Comments on: King of the Ludicrous Lucrative

King of the Ludicrous Lucrative

Sebmojo — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 22:12:33 -0800

An Oral History of 8 Mile's Rap Battles

By: prefpara

prefpara — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 04:59:58 -0800

Re the title of this post: what Eminem does on Renegade is outrageously good. Just a virtuoso performance.

By: Gronk

Gronk — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 06:02:42 -0800

No Detroit tag?

By: greenhornet

greenhornet — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 06:04:58 -0800

fascinating read. I've never seen the movie but maybe it's about time...

By: DigDoug

DigDoug — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 06:22:57 -0800

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)

By: shothotbot

shothotbot — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 06:34:01 -0800

Didn't Elton John say somewhere that he thought 8 Mile was the best use of music in a movie?

By: box

box — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 06:51:33 -0800

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.

By: BlerpityBloop

BlerpityBloop — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:11:35 -0800

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.

By: iviken

iviken — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:29:23 -0800

8 Kilomètres (YouTube link).

By: cashman

cashman — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:48:03 -0800

- 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.

By: likeatoaster

likeatoaster — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:58:17 -0800

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.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 08:00:55 -0800

I shoulda linked to it. Unreal skill.

By: yeahwhatever

yeahwhatever — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 10:13:59 -0800

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.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:26:41 -0800

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.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:39:47 -0800

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.

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:27:14 -0800

Fewer than Eminem (Esq.) could, prefpara.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:28:55 -0800

On the one hand, yes, on the other hand, wouldn't my inferior rhymes be inherently less noticeable?

By: yeahwhatever

yeahwhatever — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 14:51:40 -0800

prefpara: Pretty sure the difference is about five bank accounts, three ounces, and two vehicles.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 16:31:16 -0800

yeahwhatever, if we're talking about the difference between me and Eminem, I would start at the penis.

By: gucci mane

gucci mane — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:02:28 -0800

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.

By: EatTheWeak

EatTheWeak — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 18:47:49 -0800

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.

By: box

box — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 05:44:18 -0800

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.)

By: prefpara

prefpara — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 07:33:10 -0800

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.

By: cashman

cashman — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 08:46:07 -0800

"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.

By: box

box — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 10:03:52 -0800

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.)

By: prefpara

prefpara — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 14:57:02 -0800

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.

By: box

box — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:32:59 -0800

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.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:46:10 -0800

[x] physician heal thyself