Songoftheday 9/15/23 - Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?
"Lose Yourself" - Eminem
from the album 8 Mile: Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (twelve weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 21
Today's song comes from Eminem, who had solidified his position within both the hip-hop and the mainstream music communities with his fourth studio album The Eminem Show, which by the fall of 2002 had spun off two top ten crossover hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with the puerile "Without Me" and the soul-exposing "Cleaning Out My Closet". But even before the recording of that album, Marshall Mathers had started the process of bringing together a loosely-autobiographical film about his life, 8 Mile, named for the stretch of road M-102 that separated the predominantly black residents of Detroit from the white neighborhoods and suburbs. Eminem himself starred as "Jimmy", who dreamed of becoming a successful rapper despite his turbulent upbringing and racial stereotypes. He eventually becomes good enough to beat his rivals in a "rap battle", but the story doesn't go on to success but rather Jimmy going back to his job. In that aspect it was clearly meant not just as a cash-in on Eminem's fame, but to tell a story that doesn't necessarily have a happy ending (albeit a settled one, but still). The centerpiece of the film is the anthem Eminem created for the movie, "Lose Yourself". Unlike most of his previous work (as well as the genre in general), the record was more orchestral in its production, with the prominent piano and a string section carrying the background, helped by Eminem's co-producers and co-writers Jeff Bass and Luis Resto. Even though Eminem's delivery was gruff and menacingly emotional, is was melodic to the point of his cadence rising and dropping like notes in a song. The verses even progress from the amateurish rhyming of "arms are heavy" and "mom's spaghetti" to the mastery that he had grown into. It also goes beyond the movie in a meta way, mentioning his rocky relationship with his wife and daughter as well as the movie business itself name-checking co-star Mekhi Phifer (not the character). It's a perfectly crafted piece, and Marshall delivers it so earnestly that it grabs your ears and doesn't let go. He couldn't wait until the Eminem Show ran its course, and released the single a month before the film was in theaters. In return, the song became the biggest success of his career, and a milestone for rap music in total. The music video of course included scenes from the movie to promote it...
"Lose Yourself" spent a dozen weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 starting in November of 2002, while climbing to #4 on the R&B Singles chart and #2 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song topped the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart for seven weeks, rose to #5 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list, and took six weeks at #1 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The guitar crunch in the production even helped Eminem grab his final (and highest-charting) hit on the Alternative Rock radio chart, peaking at #14. Internationally, the single went to #1 on the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, while getting to #2 in Germany, #3 in France, and #9 in Spain. The 8 Mile companion album, released in October of that year and only containing four tracks featuring its star on the main version, spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over six million copies. "Lose Yourself" became the first rap song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, the record song for Best Rap Song and Best Solo Male Rap Performance; it was also nominated for Song Of The Year, losing to "Dance With My Father" from Luther Vandross (written by Luther and Richard Marx), as well as Record Of The Year, which went to Coldplay's "Clocks". It was also up for Best Song from Visual Media, which in a surprise was won by the parody folk pastiche of "A Mighty Wind" from the movie of the same name by stars Eugene Levy (of future Schitt's Creek fame), Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean.
One of the other Eminem cuts from the soundtrack, "8 Mile", would spend 18 weeks on Billboard's R&B Singles chart with a high of #54, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #102. But another up and coming rapper on the record will return 8 Mile to the series. Of course, so will Eminem.
(10/10)
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Eminem performed "Lose Yourself" at the Grammy Awards in 2003...
Next up, in concert at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2005..
And lastly, Eminem - thinking there would be no chance of winning an Oscar, skipped the ceremony his song won at, returned to perform (most of) the record at the award show in 2020 as part of a section about music at the Oscars...
Tomorrow I'll have my top 100 tunes of this week, and Song of the day will return Monday with a reggaeton artist seeking illumination.
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