If you’re a fan of hip-hop, it’s the rap version of when Lennon met McCartney. On Wednesday night’s (July 12) final episode of HBO’s documentary about Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, The Defiant Ones, viewers will hear Dre and Eminem recount the first time they met and how that momentous occasion turned into a lifelong friendship that launched one of the biggest careers in hip-hop history.
“Eminem comes in in this bright yellow f–king sweatsuit, hoodie, pants everything… it’s bright f–king yellow and I’m like, ‘wow,'” Dre says of the first glimpse he got of the rapper the world would soon know as Slim Shady. For his part, Em remembers being starstruck at that meeting. “i’m looking at Dre like, ‘Dude, I see you on TV all the time — you’re one of my biggest influences ever in life.”
The two reclusive stars display their signature intensity when talking about the effect they had on each other during that early period of getting to know one another in the 1:11 teaser of the fourth and final chapter of The Defiant Ones. “I’m like, ‘Man, listen. I think this s–t is f–king incredible and I would love to work with you,” Dre recalls as the camera focuses in on a still-dumbfounded looking Marshall Mathers nearly 20 years after their collaboration began.
We then get an incredible glimpse at their first moments in the studio together, during which Dre cues up a sample of Labi Siffre’s “I Got The…” from 1975 and Em immediately starts freestyling the now-iconic hook to his breakthrough 1999 single “My Name Is.” (It’s such a big deal that infrequent tweeter Eminem hyped it on his feed.)
Watch that magic moment below: