"Dozens"
is a verbal game, with roots in Africa, in which one person
insults (raps) another, a game that goes back and forth. Now
known as "rap," the contest is set to a rhythmic
beat (iambic pentameter) nowadays, though rap music is a monologue
when the villain is the social system. In 8 Mile,
Jimmy Smith, Jr., known as "Rabbit" (played by Eminem),
demonstrates his skill in the traditional manner, but he is
a White who raps a Black to win a contest in 1995. The story
takes place in Detroit, a boomtown in the 1940s as America
relied on automobile manufacturers for defense contract work,
that was a magnet for unemployed Blacks and Whites, many from
the South, for lucrative employment. Indeed, Detroit enjoyed
prosperity in the 1950s while the United States had the only
viable automobile industry in the world, and the energy and
optimism of the late 1950s came together in the "Detroit
sound," which is magically presented in the current documentary
Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
As Europe recovered in the 1960s, and competition from Japan
challenged Detroit in the 1970s, the city and many of its
suburbs began to decay, and the Detroit sound died. 8
Mile graphically shows the decay, with old buildings,
old cars, crime, gangs, and drugs. Rabbit works in an aging
factory, making parts for autos, but few of the other characters
have a job; manufacturing jobs have largely left Motor City.
All want to get out of the slums, whether on the White side
of a Detroit suburb at Eight Mile Road or on the Black side,
closer to town, but their education is inadequate to make
the transition from manufacturing to high tech employment.
Rabbit, who lives with his unemployed mom Stephanie (played
by Kim Basinger) and baby sister in a run-down trailer, has
hopes of becoming a rap star despite his White trash origins,
but rap music is dominated by Blacks. He has White girlfriends
yet hangs out with Blacks, two of whom want him to compete
for the top honors in the weekly rap contest. The story, in
short, is an Eminem biopic, and the outcome is never in doubt.
The film has a lot of violence, some anti-White prejudice
from a rival Black gang, and profuse profanity. Directed by
Curtis Hanson, 8 Mile is written
in part to dispel the rumor that Eminem is anti-gay and anti-Black,
as his best friends are Black, and he defends a gay man at
work with one of his many examples of spontaneous rap poetry.
Whether 8 Mile will mainstream rap
music or redeem the soiled reputation of Eminem, who appears
to have James Dean as his model, remains to be seen. MH
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want to comment on this film
