At The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s Induction, Eminem Praises The Music That “Saved My Life”

At a secret studio on 8 Mile Road in Los Angeles, Eminem’s musical career began in a state of starvation and desperation. It earned him admission to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

During a protracted, star-studded ceremony at the Microsoft Theater, the Detroit rapper was inducted into the rock hall of fame, marking one of the most glorious moments of his widely lauded career. In the 36-year history of the organization, Eminem was inducted by Dr Dre and joined by Ed Sheeran and Steven Tyler during his musical performance.

He was the 20th Detroit inductee overall. Eminem gave his handwritten acceptance speech while wearing a black leather hoodie and spectacles. “I know what an honour it is right now for me to be up here tonight, and what a joy it is to make the music that I love — the music that essentially saved my life,” he said.

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The celebrity limelight has long made Eminem uncomfortable, and he reiterated this on Saturday by declining to walk the red carpet and hardly glancing up throughout his address. He pointed to his notes and stated, “This bit I’m not wild about.”

Instead of using his big moment to celebrate his professional successes, he spent almost half of the time on the platform paying tribute to the “groundbreaking musicians” in hip-hop. They served as an inspiration for his work. He read an alphabetical list of more than 100 names, both well-known and unknown, for three and a half minutes, fittingly sliding into a rhythmic flow as he listed them off.

Without them, “I would not be me,” he said. “These are my teachers; I’m a high school dropout with a hip-hop education. Their night is just as important as mine. Eminem’s segment was the last in a nearly six-hour program that also saw the Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran, and Pat Benatar inducted.

It was a newsworthy event that featured Duran Duran’s shocking admission that their absent guitarist Andy Taylor has terminal prostate cancer. Parton presented a brand-new song with a classic rock ‘n’ roll vibe. She was as modest as always and appeared a little bewildered by her induction into the rock hall.

When John Mellencamp spoke about antisemitism during a hard-edged speech while introducing his lawyer Allen Grubman for a non-performer prize, it appeared he was thinking about Kanye West’s most recent controversy. He said, “(screw) anybody who says anything in that manner.”

The hall of fame ceremony will run on HBO on November 19 at 8 p.m.; at that time, it will also be streamed on HBO Max. In front of an audience that included his daughter Hailie, manager Paul Rosenberg, producers Jeff and Mark Bass, and other Michiganders important to his career, Dr Dre introduced Eminem, the rock hall’s fifth hip-hop honoree.

In his eight-minute introduction, Dr Dre praised Eminem as a white rapper who defied the odds and became the best-selling hip-hop artist and one of the most successful performers in the history of popular music. Dre described how he first heard Eminem’s music in the late 1990s.

While everyone else around me had their concerns, I knew his abilities were indisputable. “I guess it was my naivety at the time, assuming that, ‘OK, if you’re a good rapper, you must be black,'” Dre remarked. Dre observed that Eminem has never given much thought to sales numbers or other industry standards.

The recognition of his colleagues as one of the best to ever do it matters most to him, according to Dre. It turns out that the unassuming white Detroiter with the blue eyes, which forced us to face our prejudices, “turned everything we thought we understood about hip-hop on its head, pulling the genre and all of us right along with him.”

Eminem performed live on Saturday, backed by the concert’s house band, as DJ Alchemist ran the turntables behind them. He was joined on stage by longtime friend and hype man Denaun Porter.

Following the rapid-fire miracle of “Rap God” with its tongue-twisting broadside of syllables, which had the Microsoft Theater invigorated and on its feet nearly five hours into the hall of fame concert, his medley of songs began with the theme that had started it all, 1999’s “My Name Is.”

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith unexpectedly appeared on stage wearing his signature scarf over his microphone to contribute the vocals from “Dream On” to Eminem’s “Sing for the Moment.” The following unannounced cameo was by Ed Sheeran, who played an acoustic guitar and provided the Dido vocal sections for the song “Stan.”

“Forever” and “Not Afraid” completed a set in which Eminem demonstrated his musical prowess and vitality. Because of the pandemic, he hasn’t performed a full-scale concert in more than three years, but he proved on Saturday that he could step up when necessary.

His induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which will give him a permanent place at the institution’s Cleveland museum, was a sign of his influence in art and business from the larger music establishment.

Eminem joined a select group of RRHOF artists who were admitted in the first year they were eligible or 25 years after their initial commercial release. He was the only inductee on Saturday to hold that distinction.

His 1996 album “Infinite,” which was made in a home studio on 8 Mile Road and released on 500 records and 500 cassettes that he could hardly give away at the time, served as the pivotal album in this case. Three years before Eminem made his international debut and became the best-selling musical act of the first decade of the 2000s, “Infinite” was released.

As Jay-Z highlighted in a video tribute on Saturday night, he had a percussive flow and an ear for true hip-hop. It culminated with the trademark smash “Lose Yourself,” which served as the background to his lead part in the movie “8 Mile,” released in theatres 20 years ago this week.

Armed with the alter identity of Slim Shady, his music was alternately comic, dark, nasty, and vulnerable. Last month, Eminem turned 50, a significant life milestone that contrasts with his earlier brazen and obnoxious attitude and adds a sense of gravitas. Nevertheless, he was the youngest of the seven inductees on Saturday.

His music stemmed from a distinctive Motor City music culture that was aggressive, colourful and intended to shock. Marshall Mathers was born in Kansas City and raised in challenging familial conditions in and around Detroit.

Backstage On Saturday, fellow Detroit native and musician Alice Cooper praised Eminem’s range. Cooper remarked, “He was by far the funniest.” I don’t believe he ever received enough credit for the humour present.

The opulent celebrations at the hall of fame looked a long way from Eminem’s gritty life in the 1990s when he was a young parent and promising musician frequently struggling to pay for gas and diapers. But he maintained a plain and honest tone throughout the ceremony on Saturday, seemingly aware of how strong his background is to who he is.

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