The Footage Of How Dr. Dre Discovered Eminem And The Story Of Their First Studio Session Together Is Fucking Awesome

So this clip is from The Defiant Ones, which is basically a MUST WATCH if you are a fan of music. It has something for fans of classic rock, hip hop, pop, and so much more. But the meat of it deals with the rises of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine as well as their partnership. The first episode came out on Sunday, but I watched the first two episodes since the entire series (4 episodes) is available on HBO Go. A quick spoiler alert to those that haven’t paid attention to the news or the record charts over the last 25 years or so. Dr. Dre wins. Always. Whether it’s making music, making record labels, or making fucking electronics. The people that wrote Entourage must have used Andre Young as their inspiration because in the end Dre always ends up on top.

Anyway, I haven’t yet made it up to the Eminem part of the story, but I guess that’s basically how it all happened and it’s crazy. I mean I’ve heard the story of Dre hearing Em’s tape and wanting to sign him. But I didn’t realize it clicked like THAT. Like Dre is demanding Em gets a contract by the end of the day and shit. Just game recognizing game. I guess that’s what happens when you have two geniuses at work. Their brains or auro or The Force or whatever it is that makes them geniuses in their field realize there’s another one there and magic happens.

And then once they were in the studio together, Em pretty much created the hook for My Name Is in like a fucking MILLISECOND and the rest is music history. My favorite part about that song is that it’s basically the greatest Trojan Horse in the history of hip hop. I know the first time I saw Eminem, I thought he was going to be another Vanilla Ice. My Name Is was fun and I liked it, but I thought at the end of the day he would just be a white hip pop star and that would be that. Then I listened to The Slim Shady LP and it was about popping pills, hating his mom, and killing his girlfriend. If I hadn’t already been corrupted by years of hip hop and comedy albums by Adam Sandler and the Jerky Boys, The Slim Shady LP surely would have done the trick. If that album comes out today, this is what would happen to every outrage monger on the planet the first time they heard it.

And since talking about The Slim Shady LP had me fiending a quick listening session of his old tracks, here is my Mount Rushmore for the album.

1. Guilty Conscience- Great back and forth story with Em and Dre having the chemistry of guys that have been working together for years, not months. They didn’t even need to make a video for this because it all plays out perfectly in your head when you listen to the song.

2. Just Don’t Give A Fuck- Probably my favorite song when I am pissed. I hear this song in my brain after basically every move the Knicks have made with Steve Mills residing at Madison Square Garden.

3. Rock Bottom- Going a little dark here, but I feel like this is one of the best songs to describe shit when it’s bleek. This may surprise you guys, but a fat high school kid that was scared to talk to girls may have turned to this song once or twice back in the day. If I Had is like the grown up version of this song, but Rock Bottom was much more relatable to a shy teenager that had hormones rifling through him.

4. My Name Is- Like all of Eminem’s first records off of his albums, this song got overplayed way too much. But since it’s the song that put him on the map and introduced all of us to the sick, crazy mind of Marshall Mathers, I felt that I had to include it.

Also Receiving Votes: Role Model, ’97 Bonnie And Clyde.

Also while I love the Slim Shady LP, the Marshall Mathers LP is my favorite Eminem album and it isn’t even close. The Eminem Show is next, then Encore, then the rest of his albums are basically Adam Sandler movies made after the year 2000 to me.