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Producer Rick Rubin watched this up close. Eminem is always writing because he wants to be the best he could possibly be, and he is insanely obsessive about it. His whole life is built around sitting at a notepad writing all day and all night. That is what makes him him.
Flipping through the notebooks, Rubin asked whether it was all headed for an album. It wasn't: ninety-nine percent of it no one will ever see. Eminem was practicing, wanting to get better at what he does whether or not anything comes out.
Think of an athlete. Some athletes train in the off season and some don't, and the ones who do are usually better and usually have longer careers. Eminem is in training always.
How does deliberate practice build skill?
In a 1993 study at a Berlin music academy, the psychologist Anders Ericsson and his colleagues compared violinists of different levels. The best group had averaged about 10,000 hours of practice by age 20, noticeably more than the less accomplished groups. The difference lay mostly in solitary practice aimed at specific weaknesses. Ericsson called this deliberate practice, and he distinguished it from simply playing through familiar pieces.
Why do athletes train in the off season?
The off season is when athletes can build strength, speed, and technique without the wear of weekly games. Coaches plan the year in phases, a method known as periodization, so peak fitness lands in the competitive months. Without games to prepare for, an athlete has room to work on weaknesses instead of just maintaining. This is why training blocks in the winter months are standard for many sports.
What made Eminem's rhymes stand out?
He is known for stringing together multisyllabic rhymes, where several syllables in a row match the sounds of the line before. His song Lose Yourself, from the 2002 film 8 Mile, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. It was the first rap song to win that award.
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