It was the biggest night for momβs spaghetti in years.
At the 92nd Academy Awards on Sunday, following a montage of iconic songs from film history, Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, came onstage and rapped βLose Yourselfβ from his early 2000s movie β8 Mile.β
And everyone was left with one question: βWhy?β
This wasnβt a special anniversary. The movie, featuring a climactic rap battle where Eminemβs character B-Rabbit reveals that the parents of his rival Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie) have a real good marriage (a true death blow), came out in 2002.
βLose Yourselfβ did win the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 2003 Oscars, but Eminem didnβt even show up to accept the award. And that was an odd 17 years ago. Is it just that Eminem is like a cicada, coming out every 17 years to make a bunch of noise?
In a tweet following the performance, Eminem said he was sorry it took 18 years to get to the Academy, and on Monday, the rapper explained more to Variety:
I kinda figured maybe since I didnβt get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool. Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed βLose Yourselfβ on the Grammys with The Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didnβt think it was a good idea. And also, back at that time, the younger me didnβt really feel like a show like that would understand me.
But then when I found out I won, βThatβs crazy!β That to me shows how authentic and real that award is β when you donβt show up and you still win. That makes it very real to me.
β8 Mileβ was already set to be in the movie music montage, according to the magazine, and Eminem says he was approached to perform.
βIt was cool because we just put out an album, so we said maybe thatβll make sense with the timing of the new album,β he said.
The performance was presented to the rapper as being secretive, so he just went with it.
βI said, βOh thatβs kinda dope, to not even announce it,β he explained.
At least we know why the performance worked for Eminem. Why it worked for the Academy is another question. Eminem did get a standing ovation, though, so maybe thatβs the answer.
Also as an added bonus, Martin Scorsese seemed to get the best sleep of his life.
You can watch Eminemβs Oscar performance below, or perhaps just wait another 17 years.