Eminem headed to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, leading 2022 class of inductees
Brian McCollum
Eminem will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this fall, swept into the hall in his first year of eligibility and becoming the 20th Detroit performer enshrined in the institution’s 36-year history.
The Detroit rapper is the second hip-hop solo artist to make the Hall of Fame while alive, following Jay-Z last year.
The rock hall’s 2022 class was revealed Wednesday morning. Eminem will be joined by Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon and longtime Motown Records artist Lionel Richie.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will be held Nov. 5 at L.A.'s Microsoft Theater. The show will air subsequently on HBO and HBO Max streaming.
Striking out for a sixth time was the MC5, the Detroit band whose high-octane counterculture music helped set the stage for hard rock and punk.
Eminem’s Hall of Fame feat joins a long list of accolades for the 49-year-old star, including 15 Grammys, 17 Billboard Music Awards, a pair of diamond-selling albums, an Oscar and numerous “best rapper” citations.
The seven inductees unveiled Wednesday were drawn from a list of 17 nominees announced in February. The finalists were selected by 1,000-plus artists, historians and other music professionals, combined with voting by the public.
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By making the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, Eminem joins a select list of first-year, first-ballot inductees. Since 2000, there have been 21 such Hall of Famers. Eminem is the only 2022 artist with that status.
Artists qualify for induction 25 years after their first commercial release. Eminem’s debut album, “Infinite,” landed in November 1996, when he was a little-known figure on the Detroit hip-hop scene. That indie release — recorded at an obscure 8 Mile Road studio and issued on 500 copies, half cassettes and half LPs — came three years before Eminem broke globally with “The Slim Shady LP” on Interscope Records.
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“Infinite” was an early taste of Eminem’s tongue-twisting, internal-rhyming rap skills and confrontational but soul-baring approach. It was followed by hit albums such as “The Slim Shady LP,” “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show,” which helped him become the best-selling U.S. recording artist in the first decade of the 2000s.
Eminem is the seventh hip-hop act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, following the late Notorious B.I.G. and groups such as Run-DMC and N.W.A.
The Hall of Fame has incorporated fan voting in recent years, though like many of the institution’s tightly guarded procedures, its weight in the final tally is murky. Duran Duran led this year’s fan ballot with about 935,000 votes, followed by Eminem (684,000), Pat Benatar (631,000), Eurythmics (442,000) and Dolly Parton (334,000).
Will Eminem show up for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame festivities this autumn? That remains to be seen. The show typically features a tribute speech and performance segment for each inductee, followed by a show-ending group jam.
It’s worth noting Eminem is an artist who isn’t exactly keen on public appearances. He even skipped his own Oscars triumph in 2003, when “Lose Yourself” (from “8 Mile”) took the Academy Award for best original song.
Still, Eminem has a history with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2009, he presented the induction of Run-DMC, and last year he performed with LL Cool J as the veteran rapper was honored with the Award for Musical Excellence.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
Detroit artists in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Aretha Franklin — 1987
Marvin Gaye —1987
Smokey Robinson — 1987
Jackie Wilson — 1987
The Supremes — 1988
The Temptations — 1989
Stevie Wonder — 1989
Hank Ballard — 1990
Four Tops — 1990
John Lee Hooker — 1991
Martha and the Vandellas — 1995
Gladys Knight & the Pips — 1996
Little Willie John — 1996
Parliament-Funkadelic — 1997
Bob Seger — 2004
Madonna — 2008
The Stooges — 2010
Alice Cooper — 2011
The Miracles — 2012
Eminem — 2022