Eminem's '8 Mile' 20th Anniversary Interview Flashback

Eminem just reached a major eight Milestone every NC teenager's favorite film Eight Mile which features Eminem in his film acting debut turned 20 years old on Sunday the movie contains many autobiographical elements from Eminem's life which followed the story of a white rapper who's trying to break into the rap scene in Detroit Michigan which is Eminem's Hometown alongside Eminem the movie also featured actors Mickey Pfeiffer Michael Shannon Anthony Mackey Kim Basinger and the late Brittany Murphy who appeared in the movie at the height of her career the film was critically acclaimed during its release and was nominated for and won many prestigious Awards in 2002 including an Academy Award for best original songs to Lose Yourself Access Hollywood spoke to Eminem ahead of the movie's release and to Mark 20 years since the premiere of 8 Mile we're taking a look back at that conversation nice to see you again same here this is the very stage that Hootie and the Blowfish have performed here was it cool you did some rehearsals in here right yeah we uh actually we rehearsed for the tour yeah here a few times we had like a week blocked out did you ever want to do a movie let's start with that I mean did you ever say to yourself someday I want to be in a movie as part of your scheme or maybe I should say did you ever have a scheme um my only scheme really was to be a rapper like I just wanted to my dream was like give me let me get a record deal and let me go gold and I'll be happy let me make a living off of what I do um as things went along and you know uh my life got more interesting uh as it went along and other people the subject was brought up a few times and it was like you know the idea was toyed with and then it was um and it just began to I don't know what's the word I'm looking for just evolved yeah and just it started getting bigger and bigger uh you know more serious I started taking it more serious uh we got a good script Scott Silva wrote a good script I read it it's one of the few things I've ever read because I don't like to read but once I started reading the script I really got into it and was like I did want to at that stage in my life want to make a movie that was real and true to what I'm about but also what anybody else who's trying to come up as a rapper or just through music period could relate to but um I just wanted to do one movie Just but just true and authentic and just to capture like I felt like where I grew up and how I grew up my my story and the things that I saw was so interesting I feel like eight miles is not just the movie I'm talking about Eight Mile Road period just and what it means symbolically and everything to me like it's a story that I wanted to just get across to the world because I know there's in every city every state has you know what separates the city from the suburbs you know uh majority uh statistically what separates black from White and you know usually it's literally just one road and there's eight mile is there's one median in the middle of the road that separates the city from suburbs and in 95 especially um right now it's a little more diverse I think as far as like ethnic wise it's a little more you know you see it's more racially mixed now because back then it was big he was still around and Tupac right I mean it was yeah when when that [ __ ] started heating up I mean but even even before that not even anything to do with hip-hop just um how segregated you know the city was from the suburbs like literally being across the street from each other but how segregated it was it's come a long way from since 95 to now you know and he's seven years it's become a lot more you wouldn't see too many black people on the on the white side and too many white people on the black side it's amazing only seven years ago yeah but it's it's definitely got you can see it it's it's you know people I think as time goes by the world is getting more you know a little more open-minded and starting to just take life for what it is and take [ __ ] for what it really is and I mean that's that's my take on it but me coming up and and through that time like the early late 80s early 90s um racial tension was pretty high what was it like being a white rapper back then did people say white rapper is this possible well there was a lot of they were there were more there was a lot of cats that I've seen like as I was coming up you know that were trying to come up around the same time as me who um never made it or haven't made it yet you know but uh very few I would see in the same spots that I was in you know where I would go would be clubs where I would literally you know I would I used to literally make my own tapes go to Kinkos press up draw my own covers press the covers up at Kinkos and and sell them out of my trunk go into these clubs where I'm literally like the only white person there so and trying to sell my tape just or my CD that I would save up like my income tax checks from my job at the end of the year and put it all into into my music save it and go to these clubs and just try to sell it four four dollars get this CD a lot of times even giving it out just like listen to this you know every time there was a hip-hop Summit if it was in Detroit if it was in Miami if it was in Cincinnati you know get in the car with my friends some of them from from D12 get in the car just drive down there and just try to get anybody to just listen to our demo how do people respond to you when you when they saw you standing there you know here listen to this what what uh right hi I'm white listen to my CD um what we used to do um me and uh and and proof proof used to have his own uh methods of doing things you know proof uh was used to be like Mr Polly man like he was cool with like he was down with like a lot of rappers that you know uh they were kind of big in the underground so when when we would make trips to Miami and stuff like that he would go hang with them and probably with them and he had his own way like his own agenda of meeting people we would kind of we would kind of split up a little bit and then me and Bazaar literally had a radio and was walking around with it just playing our demo just like as loud as we could and trying to figure out what hotel Fat Joe was at or what hotel uh you know any rapper was that that would just hopefully we catch them walking out the hotel and like just be sitting there and somebody would walk by and just that glimmer of hope like catch somebody's ear and be like yo what is that that you're playing so I could be like yo it's my it's my demo this is this is my you know what was it the 96 or 97 Freaknik I went to with uh Bazaar also and a couple other friends and uh was literally doing the same thing just handing my tape like standing on the corner like handing my tapes out we driving a car we'd roll the window down we'd see some people who look like they would listen to hip hop and just anybody who looked like they would even remotely have their ear open at hip hop because yo here take this it's free just take it listen to it so who listened to it how'd you get what was your one moment my one moment um what got you here what got me here Dr Dre obviously um him hearing the tape it wasn't another story somebody heard it on the radio and got it to Jimmy and he got it there was a lot of stories but like honestly like I you know I busted my ass in the underground like like I would do shows in New York like my manager Paul lived in New York which was a which was definitely a plus where he could get me you know he would get me little gigs like what he could just through just from the buzz with the Slim Shady EP like this six song EP that I that we had pressed up um he would give it to you know he had little connects with uh some underground rappers it would he would pass it along to them and they would pass it along to their boys and then yo you got to check out my man and then it started developing into things where he would be able to get me little gigs like you know where I got to open up for the boot camp click once and um Buckshot was it was it what label duck down Duck Down Records had seen me what happened one time I'll tell you a funny story it was the first time I had ever did a show where I opened up for anybody that was like you know the boot camp Clique had a pretty big name in The Underground and uh I was the first one to go on and I had my DJ up there uh Lynn Swann at the time and I had a dad that I was trying to run off of that my show was set up off of I had like three songs I was supposed to perform and somebody wasn't playing my dad so I gotta I got I got on stage and the dad wasn't playing and I was like yo plated that I got the mic I'm like yo plated that nobody was playing it and people started booing and this and that so I had my DJ throw a record on and just started freestyling over it like [ __ ] it and then wanted to crowd over then my dad started in the middle of it and then they got to hear like my songs and then this and that then I got a meeting with Duck Down Records and we started talking about deals and and then it's you know little uh independent labels started coming at me and and you know just from those things elevating the rap Olympics and all those things like just generating the bars the scribble Jam you know there's tapes of me battling I know there's like a lot of tapes of me uh In freestyle battles and stuff and uh how close were those battles in the movie to the battles that you were in the exact same intensity intensity like that's one thing that I want this movie to get across is that that people who live in this world uh that live in this world this I'm referring to hip-hop like um how seriously we take this how seriously we take our music and and battling in the sport of it in the competition and everything like if for from for me to lose a battle when I lost I beat out at the rap Olympics in 97 I beat out everybody like I went through many people and got to the end and choked a little bit and the guy who beat me I don't know where he is now but you know the the uh the prize if you if you won the battle was 500 in a Rolex and the night before I flew to La I just got kicked out of my house got evicted from from my house and all all our stuff I got thrown on the lawn and people was rummaging through it and I I never forget this I was staying in the house with no heat all the electric was cut off and everything and I had to climbing through the back window sleep on the floor and then have my cell phone with me so Paul could give me a wake-up call in the morning because I didn't even have a have an alarm clock so I could catch my plane to go to the rap Olympics so when I lost the battle I needed that 500 so much I don't know if it was a real Rolex it was a fake Rolex I didn't care about the Rolex but I needed that 500 and when I lost like I felt like my whole manhood was just completely stripped of me you know I was so mad literally like in such a rage I like I wanted to like so emotional I almost felt like crying on what level though and because you needed the money or because you're so passionate about the music you're passionate about just winning period because then your name generates plus it was the second time to get at this guy named juice who I lost I beat out everybody in in Cincinnati and there was a guy named juice from Chicago this was like a few months before that that uh if I would have in the rap Olympics had I won I would have got to battle juice and I was waiting to do that to get a rematch because I lost to him at the scribble Jam in Chicago or in Cincinnati it was the same story I went through everybody went through all these cats I beat him kept beating everybody got to him and we tied in our first two battles and then they was like okay we got these are going to be the runners up and then the runners up uh the the battle the last battle the semifinals would take place in a club like later on at night the people actually had to pay at the door to come and see the battle and it was like the championship thing so it was me and Juice in the championship thing and in the first the first time we battled we tied again and then the second time we battled he got me so I wanted another chance to get at him because the winner got the 500 and the Rolex or whatever and got the battle juice again and I wanted to do that just to redeem myself because I felt like here in Detroit I had never lost a battle like The Hip Hop Shop wherever I went ebony showcase any place I ever went in battle that I had never lost a battle so Cincinnati was the first time that I ever lost a battle and it there was no prize in Cincinnati it was just Pride she wanted it here yeah and then in the rap Olympics which took place in Los Angeles I I wanted it so bad I wanted so bad to redeem myself and get a second chance to get a crack at this guy because I had my ammo stacked up and I was ready to go and then I lose I lost to this guy that was like he wasn't good and I I don't know it just feels like you get some passions when you talk about I can feel the intensity of it it's like a Super Bowl for rappers it's like a sport it's like hip-hop I mean it's like it's like football it's like basketball it's like any sport you know it's uh of course you you you in sports you might you know you see these football players and and basketball players that get paid a lot of money to do it to do the sport but that's not just why they're doing it they're doing it for the competition of it they want to win you see you see people lose the championship you know and and in basketball and you see players like walking away crying like that's how much that's in this world in hip-hop that's how serious battling was especially back in 95. and what was so what what used to be so dope about it was what I kind of miss about it a little bit but um I understand you know it's gotten to a different a little bit different level today but what was cool about it was you could rip somebody from head to toe like literally say whatever you wanted and they say whatever they want back to you and um if you lost you lost and you shake hands and that's it it's like you know it's like boxing it's like boxing in the ring boxes they want to kill each other they want to throw that knockout blowing plaster somebody's nose all over their face and then when they're done they walk up they shake hands they hug you know it's it's nice yeah that's the sport of hip-hop and especially in 95 That's How It Was Todd was here in Detroit that's hot that's just that time period that's how it was how close people are going to say well this is your movie obviously and this is about you how close to your real life do you want people to think it is or how close is it um is it this close it's symbolic yeah it's it's just symbolic I mean basically you know like obviously everything that happened in the movie didn't happen in my real life you know and I didn't I've lived in trailers but I didn't grow up in a trailer and I didn't you know so there's different things but the basis of it yeah you know the same idea lower class poor poor kid coming up wanting to do music getting tugged every different Which Way by his friends and not knowing which way to go make it do you make a demo and do you shop it or do you do you battle to win credibility and then get a street Buzz going like what do you do you know like it's the same [Music]

Channel: Access Hollywood

Views: 20,744

Keywords: Eminem, 8 Mile, Brittany Murphy, anniversary, film, movie, interview, early 2000s, rapper, singer, actor, celebrity, lifestyle, news

Id: u6iJIiLuLPw

Length: 18min 50sec (1130 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022