Song ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem: Don’t miss the opportunity of life

Using a song from a soundtrack album as a marketing tool for a movie, and vice versa, was nothing new in 2002 when Eminem released 8 Mile.

But no one could have predicted that Lose Yourself, Eminem’s semi-autobiographical blockbuster soundtrack single, would reshape culture in its own way.

With his lyrics and top-notch performance, Eminem left most rappers of that time in the dust. Lose Yourself is a hat-trick for Eminem as he is both the writer and performer of the song and the star of 8 Mile as rapper from Detroit Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith Jr.

Other ego

Few rappers can fully embody a character like Eminem, but for Lose Yourself, he says he struggled to find a voice for his alter ego, Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith. Jr.

“I had to create parallels between my life and his,” he revealed. “I had to find that trick, how to make the rhyme sound like his, and then somehow transform it. became me, so that everyone could see the similarity in his struggle with mine.”

Indeed, it is extremely difficult to differentiate between the two, as if Lose Yourself was actually just a way for Eminem to relieve all the hardships he had to go through, since living in a mobile home outside of work. member until he became a rap superstar and signed a contract with Dr. Dre.

8 Mile was also based on Eminem’s life before collaborating with Dr. Dre. Lose Yourself is like a plot summary of 8 Mile. It begins with the character’s panic when stepping on stage, participating in local rap battles, being surrounded by boos, but no matter what, he must stay calm, not miss the opportunity, to gain the respect of other rappers as a white rapper.

However, when I got home, everything became even more difficult. Life was miserable with shopping stamps not enough for baby diapers and his wife screaming like crazy. All this booing and screaming hit him at once and in the end, he found the only path to success: Music.

“Everyone has goals, aspirations or something like that, and everyone has had times in their lives when no one believed in them,” Eminem said. However, just like Eminem confided: “I can’t just sit down and bury my face in sadness”, Rabbit – or Eminem – decided to leave 8 Mile, even though “Mom, I love you, but this mobile car must be let’s go. I can’t stay in Salem anymore” and “Whether my legs give out or not, this may be my only chance.”

Never more confident, he stepped onto the stage, making a name for himself. Never falter in the face of difficulties, but “lose yourself” in the moment that allows you to rise higher, that’s what Eminem advises.

“As soon as I get on the mic, I get booed. But once those bastards hear me rhyme, they’ll shut up,” Eminem said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1999.

Full of motivation in the melody and lyrics of “Lose Yourself”:

Timeless classics

Eminem’s co-writer and longtime producer Jeff Bass recounted the song’s formation and development: “We started Lose Yourself in September 2001 and released it in 2002. So, It took up to 1 year, working and re-working, to perfect the song. The melody was finished first, but the vocals and lyrics took a year to develop.”

Worth mentioning, this melody is also extremely special. “There’s something about the rhythm of the music that really moves us. We regularly pull it up on our computers to review it, to see what it might spark in us. We love it,” Bass continued. In particular, there is a very important component in the melody of Lose Yourself, which is not present much in rap or hip-hop songs, which is the prominence of the guitar sound.

It’s clear that Eminem was also greatly inspired by the melody. He wrote the lyrics for Lose Myself right on the set of 8 Mile. His co-stars found that every time he had time off, he would run into the mobile studio, hold the mic or edit beats while everyone rested, ate and drank. Or else, he crouched in a corner with headphones on, scribbling notes in a notebook (the note appeared in the movie and was later sold on eBay for $10,000). Sometimes, an idea suddenly comes to him, he writes it on the palm of his hand. True to the name Lose Yourself, Eminem is truly immersed in music.

“Writing on paper or speaking in the studio, it’s like therapy for me. That’s what I want to say. That’s how I want to express it. Throw it out into the world for anyone who wants to hear it. And if no one listens, that’s okay” – Eminem said about Lose Yourself.

Although he did not have any expectations for Lose Yourself, Eminem’s in-depth explorations of personality transformation and shock-rap scenes turned the song into an icon. Not only did it get fans excited in 2002, it proved to be a timeless classic. Solid guitar sound and inspirational motto: “This opportunity only comes once in a lifetime/ You have it in your hand and it’s best not to let it slip away/ You can do anything you’ve achieved your goal, really.” ” brought the song straight into the listeners’ hearts.

“As everyone has seen over the years, professional athletes have used it as a motivational song when they are stressed and getting ready for a swim or a match. Even today, you can always hear it on TV during major baseball games. 100,000 people waved and listened to that song. It brings a lot of motivation” – Bass shared.

And Eminem said: “If people want to see something from my music, it’s motivating to know that anything is possible, as long as you keep going with it and don’t give up.”

Some details about the song “Lose Yourself”

Lose Yourself is considered by critics to be one of Eminem’s best songs. It is also the most successful masterpiece of his career. Immediately after release, Lose Yourself ranked No.1 in 24 countries. In the US, it was Eminem’s first No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the throne for 12 weeks. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Lose Yourself is the “Longest No. 1 rap song” with 23 weeks. With more than 6 million copies sold in the US, this is Eminem’s third best-selling song, after Love The Way You Lie and Not Afraid.

At Grammy 46, Lose Yourself was the first rap song to be nominated for Song of the Year. It later won Best Rap Song and Best Rap Solo Performance. Most notably, Lose Yourself is the first rap song in Oscar history to win the Best Original Song award. Eminem didn’t believe he would win – surpassing familiar candidates like U2 and Paul Simon – so he stayed home to look after his children.

Thus, for the first time in 14 years, the winner of Best Original Song did not perform at the awards ceremony. It was 17 years later that Eminem shocked everyone into silence when he suddenly performed Lose Yourself at the 2020 Oscars. Also in 2020, analysis of 30,000 songs on Spotify showed that Lose Yourself reached the Top 10 popularity.

After 20 years since calling on everyone to give their all for the opportunity of life, Eminem is still famous as his recent album Music To Be Murdered By continues to rank No.1 Billboard 200, making him the first artist has 10 consecutive No.1s. Most recently, Eminem once again showed the young generation what rap is like when performing Lose Yourself at Super Bowl 2022, with Dr. Dre and many other legends such as Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige.