The film actor Mekhi Phifer has thrown light on how Eminem wrote Lose Yourself – it was apparently in a trailer whilst 8 Mile was being filmed in Detroit.
In an interview with the Daily Express, Phifer revealed the track – which became a worldwide Number One and to a large extent sold the entire film – was knocked up late at night, virtually at the last minute.
"We were in between shots, around 2 or 3 in the morning," he recalls. "Eminem invited me to his studio trailer, and he said, 'Yo, come check out this new song I wrote, and I put your name in it.'"
Phifer was one of the first people to hear the song, before most of the people in Eminem’s inner circle, even his manager Paul Rosenberg. "It was incredible. We all went crazy. Who knew that this song would go on to win an Oscar?" the actor recalled.
The film would become a huge critical and commercial hit on release in 2002 – it seemed to weave fact and fiction into a satisfying whole and threw a spotlight on the hitherto-largely underground rap battle scene that fired the young Eminem as an artist.
And Lose Yourself did indeed win the Best Original Song at the Academy Awards the following year. "It was just one of those moments that you knew something big was happening, even before the world knew,” said Phifer. “We were all just so lucky to be part of it."
Phifer has gone on to star in ER and has enjoyed a decent career in film and television. But he still obviously holds fond memories of the six months 8 Mile shoot in Detroit. "It was a really special time, and I'm grateful to have been a part of it, the actor said.
