Look/If you had/One shot/Or one opportunity/To seize everything you ever wanted/In one moment/ Would you capture it/Or just let it slip?
For a famous song that already has a very storied history, Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' is having yet another busy week.
Just this week Eminem's publishers Eight Mile Style won $600,000 in damages from New Zealand's National Party after they were deemed to have ripped the song off in a 2014 election campaign ad.
The rapper has since declared that he'll donate any money he receives from the case to charities contributing to hurricane relief in the southern United States and Caribbean.
Credit: National Party
Now, Eminem's masterpiece is having another significant milestone after being released 15 years ago today, when we all first heard the song's suspenseful guitar riff and Em's urgent delivery:
His palms are sweaty/Knees weak, arms are heavy/There's vomit on his sweater already/Mom's spaghetti
He's nervous/But on the surface he looks calm and ready/To drop bombs/But he keeps on forgetting...
The key song from the soundtrack to the 2002 film, 8 Mile, 'Lose Yourself' was released on 28 October, 2002 and was the first rap song to win an Oscar for Best Original Song.
However, legend has it that Eminem did not even watch the awards because he didn't think he stood a chance at winning. Instead, he fell asleep watching cartoons with his daughter Hailey when the award was announced.
But he did and the song became even more successful. 'Lose Yourself' also won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Solo Performance in 2004.
Credit: PA
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Not only was 'Lose Yourself' a critical smash for the Detroit rapper but the song also sold extremely well, still proving commercially successful to this day.
It reached No. 1 in the US a few weeks after it was released in November 2002. The song eventually remained top for over two months until January 25 2013, preventing artists like Jay-Z, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott from ever reaching No. 1.
The song was certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2014 and as of September this year has been downloaded 7.4 million times in the United States alone.
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So there we have it. Lose Yourself is, quite simply, the most successful song of Eminem's career.
When you're faced with a song that's this good, well, you just have to lose yourself and celebrate it. Happy birthday, 'Lose Yourself'.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Grammys, Entertainment, Academy Award, Music, anniversary, US Entertainment, Eminem