Predictably, the success of “8 Mile” has been decried in certain quarters as evidence of societal decline: American youth following Eminem down the road to Gomorrah. His gross-out lyrics and renegade posturing have made him the bugbear of everyone from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to Lynne Cheney, the conservative commentator and wife of the vice president. The film’s success has been called a watershed event, signaling rap’s pop preeminence and Eminem’s ascension to Elvis-like multimedia superstardom.Įminem is, of course, not just a pop star but a provocateur with a talent for equal-opportunity outrage.
#8 MILE RAP BATTLE LYRICS MOVIE#
That celebration is at the heart of “8 Mile,” the Eminem movie whose box-office gross is the talk of show business. In the nearly quarter of a century since it first penetrated the mainstream, rap has been relentlessly maligned, accused of everything from trashing musical standards to promoting violence and misogyny.Īmid the debate that the music provokes, a central fact is generally overlooked: First and foremost, rap is a celebration of language.
The ebullient verbosity and wit of rap make even the most illustrious earlier examples of pop lyric writing - from the show-tune drolleries of Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter to the poetic flights of Bob Dylan - seem linguistically austere.
Against a stark background of pure rhythm, rappers’ words arrive in a torrent of syncopated speech - rhymes, puns, jokes, allusions - spilling over the edges of the meter that constrains the lyrics of normal “sung” songs. Rap is the most word-intoxicated genre in the history of American popular music.