8 Mile

Kudos to Bruce for this excellent banner!

 

Welcome to the massive group effort Film [Soundtrack] Festival! From November 1-14, we’re covering all sorts of movie soundtracks. There’ll surely be lots for everybody! Huge thanks to Bruce at THE VINYL CONNECTION for this fantastic group post idea! COMMUNITY!

 Check out THIS PAGE for all the entries.

 

Here we go with my second entry for this series!

This is a weird CD for me. I find a lot of the other rappers on here are just trying to sound like Eminem (and failing). In a way, it makes sense, to make a flow of the mix, but why give up your own way just to try to keep pace with a guy who is clearly (8) miles ahead of you?

Also, some of the songs I love, as you’ll see, but others I don’t like at all. And yet somehow it all plays well as a mix. Boiled down, if I’ve got the good headphones on so I can pay attention, I only like some of it. But if it’s on in the background, I can tolerate most it well enough.

Let’s have a listen, shall we…

I bought this CD for one song – album opener Lose Yourself, by Eminem. I don’t care who you are, what kind of music you like, I doubt you could fail to be lifted by this track. It’s the whole movie in one song, too. Crazy good.

Love Me is next, again Eminem featuring Obie Trice and 50 Cent. It has a catchy hook, but its misogyny and hate are tiring and awful. Eminem is up again with 8 Mile, and it’s catchy as hell. Of course. Eminem has a knack. There’s a reason he outsells everybody. It’s tracks like this. Then it’s back to Obie Trice, with Adrenaline Rush. The music is cool, but it’s just boasting. Yawn.

50 Cent’s Places To Go is repetitive on one idea, musically and is, therefore, hard to listen to all the way through. I have tried 50 Cent before, and never really took to him in a way that makes me want to play him more often. D12’s Rap Game is next. It has a great driving beat, and some of the rapping is cool. This has better energy, and when Eminem takes the mic it’s all over.

8 Miles And Runnin’ is Jay-Z’s entry, featuring Freeway. There’s some weird noises behind the chorus part. It’s alright, but not a huge track. Xzibit’s Spit Shine rolls in next, which is a decent dance track, but again it’s just boasting.

Then, weirdly, Macy Gray and her yawn-fest music is next, breaking up the flow completely. I suppose there had to be a track like this here for those expecting it, but it doesn’t belong. and it is, frankly, pretty bad. NAS is next, with U Wanna Be Me. It’s a cool enough grrove, but it’s just more boasting and some pretty far reaches in the lyrics.

50 Cent comes back, with Wanksta. I don’t like it at all. He has something lethargic in what he does, and the tune is just too repetitive. Boomkat’s Wasting My Time is Kellin and Taryn Manning (who was in the film)’s breathy r&b slow track. The title’s pretty apt, here. Rakim’s really went out on a limb naming his boast track R.A.K.I.M., and I couldn’t listen to it all the way through – there’s a dumb noise banging throughout that wrecks it.

Young Zee’s That’s My Nigga For Real is a real slow, annoying track. The tune would be OK if his voice was different and he had something to say. No thanks. Gang Starr’s Battle takes a 4-bar idea and stretches it out for 3 minutes. Meh. And then, finally, Eminem comes back to save the second half of this dying record. Rabbit Run is boasting, just like the rest, but when he does it there’s something to it. Oh that’s right, it’s talent.

In Sum:

I dislike more of this record than I like, but the stuff I do like is all really good (and involves Eminem). The rest of it is pretty skippable, unless you want background tunes you can’t really hear clearly.

Bonus Round:

Turns out, I’d already done this one 2014-04-29, and I still agree with myself.