Seasoned battle rapper Marv Won has spent decades representing Detroit hip-hop but he still treasures memories of making “8 Mile” with Eminem.
Marv and his longtime collaborator Quest Mcody visited Math Hoffa’s “My Expert Opinion” podcast and spent good ten minutes going on about that memorable time. Memorable not only for them but the entire Detroit hip hop scene. As Marv explained, a lot of active players were involved in filming this story:
Everybody that was an extra in that movie was a rapper in the city of Detroit.
Mcody added that this approach reflected Marshall’s attitude to the city, his desire to help even back then:
People who say that Em don’t do shit or hasn’t done shit for the city outside of the philanthropy that isn’t promoted, I know for a fact that as a teenager I got paid a lot of money per hour to do absolutely nothing but stand around and meet some of the greatest rappers in the world.
What Marv described in the most precise detail was his perspective on a famous deleted battle scene from the movie. Initially, admitted Marv, he was hesitant to take part in this project at all but he gave up under the insistence of his manager. And defying his own expectations he was not only picked up for a role but ended up battling against Slim Shady:
What the director decided, was he was going to do a contest. We gonna pick three people to come up here and pantomime scenes. [Eminem] was going to rap, and it was going to be some b-roll. I was one of the niggas that made it to the finals. So they bring [Eminem] in, and they like alright, just spit a verse. I went second. […] It got more of a reaction than he wanted. And what people don’t know is he was rapping when the beat came on, but the mic was off, ’cause, remember, they cut the mic off. His voice was messed up.
Mcody interferes again to explain that apparently Marshall did not feel well on the set and had issues with his voice:
The whole scene [Eminem] was drinking honey. The whole time during these last few scenes because his voice was out. I’ve never seen… That’s how I learned to drink honey when you are losing your voice.
Having established with tenuous circumstances for Marshall, Marv got back to the story:
So the beat dropped, and he’s rapping but nobody hears it. And I’m trying not to break character, like “for real?” And I’ll never forget, he’s flipping his mic, and he’s like I got something for your fat ass, Marv. And he raps, and I’m like, “You can’t let me have this moment?”
No, Eminem was competitive like that, even off the script and with his voice struggling to keep up he could not bear to be beaten. Now, however, Marv does not have any hard feelings he actually is very appreciative of what this experience brought to him:
That shit literally changed my life. Not even on a money standpoint, but the fact that when that DVD dropped, they used that scene to sell DVDs. Up until that point, my mom thought I was wasting my time. Honestly, I had been all these places but it didn’t resonate. Until she’s looking at Entertainment Tonight and they’re playing the scene and the anchor, her name was Mary Heart and she’s like, “Well, good luck with your career Marv Won”. And it’s huge! For a kid from the hood, that’s huge. I was burying friends. So to be recognised for that and for them to make a decision to use me in that instance – I’m forever indebted, nobody can say anything bad about that man to me. That’s my actual man.
However, Marv noted, Eminem asked for a rematch once when Marv was at his house party and it certainly ascertains that Marv indeed won that movie battle.
Watch the segment from the podcast below:
Watch the deleted scene Marv discussed below:
