8 Mile: a generational divide: good movie, questionable politics

Catholic New Times, May 18, 2003 by Simone Schmidt

As a person accustomed to falling asleep 45 minutes into a movie, 8 Mile was my first cinematic experience since Jesus Christ Superstar that kept me from nodding off. The plot was full and fast paced, as is necessary to keep MTV minds alert and engaged, and the sound track melded well with the gritty cinematography. Owing to its well-written script (save a few brutal lines) and its more than mediocre acting, 8 Mile escaped the semblance of a drawn-out music video. The rap-battle scenes were, by far, the most enjoyable and exciting. Unfortunately, in the age of entertainment, nothing from the pop star, who has dubbed himself, "the worst thing since Elvis Presley," while simultaneously slathering the covers of teenie-pop magazine and Rolling Stone, can escape the scrupulous meanness of our political ears and eyes.

Indeed, fewer people will be reading bell hooks than viewing 8 Mile, and the implications of Eminem's message about class and race in hip-hop are huge. The end of the movie sees our hero, B. Rabbit, transcend the prejudice in the hip-hop scene and rise as a white hero in a predominantly black scene, as he beats Poppa Doc, the reigning champion of the Detroit rap battles, in a 'raptacular' display of skill and defamation. After professing his own trailer-park pride, B. Rabbit reveals Clarence (Poppa Doc's real name) as a poser, by telling the crowd that he is a rich private school student whose parents' marriage is intact. In doing so, Eminem claims hip-hop as a medium for all members of the lower classes, regardless of their colour.

For a white kid who loves hip-hop, this message goes down easy, but for some black reviewers, this movie has been insulting and destructive. Hip-Hop originated as a way for black people to communicate the reality of ghetto and thug life without bending to a white-medium. As hip-hop evolves into a monster of an industry, it has, as everything, mutated. Its appropriation by white people is a difficult subject, one far too complex to address in an hour and a half of Hollywood sensationalism, or for that matter, 300 words. Although I applaud Eminem's persistent attempt to expose the classism that our culture displays toward white people with mullets who live in trailer parks, I am still uneasy about the implications--the image of the white hero rising victoriously from a sea of black people might have on the brains of a culture that remains racist and oppressive to the black population.

Simone Schmidt (D.J. Slick) is an arts student at the U. of Guelph.