Eminem’s Lose Yourself is one of the all-time classic tracks we will surely be listening to 40 years from now during the World Series or Superbowl. As part of his celebration of his new album ShadyXV Eminem has given us a peek behind the curtain at one of the early demos of this iconic song.

What is so amazing about this track from Eminem is how good it is. Even for a demo it’s polished. The verses are classic Em and, like many of his great verses, uses complex structures and rhyming schemes for entire on-theme verses.

There’s little throw-away and no filler.

But it isn’t even close to what ended up being released.

Great writers are great editors, and great rappers are great writers. So Eminem rewrote, edited, rewrote and kept making it better until it was great.

So often finished products are so perfect that it seems they came out formed that way – like inspiration delivered flawlessness – but that’s rarely the case.

For anyone else, this would be so good they’d be happy, pat themselves on the back and release it. But good isn’t good enough for Eminem.

Don’t be good. Be great.

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Want to grab some Eminem vinyl ? My company Merchbar has the 8 Mile Soundtrack vinyl and will soon have the ShadyXV vinyl in the Eminem Store on Merchbar.