Eminem’s “My Name Is” Brought 70s Funk Pioneer Labi Siffre Back to the Mainstream, But the Sample Almost Didn’t Happen

Eminem‘s iconic track “My Name Is” was released in 1999 and quickly took the world by storm. It helped to propel Eminem into the mainstream but it also worked to bring 70s funk icon Labi Siffre back to the forefront.

Videos by American Songwriter

Dr. Dre and Eminem used a sample from Siffre’s 1975 track “I Got The…”, which formed the entirety of the main beat for “My Name Is.” However, the two almost didn’t get permission to use the sample. As it turns out, Siffre had specific parameters for the use of his song.

Labi Siffre was a pioneer of the 70s funk and soul scene in the U.K., as well as an activist and poet. His innovative work often contained political and social statements, and often reflected his identity as a gay man. Siffre retired from music in 1998 after the album The Last Songs and spoken word album Monument. While he didn’t gain much commercial success at the time, the early 2000s saw renewed interest in his work.

Eminem Brings Renewed Attention to 70s Funk Pioneer Labi Siffre

In the early 2000s, there was a trend in music, particularly hip-hop, to include homophobic or misogynistic lyrics or images. Early versions of “My Name Is” was rife with this. Let’s face it, we all know how Eminem is. Labi Siffre, however, held his music to higher standards.

Siffre refused Dre and Eminem permission to sample his song unless they removed the offensive lyrics. Speaking with The New Humanist in 2012, Siffre explained his stance.

“Dissing the victims of bigotry – women as b—-es, homosexuals as f—-ts – is lazy writing,” he said. “Diss the bigots, not their victims. I denied sample rights till that lazy writing was removed.”

Eminem and Dre did remove the offensive material, but only for the clean version. They sent Siffre this version, and he approved the sample. However, they later put out the explicit version, also using the sample, with all the same offensive material.

“I should have stipulated ‘all versions,’” Siffre recalled, “but at that time, knew little about rap’s ‘clean’ and ‘explicit’ modes, so they managed to get the lazy lyric on versions other than the single and first album.”

Still, the use of the sample directly led to “I Got The…” being released as a single for the first time in 2003.

Featured Image by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc