Rare Footage Shows Eminem And Dr Dre In The Studio For The First Time

Eminem is one of the best-selling artists of all time and widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop artists in the industry. But it wasn't an easy road for the 44-year-old, real name Marshall Mathers, who went on to sell more than 172 million albums.

He began rapping as a teenager and tried to build his craft. After his debut album Infinite was a commercial flop, he was working 60 hours a week as a dish washer to make ends meet for him, his girlfriend Kim and their young daughter Hailie.

It was when his Slim Shady EP dropped that he came to the attention of renowned music producer Dr Dre. He came second in the 1997 Rap Olympics, and an intern from Interscope Records was in the crowd. They sent a copy of the EP to Dre, where he promptly told his team to get Eminem signed.

Both artists have come together to share what was going through their minds when they met each other for the first time in an HBO documentary titled The Defiant Ones.

Check it out here:

Credit: HBO/The Defiant Ones

Dr Dre recalls Eminem stepping into his office in a bright yellow jumpsuit, before Mathers says: "I'm looking at Dre like, 'Dude I see you on TV all the time - you one of my biggest influences in life'."

Dre takes the would-be rapper into his home studio and presses play on a track he was producing and almost instantaneously, Eminem starts spitting rhymes.

And that's how the track 'My Name Is' was born.

Dre has spoken previously at how hard it was to convince music executives that picking a white rapper was a good idea. In a Rolling Stone article, Dre says: "It's like seeing a black guy doing country & western, know what I'm saying?"

via GIPHY

But he adds: "I don't give a fuck if you're purple: If you can kick it, I'm working with you."

It appears that the pair are collaborating again for Eminem's new album, after Allen Hughes, who directed the HBO documentary, told Uproxx: "People don't know this, Dre records every day. Literally, he's in there recording songs every day. He's like Picasso in that way. He's always painting.

"Right now he's producing, in 'The 11th Hour', a track for Eminem's latest album. So Dre's still real active in music."

That news is very exciting, we'll have to wait and see whether they can still produce some epic hip-hop together.

Featured Image Credit: HBO/The Defiant Ones

Topics: hip hop, Music, Eminem

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie