Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song — first hip-hop Oscar

Why it matters

March 23, 2003. The 75th Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. Best Original Song. "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile beat "Burn It Blue" from Frida and three other nominees. It is the first hip-hop song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Eminem was not in the building. He was at home in Detroit, sleeping. Co-writer Luis Resto accepted on his behalf. The Em-not-at-the-ceremony detail is part of the lore for two reasons. First, he did not expect to win (which several Academy members later confirmed had also been their working assumption). Second, the Academy had spent decades treating hip-hop as if it did not exist as serious music; the idea that an Eminem song would win was, on a 2003 Academy electorate, not the prior favorite. It won anyway. Eminem later said he wished he had gone. Three 6 Mafia would become the second hip-hop act to win the category three years later for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." "Lose Yourself" was the first. You can argue what counts as institutional acknowledgment. An Oscar counts.