Here’s his full speech
Eminem: Hip-hop saved my life
"Can y’all hear me? I can’t hear me. Can you hear me?
"This s--t’s crazy. So I wrote some s--t down tonight that I’m never going to f---ing remember, so I had to read it off the paper and s--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---in’ Dre. So I'm going to try to make this as quick and painless as possible. I’m f---ing stuttering and s--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---ing delicious, and I thought we had a good thing going man, but I had to go and f--- it all up and take too many. God d--n. OK Hailie.
"OK, so. Hold on, I lost my motherf---in' 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 s--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 s--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 s--t, adding to the s--t, and if I forget anybody, I apologize. But these were my teachers right here:
"I'm gonna start with the 2 Live Crew, 2Pac, 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 Heiroglyphics, 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, Dres 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-D.M.C., 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 $hort, 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 s--t man, but f--- 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."
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