Obama cites the song as inspiration for his 2008 presidential campaign
Last week, Barack Obama launched a new Instagram series looking back at his presidency, tying in with his new memoir A Promised Land.
In a video trailing the project, Obama spoke about how he turned to hip hop in order to focus during his 2008 campaign for the presidency.
“When I needed some inspiration on the presidential campaign I often turned to music. It was rap that got my head in the right place. Two songs especially, Jay-Z‘s ‘My 1st Song’, and Eminem‘s ‘Lose Yourself’.
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“Both were about defying the odds and putting it all on the line,” he continued, before reciting the opening lines of the latter.
Eminem responded to the shout out, posting the clip of Obama’s reading along with a prayer hands emoji.
Eminem showing his gratitude towards president Obama
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— ✿ 𝒦♕ {Britney Era} ✿ (@BritneysEncore) December 12, 2020
In November, ‘Lose Yourself’ featured in a Spotify playlist of the former president shared to promote his new memoir.
Elsewhere the playlist included Beyoncé‘s ‘Halo’ and cover of Etta James‘ ‘At Last’, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Rising’, and a tribute to his wife in the form of ‘Michelle’ by The Beatles.
The Obamas inked an exclusive deal with Spotify in June 2019, when it was announced they would produce a series of podcasts under their Higher Ground Productions.
A year later, in July 2020, Michelle released the first instalment of her podcast series The Michelle Obama Podcast, to the music and streaming platform. She also hopped on the playlist bandwagon, releasing her 2020 workout mix in January, plus a selection of tracks that inspired the first season of her podcast in August.
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