G minor · Camelot 6A · 85 BPM
My Name Is
by Eminem
- 85
- BPM
- G minor
- Key
- 6A
- Camelot
- 86
- Danceability
- 4
- Acousticness
Eminem and Dr. Dre finished "My Name Is" in a single hour, wrapping it up on the first day of recording. The track became the lead single and opening song of Eminem's second studio album, The Slim Shady LP, released in 1999. Its central hook borrowed from British singer Labi Siffre's 1975 track "I Got The...", with the bass and guitar riff originally performed by Siffre's session musicians Charles Hodges and David Peacock, who later formed the duo Chas & Dave. The liner notes describe the borrowing as an interpolation, meaning a re-recording rather than a direct sample.
Siffre, who is openly gay, refused to approve the usage until certain sexist and homophobic lyrics were removed. In a 2012 interview he called dissing the victims of bigotry lazy writing, saying the bigots should be the target instead. An uncensored version containing the offending lyrics was mistakenly included on the compilation The Source Hip Hop Music Awards 1999, and some releases retain it.
The single peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Eminem his first top 40 hit in the United States, and reached the top ten in Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. At the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000, it brought him his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. The music video, co-directed by Dr. Dre and Philip G. Atwell, premiered on MTV Total Request Live on January 21, 1999.
My Name Is runs at 85 BPM, the tempo of boom-bap hip-hop, reggae and slow R&B. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.82 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 706 ms. It is in G minor, Camelot 6A, which shares its notes with Bb major and mixes cleanly with C minor and D minor.
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