Following in the steps of “Rock Bottom” and “Just Don’t Give a Fuck” from The Slim Shady LP, “Stan” and “The Way I Am” from The Marshall Mathers LP, and “Renegade” off Jay-Z’s Blueprint, “Sing For the Moment” and “”Till I Collapse” boldly stand out, distance themselves from his lesser charms, and elevate Eminem to revered lyricist status. The Eminem Show also continued Eminem’s pattern of sprinkling in mini-anthems amidst his blatant radio singles, shock-and-awe numbers, and general goofing around. He appeared unstoppable and as listeners spun his latest disc, they salivated at the prospects of what he had in store. A mere three years and as many albums into his career, Eminem emerged as a wise, seasoned lyricist, aware of his shortcomings and with a clear vision of staying atop the hip-hop world he’d wholly conquered. The album pulls together the best aspects from his first two efforts, mixing compound syllable rapping with imagery-rich storytelling to superb effect.
Produced almost entirely by Eminem, the album is his most sonically cohesive and features intimately personal tracks (“Cleaning Out My Closet,” “Hailie’s Song”) next to ones featuring wildly sexually explicit material (the STD saga “Drips”) and some that are simply off the wall (“My Dad’s Gone Crazy”), all while feeling undoubtably part of the same project. To examine Eminem’s career is to effectively divide it into pre- and post-”Lose Yourself.” Heading into the fall of 2002, the rapper was coming off the success of his third album, The Eminem Show, his finest record-length balancing of production and lyricism to date. A decade later, the song remains his greatest accomplishment, one so dauntingly impressive that it has haunted his diminishing returns ever since. A wildly broad success, “Lose Yourself” would go on to hit number one on 24 charts around the globe, be nominated for five Grammys (winning one), and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Ten years ago, on October 22, 2002, Eminem released “Lose Yourself.” The first single from the soundtrack to the film 8 Mile, the song marked a high point in an already meteoric career that still felt in its infancy.
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