Nearly 20 years after the release of “My Name Is,” Dr. Dre and Eminem are dishing on how the hip-hop classic came to be.
The two discussed their first recording studio session in an episode of The Defiant Ones—a four-part documentary series about Dre’s partnership with Jimmy Iovine. In a newly released teaser, Em and Dre discussed their first encounter as well as their initial impressions of each other.
“Eminem comes in, in this bright-yellow fucking sweatsuit—hoodie, pants, everything,” Dre reveals. “It’s bright fucking yellow. And I’m like, ‘Wow.’”
Eminem also had a “wow” moment, as he was finally meeting one of his “biggest influences ever in life.”
Dre said he was impressed with Em’s music, so he quickly invited the Detroit rapper back to his home studio to record.
“I went and I put some samples together, did a couple of things in the drum machine, and I invited him over,” Dre said. “I was like ‘Man, listen. I put this sample together. Tell me if you like it.’ And I hit the drum machine […]”
Dre had played his sample of Labi Siffre's 1975 song "I Got The…,” which became the iconic beat for Eminem’s “My Name Is.”
“Maybe two or three seconds went by and he just went: ‘Hi! My name is…my name is…’ Like, ‘Yo, Stop! Shit’s hot,’” Dre recalls telling Em. “That’s what happened our first day in the first few minutes of us being in the studio.”
You can watch the full preview above. The Defiant Ones’ final two episodes will air this week: Tuesday and Wednesday night on HBO.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Dre was working on Eminem’s upcoming studio album. The news was shared by The Defiant Ones director Allen Hughes in an interview with Uproxx.
“Dre still records,” Hughes said. “People don’t know this: Dre records every day. Literally, he’s in there recording songs every day. He’s like Picasso in that way. He’s always painting. Right now he’s producing, in the 11th hour, a track for Eminem’s latest album.”
Eminem’s last full-length release was 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2.
