"Lose Yourself" is a hip hop song by American rapper Eminem. It was released in 2002 as part of the soundtrack to the film 8 Mile, also starring Eminem, later released as a single in 2002, and re-released on Eminem's greatest hits compilation Curtain Call: The Hits. The song was written and produced by Eminem and producer Louis Resto.

Reaching #1 on a record 24 charts worldwide, "Lose Yourself" is the most successful rap song of all time. It spent a record-breaking 12 weeks atop the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the longest-running #1 of 2002. It topped the UK and Eurocharts for over a month, ranking in the top 10 in several year-end sales charts. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, two Grammy Awards, and two other Grammy nominations, the most awards won by a single rap song in one year. The song is ranked 4th in the 100 greatest songs of the past 25 years by VH1. "Lose Yourself" ranked #166 in Rolling Stonemagazine's the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It also ranked #93 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs. The song was named the fourth best song of the decade by the Complex Magazine.

In March 2009, "Lose Yourself" topped the 2 million mark in digital downloads in the United States, becoming the second oldest song to hit that sales level. It also became Eminem's first song to reach 2 million digital downloads as a lead artist. In the same year the single was named the 28th most successful song of the 2000s, on the BillboardHot 100 Songs of the Decade and the seventh most successful song of the decade in Australia.

The song was written by Eminem during a break of the filming of 8 Mile. He recorded it in a portable studio on the set, recording all three verses in one take. The sheet on which he wrote the song appears in 8 Milein a scene where his character is writing while riding the bus. This sheet was sold on eBay for $10,000.

The song's lyrics explicitly sum up the background info about Eminem's character in 8 Mile, B. Rabbit, with the first verse summing up much of the plot of the movie.

The song's general production style is similar in scope to the track "'Till I Collapse" from The Eminem Show(released before 8 Mile). Both tracks begin with an interlude punctuated by a piano, followed by a gradual introduction of the beat, accompanied by a spoken introduction by Eminem. Both tracks also prominently feature a bass loop and some guitar elements.

"Lose Yourself" is the most successful single of Eminem's mainstream career. It had a 12-week run at #1 in the United States & Australia, and topped the charts in many other countries as well, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and Denmark among others. It debuted at number nine in Canada and moved up to #1 the following week. According to the Guinness Book Of World Records "Lose Yourself" became the "Longest Running Single at Number One for a Rap Song" thus making it the most successful rap song of all time.

In the United States, "Lose Yourself" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart the week of October 5, 2002, at #43. A week later, the single jumped to #18, and hit #1 by November 9 . The single spent 16 total weeks in the Top 10, and a total of 23 weeks in the Top 50. While in the #1 spot (from 11/09/02 through 1/25/03), "Lose Yourself"'s impressive run kept several top contenders for the #1 spot from ever reaching #1, including Jay-Z, Nelly, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, and especially Missy Elliott, whose single "Work It" was at #2 for 10 weeks.

The song went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first time a rap song ever won this award), upsetting the favored song "The Hands That Built America" by U2. It is rumored that Eminem, who was not present at the award ceremony believing he would not win for a rap song, was sleeping at the time the award was announced. This was the first time in 14 years the winner of the Best Original Song category was not performed at the ceremony. Luis Resto, one of the song's co-writers, had attended the ceremony and accepted the award instead. "He's creative, he has symphonies in his head," Resto said at the lectern about Eminem. [1] The American Film Institute later ranked it #93 on their list of the 100 Greatest Songs from American Films.

At the Grammy Awards of 2004, "Lose Yourself" became Eminem's second career nomination for Record of the Year (following "Without Me"), and the first rap song ever to be nominated for Song of the Year. It won Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song, which was a brand new category at the time.

At #166, "Lose Yourself" is the highest ranked of the three songs from the 21st century featured in the 2004 List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (joining "Stan" at #290). Outkast's "Hey Ya!" was the other, at #180. The magazine later ranked the song the twelfth best of the decade [2]. The song was the 51st best-selling single of the 2000 decade in UK.

"Lose Yourself" was later released on Eminem's compilation album, Curtain Call: The Hits, in 2005.

The song was also covered by The Script for their debut self-titled album, released in 2008.

The music video for "Lose Yourself" was filmed in Detroit, Michigan, and thus contains numerous shots of the city, including the Ambassador Bridge. The video is a mixture of multiple scenarios, including scenes from and reminiscent of the movie 8 Mile, and Eminem rapping next to the "8 Mile Rd. Mobile Court" sign that appears on the cover of the movie's soundtrack.

It contains scenes focusing on Rabbit's and the real life Eminem's character, for example, the difficulties he has to face while rapping, the insult and booing of crowds as he is a white rapper and the trouble he has to face due to his alcoholic mother and people he hangs out with.

He won a Much Music Video Awards in 2003 for Favourite International Artist with the video for "Lose Yourself".

At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards it received the award for Best Video from a Film in the final year this award was given out. It also received nominations for Video of the Year, Best Male Video, Best Rap Video, and Viewer's Choice.

The video has been viewed over 46,414,517 times on Youtube making it Eminem's most popular video on that site.