Eminem paid tribute to Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine at the Wall Street Journal’s 2014 Innovator Awards, which were held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York yesterday (November 6), according to Rap-Up.

“Dre and Jimmy are like a force of nature,” Eminem said. “As an example of how powerful they are, they had me fly here all the way from Detroit to speak publicly, and I really hate public speaking.”

Dr. Dre and Iovine were being honored, at least in part, for launching their academy at the University of Southern California, an interdisciplinary program called the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. 

Andre Young is Dr. Dre’s given name.

The pair announced in May 2013 that they were donating $70 million to create the academy. 

“I feel like this is the biggest, most exciting and probably the most important thing that I’ve done in my career,” Dr. Dre said at the time.

The degree blends business, marketing, product development, design and liberal arts. Dre and Iovine (whose daughter attended the university) hope the program develops talented students who may eventually work for them, even if not in the music business. 

“If the next start-up that becomes Facebook happens to be one of our kids,” Iovine said at that time, “that’s what we are looking for.”

Photos and an Instagram post of Eminem’s talk from the event are as follows:

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