8 Mile and rap
Now I’m a bit of a fan of eminem- and part of me says ‘nah, you’re an opera loving genderqueer queer… so … why?’
Well, I like the way he uses words and rhythms, I like some of what he writes- before I perform onstage I listen to “8 mile” in my head as it sums up that nervousness and worry before stepping onstage.
And “Cleaning out my closet’ really helped when I was battling with my mother- it really helps to sing along to something that expresses the same emotion- different places, different spaces, different lives, same emotion.
And I finally got to see 8 mile and found it fascinating..
I’m not the sort of fanboy who can read the Eminem comics, they are too violent and aimed at preteen boys.
But 8 Mile was about a lot more than rap. It was about poverty, as it is lived in the US with it’s barely there social welfare safety net. The grind of trying to make enough to eat every day, the lack of options, the reduction of life to a grey sameness. The moment when ‘Rabbit’ is beaten by the obviously more wealthy crew was I think the defining point of the movie read this way. The fact of being so ground down by life that a physical beating could not make it worse is a telling moment in ‘Rabbits’ narrative arc.
All of the characters stories are based around fighting a system that grinds them down with no way out. Their dreams of making it, and what they will do with their riches are naieve as they are dreams only- there is no way out.
The destroyed infrastructure of the city, the fact that people can be homeless with many houses standing around derelict, these all play into that world view of no way out.
In a move that Sun Tzu would be pleased with, ‘Rabbit’ takes the bullets out of his opponents gun by admitting to all the faults, displaying his poverty, down troddenness, and highlights the class war inside the venue.
This was by far the most interesting part of the movie
(and I am way too tired to finish this tonight so will edit tomorrow)
