The reason why Eminem hated his classic song ‘My Name Is’
‘My Name Is’ was the song that propelled Eminem into the limelight. Released in 1999, it appeared on The Slim Shady LP and won Marshall Mathers his first Grammy Award for ‘Best Rap Solo Performance’ in 2000.
The record was recorded during his first ever session with Dr Dre, and is known for its undeniably catchy chorus: “Hi, my name is, what?/ My name is, who?/ My name is, chka-chka, Slim Shady.” The basis of the hook stems from an interpolation of Labi Siffre’s 1975 track ‘I Got The…’, which Eminem initially freestyled over.
Em told Genius, “I was like, ‘Yo, this is it, this is my shot. If I don’t impress this guy, I’m going back home and I’m fucked.’ I knew Dre wasn’t an easy person to please. I made sure that everything he had a beat for, I had a rhyme ready to go, or I came up with a rhyme on the spot.”
However, that eagerness to impress Dre was also why he initially hated ‘My Name Is’. During an interview with Rolling Stone, Slim Shady spoke about disliking the song because of its commercial aspect when it was released.
“I ended up hating the record in the early days, because I always looked at myself as an underground MC,” he admitted. “I remember having conversations with Royce [Da 5’9″] before we made it: ‘Yo, man, we’re not the type of artists to go gold.’ All I wanted to do was make enough money to not have to work a regular job, have a decent house, be able to support my family. So I was shocked that ‘My Name Is’ was successful.”
He added, “I probably felt, ‘I’m just rapping on there!’ I’m just going, ‘Hi, my name is — my name is — my name is — chka-chka, Slim Shady.’ That’s it. It was an introduction to the world, but I didn’t know it was an introduction to the world.”
To this day, ‘My Name Is‘ remains one of the biggest songs of Em’s career. It has gone four times platinum in the US and two times platinum in the UK. The track boasts over 694 million Spotify streams, and its music video has also racked up 278 million views on YouTube.
Eminem takes pride in his lyrics and isn’t content with his delivery until he’s pushed himself to the fullest. “If I feel I’ve pushed myself to the furthest extent that I can, then it’s done. But if it’s not, here’s more,” he said. “And nothing ever sounds as good as it does in my head. So when I say a rhyme or whatever, you should hear it in my head!
“If it was up to me and I was just recording demos, I’d tell a story here and there, but mostly it’d be just technical all the time. If I put a record out and it’s got some kind of hook on it but there’s no lyrical aspect to it, that’s fucking terrible. That’s corny, to me.”