As '8 Mile' is a 'Rocky' for the 21st century, its fitting that the film's title track should rattle along with the vim of a hip-hop 'Eye Of The Tiger'. Forsaking the free-form comedy of 'Without Me' or the introspection of 'Cleaning Out My Closet', Eminem
instead resorts to a series of gut-punches, detailing a life where "success is the only motherfucking option".
Ironically, this is Eminem
out of character, the worried father who works relentlessly to succeed but then "goes home and barely knows his own daughter". It is real, it is difficult and it is the sound of a man racing so far ahead of his peers - both inside and out of hip-hop – that the competition must be embarrassed. Genius.
Paul McNamee
9.2
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