The 313
Now everybody from the 313, put your motherfucking hands in the air and follow me!.
Those are the well known words of Jimmy Smiths third freeslyle in 8 Mile.
One of Marshalls songs featuring Eye Kyu on the Infinite album is called 313.
In this song Eminem claims:
Man what you know about a sweet MC in the 313
None of these skills you bout to see come free
So you wanna be a sweet MC you better become me
If you ever wanna be one see…
Eminem made the Detroit underground popular. He made Detroit outsiders like many of his fans (including me) focus a real interest on the Detroit neighborhood. Thats also the reason why you could hardly focus an interest on Eminem and ignore black history in Detroit.
Eminem used to live in the 313. The references to the 313 are so numerous in this albums from Infinite to the 8 Mile soundtrack.
Eminem is proud of where he came from and to have made it.
What is exactly the 313 in Detroit? The 313 refers to the phone dialling code in Michigan. People from the 313 are viewed as cool in the ghetto while people from the former 810 call code would be described as rather uncool and as sellouts.
To be real and to keep it real, you gotta live in the 313.
It is also interesting to notice that the Detroit 313 has it own slang. Here are some examples of the 313 slang which I have found on this website:
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:IkeLWvzqVcMJ:www.waferbaby.com/brainstorm/slang/2/+detroit+slang+313&hl=en&lr=lang_en
scrimp scampy:as in gettin’ played.
u playin me scrimp scampi.
fenna/fixin/fensta:as in about to.
we fenna go to da store.
joed:hit in tha mouth.
dat bitch got joed!
hoed:as in cussed out.
you got hoed.
oh boy:as in for real or please believe it.
oh boy!
fo sho:keepin it real or please believe it or yeah.
fo sho, we goin’!
dance’s: jit, tic, hiproll, popin’.
As Proof points it out in a remix of 50 Cents Many Men, it is hard to survive in the 313 where violence , murder and poverty belong to the allday problems. Abandonned buildings in the Highland Park area also belong to the numerous problems the Detroit underground has to face, as 8 Mile illustrates it very well.
Turner Johnson the president and the co-founder of the Michigan neighborhood partnership points it out:
It is devastating to see the tremendous neglect and abandonment in Detroit”
To non Detroiter Eminem fans like me, the Motor City is attractive, because many of them want to find out why the city has been inspirational to so many various and talented artists of so many different musical genres. Detroit is certainly one of Eminems biggest source of inspiration.
The Detroit history is also a city of racial segregation and the 8 Mile border constantly reminds of of the racial border between Blacks and Whites.
What makes Eminems story particularly interesting is also the fact that he experienced this racial segregation as white man in a black majority. A man who has fought for his acceptance in a black landscape. Eminem is remarquable, because despite the fact that he was constantly bullied by black kids and that he nearly lost his life as a teenager being theatened by Blacks holding a gun against him, he never retaliated, but he acknowledged black culture as his own culture.
Jimmy Smiths power in the 8 Mile song is certainly the clear reference to the 313, because he is proud of the area he represents and he is no longer scared by the Free World leaders:
I got the urge, suddenly it’s a surge
Suddenly a new burst of energy has occured
Time to show these free world leaders a three and the third
I am no longer scared now, I’m free as a bird
Then I turn and cross over the median curve
Hit the burbs and run and see it’s a blur, an 8 mile road.
Comments
6 responses to “The 313”
Alot of your “slang” is wrong….I live in Michigan so I’m gonna correct it for you.
NO ONE says scrimp scampy…flat out
joed…means hoed, insulted if you will
maybe you meant stole….”damn she stoled on that bitch”….but thats old
lol I just came across this shit and had to laugh my ass off for the fact that you based it off a fucking movie.
Eminem didn’t live in Detroit. He lied about it, he lived across 8 mile. Hanging with Proof gave him his street cred, without Proof Em wouldn’t have made it anywhere. Eminem is from a 810 area code so dude was a sell out before he made it. 8 mile isn’t shit and it’s funny to see outsiders act like it is. 7Mile, 6 Mile, Fenkle. You wanna see where real life is, take you ass down to Cass Corridors. Search about Big Ed, Masarati Rick, YBI, or the Chambers Bros. (New Jack City was based off them)
u dont no no nothin bout detroit u cant jus watch 8 mile an think u no eryting here i tell u bout the real detroit
first off its bums everywhere an if u thought crackheads was bad u should see heroin addicts they will bumrush yo ass need the bread 4 the addiction
o yea here how detroiters really talk
wadup doe- means was up was good shit like that often said like dis wadup doe boy was good ma nicca
bread- money gotta get ma bread game up cuz im broke as hell
custos- customers ay nicca guess wat i brought ya , huh, CUSTOOOS!!!, awe shit!!!
buterhead- a girl that erything look good buterhead lol
bustos- hoes lookit dem ugly ass bustos i ont think dey makin shit wit dey stanken ass
one- like peace or stay up i gotto go my niggs one
ol boy/girl/dude- mean like that person man i herd ol dude from the bar was talkin shit
Tunk- a card game ment to be fast an easy i bet i beat u at tunk , i bet u wont DUUUBS!!!!
u can tell someone is from detroit or even MI 4 that matter if
any word ending with ing is jus in mornin borin warnin an words with t in the middle become d ciddy tiddy but sometimes we pronounce are ts with a eh sound like mitten mi-ehn but it hard to explain in the hood we pronounce many words with l like this little, liddo, roll, ro,
if the words is slured together wachagon do weni beatuponya bitch
yeah i guess dis shyt is funny bt i love detroit and i would take a bullet 4 mih city. born and raised in detroit,michigan and lovein mih hood wayz ya dig and any bitch can hate on meh if they want 2 but i still and i will even if yu wont
i luv all mih hata’s and thats 4rm tha heart y’all mih motivation
Wadup doe Im 4rm detroit n i will pop on eny who sayin detroit whack u niggas bogus who think dat dawg i wus born raised in detroit on da westside wabash st. da hood aint nothin but like ol dude said in his comment heroin addicts crack fiends in our ciddy its crazy yo’ but enyways im outta whoeva dude wus who wrote dat fake whack shiddy stankin ass slang fo tha d kill ur wannabe detroit ass peace out one
“Fuck dick-sucking, dirty mother-fucking Detroit”