Analysis Of Marshall Mathers's 'Lose Yourself'

“Lose Yourself” is one of the most famous and prominent songs of Eminem’s whole career. This song is meant to pump someone up when they are feeling down and out and to tell them to seize every opportunity that comes their way because it might me the last one. This song is the main track that relates to Marshall Mathers’ semi-biographical movie 8 Mile as this portrays his story of his entry into the rap game.

When the song begins, there is only a piano and it is playing a soft, calm melody with multiple different chords. All of a sudden the piano stops and switches to a two chord rock guitar, which gives the song a more intense feel, creating the motivational feeling for the question he is about to pose for the listener. Eminem sets the stage

This one question echoes throughout the whole song as the lyrics tell the story of Eminem.

When Marshall actually begins rapping he starts about half a beat before the main beat of the song drops. On the first downbeat of the verse a bass drum rhythm is added to the chords of the guitar to increase the intense mood. Eminem comes out strong in the first verse, with a hype yet monotone voice, as his voice is very recognizable. The phrases he uses in his first verse like “palms are sweaty”, “knees weak” and “arms are heavy” evoke the image and sensation of nervousness and high stakes. The rhyme schemes in his lyrics are always very prominent. He makes the rhymes in his raps stand out more because he strategically places them so that every rhyming word lands on a beat. In the first four lines of the first verse, Eminem uses a multisyllabic rhyme scheme using assonance of the “a” sound in words like “palms” and “arms” and then the “ea” and “y” sounds in words like “sweaty” and “heavy”. Then he uses these two assonance sounds connected and creates complete rhyming phrases. An example of a rhyming phrase in this first rhyme scheme is “mom’s spaghetti” and “calm and

Anaphora is a large component of the hook because he starts almost every line with the word “you”. The rhyme scheme in the hook uses assonance of the “o” sound in words like “moment” and “own”. Eminem also personifies the music in this part of the song as he says “lose yourself in the music” because you can’t physically do that. In this section of the song, Eminem speaks to the listener because of the way he accents the word “you” and makes it the main focus of the hook. He is telling the listener that they need to be in the moment and make sure they don’t let their one change to be great, slip by, which answers the question that he poses in the very beginning of the