One of the most fruitful partnerships between producer and MC in the history of rap has been between Dr. Dre and Eminem. Together, the pair are responsible for creating some of the best-selling albums in all of music, records like The Marshall Mather LP and The Eminem Show.In a new clip from the HBO documentary series The Defiant Ones that chronicles the rise of Dre and his business partner Jimmy Iovine, both the good Doctor and Em recall the first time they met one another.
From the very moment that Em entered Dre’s home studio he made an impression. “Eminem comes in in this bright yellow f*cking sweatsuit, hoodie, pants everything. It’s bright f*cking yellow and I’m like, ‘Wow.'” For his part, having grown up listening to N.W.A and his solo records like The Chronic, the Detroit MC was awed to be in Dre’s presence. “I’m looking at Dre like, ‘Dude, I see you on TV all the time, you’re one of my biggest influences ever in life.'”
Once they got past the first impression, Dre and Em got down to the matter at hand: making music. Dre wanted to see what this notorious battle rapper was capable of, so he threw on a quick beat he made using a sample of Labi Siffre’s “I Got The…” Em picked up on it and came off the dome with the now-iconic hook to his breakthrough 1999 single “My Name Is.” Immediately Dre recognized the magic that was happening. “Stop, sh*t’s hot” he said. “That’s what happened on our first day, in our first few minutes of being in the studio.”
You can watch Eminem and Dr. Dre discuss one of the defining moments of their career in the clip above.
