8 Mile was a big part of 9 year old Kyle’s life when it came out. The rap battle scenes still hold weight today. Chill city when Eminem goes, “Fuck a beat. I’ll go Acapella.” and finishes off Poppa Doc. Every Christmas I would ask my grandmother for the new Eminem CD for my walkman, knowing she didn’t know the difference between the edited version and ‘Parental Advisory’, and buy me the un-edited version. When she asked what Parental Advisory meant I told her that parents advised other parents to buy this one. Just imagine what my parents were thinking as, Without Me was blasting from my bedroom. “Two trailer park girls go round the outside…”
I also found out there were bonus rap battle scenes just last year, which are just as good. It felt like Em was actually battling the way he did before the success.
P.S. If you tell me you didn’t finish the beginning of that Without Me verse with “…round the outside, round the outside” while mimicking the record scratches – you are a liar.