The best films are the ones that appeal to even people who don't "fit" the demographic. "This is the Life" puts me in the mind of the great Tupac documentary, "Resurrection," a film that even non-rap fans found appealing.
I had never heard of any of the people featured in this film and I'm not a huge rap fan...yet I just caught a lot of this documentary on TMC and I couldn't turn away. This film is top-notch, A+ on production. It flows well, it's informative, and you can tell that the people who put the film together had real love for the subject. (I think I saw at the end that the producer is herself a rapper of the era.) Basically, once you get past the initial "yuck, more rap crap" you might feel when first hearing some of the music, you'll find a gem of a documentary. 8/10 (took away two points because in general I find rap annoying, and found myself annoyed with some of it in the film as well, but not too much that it gets in the way of the overall quality.)
I had never heard of any of the people featured in this film and I'm not a huge rap fan...yet I just caught a lot of this documentary on TMC and I couldn't turn away. This film is top-notch, A+ on production. It flows well, it's informative, and you can tell that the people who put the film together had real love for the subject. (I think I saw at the end that the producer is herself a rapper of the era.) Basically, once you get past the initial "yuck, more rap crap" you might feel when first hearing some of the music, you'll find a gem of a documentary. 8/10 (took away two points because in general I find rap annoying, and found myself annoyed with some of it in the film as well, but not too much that it gets in the way of the overall quality.)