LOS ANGELES — Eminem’s musical journey started in hungry desperation at an obscure studio on 8 Mile Road. Saturday night, it led him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Detroit rapper, in one the most triumphant moments of his much-decorated career, was enshrined in the rock hall during a long, star-filled ceremony at the Microsoft Theater. Eminem, inducted by Dr. Dre and joined by Ed Sheeran and Steven Tyler during his musical performance, became the 20th Detroit inductee in the institution’s 36-year history.
“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 — the music that basically saved my life,” Eminem said, clad in a black leather hoodie and donning a pair of glasses to read his handwritten acceptance speech.
Eminem has long been uneasy with the celebrity spotlight, and he reaffirmed it Saturday, declining to walk the red carpet and rarely looking up as he delivered his speech. “This part I’m not crazy about,” he said, gesturing down at his notes.
Rather than devoting his big moment to indulge in his career accomplishments, he spent nearly half his time at the podium saluting the “groundbreaking artists” in hip-hop who inspired his work. For 3½ minutes, he read an alphabetical list of more than 100 names, famous and obscure — fittingly slipping into a rhythmic flow as he rattled them off.
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“I would not be me without them,” he concluded. “I’m a high-school dropout with a hip-hop education, and these are my teachers. It’s their night just as much as it is mine.”
Eminem’s segment came late in a nearly six-hour show that included the inductions of Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon, Lionel Richie, the Eurythmics and Dolly Parton.
It was a news-making affair that included Duran Duran’s shock revelation that guitarist Andy Taylor, absent Saturday night, is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.
Parton, dependably humble and still seeming a bit mystified by her inclusion in the rock hall, debuted a new song with a vintage rock ‘n’ roll feel.
John Mellencamp, inducting his attorney Allen Grubman for a non-performer honor, seemed to have Kanye West’s recent dustup in mind when he called out antisemitism during a hard-edged speech, saying, “(screw) anybody who says anything in that manner.”
The hall of fame ceremony will air at 8 p.m. Nov. 19 on HBO, when it will also become available for streaming on HBO Max.
Eminem, the rock hall’s seventh hip-hop honoree, was inducted by his longtime collaborator Dr. Dre in front of an audience that included daughter Hailie, manager Paul Rosenberg, producers Jeff and Mark Bass and other Michiganders crucial to his career.
Dre’s eight-minute introduction lauded Eminem as an against-the-odds white rapper who went on to become the best-selling artist in hip-hop history and one of the top-selling acts in the annals of popular music.
Dre recounted his first encounter with Eminem's music in the late ‘90s.
“I guess it was my ignorance at the time, thinking that, ‘OK, if you’re a good rapper, you must be black,’” Dre said, going on to add: “While everyone else around me had their doubts, I knew his gifts were undeniable.”
Dre noted that Eminem has never concerned himself with sales figures and other industry benchmarks.
“What’s most important to him is that he’s earned the respect of his peers as one of the best to ever do it,” Dre said. “Turns out, this unassuming white guy with blue eyes from Detroit (turned) everything we thought we knew about hip-hop on its head by forcing us to confront our own biases, pulling not only the genre but all of us right along with him.”
For his live performance Saturday, backed by the event’s house band, Eminem stalked the stage with friend and longtime hype man Denaun Porter near his side, while DJ Alchemist manned the decks behind them.
His medley of hits launched with the song that had ignited it all, 1999’s “My Name Is,” followed by the rapid-fire marvel of “Rap God” and its tongue-twisting broadside of syllables, which had the Microsoft Theater energized and at its feet, nearly five hours into the hall of fame show.
Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler was a surprise guest, hitting the stage with his trademark scarf-draped mic to lend his “Dream On” vocals to Eminem’s “Sing for the Moment.” Ed Sheeran had the next unannounced cameo, manning an acoustic guitar as he served up the Dido vocal parts for “Stan.”
“Forever” and “Not Afraid” rounded out a set that found Eminem looking vital and compelling in his musical element. He hasn’t played a full-scale concert in more than three years — in part because of the pandemic — but Saturday showed he can rise to the occasion as needed.
His Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honor, which will give him a permanent spot in the institution’s Cleveland museum, was a testament from the wider music establishment of his artistic and commercial clout.
Eminem joined an elite roll call of RRHOF artists inducted during their first year of eligibility, or 25 years after their first commercial release, and he was alone among Saturday’s inductees with that status.
In his case, the operative album was 1996’s “Infinite,” recorded at an 8 Mile Road home studio and pressed on 500 records and 500 cassettes he could hardly give away at the time. “Infinite” came three years before Eminem broke onto the global stage and went to become the best-selling music act in the first decade of the 2000s.
His ear for hip-hop authenticity was matched by an individual flair, including a percussive flow as noted by Jay-Z in a video tribute Saturday night. Armed with the alter ego Slim Shady, his music was at turns comedic, dark, vicious and vulnerable, culminating with the signature hit “Lose Yourself” — backdrop to his starring role in the film “8 Mile,” which hit theaters 20 years ago this week.
Eminem turned 50 last month, a life milestone that lends an air of gravitas against the brash-and-mouthy persona of his early years. Still, he was by far the youngest of Saturday’s seven inductees.
Born Marshall Mathers in Kansas City and raised in troubled family circ*mstances in and around Detroit, his music came from a distinct Motor City music tradition that was aggressive, colorful and designed to shock.
Backstage Saturday, fellow Detroit-bred star Alice Cooper commended the versatility of Eminem’s work.
“He was by far the funniest,” Cooper said. “I don’t think he ever got the right credit for the humor involved.”
The hall of fame’s glitzy festivities seemed far removed from Eminem’s rough-and-tumble life in the ‘90s, when he was a young father and aspiring rapper often scrambling for gas money and diapers. But he kept things real and straightforward during Saturday’s ceremony, seemingly conscious that where he came from is vital to who he is.
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Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
