Eminem’s “8 Mile� Success Is Bologny

[Tommy]

Eminem’s “8 Mile� Success Is Bologny
by Tommy Lee

It doesn’t surprise me that Eminem’s “8 Mile� debut has topped the box office — Eminem is a White guy. Anytime mainstream America can find someone with at least a tad bit of talent similar to another race, they put that person on a pedestal. Another good example is the comparison between Brandy and Britney. As talented as Brandy is and was, she was never accepted by a bias mainstream. Whereas Britney, who’s main talent is based on her sex appeal, has been hoisted into national stardom.

It also doesn’t surprise me that “8 Mile� is a glamourized, egotistical version of Eminem’s life — Everything else in Em’s life is about him. Have you guys ever listened to his lyrics, they’re all about how great he is... truly an ego-maniac. The movie is simply an ego boost for Caucasians who have dreamed about rapping since hearing RunDMC. In all honesty, Em represents the Eurocentric view of minorities — if you can act and pretend to be one of them, maybe you are.

The predictable theme behind “8 Mile� is not as convincing as it would seem. A White person has a much, much better chance of breaking it in than any other race. Consider that every year tousands of Black rappers, all more talented than Eminem, try to sign a record deal but fail because there are simply TOO MANY of them. Also, various films about minorities trying to break it in have been made, but few have been real successful: La Bamba, Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story, Salina, Finding Forester. etc... All of these movies reflect more hardship and emotion than “8 Mile,� but mainstream America would rather see a White face on screen.

In the 30’s Pearl Buck screen wrote “The Good Earth,â€� a movie about Chinese farmers. Unfortunately, if you see the movie, the central roles depict only Caucasians  made-up to look Asian.

[Cash Flagg]

Yes, white people are more likely to listen to white musicians and go see movies starring white people. And black people are more likely to listen to black musicians and see movies starring black people. What's your point?

[Tommy]

Obviously, you've missed it because that's not what I said.

[Dano]

Surprised you didn't mention Elvis, too.

If there weren't dozens and dozens of black rappers making millions and millions of dollars and living like pharoahs, I think you'd have a stronger point.  That said, I'm not about to launch any kind of defense of Eminem.  Basically if someone finds reason to criticize that idiot, I'll buy it.

[wheresthecarrot]

I'm not going to say that white people shouldn't be rappers or black people shouldn't be rock stars, but i do think it's safe to say that rap is generally considered "black" music whereas rock'n'roll is considered "white" music.

The interesting thing to look at is how supportive society is of white people who want to be rappers and R&B artists.  There are many, and all of them are very sucessful, partly due to their "whiteness."  However, society does not hold that same support for black people trying to get into "white music."  How many black Rock'n'Roll artists are there?  Hendrix, Kravitz, who else?

[Dano]

Interesting point about whites playing East Asians.  Did you know that no East Asian actor ever played the character of Charlie Chan?  Even in a 70s comedy called "Murder By Death" the role was played by Peter Sellers.

[Dano]

wheresthecarrot wrote: The interesting thing to look at is how supportive society is of white people who want to be rappers and R&B artists. There are many, and all of them are very sucessful, partly due to their "whiteness." However, society does not hold that same support for black people trying to get into "white music." How many black Rock'n'Roll artists are there? Hendrix, Kravitz, who else?
*****  That's an interesting point, but you make a pretty big assumption, wheresthecarrot.  Basically you are assuming that there is an equal proportion of blacks trying to break into white mainstream as there are whites trying to break into rap.  This may or may not be the case, but it shouldn't simply be assumed.  As for black artists in white mainstream, you can add Tracey Chapman, the guy from Hootie & the Blowfish, Living Color, Clarence Clemens in the E Street Band.  Just off the top of my head I tripled your list.  And the "many" white rappers I can think of include Beastie Boys, House of Pain, and Eminem.  Granted, I really don't follow any music very closely, but I'm sure there's lots of names to be added to both groups.

I guess there's Vanilla Ice - if you're counting one-hit-wonders... but then you'd have to add Milli Vanilli to the blacks-in-mainstream list...  (shudders).

[Fearless Freep]

I don't think it matters whether a white person is a rapper or not, at the wasn't the original intention.

I think the meaning is that white audiences will watch/listen to a white rapper and not a black rapper.  The music isn't different, but there is a racial quality to how popular one gets based on ability to get an audience and that white performers can get a bigger audience doing the exact same schtick as black performers, maybe not even as good, simply because they are white.

[Tommy]

Ditto Man.

[Chadzilla]

Ice-T is a BIG metal head and his Body Count group was a labor of love, but it just didn't fly with the rock crowd.  Or so I have been told.

[wrtl]

What is really weird is people putting the word rap and talent in the same sentence.

[Drezzy]

Jesus, everything has to boil down to race with all of you people, doesn't it?

Music is probably one of the LEAST racist forms of entertainment. Why? Because the majority of the successes have done so on their own accord. Want some black stars? Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, MICHAEL JACKSON, Boyz II Men, TUPAC SHAKUR, DR. DRE, RUN-DMC, JIMI HENDRIX...

There's a reason some bands/artists sell more albums than others. It's called "marketability." Eminem's raps are more marketable than most other rappers NOT because he's white (otherwise, wouldn't we see Bubba Sparxxx topping the charts along with the criminally underrated Twiztid and Insane Clown Posse?), but simply because his lyrics touch-base with a good sized portion of the population.

If 8-Mile had starred DMX instead of Eminem, this argument wouldn't have happened, and the movie would have been only a SLIGHT BIT LESS POPULAR, simply because Eminem is more popular than DMX.

[raj]

Fearless Freep wrote:
>
> I don't think it matters whether a white person is a rapper
> or not, at the wasn't the original intention.
>
> I think the meaning is that white audiences will watch/listen
> to a white rapper and not a black rapper.  The music isn't
> different, but there is a racial quality to how popular one
> gets based on ability to get an audience and that white
> performers can get a bigger audience doing the exact same
> schtick as black performers, maybe not even as good, simply
> because they are white.

Probably true for the majority, although the "early adopters" among whites necessarily listen to the black rappers.  And I think this is becoming less true as time goes by,

Whenever I go to a blues show, I'm always struck by how white the audience is, and how black the musicians are (and unfortunately old-- not many younger blues musicians who happen to be black)

I think that generally the most talented transcend racial lines.  It is the mediocre ones that have trouble. (IMO)

[Fearless Freep]

Music is probably one of the LEAST racist forms of entertainment

Not really.  What's being described here with Eminem and rap is what happened back in the early days of jazz.  Music played by black musicians  was only played in 'colored' clubs and on 'colored labels'.  In took some white musicians who listened to and adapted jazz music to get white audiences to listen to jazz.  It was a big controversey when Benny Goodmen stepped on stage with a black vibraphone player and pianist.

It's not so bad now, but there used to huge racial segregation in music.  Ironically, to bridge that required whuite musicians playing balck music for white audiences

[wheresthecarrot]

The music industry is completely inspeperable from race, as of present day.  That's why there are entire doccumentaries devoted to how people like Eminem, Kid Rock, and the Beastie boyz made names for themselves despite huge amounts of critisism from people who weren't convinced white people could rap.  If you don't belive me, watch VH-1 for a week.  I guarante you one of these issues will be discussed.  Also, if race wasn't an issue in music, the "walk this way" video Aerosmith did with run DMC wouldn't have been called such things as "monumental" "controversial" and a "milestone in the bridge between musical and racial cultures."

Also, it doesn't just come down to race for me, or anyone else I'm sure, but that is what happens to be the topic of the discussion of the post, so that would be a good indicator as to why we are all discussing it.