Eminem Thanked Will Smith, Snoop Dogg, And Literally Over 100 Other Rappers At His Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction

Eminem had one of the biggest moments of his career yesterday (November 6): He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Aside from performing with Ed Sheeran, he also gave a speech, which he used to shine a light on the many rappers who helped pave the way for him.

Em spent a significant portion of his speech listing off a lengthy roster of rappers. Among many others, the list included Tupac, the Beastie Boys, Biz Markie, The Notorious B.I.G., Chuck D, De La Soul, Dr. Dre, EPMD, Fat Joe, Ice Cube, Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince (the latter of whom is now better known as Will Smith), Kid & Play, LL Cool J, Nas, Outkast, Andre 3000, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Redman, Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Snoop Dogg, Stetsasonic, The Roots, Black Thought, Too Short, A Tribe Called Quest, and Wu-Tang Clan. All in all, Em named over 100 rappers.

Watch clips of the speech above and read a transcript of the whole thing below (via The Detroit News).

“Can y’all hear me? I can’t hear me. Can you hear me?

This sh*t’s crazy. So I wrote some sh*t down tonight that I’m never going to f*cking remember, so I had to read it off the paper and sh*t, but it’s from the heart. 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.

Where’d the man… where did Dre go? The man who saved my life, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. motherf*ckin’ Dre. So I’m going to try to make this as quick and painless as possible. I’m f*cking stuttering and sh*t, I mean Jesus Christ.

So I’m probably not supposed to actually be here tonight because of a couple of reasons. One of them 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.

Secondly, I almost died from an overdose in 2007, which kind of sucked. Hailie, plug your ears: because drugs were f*cking delicious, and I thought we had a good thing going, man, but I had to go and f*ck it all up and take too many. G*ddamn. OK Hailie.

OK, so… hold on, I lost my motherf*ckin’ spot. Paul, did I say… I said drugs were delicious, right? And finally, I had to really fight my way through man to try and break through in this music, and I’m so honored and I’m so grateful that I’m even able to be up here doing hip-hip music, man, because I love it so much.

And they say you won’t work a day if you love your job and sh*t. This part I’m not crazy about? But, OK.

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 fathers, and that’s definitely true for me. So whatever my impact has been on hip-hop music, I never would have or could have done this sh*t without some of the groundbreaking artists that I’m about to mention right now.

And this is a list, man. I put this list together yesterday, and I kept adding to the sh*t, adding to the sh*t, and if I forget anybody, I apologize. But these were my teachers right here.

I’m gonna start with the 2 Live Crew, Tupac, 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 Boogie Monsters, 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 — now I’m about a third of the way done.

De La Soul… did I say De La Soul? Def Jef, Del The Funky Homosapien, DJ Quik, Dr. Dre of course, Dre’s from Black Sheep, Ed O.G., EPMD, Fat Boys, Fat Joe, Fu-Schnickens, Gang Starr, Geto Boys, Heavy D, House Of Pain, Ice Cube, Ice-T, the Intelligent Hoodlum, JJ Fad, Jaz-O, Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince, Just Ice, K-Solo, Kid & Play: I’m a tenth of the way done.

King Sun, King Tee, Kool G Rap, Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One, Kwame, Lakim Shabazz, Large Professor, Leaders Of The New School, the one and only LL Cool J — love you bro. Lord Finesse, Lords Of The Underground, Mantronix, Masta Ace, MC Breed, MC Lyte, MC Shan, Melle Mel, Merciless Ameer, Mobb Deep, Monie Love, Nas, Newcleus, Onyx, Organized Konfusion, Outkast, Andre 3000, Paris, Pharcyde, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Redhead Kingpin, Pete Rock and CL Smooth… I’m almost done.

Redman, Roxanne Shante, Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Snoop Dogg, Souls Of Mischief, Special Ed, Stetsasonic… now I’m all down to the S’s. Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud, the D.O.C., the Roots, Black Thought, the Skinny Boys, Tony D, Too Short, Treach from Naughty By Nature, A Tribe Called Quest, U.T.F.O., Whodini, Wise Intelligent and the Poor Righteous Teachers, Wu-Tang Clan, and YZ.

Those were my rock stars, man, and I just want to say, like, those are just a few of the names that I hope will be considered in the future for induction. Because without them, a lot of us wouldn’t be here. I know I wouldn’t.

So that’s all I had to say, man. I know this induction is supposed to be me talking about myself and sh*t, man, but f*ck that. I would not be here without them. I’m a high school dropout, man, with a hip-hop education, and these were my teachers. And it’s their night just as much as it is mine, so thank you.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .