Review Summary: 8 Mile is one of the best soundtracks recorded, with great rappers, and really should be more popular. Artists stretch from brand new rappers(at the time) like Obie Trice and 50, Eminem, and legends.
Back in 2002, famous rapper Eminem, also known as Slim Shady, also known as Marshall Mathers, also known once as M & M, had a popular movie called 8 Mile. After a triple platinum album, a 9 platinum, and an 8 platinum album, a movie made Eminem even more popular. He was probably already the most popular celebrity back in 2000, with his massive album,
The Marshall Mathers LP. Though the movie did rather well, the album deserves more liking than it gets, and is vastly underrated. With such a great collection of artists, featuring tracks from Eminem of course, and even a few songs from legends such as Nas or Rakim, it should be quite loved. More people need to listen to it; apparently people don't even listen to soundtracks by great artists like these. It also introduced the world to 50 Cent and Obie Trice, who are also great, and Em's group, D12 has a song on it.
With so many different artists, it's kind of hard not to mention all songs, but I'll try to just mention the best. All of Eminem's tracks that appear on this album have simple, dark, heavy, yet catchy hood-like beats. Three out of the four are rather inspiring. The other,
Love Me, has 50 Cent and Obie Trice appearing, making a ballad about women, perhaps the building blocks of
Spend Some Time. It has a female-sung chorus, which is rather catchy and different than most of Eminem's songs, and Obie probably delivers the most memorable verse of the song, sounding kind of pissed off, and delivering the lyrics in a hard-hitting way. Em's verse is also quite good, and somewhat angry. 50 Cent's verse isn't particularly memoerable, but it is good, and gets everything done that it needs to. Overall, the song is good, but not the best.
The opening track is Eminem, and Eminem only(as are his other two songs), and it contains some precious Eminem work, that's for sure.
Lose Yourself is sadly the only single the album had, but it is deserving of that spot. All throughout, the beat, though dark and heavy, is great, and Eminem's lyrics fuse straight through you. They are given no mercy, and it sounds as though Eminem is so motivated in the song, that it seems as though he does not plan to end it. He solidly raps about how his life is hard, and sucks, yet he simply cannot give up, and has to get to his dreams. As I cannot even describe how much emotion he pours into it, you need to listen to it for yourself(also just for the fact that it owns).
After
Love Me, it's more solo Eminem. It is the title track of the album,
8 Mile, and is in close competition with
Lose Yourself for best song on the album. This song is about how Eminem has grown up, and needs to get across 8 Mile Road, and get to a better place so he can attempt to go somewhere with his life. It starts with a trainhorn, when the loud, heavy beat blasts in. The beat blends perfectly with the lyrics, and it makes for quite a strong song.
The final Eminem song to appear, and the last on the album, is
Rabbit Run, and though it is also classic, it does not quite make it to the strength of Eminem's other two motivational tracks. It is about three minutes long, and has no chorus, yet just gets louder until it ends. Eminem lets all of his emotions out during the song. Like the other three he completely paints a picture with his amazing lyrics.
50 Cent's
Wanksta has a great, unusual beat. The lyrics dis pretty hard. The song stays solid all the way through, and it was a great choice for the soundtrack. The other song of 50's included is pretty good, yet it doesn't quite deserve a mention. The other introduced artist, Obie Trice, gives us another excellent song. It has a large amount of anger, and is called
Adrenaline Rush. Damn, it sounds like Obie had an adrenaline rush when he recorded this. The chorus is a burst of loud profanity and violence, the lyrics are pissed, you can hear the anger in his voice, and the beat is that of a loud marching drum. Definately a highlight.
One of the legends to appear, Nas, gives a violent, intense song. The beat is literally scary, and he says that anyone pissed just wants to be him, hence the title
U Wanna Be Me. Another hard dis track, and another highlight. Some of the lyrics are so violent that they are also scary. The chorus and the flow/beats during it are unlike anything I've ever heard before, and all of these things make the song a highlight.
The D12 song,
Rap Game, features 50 Cent, who gives an
excellent chorus. The beat is unusual, yet great, and 50 and Em's verses especially own. The words come at you so fast and loud, after it starts out soft and slow, that they go right through your ears, before you hardly have a chance to think about them. Even Bizarre is kind of fast, and pretty good. It takes a lot for Bizarre to be good, and even more for him to be fast. But both at the same time? Damn. As always, though, his lyrics are
hilarious.
The two tracks that do not fit in, are
Time Of My Life, and
Wasting My Time. They are both by female singers, and as apposed to being rap, they are quite soft, and slow.
Time Of My Life sounds far too upbeat, so that it gets annoying, and for some reason seems to drag on. However, Boomkat's song(Wasting My Time), is actually fairly good, though it's typically not my style. She has a beautiful voice, and the song is somewhat relaxing. Both are sort of R&B style, though one is far better. Neither are quite highlights, but it least one is good. I wish that they would have replaced Macy Gray's(Time Of My Life) with a Dre track or something(I was disappointed it didn't have one of his tracks), or if it has to be that style, maybe some Dido or something.
I was satisfied with the fact that it has such a great collection of artists, and the Shady tracks are some of his best ever. If you want lots of good rappers, with few weak tracks, and few that aren't great, I would definately reccomend getting this.
The 3 worst are there just because I have 3 best. Only one is actually bad.
3 Best:
1.
Lose Yourself
2.
8 Mile
3.
Rabbit Run
3 Worst:
1.
Time Of My Life
2.
That's My Nigga Fo' Real
3.
Battle
