According to notes he wrote for the newly released Vevo Footnotes edition of his video, when Eminem made “My Name Is” his first major-label music video, in 1999, the soon-to-be superstar rapper had no idea how huge it or he would soon become.
Born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, the musician wrote about how Dr. Dre put the needle to a record during their initial session together, when he instinctively started saying, “Hi, my name is.” Feeling the music, Eminem went home to his apartment and wrote verses. “We both thought it would be a good way to introduce me to the world,” he wrote. Several months later, they made the Phillip Atwell-directed music video.
Some of the most interesting aspects of the video are about the “dummy” scene, where a ventriloquist operates Em to rap. “Gheorge Murasan is 7-foot-7,” the rapper wrote. “He was the tallest guy we could think of that could play the ventriloquist so that I could sit on his lap and look like I’m the size of a dummy. I’m glad he had a sense of humor and was down to shoot it with us.”
Impersonating President Clinton at the time, Eminem looked back fondly at his scenes, though like the former POTUS, the artist won’t admit to inhaling (or in the rappers case, taking pills). “If you look closely at my eyes during the scene where I was dressed like Bill Clinton, it may look like I was high on ecstasy during that part of the shoot … but that’s just a rumor,” he wrote.
As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, the clip ends with Eminem speculating on the video’s legacy “I don’t think I could write an update [of the song] in 2024,” he wrote, “but maybe I’ll have them write ‘Bye, My Name Was’ on my tombstone.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: – EMR –