,” the 2002 film based on the life of Eminem, who came up in Detroit’s battle-rap scene. In the form’s earlier incarnation, contestants would rap to a beat for about a minute or two and trade rounds; in the iconic final scene of “8 Mile,” for example, Eminem’s raps about Cranbrook, a private school, are accompanied by the instrumental track for Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones, Pt. II.”
There are unspoken rules that dictate whether something has crossed the line or not: a white rapper, for example, was punched in the face for saying the N-word during a recent battle. “When it’s clearly from someone that’s ignorant or has no taste, we notice that,” Dizaster said.
If all this sounds terrible to you, I understand. But these battles also provide a pretty honest view of how identity is talked about in much of America. “I really got a clear understanding of how a lot of other non-Asian people view Asian people,” Dumbfoundead said. “They only knew us for, like, four or five different things, reference me to the same three, like, Asian celebrities, you know, whether it was Bruce Lee, Lucy Liu, or whatnot.