The song that vaulted Eminem onto the national stage. This was the second single from Eminem’s major label debut The Slim Shady LP (the first was “Just Don’t Give a Fuck,” which appeared on both the LP and on his minor-label release The Slim Shady EP).

While Marshall bagged a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000, the song wasn’t without controversy. Some of the lyrics, specifically: “99 percent of my life I was lied to / I just found out my mom does more dope than I do were the reason Debbie Mathers (Eminem’s mother) sued him.

“My Name Is” samples the 1975 song “I Got The…” by British musician Labi Siffre.

Siffre–an openly gay man–was reluctant to have his song be sampled in a song as homophobic as “My Name Is.” He let Dr. Dre and Eminem sample the song on the condition that they get rid of lines about raping lesbians and Eminem’s gay junior high teacher. (Both of those lyrics can be found on the extra explicit version of the song.) When Labi Siffre’s album “Remember My Song” was re-released Labi Siffre wrote in his liner notes about Eminem. He wrote,

Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to be radical, if you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims.