Lose Yourself
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| “Lose Yourself” | |||||
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| Single by Eminem from the album 8 Mile Soundtrack |
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| Released | October 22, 2002 | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Genre | Rapcore | ||||
| Length | 5:31 | ||||
| Label | Shady/Aftermath/Interscope | ||||
| Producer | Eminem; Luis Resto; Jeff Bass | ||||
| Eminem singles chronology | |||||
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"Lose Yourself" is a hip hop song, music by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto; Lyrics by Eminem. It was released in 2002 as part of the soundtrack to the film 8 Mile, also starring Eminem. The song had additional production by Luis Resto and Jeff Bass.
This is perhaps Eminem's most well-known song and his most successful, reaching the top of many charts around the world, including the Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart, and the United World Chart, among others. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, two Grammy Awards, and two other Grammy nominations. The song is ranked 4th in the 100 greatest songs of the past 25 years by VH1.[1]
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[edit] Writing process
The song was written by Eminem during a break of the filming of 8 Mile. He wrote it in a portable studio on the set, writing all three verses in one take. The sheet on which he wrote the song appears in 8 Mile in a scene where his character is writing while riding the bus. This sheet was sold on eBay for $10,000.
The song's lyrics explicitly sum up the background info about Eminem's character in 8 Mile, B. Rabbit, with the first verse summing up much of the plot of the movie.
The song's general production style is similar in scope to the track "'Till I Collapse" from The Eminem Show (released before 8 Mile). Both tracks begin with an interlude punctuated by a piano, followed by a gradual introduction of the beat, accompanied by a spoken introduction by Eminem. Both tracks also prominently feature a bass loop and some guitar elements.
[edit] Success
"Lose Yourself" is the most successful single of Eminem's mainstream career. It had a 12-week run at #1 in the United States & Australia, and topped the charts in many other countries as well, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and Denmark among others. It debuted at number nine in Canada and moved up to #1 the following week. According to the Guinness Book Of World Records "Lose Yourself" became the Longest Running Single at Number One for a Rap Artist making it the most successful rap song in history.[citation needed]
In the United States, "Lose Yourself" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart the week of October 5, 2002, at #43. A week later, the single jumped to #18, and hit #1 by November 9. The single spent 16 total weeks in the Top 10, and a total of 23 weeks in the Top 50. While in the #1 spot (from 11/09/02 through 1/25/03), "Lose Yourself"'s impressive run kept several top contenders for the #1 spot from ever reaching #1, including Jay-Z, Nelly, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, and especially Missy Elliott, whose single "Work It" was at #2 for 10 weeks.
The song went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first time a rap song ever won this award), upsetting the favored song "The Hands That Built America" by U2. It is rumored that Eminem, who was not present at the award ceremony believing he would not win for a rap song, was sleeping at the time the award was announced. This was the first time in 14 years the winner of the Best Original Song category was not performed at the ceremony. Luis Resto, one of the song's co-writers, had attended the ceremony and accepted the award instead. "He's creative, he has symphonies in his head," Resto said at the podium about Eminem. [2] The American Film Institute later ranked it #93 on their list of the 100 Greatest Songs from American Films.
At the Grammy Awards of 2004, "Lose Yourself" became Eminem's second career nomination for Record of the Year (following "Without Me"), and the first rap song ever to be nominated for Song of the Year. It won Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song, which was a brand new category at the time.
At #166, "Lose Yourself" is the highest ranked of the three songs from the 21st century featured in the 2004 List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (joining "Stan" at #290). Outkast's "Hey Ya!" was the other, at #180.
"Lose Yourself" was later released on Eminem's compilation album, Curtain Call: The Hits, in 2005.
The song (more specifically the tune rather than theme) is also an inspiration to Keane's "Nothing in My Way" as stated by Tim Rice-Oxley in the Keane podcast.
[edit] Music video
The music video for "Lose Yourself" was filmed in Detroit, Michigan, and thus contains numerous shots of the city, including of the Ambassador Bridge. The video is a mixture of multiple scenarios, including scenes from and reminiscent of the movie 8 Mile, and Eminem rapping next to the "8 Mile Rd. Mobile Court" sign that appears on the cover of the movie's soundtrack.
It contains scenes focusing on Rabbit's and the real life Eminem's character, for example, the difficulties he has to face while rapping, the insult and booing of crowds as he is a white rapper and the trouble he has to face due to his alcoholic mother and people he hangs out with.
He won a Much Music Video Awards in 2003 for Favourite International Artist with the video for "Lose Yourself".
At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards it received the award for Best Video from a Film in the final year this award was given out. It also received nominations for Video of the Year, Best Male Video, Best Rap Video, and Viewer's Choice
[edit] Charts
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[edit] In culture
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All or part of this article may be confusing or unclear. Please help clarify the article. Suggestions may be on the talk page. (July 2007) |
- The Croatian band Vatrogasci did a parody of this song titled 'Izgubi Se,' which loosely translates to 'Lose Yourself' in English.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic made a parody of the song, titled "Couch Potato", on his 2003 album Poodle Hat. Eminem had given him permission to parody the song, but not to produce a music video for the parody. Al has also released a t-shirt in his online store that parodies the 8 Mile movie poster.
- The Teen drama series Instant Star named it season premiere episode after this song.
- The music video is parodied in the movie "Scary Movie 3".
- In 2003 the Australian comedy duo Scared Weird Little Guys produced a rap version of the folk song "Waltzing Matilda" called "Cleanin' Out My Tuckerbag", which parodies both "Lose Yourself" and "Cleanin' Out My Closet", but does not credit Eminem.
- Queen + Paul Rodgers used the song as the house music for all of the concerts on their 2005–2006 tours.
- On May 15, 2006, Jodie Foster quoted the chorus of the song in her commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania.[3]
- During an October 2006 interview with the K102 Morning Crew in (Minneapolis, MN), country artist Taylor Swift did an acoustic rendition of the intro and first verse of "Lose Yourself" live on the air, citing it as her favorite workout song.
- Apologetix has made a parody called Look Yourself.
- Many athletic teams use this song over their PA system before important home games. An example would be the Clemson Tigers playing the song before kickoff in their 2007 football game against Boston College. This game marked Clemson's first chance to earn a spot in the ACC Championship Game.
- The show Robot Chicken parodied part of the film in the rapping sequence involving Bugs Bunny and a collection of other Looney Tune characters.[4]
- The Belgian comedian Chris Van den Durpel made a parody titled: "rijbewijs", which translates to 'driving licence', shown in his TV-show "Chris & Co".
- Part of the tune of the song is used as the theme music on the German detective series Lenßen & Partner.
- Lupe Fiasco sampled this song on his track "Lu Myself" on his mixtape, Lupe the Jedi.
| Preceded by "Dilemma" by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single November 9, 2002- January 25, 2003 |
Succeeded by "Bump, Bump, Bump" by B2K featuring P. Diddy |
| Preceded by "Born to Try" by Delta Goodrem |
ARIA (Australia) number one single December 8, 2002 - February 23, 2003 |
Succeeded by "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera |
| Preceded by "If You're Not The One" by Daniel Bedingfield |
UK number one single December 8, 2002 - December 14, 2002 |
Succeeded by "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" by Blue and Elton John |
| Preceded by "Die Another Day" by Madonna |
United World Chart number one single January 11, 2003 - January 25, 2003 |
Succeeded by "Feel" by Robbie Williams |
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc. by Randy Newman |
Academy Award for Best Original Song 2002 |
Succeeded by "Into the West" from Return of the King by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox |
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[edit] References
- ^ "Lose Yourself", in various Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved April 17, 2008)
- ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved April 17, 2008)
- ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved April 17, 2008)
- ^ UK Singles Chart Everyhit.com (Retrieved April 17, 2008)
- ^ Billboard allmusic.com (Retrieved April 17, 2008)
