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For the footballing purists of the world, the recent trend of music being piped into the stadium is a most unfortunate one. But rap fans at this year’s World Cup, on the other hand, might well be delighted by it.

That’s because one of rap’s most beloved songs, an Eminem classic, has been consistently heard in stadiums before World Cup matches commence. As players wait around in the tunnels before taking to the pitch, the famous beat can be heard pumped out over the speakers.

While fan chanting is a core part of a football match, putting on halftime shows and piping in pop songs is another thing entirely. While some people are clearly into it, others find it to be an unnecessary distraction that negatively impacts the atmosphere of the match. It’s happened for a long time, but it does seem to be becoming ever more pervasive. Halftime at the 2024 Copa América final was extended to allow Shakira to perform, for example.

Much like the widely reviled “hydration” breaks introduced during this ongoing World Cup, which essentially sever the game into quarters instead of halves, one gets the sense that these musical interludes in football are here to stay. If that’s the case, the songs that are played should at least be good.

For Eminem fans, that particular prayer has at least been answered. During this World Cup, held across North America, a classic Eminem song has been heard piped into the stadiums before matches begin. It’s a suitably intense track, designed to pump people up. Naturally, it’s ‘Lose Yourself.’

Featured in Em’s movie 8 Mile, ‘Lose Yourself’ is one of hip-hop’s classics. It garnered a lot of critical praise, while its maker was bestowed with a lot of awards in its wake. It was the first rap song to ever win an Oscar for Best Original Song, while it also secured Em with a couple of Grammys.

Commercially, the song was a sensation. It marked Eminem’s first US number one, while it also topped the charts in several other countries, too. It even reentered the American charts 20 years after its initial release, after Em and Anderson .Paak played it during the 2022 Super Bowl LVI halftime show.

The song clearly has an affinity with sportspeople. It deals in themes of determination and hard work, and lots of athletes have been known to turn to it to help get pumped up. It’s said the World Cup-winning English rugby team of 2003 listened to it before they took to the pitch in the final, while several English football clubs have been known to play it at home games.

In this sense, ‘Lose Yourself’ is a great choice for the World Cup. The instrumental of the track has been played in stadiums as players wait to take to the pitch, and, if there has to be a song piped over speakers, it might as well be that one.