“It doesn’t get any more beautiful,” says composer Hans van Hemert, 79. He calls it “icing on the cake” on his already impressive resume. American rapper Eminem has used a Greek melody by van Hemert Land of milk and honey By Mouth & MacNeal as a sample for his song matchIt’s on Eminem’s album. Death of Salim Shadi (Coupe de Grace) Who came out on Friday. match It has already been streamed 8 million times on Spotify.

Land of milk and honey The B-side of the world hit was in 1971. How are youthat Song by Van Hemert and Harry Van Hove. How are you It was a No. 1 hit in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand and reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Land of milk and honey Van Hemert wrote it with Dries “Andries” Holten. “I didn’t think it was a great song,” says Van Hemert. “I thought: It’s not going to be a big hit anyway. So let’s put it on the B-side. But in every song there’s something you can make something beautiful out of.”

And that beauty in this case was the catchy Greek melody that lifted the song over and over again. “I’ve always enjoyed using exotic instruments,” says Van Hemert. “In this case it was the bouzouki.”

But how did this mysterious B-side end up on Eminem’s world-famous list 53 years later? Van Hemert’s romantic explanation is that the producer matchDr. Dre, a 6-year-old boy with his first pennies. How are you Bought. “How did that happen? I played your first record completely grey, including the B-side. Something about that must have stuck.”

In fact, it was purely commercial. The rights to the song belonged to the music publisher, who was constantly trying to bring Van Hemert’s group to the attention of the music industry. And in this case, it happened. And with success. It came as no surprise to Van Hemert that his bouzouki experiment with Eminem would end. He knew before the song came out.

Van Hemert says he won’t make much money from it. He reckons it’s no more than €10,000. “But I also have to split that with eight others.” He also doesn’t need it as a composer and producer for successful artists like Mouth & McNeil, Ramses Shafi, Sandra & Andries and André Hazis.

“There’s something else special,” says Van Hemert. “Mouth & MacNeal is M and M. That sounds like Eminem. And the president of the Mouth & MacNeal fan club, Roel Smit, was traveling with Margriet Eshuijs’ band. That band was called Lucifer.”

No, it can’t really be a coincidence.