15 Years Since Its Release 8 Mile Remains The Most Important Film In Hip-Hop

Facts

Now before you starting shooting off comments on Facebook – or quickly type up something like ‘Booooy WTF do you know about hip-hop?’ congratulations, in the words of DJ Khaled: ‘You played yourself’.

Of course, I KNOW that 8 Mile isn’t the most important film in hip-hop culture/history – that’s just ignorant – categorically the most important hip-hop film to this date remains 1983’s Wild Style.

You could argue this and films like Belly, Juice, Do The Right Thing and more recently Straight Outta Compton are much more culturally relevant to the genre and culture of hip-hop. But welcome to the world of clickbait headlines.

Saying that, before you hit the backspace button, it doesn't diminish the cultural importance of Eminem's debut film which was also his debut breakout role.

Following the meteoric success of his third and fourth studio albums The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show (if you count Infinite) it always seemed inevitable for Slim Shady's next progression to be in the realm of film. And why not? Many rap artists before him like Tupac and Ice Cube made successful transitions beforehand.

15Years Since Its Release 8 Mile Remains The Most Important Film In Hip Hop 8 mile 2

There are two main qualities which make 8 Mile so endearing and important to the culture. The first is in regards to do with the source material, Eminem's own personal journey/struggles coming up as rapper made for an excellent foundation for the story. Due to the personal nature, he was to channel his own experiences into the character of Jimmy 'B-Rabbit' Smith.

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Source: unilad