There's been a lot of people celebrating Eminem recently. The "Lose Yourself" rapper celebrated the 20th anniversary of 8 Mile, and released a deluxe version of the motion picture soundtrack. Em also turned 50 last month, and received a whole slew of birthday wishes.
The Eminem celebrating continued last night, when the Detroit rapper was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. One of Slim Shady's most influential mentors, Dr. Dre, did the honors.
In his speech for his friend, Dre recalled his decision to sign Eminem. "I knew that his gifts were undeniable,” he told the audience. “Each of us was what the other one needed– and I was willing to bet my entire career on it."
Eminem then gave his own speech, in which he was clearly moved to have been chosen for the award. "I realize what an honor it is right now for me to be up here tonight and what a privilege it is to do the music that I love– the music that basically saved my life," Em began.
Eminem returned to the theme of being saved by music, and the people in the music industry, many times throughout his speech. "I almost died from an overdose in 2007, which kind of sucked because — Hailie, plug your ears — because drugs were f**king delicious," he said. "And I thought we had a good thing going, man, but I had to go and f**k it all up and take too many."
Shady spent a good portion of his speech shouting out his influences, a list which went so long it began to sound like a hip hop encyclopedia. "I put this list together yesterday, and I kept adding to the s**t, and adding to the s**t, so if I forget anybody, I apologize, but these were my teachers right here," he said. "2 Live Crew, Tupac, Third Bass, the Alliance, Apache, Audio Two — Milk Dee, what up? Awesome Dre, the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Big Pun, Big L, Biz Markee, the Notorious B.I.G. of course." The list went a while longer, and was in alphabetical order.
Other inductees from the night included Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, and more.