Eminem’s Full Induction speech at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Transcript

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. Meet the man right there, the man who saved my life, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. mother fucking Dre. I’m going to try and make this as quick and painless as possible. I’m fucking stuttering and shit. Jesus Christ. So I’m probably not supposed to actually be here tonight because of a couple of reasons. One, I know that I’m a rapper, and this is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and there’s only a few of us right now that have been inducted in already, but there’s only a few of us.

(00:52)
Secondly, I almost died from an overdose in 2007 which kind of sucked because …. Hayley, plug your ears. Because drugs were fucking delicious, and I thought we had a good thing going, man, but I had to go and fuck it all up and take too many. God damn. Okay, Hayley, you can … Come on, I lost my motherfucking spot. Did I say … I said drugs were delicious, right?

(01:35)
And finally, I had to really fight my way through, man, to try to break through in this music, and I’m so honored, and I’m so grateful that I’m even able to be here doing hip hop music, man, because I love it so much. And they say that you won’t work a day if you love your job and shit. This part, I’m not crazy about, but okay.

(02:00)
So, my musical influences are many, and they say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it took a whole genre and culture to raise me. They say success has many colors, and that’s definitely true for me. So whatever my impact has been on hip hop music, I never would’ve or could’ve done this shit without some of the ground-breaking artists that I’m about to mention right now.

(02:33)
And this is a list, man. I put this list together yesterday, and I kept adding to the shit, adding to the shit, and if I forget anybody, I apologize, but these were my teachers right here.

(02:43)
I’m going to start with the 2 Live Crew, 2Pac, 3rd Bass, Alliance, Apache, Audio Two, Milk Dee, what up? Awesome Dre, the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Big Pun, Big L, Biz Markie, The Notorious B.I.G, of course, Black Moon, The Boogiemonsters, Brand Nubian, Brother J from X Clan, Buckshot, Casual from Hieroglyphics, Chill Rob G, Chubb Rock, Chuck D, and Public Enemy. Cypress Hill, D-Nice, Dana Dane, De La Soul. Nah, I’m only playing with you. De La Soul. Did I say De La Soul? Def Jeff, Del the Funky Homosapien, DJ Quik, Dr. Dre, Dres from Black Sheep, LG, EPMD, The Fat Boys, Fat Joe, Fu-Schnickens, Gang Starr, Geto Boys, Heavy D, House of Pain, Ice Cube, Ice-T, The Intelligent Hoodlum, J.J. Fad, Jaz-O, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Justus, K-Solo, Kid ‘n Play. What’s happening right now? King Sun, King Tee, Kool G. Rap, Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One, Kwame, Lakim Shabazz, Large Professor, Leaders of the New School.

(05:06)
Man, where’d I just seen him? The one and only LL Cool J. Lord Finesse, Lords of the Underground, Mantronix, Masta Ace, MC Creed, MC Lyte, MC Shan, Melle Mel, Merciless Ameer, Mobb Deep, Monie Love, Nas, Newcleus, Onyx, Organized Confusion, OutKast, Andre 3000, Paris, [inaudible 00:05:46], Queen Latifah, Rakim, Redhead Kingpin, Pete Rock & CL Smooth.

(05:52)
I’m almost done. Redman. Redman, Roxanne Shante, Run DMC, [inaudible 00:06:00], Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh, Snoop Dogg, Souls of Mischief, Special Ed, Stetsasonic. Now I’m down to the S’s.

(06:15)
Super Legacy and Casanova One, The DOC, the Roots, Black Thought, The Skinny Boys, Tony D, Too Short, Treach and Naughty by Nature, Tribe Called Quest, UTFO, Udini, Wise Intelligent and the Poor Righteous Teachers, Wu-Tang Clan and Wiki. They’re legendary rock stars, man, and I just want to say, those are just a few of the names that I hope will be considered in the future. That was an old class. Without them a lot of us wouldn’t be here. So that’s all I have to say now. Know that this induction is supposed to me talking about myself and shit, man, but fuck that. I wouldn’t be [inaudible 00:07:08]. I’m a high school drop out, man, with a hip hop education and these are my teachers. It’s their night just as much as it is mine. So thank you.