On March 23, 2003, Marshall Mathers became the first rapper to win an Oscar. His song “Lose Yourself” written for “8 Mile”, a film loosely based on his own story, won the award for Best Original Song.
Em didn’t attend the Oscars that night, but co-writer Luis Resto accepted the award on behalf of Eminem and Jeff Bass. That was the very first time when a rap song was recognized that high at the Oscars.
Eminem produced the track along with Jeff Bass (one half of the Bass Brothers). Song ‘Lose Yourself’ was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Best Rap Song in 2003.
Download & Listen Lose Yourself – Eminem MP3
In the interview with SouthPawer, Eminem explained why he didn’t attend the Oscar ceremony.
“Actually, I was sleeping that night.. I just felt like I had no chance of winning because, you know, when I heard I was nominated, I thought that was for actors… I was not sure what exactly Grammy or Oscar meant, what a certain award meant, I was not sure what they meant, so even MTV awards, all that stuff, I just didn’t know what awards meant and this particular award…I didn’t go to the show… I just felt like I had a snowballs chance of…I think I got it confused when they said about Oscar. They were talking about the song but I was like ‘yea but isn’t there other movies that got rock songs and stuff like that? At that point, in my life I always thought like rap never gets as fair shake on anything. That was one of the reasons I didn’t go for the first Grammys I was invited to, because I pretty much protested it. I didn’t understand why there was a rap category and best album category and I couldn’t understand why rap album can not be in the best album category.”
So after 17 years later, Eminem surprised Audience in the last Oscar award ceremony.
