This fall, the Real Slim Shady has a chance to stand up on music’s biggest stage.
On Wednesday, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced the nominees for its 2022 class, with the Detroit MC leading the way.
If selected, Eminem — who boasts 15 Grammy Awards, five No. 1 singles and an Oscar — will be the fourth first-ballot hip-hop inductee, joining Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G and Jay-Z, who was inducted last year. He’ll also become the second white hip-hop artists to make it into the Hall, joining the Beastie Boys.
He’ll be in good company, too.
Other nominees include A Tribe Called Quest, Beck, Carly Simon, Devo, Dione Warwick, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Fela Kuti, Judas Priest, Kate Bush, Lionel Richie, MC5, New York Dolls, Pat Benatar and Rage Against the Machine.
Additionally, he’ll be headlining this year’s Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 13 alongside Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg.
Parton, another first-time nominee, would be the second traditional country artist to be voted into the Rock Hall in the Performers category, joining Johnny Cash. Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and has 44 career Top-10 country albums along with 11 Grammy Awards.
Beck, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon and A Tribe Called Quest are the other first-time nominees. After being nominated (but not selected) last year, Akron-based Devo is back on the ballot. Last spring, we sat down with David Giffels, co-author of We Are Not Men? We Are Devo! About the group’s chances of being inducted.
Duran Duran’s no stranger to the Rock Hall, as the group made an appearance at the 2019 ceremony to induct Roxy Music into the Hall.
Fans looking to make their voices heard with the fan vote on the Rock Hall’s website, with the top-five acts from the vote comprising the fan ballot. The other ballots are submitted from historians, journalists and living Rock Hall Inductees. This year’s class will be announced sometime in May.
Last year’s class comprised of Tina Turner, Carole King, The Go-Go’s, Jay-Z, Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, Kraftwerk, Charley Patton, Gil Scott-Heron, LL Cool J, Billy Preston, Randy Rhoads and Clarence Avant.