Eminem is making a comeback, and we can’t forget all of the memorable songs from his heyday that made him one of the most well-known rappers in history. The love his early works get is warranted, but that love is not 100% due to his rapping alone. Eminem has sampled quite a few famous rock songs by other artists through the years, and they deserve some credit. Let’s look at four examples!
1. Queen
Eminem seems to be a bit of a Queen fan, considering he has sampled two different Queen tracks on two of his songs. He sampled “We Will Rock You” on the 2002 song “Till I Collapse”, as well as “Reaching Out” by Queen and Paul Rodgers for his 2009 song “Beautiful”. Both samples were smart choices and complimented Eminem’s songwriting quite perfectly.
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2. Aerosmith
Eminem sampled a few rock songs through the years, but this one is definitely the most memorable example. There are probably a few young Eminem fans out there who don’t know that the “dream on” melody and guitar-shredding bits from “Sing For The Moment” comes from Aerosmith’s famous 1973 track “Dream On”.
It’s much more than a simple sample, though. Eminem chose to use the instrumentation of the Aerosmith classic throughout “Sing For The Moment” instead of just the intro. Slapping a rap beat over a rock melody is no easy feat, and Eminem made it sound incredible.
3. The Zombies
Eminem once sampled the 1968 classic “Time Of The Season” by English rock band and British Invasion pioneers The Zombies. The sample was used on the 2013 song “Rhyme Or Reason”. It’s wild to think that such a chill classic English rock song could be used on what many consider Eminem’s hardest raps.
The instrumentals and overall melody of the OG song are identical to the way Eminem raps, but the two songs couldn’t be more different. Now that’s talent!
4. Janis Joplin
“Summertime” is technically not a Janis Joplin original. In fact, that particular jazz tune has been covered about a million times, more or less. However, Joplin’s 1968 cover is by far the most famous cover of the 1934 song. Eminem sampled Joplin’s version at the beginning of his 1999 song “Rock Bottom”. Like most of the samples he’s used, the placement of “Summertime” at the start of the song is perfection.
Photo by Theo Wargo
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