Eminem Has the Perfect Birthday Message for Dr. Dre

Eminem is celebrating mentor and close friend Dr. Dre‘s 55th birthday in the most perfect way, and fans of both the rappers are freaking out. Referencing a meme featuring Dre stemming from his music video for the 2002 hit “Without Me,” Eminem encouraged his followers to wish the iconic rapper a happy birthday on Twitter Tuesday.

His followers couldn’t contain their enthusiasm over the message.

Eminem has been taking a trip back down memory lane a lot recently, performing his 2003 hit “Lose Yourself” from the movie 8 Mile at the 2020 Academy Awards, 17 years after the song won him an Oscar.

“I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool,” the rapper told Variety of his surprise performance. “Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed ‘Lose Yourself’ on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea. And also, back at that time, the younger me didn’t really feel like a show like that would understand me.”

“But then when I found out I won, ‘That’s crazy!’ That to me shows how authentic and real that award is — when you don’t show up and you still win. That makes it very real to me,” he continued, adding of not attending the ceremony 17 years prior, “I don’t know that I was disappointed, I was blown back by the fact that I won. I don’t even think I understood back then that you could get an Oscar for a song, and I remember being kinda confused about why I was even up for one, because as a kid with the Oscars, it was like a vacuum.”

As for what he was actually doing on the night he won his Oscar in 2003?

“I think I was just at home with my daughter — and I didn’t watch it, either,” he revealed. “At that point in time Hailie had to be at school early in the morning, so [I was sleeping].”

Photo credit: Kevin Mazur / Contributor/Getty