| “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 |