The Oscars audience lost themselves briefly Sunday night when Eminem dropped by for a surprise performance of “Lose Yourself,” 17 years after he won an Academy Award for the “8 Mile” track at the 2003 awards show — which he skipped.
Following the stunt and a standing ovation from the audience, Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) took to Twitter to thank the Academy for letting him do his thing tonight, since he did not attend their 75th ceremony, at which he was awarded the statuette for Best Original Song for “Lose Yourself” — the first-ever hip-hop track to win in that category.
“Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @TheAcademy,” Slim Shady tweeted, alongside a clip of him missing the 2003 Oscars. “Sorry it took me 18 years to get here.”
“8 Mile” was released in 2002 at the height of Eminem’s powers. In the semi-autobiographical drama, Eminem played struggling battle rapper, B. Rabbit.
“The Eminem Show,” the followup to 2000s “The Marshall Mathers LP,” was released the same year as “8 Mile.”
Mathers burst onto the hip-hop scene with 1999’s “The Slim Shady LP” and its lead single, “My Name Is” which notably was built around a sample of Labi Siffre’s 1975 track “I Got The… .”
Eminem dropped his last few studio albums by surprise. The latest, “Music to Be Murdered By,” came out on Jan. 17 with no pre-promotion. Shady/Aftermath/Interscope release “Music to Be Murdered By” is comprised of 20 tracks.
Watch Eminem’s performance of “Lose Yourself” at Sunday’s Oscars via the video in the tweet below.
The 92nd Academy Awards are airing now on ABC.
Eminem just made the stage on fire🔥 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/VuXzOJNIIZ
— Alaa Abbas (@3laaferguson) February 10, 2020