The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomed its 2022 inductees on Saturday (Nov. 5).
This year’s group included Dolly Parton, Eminem, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon.
For Eminem, there was really only one person that could give him a proper welcome to the Hall and that was his longtime friend, mentor and collaborator, Dr Dre. Dre, the one person who saw the vision after meeting Eminem in the early 1990s and worked with the rapper, making him one of the biggest music acts in the entire world.
In his speech, Dre said,
“Little did I know, he was going to be one of the best selling artists of all time. Facts. From the moment he introduced himself to the world with The Slim Shady LP, he skyrocketed to the top of the charts and stayed there for 100 weeks, earning himself a Grammy for Best Rap album and Best Rap Solo performance. And can you believe, after promoting violence to little children, killing his daughter’s mother, this guy still had more shit to get off his chest? And then the sophomore album comes out.
The Marshall Mathers LP drops. On that album alone his alter-ego Slim Shady tied me up in the basement, had sex with his mother, killed his daughter’s mother again while proceeding to offend about every special interest group we had. It clearly struck a chord and became one of the fastest selling albums in United States history. Eminem would go on to overdose, relapse, recover, and not only on his albums, in real life. Let me tell you something. This guy goes through a lot of shit just to get a concept for a song. But here’s Eminem’s genius. With his incredible wit and wild imagination, he was able to hold a mirror up to white America while also expressing the pain of poverty and dysfunctional families devoid of hope. Eminem brought hip hop to middle America and offered kids who looked like him a way to connect to it.”
He finished by saying, “It is my great honor to induct my friend, Eminem, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
Watch the Dre’s full speech below
Following his Rock and Roll Hall of fame introduction, Eminem performed a medley of hits with included special appearances by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Ed Sheeran.
“I’m a high school dropout, man, with a hip-hop education, and these were my teachers,” Eminem said, after reading out 100+ of his hip hop influences.
“I realize 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, and the music that basically saved my life,” He also said.
