It has been almost 15 years since Eminem's song "Lose Yourself," the first rap song to win an Oscar award, was released. Recently, Jeff Bass, one of the producers of the song, talked about how he met the "Rap God" rapper.
Bass and Eminem are both from Detroit, Michigan. The former, along with his brother Mark Bass, is known as a longtime collaborator of the rapper.
Always ready to work and passionate for it, Eminem was already sending people his mixtapes and work, Jeff said in an interview with Billboard. The producer added that when they we first started out, he and his brother worked with artists who were really serious about the narratives that they were doing.
"His work ethic was always impeccable," Jeff said of Eminem. "The kid could work 20 hours a day easily. Me and my brother strived for that and we worked many, many hours."
According to Jeff, Eminem would come in and they gave it a shot. The producer said they took the rapper in as one of their own and they started grooming him.
Jeff revealed that many people could not hang with him and his brother because they were always constantly working. However, Eminem was a trooper and was that "hungry" so he hung with the Bass brothers the entire time, Jeff said.
In 2013, Jeff talked about how his relationship with Eminem had changed since their collaboration on the rapper's "Relapse" album. In an interview with Grantland, Jeff said he still loved Eminem and he was sure that the rapper still loved him but they did not communicate like they used to.
At the time, Eminem wanted to experiment with other writers and producers, Jeff told the publication. The Bass brothers were not involved in Eminem's most recent album "The Marshall Mathers LP 2," which was released on Nov. 5, 2013.
Watch the music video of "Lose Yourself" here: