"8 Mile"

This drama is a biography is about Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith Jr., better known as rap sensation Eminem.  It shows him in his early life as he struggles to make it big in the rap game as an up and coming white rapper in the inner cities of Detroit during the mid-1990.  As he tries to gain respect from his fellow peers in the game he gets a lot of criticism for being white and not like the rest of them.

The movie stars Eminem and features many know actors including Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy and Mekhi Phifer.  It also included appearances from well know rappers Xzibit, Proof and Obie Trice.  8 Mile was directed by Curtis Hanson and was released into theaters in November of 2002.  The movie was an instant box office success bringing in a little over 240 million.  It also won an Academy Award for the Best Original song “Loose Yourself.”  This was the first time a rap song in a movie won an Academy Award.

At the end of the movie he faces his rival enemy rappers, “Free World,” in a three round, one song elimination tournament.   After winning the first and second rounds with freestyles both better then the last he is now contending in the third and final round for the championship.

In the third round Eminem has to freestyle first for 90 seconds.  When the music starts he begins to free style about the Free World, putting them down and calling them disrespectful names.  He makes a reference to his opponent “Papa Doc” being a half way crook which makes the crowd crazy.  After putting down the Free World and Popa Dac, he proceeds to talk about himself and the fact that he is white trash and lives in a trailer with his mom.  He also addressed many other humiliating things about himself the occurred in the movie.  In doing so when it was Papa Dac’s turn to freestyle he had noting to talk about.  The music played for many seconds before Papa Dac gave up the mic making Eminem the champion.

            This was a very good movie and I would recommend any one who has not seen it before.  Its shows you how hard he had to work to make it to where he is today.  Going from absolutely nothing, living in a trailer with his mom to being one the biggest know rappers in the music industry today.

-Carl Oberle