Merriam-Webster posted a dictionary-style lesson on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, August 6, defining the word "doc" four ways — and the last one featured Eminem rapping a cappella in a clip from The D.O.C.'s 2022 documentary.

The post walked through the homonyms in emoji form: "doc" as a document, "dock" as where ships anchor, "Doc" as a doctor, and "The D.O.C." — at which point the video cut to Eminem speedily reciting lyrics from The D.O.C.'s 1989 track "Mind Blowin'." (Billboard)

The clip did not go perfectly. Eminem stumbled and mixed up some of the words, and The D.O.C. himself joined the segment to help him finish the verse. The moment originally appeared in The DOC, a documentary about the West Coast rapper that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 and, as of the Billboard report, had not received an official release on any major streaming service. (Billboard)

The D.O.C. — real name Tracy Curry — is a cofounder of Death Row Records, the label that defined West Coast hip-hop in the early 1990s. His debut album, No One Can Do It Better, peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200, the flagship US album chart, in September 1989. Less than two months later, a car accident in November 1989 permanently damaged his voice and altered the course of his career. (Billboard)

For a dictionary account to spend its platform on a rapper who never became a household name on the level of his Death Row collaborators is a small but notable gesture. The D.O.C. wrote for and alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at the label's peak, and his influence on the sound of gangsta rap — the West Coast strain that dominated hip-hop commerce in the early '90s — is widely acknowledged within the genre. The Merriam-Webster post, playful as it is, puts that history in front of an audience that may know "dock" and "Doc" but not "The D.O.C."

The post itself is the kind of social-media content that Merriam-Webster has built a following around: winking, fast, and premised on the idea that language and culture are the same territory. The Eminem clip gives it a punchline. The D.O.C. finishing the verse gives it a heart.