That decision goes to the core of the problem: race. Residents on the north side have taken down the basketball hoops on their parks to discourage southern neighbours from coming over to play black America's favourite sport. The two neighbourhoods rarely meet, despite being just a few minutes' walk apart. The average household income on the north side of Eight Mile is double that of those living on the south side. These neighbourhoods are 83 per cent white. But across Eight Mile Road in Oakland County the demographic is suddenly reversed. Roughly a third of citizens live on or below the poverty line. In Detroit the unemployment rate is 14.1 per cent, more than double the national average. Even at 9am, just pulling up to the side of the road is enough to elicit the attention of a young man keen to sell drugs. It is a haven for prostitutes and drug dealers. It is a strip of highway lined by pawn brokers, sex shops, topless bars, fast food restaurants and the sort of motels where guests stay either for an hour or three months. In between stretches Eight Mile Road, so called because of its distance from Detroit's river front. The shops are richer, the houses freshly painted and the neighbourhoods have names such as Ferndale and Royal Oak. To the north lies the mostly white suburbs of Oakland County. Some houses are burnt-out shells and abandoned cars stand on the streets. To the south stretches Detroit, overwhelmingly black and poor. Walking from one side of Eight Mile Road to the other is a jarring experience. Crossing Eight Mile Road is not as easy as just dodging the traffic. It is both a physical barrier and a psychological one. It signifies the plight of the impoverished, left behind in dying cities that cannot look after them.
It symbolises the death of urban America and the white flight to the suburbs. It carves off the rich from the poor, the black from the white, the haves from the have-nots. It is where the city of Detroit ends and the suburbs begin. For this eight-lane road is a dividing line. The real significance of Eight Mile echoes far beyond Detroit. Despite his success and for all his riches, Proof died on the street that has become synonymous with all that is good and bad about rap music.īut Eight Mile means far more than another dead Detroit rapper, far more than one successful movie. Best man at Eminem's wedding, he was also a promising rapper in his own right as a member of the hit group D12.īut unlike the white rapper Eminem, the black Proof - real name DeShaun Holton - showed that most people do not escape Eight Mile. The film was Eminem's homage to the tough neighbourhood of his youth, which had both nurtured his talents and proved a terrible place to grow up.
#Eminem 8 mile road movie#
To many, Eight Mile is a familiar name - made famous by the semi-autobiographical movie of the same name by rapper Eminem. It also wrote one more bloody footnote to the growing legend of Eight Mile Road: a stretch of tarmac that divides both a city and a nation. It was a fight that ended another young black life in one of America's toughest cities. It was here last week that local Detroit rapper 'Proof' died in a gun battle. The only hint at the nightclub inside is three white 'C's tacked to a dirty wall. It is a squat one-storey building, windowless and dingy. If you're curious as to whether your favorite part of the movie really happened, check out these comparisons between 8 Mile and reality.Even by the low standards of Eight Mile Road, the Triple C bar was a seedy place to die. Oh, and that scene with the paintball gun? Let's just say it didn't end so well in real life. Marshall lived outside of Detroit, but never in a trailer park.
Cheddar Bob is real, for example, but he's not a total moron. While some things are true, a lot of the film's plot points were fabricated for the sake of narrative. The similarities are striking, to say the least, but what's the true story behind 8 Mile? Is it really based on Eminem's life? Did Shady really choke in that battle? B-Rabbit goes through some rough patches with his mother, has a soft spot for his younger sibling, and has a tumultuous on-again-off-again relationship with a charming (if severely damaged) young blonde woman. The main character, Jimmy (AKA B-Rabbit), gets his start rapping in battles held at The Shelter, a real venue in Detroit with a rich history of hip-hop. The film is set in 1995, and follows an aspiring young white rapper living in a trailer park on 8 Mile Road, just outside of Detroit. 8 Mile is a 2002 drama starring Eminem, loosely based on his life.
0 kommentar(er)
