and go back and re-do the vocals, and I was like “Yo, let me listen to the old ones? Just keep the old ones, f*ck it.”