Papa Doc

Papa Doc is the main antagonist in the semi-biographical drama film 8 Mile, he is a gang leader of "Tha Free World", whom are the local rivals of Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith and his friends.

Papa Doc frequently torments B-crew, even threatening them with violence and weapons, but in the end, B-Rabbit defeats Papa Doc and his gang by exposing all of the latter's secrets, proving he is a wannabe, Anthony Mackie played him in both his film debut and his first villain role.

Background
On the Rich Eisen Show, Anthony Mackie recalls a never-before-told story about the ultimate battle between B-Rabbit (Eminem) and Papa Doc from the film "8 Mile", actor Anthony Mackie, best known for his role in Marvel Studios films, reveals a never-before-told behind-the-scenes story from the set of his 2002 film '8 Mile' in which he collaborated with Detroit rapper Eminem, Anthony says:

"“There was this one day, we were sitting on the set and Eminem comes over and he’s like ‘what’s up man, I was reading a script and there is no reason for me not to like you, you are cool dude, I like you’ and then I said ‘I like you too.’ And then he was like ‘Cool, So you don’t mind if I add some stuff in the script about you? I was like ‘About me or the character?’. He’s like ‘no, no just some character stuff’. I’m like yeah no problem. So before the entire 8 Mile final battle, he googles me and learns about me and all that stuff he basically makes fun of me as Papa Doc. [Laughs] And then I’m like ‘That’s a little personal Mr. Marshall… I grew up in a nice house, my parents were nice to me, why are you making fun of me [Everyone laughs]. He literally walked over and said this gonna be dope.”"

From his statement above, Anthony Mackie realized Eminem planned to embarrass him on stage by using real information from his life During the shot of the final rap battle. Mackie admits that everything Eminem said was true, but he didn't think it was fair that the rapper was getting so personal with him. Mackie was determined to defend himself and asked director Curtis Hanson if he could fight back. Unfortunately, Hanson had no desire to add additional battles to the script.

Appearance in 8 Mile
Papa Doc first appears at the beginning of the film, rapping against "Shorty Mike" at the shelter, with the support of The Leaders Of Tha Free World. He wins the tournament by defeating "Shorty Mike" He is later seen with The Leaders Of Tha Free World in the parking lot, heckling the people and B-Rabbit's crew, When B-Rabbit pulls Lyckety-Splyt's feet, that would cause him to hit his head off the car, both teams of people get into a fight. Wink tells Papa Doc to put his gun away after he tries to use it. When B-Rabbit drives up to them and punches Lotto, Papa Doc is seen with The Leaders of Tha Free World fighting B-Rabbit's crew once more.

Later on, he assists The Leaders of Tha Free World in beating up B-Rabbit for beating up Wink. Papa Doc was last seen rapping with B-Rabbit and allowing B-Rabbit to go first. In his freestyle, B-Rabbit acknowledges his lower-class roots as well as the comments made by the Free World members against him in their rap battles, such as Wink having sex with Alex, Rabbit being jumped, Cheddar Bob shooting himself in the leg, and Future being viewed as an Uncle Tom, before exposing Papa Doc's privileged background of attending Cranbrook and living at home in a stable two-parent household (information Rabbit had found out at a party at Wink's house), shaming Papa Doc for trying to pass himself off as a gangster when his life was easy compared to B-Rabbit. Papa Doc, who has nothing to use against Rabbit as he has acknowledged everything, chokes and leaves the shelter with The Leaders Of Tha Free World