If you were born before, oh, say, 1995, then chances are you know this TV jingle by heart: "This is the Tom Green show / It's not the Green Tom show / This is my favorite show / Because it is my show." 

Thanks to his deadpan, deeply sardonic sense of humor, there was a point in pop culture history where comedian/musician Tom Green was everwhere. In the early aughts especially, you couldn't escape him: If his bum wasn't on the rail or the cheese (or all alone), Green could be found performing gross-out stunts (like sucking on a cow's udder) on The Tom Green Show, which initially aired in Canada in the mid-'90s before being picked up by MTV in 1999. Or he'd pop up in major motion pictures like his own Razzie-winning Freddie Got Fingered, or the 2000 Charlie's Angels reboot alongside then-wife Drew Barrymore. A music fan from an early age, he often worked songs into his comedy sketches; his most famous one, the aforementioned "Bum Bum Song" actually had to be retired from MTV's "Total Request Live," it was so popular. Other artists got in on the act as well; rising hip-hop titan Eminem famously parodied "The Bum Bum Song" in his own early-days single "The Real Slim Shady." 

But it wasn't as though Green didn't have his serious moments. In 2000, Green showcased his testicular cancer scare in a televised MTV special, where he mused over the idea of being diagnosed at such a young age and showed the entire surgical removal of one of his testicles.  

What his American fans may not have realized, though, was that Green had been making the entertainment rounds for years in his native Canada. Starting in the early '90s, Green enjoyed a short-lived career as a rapper in a group called Organized Rhyme; the group's single "Check The O.R." was nominated for a Juno Award in 1993 for Best Rap Recording and won the MuchVibe Best Rap Video award in 1992. Later, on The Tom Green Show, he rolled out winking joke tracks like the aforementioned song about tushes and a semi-serious, health-conscious one called "Hey Kids, Feel Your Balls."   

Nowadays, Green can be found doing standup, coming very, very close to winning the second season of Celebrity Big Brother, and promoting his recently released compilation album, also dubbed The Tom Green Show, which features a selection of new tracks, like the Auto-Tuned "I Wanna Be Friends With Drake" and the post-punk "Far 2 Young 2 Die," and some beloved comedy routines and bits from his best-known shows and movies.

The Recording Academy called up Green at his Hollywood home to chat about some of his new endevours. In our conversation, Green looks back on his still very active comedy career, why he doesn't mind at all when people approach him on the street yelling "DADDY, WOULD YOU LIKE SOME SAUSAGE," and how he's that much closer to actually being friends with Drake.

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You’ve been doing mostly standup these days. To what extent do you weave your songs into that onstage material?

I did do a tour that was a music tour about a year or two ago, up in Canada. I performed some rap songs, and some funny songs while I was doing standup, and I intermixed it. Usually, when I'm touring right now, it's a strictly standup tour.

I do have this new album out that I put out on vinyl with Ship To Shore Media, which is a really cool label. They approached me about putting up some of my songs that I recorded at home on vinyl. Now, when I do my standup shows I play my music after the show, before the show, and I sometimes walk on stage to some of the songs. It's strictly a standup show that I'm doing right now. I am working on some music that I think will be good for live performance, so maybe next year I might start incorporating some music in.

Oh, cool. I always liked the way you wove music into your routine as an entertainer. I wondered, though, with the vinyl release, why you opted to reuse the name The Tom Green Show. That name in general seems to come up a lot over the course of your career, no matter the medium.

One of the things that's fun about the record is, I took a lot of, not specifically just from the TV show, but several things from the TV show. I took samples that I incorporated into the music, so I have some clips, and moments that happened on The Tom Green Show.

Really, it's meant to be sort of a fun, collectible thing or people who have been fans of mine for the last 20 years or so. I took soundbites from some of my movies, some of my shows and my standup comedy. I sampled them all in with music that I've been doing. It just felt like a cool title for it, because it is sort of scrolling back through a lot those moments from The Tom Green Show.

Yeah, you seem so comfortable throwing back to your most widely recognized material.

I've got this incredible fan base that stuck with me since, you know, in Canada it goes back an extra 10 years. The Tom Green Show started in 1989 in Canada. People know my song from my group, Organized Rhyme, which is a rap group that we were nominated for the Canadian GRAMMY, a Juno award. I was nominated for that in 1992, when I was just a kid.

When I go tour, and do standup, I'll have people that come to my comedy show that know me from my standup. The younger people, or some of the older people will me from The Tom Green Show. Then, some people are there because they're fans of my movies like, Freddy Got Fingered, or Road Trip. Now you have people [who] have just seen me recently on Big Brother.

I have a lot of different people coming to my show. I always try to sort of reference certain things that people remember. When I walk around America, or Canada or anywhere in the world, really, every day someone will come up to me and say something that's a sound bite from the show. Every day someone will come up to me and say, "My bum is on the plant." I'll be walking through the airport, and someone will walk up to me and say, "Daddy, would you like some sausage," or, "I'm the Chad," you know, from Charlie's Angels. There's so many little things that people remember.

I like to have fun with it. There was always sort of a musicality to some of the comedy in the show. Whether it was, "Daddy, would you like some sausage," or "Plastic bag, I've got a plastic bag," or, "It's none of your damn business where I'm going." There was always sort of a musicality, and a rhythm to it.

I just thought it would be really cool with this record to incorporate some of those rhythmic, sort of funny sounds and sound bites, and put them in over hip hop beats and stuff. My standup is a lot like that too. My standup comedy, my new material that I'm doing now, jokes that I'm telling, and things that I'm doing now are all very much in that rhythm. I've always had sort of this silly kind of cadence to my comedy that sort of is a bit musical.

Maybe it comes from the fact that I was rapping when I was younger. That's why I called it The Tom Green Show. I wanted to tie it all together with this record.

Well, I’m glad to hear it doesn’t, uh, bum you out when someone approaches you with a 20-year-old reference.

No, not at all. It's completely the opposite, to be honest with you. This is what you really dream of happening, right? You want people to have things that they love, and remember and want to come see you for. Anything that sticks in people's heads for 20 years, that's just a real bonus, you know? I feel lucky that I've been able to connect with people that way, where I come up with memorable things.

You know, people remember the theme song of the show, [sings] "This is the Tom Green Show.” They remember sort of the rhythm to it, you know? I think that's something I've always really felt like I had a sort of a knack for, which is coming up with catchy melodies and rhythms.

In the video for one of your newer songs, "I Wanna Be Friends With Drake," you appear to receive a phone call that may or may not be from Drake. So, inquiring minds want to know: Are you friends with Drake now?

Well, it's funny. I've never met Drake before. But, I'm going to be friends with Drake. I want to be friends with Drake, and I'm going to be friends with Drake.

Why is it imperative that you two become friends?

Well, first of all, I'm a big fan of his music. It's the kind of music I like to make in my studio. I like making sort of ambient-sounding hip-hop beats, and use the synthesizers, and drum machines and all those kinds of sounds. Modern, and vintage, techno and electronic, and hip-hop sounds, you know?

I was a rapper in Canada back in the early '90s. That's how I started, and I'm a huge fan of that kind of music, and I'm proud that we've got an amazing international number one hip-hop artist from Canada. There were never any hip-hop artists that really made it outside of Canada for many, many years. Then, finally, finally we've changed that, so it's really cool.

Yeah, I want to be friends with Drake. I'd never met him, and I'd like to meet him. I think he's pretty busy right now with the Raptors right now.

He had no idea I was putting out the song, or anything like that. But I do think that maybe he heard about the song, because about a week after I released the video, he did follow me on Instagram. So you could say that, in theory, I am now friends with Drake.

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Since you are such a hip-hop fan, do you recall your reaction to Eminem referencing “The Bum Bum Song” on “The Real Slim Shady”?

Yeah. It was awesome. I thought it was really cool. I think to put it in context as well though, he was a brand-new artist. He had "My Name Is," the song came up first, which I loved.

Nobody knew for sure that he was going to become this huge, iconic artist that would go down in the annals of hip-hop history as one of the great MCs of all time, you know?

I could tell when I heard the song that it was amazing, because I love hip-hop, and specifically Eminem. I grew up performing in Organized Rhyme. We were always trying to do funny raps, you know?

Back then, Eminem's rap were really funny. It was just before he got serious later. I loved it. It's funny, because at the time my show was really big on MTV, just came out of nowhere. I just heard it on the radio one day and I thought, "Oh that's really cool. That's hilarious."

At the time, there's so much new and exciting stuff happening with the show and I was doing films and all of these things. It just became one of the many things that was going on in my life that was kind of overwhelming, and bizarre, you know?

"The Bum Bum Song" was number one on "Total Request Live." Road Trip was the number one comedy. I was shooting movies, and making new TV shows and things were exciting. If you'd told me at the time, this song's going to be one of the biggest songs of the last 20 years, you're going to hear this playing in an elevator in Sweden in 20 years, and it's going to be coming on the radio for the rest of your life I would've thought, "Oh, that's pretty cool."

One day, Eminem actually did a full parody of me one day where he took over MTV dressed as me, and went out on the street with a fake goatee on, and a megaphone.

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Another track on the album, "Far 2 Young 2 Die," has a rather post-punk, Joy Division vibe. Joy Division, of course, lost its lead singer at an early age. Is that parallel intentional, or am I reading too far into this?

You know, I'm a huge fan of Joy Division, and, like, one of my favorite bands that I would listen to if I'm listening to music. I listen to, a lot of different types of music. Honestly, when I started building my studio, I just, I wanted to try to make different genres and different types of music. I thought it would be interesting, since I'm building a recording studio to try to record, and write some rock, and punk music. The kind of music I grew up listening to as a skateboarder. 

Joy Division's definitely one of my favorite bands. Definitely an inspiration for that. There's another video we just shot. It's called "Deliberate Dignity," which is a similar sound to that song, different style. We shot a video for that in Vietnam while we were over there on my tour this year. That hasn't come out yet, but it's going to come out soon.

I don't know. I try not to overthink it too much. When I wrote the lyrics, I get inspired by lots of different things. I like writing raps. I like writing sort of lyrics. I sometimes just sort of think about my own life, and being a cancer survivor, and having sort of a pretty clear sense of my own mortality because of the things that I've been through with dealing with cancer.

At an early age, I think a lot about life and death. I talk about that a lot in my standup comedy. 

Yeah, you’ve been cancer-free for for some time, correct?

Oh yeah. Well, with my cancer I've been completely cancer free, and cured for over almost 20 years. 

Once you've gotten through the first three or four years after you have testicular cancer, then you're cancer-free. It's no more likely to come back as it is for anybody who's never had cancer.

That's a relief. It's still just the shock of having had cancer, and when you get it and you go through a five-year period at a young age where you really thinking about your mortality, and you're going in and getting follow-ups, and you're worrying about this at an age that you normally don't have to worry about that stuff. It does make you start to examine life differently, you know?

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Absolutely. Before we wrap up, can I ask—how did you end up deciding to star on Celebrity Big Brother?

Well, first of all, it started out when they asked me to do it. I had not even yet thought about doing it. It never really had occurred to me that there was a Celebrity Big Brother.

First and foremost, I love television. I built a TV studio in my living room, you know? I did a web pop show here for years. I love cameras, I studied broadcasting in college. I'm a technical person, and it just sounded like a very interesting thing to just sort of see how it all worked. Then, you step outside of that. It also seemed like it would be a funny place to go try to be funny. You're on CBS and you get to be on TV 24 hours a day. It seems like it'd be perfect for me, because I've always loved goofing off in front of cameras and stuff like that. Doing my comedy at my house, I've had cameras in my house before so it shouldn't be too tricky.

Then, at the same time it's like, yeah, it's a great whole new audience of people that may have never even heard of me before, and I'm touring the country do it standup, so it's a perfect forum to just get out there and connect with America.

I think we're living in a world today where everything is so fragmented with the Internet, with Netflix and social media, and people are on their phones all day, and no one's really watching any one given television show, you know? You can't be too picky. I just do everything. Someone asks me to do stuff, then I'm going to do it. Unless I have a real problem with it creatively, I'm going going to do it, because it's gonna be fun and interesting. It ultimately helps me with what I'm doing, which is getting the word out about my comedy. 

The B-52s' Kate Pierson & Keith Strickland On The Lasting Legacy Of 'Cosmic Thing'

A quarter century has passed since the mainstream music world was first introduced to a bottle-blonde enfant terrible virtuoso who grabbed everyone’s attention and wouldn’t let go

But enough about Christina Aguilera.

Just kidding. Another artist also exploded into stardom in 1999 — one who would become a big enough pop star, despite not singing a note, that he would soon be feuding with Xtina. Eminem’s biting major label debut The Slim Shady LP turns 25 on Feb. 23. While it was Eminem's second release, the album was the first taste most rap fans got of the man who would go on to be the biggest-selling artist in any genre during the ensuing decade. It also left an indelible imprint on hip-hop.

The Slim Shady LP is a record of a rapper who was white (still a comparative novelty back in 1999), working class and thus seemingly from a different universe than many mainstream rappers in the "shiny suit era." And where many of those contemporaries were braggadocious, Eminem was the loser in his rhymes more often than he was the winner. In fact, he talked so much about his real-life childhood bully on the album that the bully ended up suing him.  

It was also a record that played with truth and identity in ways that would become much more difficult once Em became world famous. Did he mean the outrageous things he was saying? Where were the knowing winks, and where were they absent? The guessing games that the album forced listeners to play were thrilling — and made all the more intense by his use of three personas (Marshall Mathers the person; Eminem the battle rapper; and Slim Shady the unhinged alter ego) that bled into each other.

And, of course, there was the rhyming. Eminem created a dizzying array of complicated compound rhymes and assonances, even finding time to rhyme "orange" — twice. (If you’re playing at home, he paired "foreign tools" with "orange juice" and "ignoring skill" with "orange bill.")

While the above are reason enough to revisit this classic album, pinpointing The Slim Shady LP's influence is a more complicated task. Other records from that year — releases from Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, and even the Ruff Ryders compilation Ryde or Die Vol. 1 — have a more direct throughline to the state of mainstream rap music today. So much of SSLP, on the other hand, is tied into Eminem’s particular personality and position. This makes Slim Shady inimitable; there aren’t many mainstream rappers complaining about their precarious minimum wage job, as Em does on "If I Had." (By the time of his next LP, Em had gone triple-platinum and couldn’t complain about that again himself.)

But there are aspects of SSLP that went on to have a major impact. Here are a few of the most important ones.

It Made Space For Different Narratives In Hip-Hop

Before Kanye rapped about working at The Gap, Eminem rapped about working at a burger joint. The Slim Shady LP opened up space for different narratives in mainstream rap music. 

The Slim Shady LP didn't feature typical rags-to-riches stories, tales of living the high life or stories from the street. Instead, there were bizarre trailer-park narratives (in fact, Eminem was living in a trailer months after the record was released), admissions of suicidal ideation ("That’s why I write songs where I die at the end," he explained on "Cum on Everybody"), memories of a neglectful mother, and even a disturbing story-song about dumping the corpse of his baby’s mother, rapped to his actual child (who cameos on the song). 

Marshall Mathers’ life experience was specific, of course, but every rapper has a story of their own. The fact that this one found such a wide audience demonstrated that audiences would accept tales with unique perspectives. Soon enough, popular rappers would be everything from middle-class college dropouts to theater kids and teen drama TV stars.

The Album Explored The Double-Edged Sword Of The White Rapper

Even as late in the game as 1999, being a white rapper was still a comparative novelty. There’s a reason that Em felt compelled to diss pretty much every white rapper he could think of on "Just Don’t Give a F—," and threatened to rip out Vanilla Ice’s dreadlocks on "Role Model": he didn’t want to be thought of like those guys. 

"People don't have a problem with white rappers now because Eminem ended up being the greatest artist," Kanye West said in 2015. You can take the "greatest artist" designation however you like, but it’s very true that Eminem’s success meant a categorical change in the status of white rappers in the mainstream.

This turned out to be a mixed blessing. While the genre has not, as some feared, turned into a mostly-white phenomenon, America’s racial disparities are often played out in the way white rappers are treated. Sales aside, they have more room to maneuver artistically — playing with different genres while insulting rap a la Post Malone,  or even changing styles completely like Machine Gun Kelly — to commercial approbation. Black artists who attempt similar moves are frequently met with skepticism or disinterest (see André 3000’s New Blue Sun rollout, which was largely spent explaining why the album features no rapping). 

Sales are worth speaking about, too. As Eminem has repeatedly said in song, no small amount of his popularity comes from his race — from the fact that white audiences could finally buy music from a rapper who looked like them. This was, as he has also bemusedly noted, the exact opposite of how his whiteness worked for him before his fame, when it was a barrier to being taken seriously as a rapper. 

For better, worse, or somewhere in between, the sheer volume of white rappers who are currently in the mainstream is largely traceable to the world-beating success of The Slim Shady LP.

It Was Headed Towards An Odd Future

SSLP laid groundwork for the next generation of unconventional rappers, including Tyler, the Creator.

Tyler is a huge Eminem fan. He’s said that listening to Em’s SSLP follow-up The Marshall Mathers LP was "how I learned to rap." And he’s noted that Em’s Relapse was "one of the greatest albums to me." 

"I just wanted to rap like Eminem on my first two albums," he once told GQ. More than flow, the idea of shocking people, being alternately angry and vulnerable, and playing with audience reaction is reflected heavily on Tyler’s first two albums, Goblin and Wolf. That is the template The Slim Shady LP set up. While Tyler may have graduated out of that world and moved on to more mature things, it was following Em’s template that first gained him wide notice. 

Eminem Brought Heat To Cold Detroit

The only guest artist to spit a verse on The Slim Shady LP is Royce da 5’9". This set the template for the next few years of Eminem’s career: Detroit, and especially his pre-fame crew from that city, would be his focus. There was his duo with Royce, Bad Meets Evil, whose pre-SSLP single of "Nuttin’ to Do"/"Scary Movies" would get renewed attention once those same two rappers had a duet, smartly titled "Bad Meets Evil," appear on a triple-platinum album. And of course there was the group D12, five Detroit rappers including his best friend Proof, with whom Eminem would release a whole album at the height of his fame.

This was not the only mainstream rap attention Detroit received in the late 1990s. For one thing, legendary producer James "J Dilla" Yancey, was a native of the city. But Eminem’s explosion helped make way for rappers in the city, even ones he didn’t know personally, to get attention. 

The after-effects of the Eminem tsunami can still be seen. Just look at the rise of so-called "scam rap" over the past few years. Or the success of artists like Babyface Ray, Kash Doll, 42 Dugg, and Veeze. They may owe little to Em artistically, but they admit that he’s done great things for the city — even if they may wish he was a little less reclusive these days. 

Is Eminem's "Stan" Based On A True Story? 10 Facts You Didn't Know About The GRAMMY-Winning Rapper

If the holiday of trick or treating, pumpkin carving, and decorating your front porch with skeletons is your favorite of the year, then you'll no doubt already have a playlist stacked with creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky bangers ready to fire up on Oct. 31. But if you want to add a bit of prestige to your supernatural soundtrack, there's another list of Halloween-friendly songs to check out — one that highlights another celebrated annual occasion.

While the GRAMMYs might not yet have awarded Rob Zombie, Jukebox the Ghost, or And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead, it has embraced the odd musical spooktacular in several forms. In 1988, for example, it gave Halloween obsessive Frank Zappa Best Rock Instrumental Performance for Jazz from Hell. A year later, it handed Robert Cray Band Best Contemporary Blues Recording for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. And it's also dished out goodies (of the statuette, rather than the sweet, variety) to the likes of Mavis Staples' "See That My Grave Is Clean," Chick Corea's "Three Ghouls," and Mastodon's "A Sultan's Curse."

With Halloween 2023 fast approaching, here's a closer look at ten other tracks which left the music industry's biggest awards show completely bewitched.

Stevie Wonder — "Superstition" (1974)

It seems unlikely that Stevie Wonder walked under a ladder, crossed a black cat, or 'broke the lookin' glass' while recording "Superstition" — the squelchy Moog-funk classic kickstarted his remarkable run of 25 GRAMMY Awards when it won both Best Rhythm and Blues Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance Male in 1974. Taken from what many consider to be his magnum opus, Talking Book, "Superstition" also gave Wonder his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 in over a decade. And the soul legend further leaned into its supernatural theme in 2013 when he appeared as a witch doctor in a Bud Light Super Bowl commercial soundtracked by the Tamla favorite.

Mike Oldfield — "Tubular Bells" (1975)

Incredibly, considering how perfectly it complements all-time classic horror The Exorcist, Mike Oldfield's prog-rock epic Tubular Bells was recorded long before director William Friedkin came calling. Mike Oldfield, then aged only 19, used a variety of obscure instruments across its two mammoth pieces. Yet, it's the brilliantly creepy Steinway piano riffs which open Side One that are still most likely to bring anyone who experienced the movie's hysteria in a cold sweat. Oldfield was rewarded for helping to scar a generation of cinemagoers for life when a condensed version of his eerie masterpiece picked up the Best Instrumental Composition GRAMMY.

The Charlie Daniels Band — "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (1980)

The Charlie Daniels Band certainly proved their storytelling credentials in 1979 when they put their own Southern country-fied spin on the old "deal with the devil" fable. Backed by some fast and furious fiddles, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" tells the tale of a young musician named Johnny who bumps into Beelzebub himself during a jam session in the Peach State. Experiencing a downturn in soul-stealing, the latter then bets he can win a fiddle-off, offering an instrument in gold form against Johnny's spiritual essence. Luckily, the less demonic party proves he's the "best that's ever been" in a compelling tale GRAMMY voters declared worthy of a prize, Best Country Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group.

Michael Jackson — "Thriller" (1984)

The 1984 GRAMMYs undeniably belonged to Michael Jackson. The King of Pop picked up a whopping 11 nominations for his first blockbuster album, Thriller, and then converted seven of them into wins (he also took home Best Recording for Children for his narration on audiobook E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial). Remarkably, the title track's iconic John Landis-directed video didn't feature at all: its making of, however, did win Best Music Film the following year. But the song itself did pip fellow superstars Prince, Billy Joel, and Lionel Richie to the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance crown. Jackson would also win a GRAMMY 12 years later for another Halloween-esque anthem, his Janet Jackson duet "Scream."

Duran Duran — "Hungry Like the Wolf" (1984)

Produced by Colin Thurston, the man behind another early '80s Halloween-friendly classic, (Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy"), "Hungry Like the Wolf" cemented Duran Duran's status as MTV icons. Alongside their much raunchier earlier clip for "Girls on Film," its jungle-themed promo was also responsible for giving the Second British Invasion pin-ups the inaugural GRAMMY Award for Best Music Video, Short Form; it featured on the Duran Duran compilation that was crowned Best Video Album, too. Frontman Simon Le Bon had been inspired to write their U.S. breakthrough hit by Little Red Riding Hood, giving the new wave classic its sinister, and appropriately predatory, edge.

Ray Parker Jr. — "Ghostbusters" (1985)

Ray Parker Jr. not only topped the Hot 100 for four weeks with his ode to New York's finest parapsychologists, he also picked up a GRAMMY. Just don't expect to hear "who you gonna call?" in the winning version: For it was in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance where "Ghostbusters" reigned supreme. The fact that Parker Jr. wrote, performed, and produced the entire thing meant he still took home the trophy. However, Huey Lewis no doubt felt he should have been the one making the acceptance speech. The blue-eyed soulman settled out of court after claiming the spooky movie theme had borrowed its bassline from "I Want a New Drug," a track Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman admitted had been played in film footage intended to inspire Parker Jr.

Ralph Stanley — "O Death" (2002)

Traditional Appalachian folk song "O Death" had previously been recorded by the likes of gospel vocalist Bessie Jones, folklorist Mike Seeger, and Californian rockers Camper Van Beethoven, just to name a few. Yet it was Ralph Stanley's 2002 version where GRAMMY voters first acknowledged its eerie a cappella charms. Invited to record the morbid number for the Coen brothers' period satire O Brother, Where Art Thou, the bluegrass veteran won Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 2002 ceremony, also picking up a second GRAMMY alongside the likes of Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris when the soundtrack was crowned Album Of The Year.

Skrillex — "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" (2012)

David Bowie fans may well feel aggrieved that his post-punk classic "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" was entirely ignored by GRAMMY voters, while the bro-step banger it inspired was showered with awards. The title track from EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites added Best Dance Recording to Skrillex's 2012 haul: the asymmetrically haired producer also walked away with Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Remixed Recording: Non-Classical for his work on Benny Benassi's "Cinema." Packed with speaker-blasting beats, distorted basslines, and aggressive synths, Skrillex's wall of noise is enough to scare anyone off their pumpkin pie.

Eminem and Rihanna — "The Monster" (2015)

Who says lightning can't strike twice? Just four years after picking up five GRAMMY nominations for their transatlantic chart-topper "Love the Way You Lie," unlikely dream team Eminem and Rihanna once again joined forces for another hip-pop masterclass. Unlike their previous collab, however, "The Monster" didn't go home empty-handed, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 2015 ceremony. The boogeyman hiding under the bed here, of course, isn't a Frankenstein-esque creation, but the mix of paranoia, self-doubt, and OCD that leads the Real Slim Shady into thinking he needs a straitjacket.

Jason Isbell — "If We Were Vampires" (2018)

While the Twilight franchise may have failed to add a GRAMMY to its trophy cabinet, it did pick up several nominations. But four years after the Team Edward vs Team Jacob saga wrapped up, folk hero Jason Isbell proved mythical bloodsuckers weren't a barrier to awards success. Emerging victorious in only the fifth ever Best Americana Roots Song category, "If We Were Vampires" is a little less emo than the various Twilight soundtracks. Still, as a love song dedicated to wife Amanda Shires, and the quiet acceptance that the Grim Reaper will inevitably end their story, it's certainly no less emotional.  

GRAMMY Rewind: Watch Eminem Show Love To Detroit And Rihanna During His Best Rap Album Win In 2011

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

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He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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Despite being at the top of the rap game, Eminem's personal life has been far from steady. In 2009, the Detroit native exposed his struggle with addiction (and an eventual stint in rehab) on his LP, Relapse. One year later, he dropped one of the most iconic albums of his career, Recovery, which is lauded for its vulnerability and accountability — and became a prime influence to the current generation of introspective rappers, including hit-makers like Machine Gun Kelly and NF.

In honor of hip-hop's 50th anniversary, revisit the evening Eminem won Best Rap Album for Recovery at the 2011 GRAMMYs. It marked his second win in a row in the category, as Relapse had won the year prior.

"Okay, this is crazy," Eminem said as he took the stage. After thanking all of those involved with the album, he gave a special shout-out to his "Love The Way You Lie" collaborator. "I want to thank Rihanna, too, for helping propel the album to where it's at right now."

Eminem went on to thank Interscope Records, Dr. Dre, his Aftermath Entertainment family, and his fans. Last but not least, Eminem had to give a shout out to his hometown: "What up, Detroit! Stand up!" he cheered.

To date, Eminem has won 15 GRAMMYs, six of which were for Best Rap Album. And though he and Rihanna didn't win any GRAMMYs together for their first collaboration

Press play on the video above to watch Eminem's complete acceptance speech for Best Rap Album at the 2011 GRAMMYs, and check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind.

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