The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures and personnel who have influenced its development. On November 5, 2022, American rapper Eminem was inducted. The event was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.
Background[]
On May 6, 2022, Eminem was announced to be an inductee. The Rock Hall tweeted out, "Unbridled controversy. Unparalleled talent. Unmatched superstardom. #RockHall2022 Inductee, @Eminem." In response to this announcement, the rapper tweeted artwork of him standing in front of the minions with the caption "@minions got my back. Shout out to Gru and them…"
At the ceremony, Dr. Dre officially inducted Eminem. This followed by the live concert segment, where Em performed a medley of songs: "My Name Is," "Rap God," "Dream On"/"Sing for the Moment" with Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, "Stan" with Ed Sheeran, "Forever," and "Not Afraid."[1] During his acceptance speech, Em named a list of influential artists that have personally impacted him.
Speech[]
"Can y'all hear me? I can't hear me. Can you hear me?
"This shit's crazy. So I wrote some shit down tonight that I'm never going to fucking remember, so I had to read it off the paper and shit, but it's from the heart. I realize what an honor it is right now for me to be up here tonight, and what a privilege it is to do the music that I love, and the music that basically saved my life.
"Where'd the man, where did Dre go? The man who saved my life, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. motherfuckin' Dre. So I'm going to try to make this as quick and painless as possible. I'm fucking stuttering and shit, I mean Jesus Christ.
"So I'm probably not supposed to actually be here tonight because of a couple of reasons. One of them that I'm a rapper, and this is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And there's only a few of us right now that have been inducted in already, but there's only a few of us.
"Secondly, I almost died from an overdose in 2007, which kind of sucked. Hailie, plug your ears: because drugs were fucking delicious, and I thought we had a good thing going man, but I had to go and fuck it all up and take too many. God damn. OK Hailie, you can...
"OK, so. Hold on, I lost my motherfuckin' spot. Paul, did I say, I said drugs were delicious, right? And finally, I had to really fight my way through man to try and break through in this music, and I'm so honored and I'm so grateful that I'm even able to be up here doing hip-hip music, man, because I love it so much.
And they say you won't work a day if you love your job and shit. This part I'm not crazy about? But, OK.
"My musical influences are many, and they say it takes a village to raise a child. Well it took a whole genre and culture to raise me.
"They say success has many fathers, and that's definitely true for me. So whatever my impact has been on hip-hop music, I never would have or could have done this shit without some of the groundbreaking artists that I'm about to mention right now.
"And this is a list man, I put this list together yesterday. And I kept adding to the shit, adding to the shit, and if I forget anybody, I apologize. But these were my teachers right here:
"I'm gonna start with the 2 Live Crew, 2Pac, 3rd Bass, Alliance, Apache, Audio Two — Milk Dee, what up! — Awesome Dre, the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Big Pun, Big L, Biz Markie, The Notorious B.I.G. of course, Black Moon, the Boogie Monsters, Brand Nubian, Brother J from X Clan, Buckshot, Casual from Heiroglyphics, Chill Rob G, Chubb Rock, Chuck D and Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, D-Nice, Dana Dane, De La Soul — now I'm about a third of the way done.
"De La Soul, did I say De La Soul? Def Jef, Del the Funky Homosapien, DJ Quik, Dr. Dre of course, Dres from Black Sheep, Ed O.G., EPMD, Fat Boys, Fat Joe, Fu-Schnickens, Gang Starr, Geto Boys, Heavy D, House of Pain, Ice Cube, Ice-T, the Intelligent Hoodlum, JJ Fad, Jaz-O, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Just Ice, K-Solo, Kid & Play: I'm a tenth of the way done.
"King Sun, King Tee, Kool G Rap, Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One, Kwame, Lakim Shabazz, Large Professor, Leaders of the New School, the one and only LL Cool J — love you bro. Lord Finesse, Lords of the Underground, Mantronix, Masta Ace, MC Breed, MC Lyte, MC Shan, Melle Mel, Merciless Ameer, Mobb Deep, Monie Love, Nas, Newcleus, Onyx, Organized Konfusion, Outkast, André 3000, Paris, Pharcyde, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Redhead Kingpin, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, I'm almost done.
"Redman, Roxanne Shante, Run-D.M.C., Salt-N-Pepa, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Snoop Dogg, Souls of Mischief, Special Ed, Stetsasonic, now I'm all down to the S's. Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud, the D.O.C., the Roots, Black Thought, the Skinny Boys, Tony D, Too $hort, Treach from Naughty By Nature, A Tribe Called Quest, U.T.F.O., Whodini, Wise Intelligent and the Poor Righteous Teachers, Wu-Tang Clan and YZ.
"Those were my rock stars man, and I just want to say, like, those are just a few of the names that I hope will be considered in the future for induction. Because without them, a lot of us wouldn't be here. I know I wouldn't.
"So that's all I had to say, man. I know this induction is supposed to be me talking about myself and shit man, but fuck that. I would not be here without them. I'm a high school dropout man, with a hip-hop education, and these were my teachers. And it's their night just as much as it is mine. So thank you."[2]
Public reception[]
Eminem's manager, Rosenberg, was a bit confused of the induction given the genre. He conceded, "In the traditional sense does Marshall [Mathers] do rock n' roll? Of course not. But I think if you look at what rock n' roll came from and what hip-hop was created from, they stem from the same musical roots, the same musical tree — but at the same time very different in style, form, culture. If you think about those aspects and just the emotion, and then you combine that with how many rappers there already are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I would say that he certainly fits."[3]
Merciless Ameer was one of the artists mentioned in Em's speech, and stated, "It makes me feel like all the hard work has been recognized. For Em to say that in the Hall of Fame, my name is in the Hall of Fame. That's a real big look." He added that he watched it with his daughter over FaceTime and didn't realize it was in alphabetical order at first, and when they got to his name, "we jumped up out of our seats at the same time, me and my little girl. So that was a very exciting thing." Meanwhile, MC Serch named it "incredibly humbling" and "was such a gracious and amazing thing to do, to have that depth of acknowledgment for all of the artists that he was able to remember in that auspicious moment. Artists that we are well aware of and artists that most of us are probably not aware of, but are all incredibly talented in their own right."
Audio Two's Milk Dee said, "At first, I thought I was really special because we were like the fourth name! Then I realized it was in alphabetical order." He continued, "I think that was so classy and so needed. And it's crazy: Eminem's a white dude, and he did something that none of the Black guys did for hip-hop. To me, that made it even more special. The fact that he went up there and he referenced his teachers, all of the people that influenced him — Jay-Z didn't do that, LL didn't do that. And I'm not trying to dis any of them, but I just felt it was real cool that (Eminem) was the one to do that. That made it even better." Treach of the rap trio Naughty by Nature acknowledged, "Hats off to Em. A lot of artists will come out and they don't pay homage. I always let everybody know, my favorite artists from the 1970s and 1980s, it's never a Top 5 or a Top 10, it's like a Top 50, you feel me? So for him to do that, it just shows what type of individual he is. He never forgets. He's been doing it ever since he came out, he's been shouting me out. I love him. I call him my light-skinned twin. And he definitely busted out of hip-hop to let everybody know this not just a culture of Black and Hispanic (artists), White emcees and breakdancers and graffiti artists have been in hip-hop since the beginning. And it's not just, 'OK, they're White, that's why they're getting all the play and attention.' No. Everyone knows Em is one of the dopest emcees on the planet, ever. He's definitely one of the greatest of all time, no doubt at all."
King of Chill from Alliance admitted, "There was a bunch of names on there I definitely expected to hear, but Alliance was the underdog on that list, I can tell you. First of all, the fact that he even acknowledged the emcees that he listened to on the way up, it was incredible to hear. So I just wanted to hear his list." Awesome Dré shared, "It's just an acknowledgment, and acknowledgment is a lot. Just to be recognized and mentioned means a lot, especially when you put so much into your craft. For an artist like Em, who has blown up as big as he has around the world and who has so many supporters and followers, to show who inspired him to get to that level is a great thing. I'm very honored."[4]
Gallery[]
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References[]
- ↑ Blistein, Jon and Millman, Ethan (November 6, 2022). "Watch Eminem Bring Out Ed Sheeran, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler for Career-Spanning Rock Hall Performance". Rolling Stone.
- ↑ Graham, Adam (November 6, 2022). "Eminem's Very Long Thank You List: His Full Rock Hall Induction Speech". The Detroit News.
- ↑ Graff, Gary (November 4, 2022). "Paul Rosenberg Reflects on Eminem's Place in the Rock Hall Ahead of Rapper's Induction". Billboard.
- ↑ Graham, Adam (November 18, 2022). "Thanked by Shady: Eminem's hip-Hop Idols React to Rock Hall Shoutouts". The Detroit News.
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