Whether you hated him or loved him, Eminem in the early 2000s was an artist that was simply impossible to ignore. With a seemingly endless stream of chart-topping hits — which featured lyrics that were both clever and notoriously offensive — Eminem quickly became a cultural icon, a feat made all the more impressive given his somewhat introverted nature. Though Eminem’s recent albums haven’t been as good as his previous work, there’s no denying that Slim Shady for a good number of years was one of the most influential rappers on the planet. And besides, with Eminem now pushing 45, it’s not exactly fair to expect him to re-capture the musical magic he had in plentiful supply in his mid-20s.
Eminem’s early days as a rapper in Detroit were famously captured on the big screen with the 2002 film 8 Mile. And while the film was entertaining and provided us with a glimpse at how Eminem became a tour de force in the Detroit rap battle scene, the film didn’t have enough time to touch on all of the important details surrounding Eminem’s ascension from an obscure rapper to a worldwide superstar.
Coming to the rescue, a new video making the rounds featuring a good deal of never before seen footage details how Eminem came to be discovered by Dr. Dre. Since hitting YouTube earlier this week, the video has already amassed more than 1 million pageviews.
The video is an excerpt taken from a new four-part HBO documentary series called The Defiant Ones which maps the respective careers of Dr. Dre and current Apple Music head honcho Jimmy Iovine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toy_XlT7EUo
For anyone interested in the history of Hip Hop who doesn’t happen to have an HBO subscription, Rolling Stone put together a list of the top 10 things revealed by the aforementioned documentary.
