Authenticity of Hip-Hop in 8 mile

It can be argued that 8mile is simply another film where the white man is beyond ethnicity and goes on to succeed in another culture's environment. However, I believe the self-reflexivity regarding its whiteness in hip-hop helps the film maintain its perspective from a marginalised African-American point of view. It navigates the Black terrain of Hip-hop by telling the story of a rite of passage earned as opposed to given. Eminem in real life has always been aware of his own whiteness. Through his music he has challenged the shortcomings of his skin colour as well as acknowledging the power and privilege it has afforded him. (Fraley, 41). In his song ‘White America’ he raps “lets do the math- if I was black I woulda sold half” and also “I speak to suburban kids…..and they connected with me because I look like them” (Eminem, 2002). By acknowledging his whiteness he is able to deter any arguments of appropriation. As noted earlier the 8mile film is a semi-autobiography. The parts of the story which are true is his upbringing on the Detroit side of the 8 mile line which segregated hip-hop’s authentic urban Detroit with the inauthentic suburbia. This is important to Hip-hop as it signifies a commonality of upbringing in which the medium was first created to address. This authentic common upbringing coupled with the actual skill to rap has allowed Eminem to succeed for over two decades. In contrast to Eminem, Vanilla ice was one of the earlier attempts of the White man in rap. He utilised elements of African-American ghetto culture, such as break dancing and graffiti, to supplement his edgy, ghetto, gritty persona. It was later found that Vanilla Ice was not from the Miami ghetto as he claimed to be. This immediately diminished his credibility as an authentic Hip-hop artist and instead led to labels such as an appropriating, racially-exploitative liar. Being a part of Eminem's work, 8mile does well to consistently pay tribute to the historical roots of hip-hop and raise awareness of the white man’s presence in hip-hop culture. This is most evident in a car scene (video below) where Rabbit and his friends debate the superiority of past hip-hop lyricist. Cheddar Bob, the other white guy in the group, brings up the beastie boys as significant hip-hop artists but is immediately shut down by the others as fake. One of the friends who plays the role of the conspiracy theory brother notes before shutting down the argument that “Its always easier for a white man to succeed in a black man’s medium, right” (8mile). This small scene works well to recognise the past appropriation of whiteness in Hip-hop, but also works to contribute to the idea that whiteness may have more commercial success but it is harder for it to garner the same level of respect that authentic black artists receive