King of the Ludicrous Lucrative
April 16, 2014 10:12 PM   Subscribe

 
Re the title of this post: what Eminem does on Renegade is outrageously good. Just a virtuoso performance.
posted by prefpara at 4:59 AM on April 17, 2014


No Detroit tag?
posted by Gronk at 6:02 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


fascinating read. I've never seen the movie but maybe it's about time...
posted by greenhornet at 6:04 AM on April 17, 2014


Thoughts I had about this flick back in '02

- This movie is SO much better than I expected it to be.
- It won't matter to the people yammering about how bad Rap music was.
- Anyone who ever thought Eminem was one dimensional really oughta listen to Lose Yourself. (It's so strikingly different from the popular stuff he'd had out by that point in his career)
posted by DigDoug at 6:22 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


Didn't Elton John say somewhere that he thought 8 Mile was the best use of music in a movie?
posted by shothotbot at 6:34 AM on April 17, 2014


At one point during filming, a series of scenes for a planned montage of local rappers “competing” against Eminem were shot. The montage was never used.

Though some of it showed up as a DVD extra.
posted by box at 6:51 AM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


There's a documentary on netflix directed by ice-t that goes in the the history of rap lyrics, not rap, or the scene, just rap lyrics. How they came about, how they are crafted, what to listen for etc etc.

It's not a great movie, but in it they chat about Eminem for a spell.The flak he gets for being white, people not taking him seriously.....but it is universally agreed that despite all the shit people give him, no one, absolutely no one, wants to go against him in a battle.

This Video Explains why the lyrics of "lose yourself" are on another level.
posted by BlerpityBloop at 7:11 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


8 Kilomètres (YouTube link).
posted by iviken at 7:29 AM on April 17, 2014


- This movie is SO much better than I expected it to be.

I was prepared to be underwhelmed as well. What actually set it off was using Shook Ones part II as the intro. To me that was genius. You can't deny that song. That opening sound just gets you hyped.

no one, absolutely no one, wants to go against him in a battle.

Back in the day, kind of. But there are a few you knew would have gone against him in a heartbeat. But it's that Dave Chappelle joke - if a white guy is in a crew with black guys, that's the most dangerous guy in that group. Similarly, Eyedea (rip) was a monster in battles.

Nowadays Em is a shell of his former self. Without the drugs, and perhaps at the behest of management, he only shows flashes of his former self. He's got the technical thing down pat, but he's missing the flow. To go from the way he used to paint a picture with incredible detail (and I can rap dozens of his verses from start to finish) to the gimmicky forgettable entity that he is now - well it's like Masta Ace said in Last Bref.
posted by cashman at 7:48 AM on April 17, 2014 [4 favorites]


In my recent binge-watch of Brittany Murphy's movies, I seemed to have missed this one!

I was unimpressed with Enimen before 8 Mile and walked out of this movie feeling a lot more sympathetic to him, but also feeling really impressed with the movie itself. I haven't thought about it in a long time, but it was actually really great. Definitely going to give it a re-watch after reading this.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:58 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I shoulda linked to it. Unreal skill.
posted by prefpara at 8:00 AM on April 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


That verse is the reason Nas said "Eminem murdered you on your own shit" on Ether. Yeah, that verse is dope.

Man, Forgot About Dre was a great guest spot too.
posted by yeahwhatever at 10:13 AM on April 17, 2014


Yeah but the difference is, Dre on Forgot About Dre fucking owns it and is the dominant force of life-changing rap mastery. Whereas Eminem completely steals Renegade. In other words, Nas is correct.
posted by prefpara at 12:26 PM on April 17, 2014


Now I'm sitting at my desk going "gimme one more platinum plaque and fuck rap, you can have it back" instead of editing this brief.

How many internal rhymes can I sneak into this brief without the partner noticing, I wonder.
posted by prefpara at 12:39 PM on April 17, 2014 [4 favorites]


Fewer than Eminem (Esq.) could, prefpara.
posted by IAmBroom at 1:27 PM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


On the one hand, yes, on the other hand, wouldn't my inferior rhymes be inherently less noticeable?
posted by prefpara at 1:28 PM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


prefpara: Pretty sure the difference is about five bank accounts, three ounces, and two vehicles.
posted by yeahwhatever at 2:51 PM on April 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


yeahwhatever, if we're talking about the difference between me and Eminem, I would start at the penis.
posted by prefpara at 4:31 PM on April 17, 2014


Eminem was/is definitely talented, but I am sure there are plenty of people who could have gone head-to-head with him even back then. There were tons of people doing rap battles especially in those days and Em just happened to become famous. Freestyling has sort of lost its luster a bit for whatever reason but you can still find people like Kendrick and Childish Gambino and others doing little freestyles on Sway in the Morning.
posted by gucci mane at 5:02 PM on April 17, 2014


What a great article - I didn't know how much that production drew from the Detroit hiphop scene, so that was really interesting to hear. MarvWon's thought process about taking Em on was also interesting.

I went into 8 Mile at maximum skepticism, expecting total shit and instead getting super caught up in the Rap Rocky earnestness. Watching that battle scene again, I still can't believe how great it turned out to be. Finding out how much of the improvisational aspect of battling survived translation to film explains a lot.

Lose Yourself was of course the huge hit off that soundtrack - today, I'm not sure if I dislike the song or if relentless radio play obliged me to dislike it. However, on that same soundtrack is Rabbit Run, which is still maybe my favorite piece of art in any format about writer's block and general creative frustration. I'm even more impressed that it's written and delivered in character.
posted by EatTheWeek at 6:47 PM on April 17, 2014


Yeah but the difference is, Dre on Forgot About Dre fucking owns it and is the dominant force of life-changing rap mastery.

It is... uh, let's say widely accepted that Em wrote Dre's verses on 'Forgot About Dre' (and that Snoop and D.O.C. wrote most of his 'Chronic' verses, and that Cube and D.O.C. wrote his verses during the NWA days, and etc. etc. Dre's a producer, not a lyricist.)
posted by box at 5:44 AM on April 18, 2014


I'm hearing you say that Jay Z's mistake wasn't so much writing weak sauce as it was failing to get Eminem to write him some stronger sauce? Winner: Dre.
posted by prefpara at 7:33 AM on April 18, 2014


"And when I'm down to my last breath, I'ma climb the Empire State building and get to the last step, and still have half left."

And the intro verse from Hellbound. Damn.
posted by cashman at 8:46 AM on April 18, 2014


Wha? Nah, my feeling is that anyone who uses ghostwriters doesn't meet the definition of a real emcee. Dre's a great producer, a decent rapper and a very good businessman, but if you want to be a GOAT candidate rapper, you need to write your own lyrics. (We can, of course, agree to disagree.)
posted by box at 10:03 AM on April 18, 2014


I know there is a strong feeling that rap has to be authentic, therefore by the rapper himself, but I am sympathetic to the school that treats rap as a performance, so a performance of the words of another can qualify as good even if it lacks that autobiographic authenticity. And I would include in my evaluation of a rapper's quality whether or not that rapper made strong choices about what words to use.
posted by prefpara at 2:57 PM on April 18, 2014


And, judged by that rubric, I would agree with you that Dre has made some great choices--Cube, D.O.C., Snoop, California-Love-era 'Pac, Eminem, those are all good calls, and some of those guys prescribed some of their best lyrical medicine to the Doctor.
posted by box at 6:32 PM on April 18, 2014


[x] physician heal thyself
posted by prefpara at 6:46 PM on April 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


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