Gerald L. Sanders

Gerald L. Sanders or known as Strike is a rapper who played Lyckety-Splyt in 8 Mile, he was part of the early 2000s rap group The Mountain Climbaz.

Background on

According to Eminem News, Eminem wanted to stay as true and authentic as possible in 8 Mile. It meant he would be confronted in all his battles by real rappers, actual MCs, who at that time were often wrong. It was necessary to save Strike himself from prison, Eminem uses his money to bail a rapper out of a jail, He cast a number of local Detroit emcees to compete with him in the film's competition scenes, but Sanders,, reveals he nearly missed out on the opportunity to work with Eminem on camera after ending up behind bars, to even appear at the scene of the fire. He recalled later that:

"It was funny because I was on the run from the feds at that time. When we pulled up to the [auditions], we actually thought it was the feds. At that time I was in the streets, carrying guns. My manager was like, “If they try to arrest you, I’ll shoot in the air, you run!” [Later,] Em done bailed me out on my attempted murder case. Proof went to him to get the money for that."

Carrer

He appeared in other films and played "Five Thirteen" in 2013 and "American Sharia" in Malcom X in 2015. But, according to media reports, his turn to star "8 Mile" has almost never happened, He told XXL Hip Hop magazine, "I was running from the feds at that time," when he went to the audition.