Photo: Getty Images
Eminem is finally speaking up about a longtime rumor about the music video for his breakthrough song.
On Thursday, March 7, the Detroit rapper celebrated the 25th anniversary of his major-label debut single "My Name Is" by revealing unknown facts about the record's music video on Vevo Footnotes. As the Phil Atwell-directed video plays, Em explains how he and Dr. Dre cooked up the record before it dropped in 1999. He reveals it was Dre's idea to sample the iconic section of Labi Siffre’s "I Got The..." for the beat, and had his musicians recreate the song.
"This was the second song we did during my first session working with Dr. Dre," Eminem explains. "He had a turntable in the studio, dropped the needle on the record, and I just started saying 'Hi, my name is' over that little snippet."
"We shot this video a few months after recording the song - a big moment," he continues. "It was only the second video I had ever done, and the first was real low budget."
Eminem also touches on the making of the music video. He shares a story about casting former NBA star Gheorghe Mureșan, who was the only one tall enough to make Em look like a real ventriloquist dummy. The Real Slim Shady also addresses an ongoing rumor about a particular scene where he's dressed like Bill Clinton.
"If you look closely at my eyes during the scene where I was dressed like Bill Clinton, it may look like I was high on ecstasy during that part of the shoot…but that’s just a rumor," he adds.
The song went on to become the lead single from The Slim Shady LP, which dropped 25 years ago last month. In honor of the milestone, Eminem recently dropped a capsule that contains limited edition collectibles like the Shady License Plate Shadowbox signed by Em himself, and The Real Slim Shady T-shirt Pack.