Reviews

This documentary was extreme. I was born in 1991, so it was an educational history lesson for me too. I was entertained the whole time and you see the connections between the LA Riots and hip hop artists and groups mainly N.W.A. and Snoop Dogg. It all started when police officers pulled an African American man named Rodney King over. They dragged him out of his car and beat him nearly to death. This is not an unusual thing for police officers to do, but this was the first time someone caught it on camera. The video footage was used in court, but still all officers were not guilty in the eyes of the law meaning that it was okay what they did. This was a message to black people saying that law enforcement is allowed to violate your rights and beat you till near death. Once the news was out that they were not guilty, the riots started. Citizens started to attack police officers and their vehicles to the point that law enforcement pulled every officer out of the area for weeks. Fights broke out in the streets and any white person seen got attacked with bricks bats and more. Looting started and fires broke out too. This documentary surprised me the whole way through. I highly recommend it.

This documentary focused on the cocaine generation to the crack generation. It seemed that young African Americans living in poverty had no choice but to get involved in illegal drugs, either as users and/or as dealers. At first it seemed to be a cool and sexy drug, but then people start to get burned out and problems start. This film took a surprising turn when they focused on the law enforcement and political side to the story. For many, hip hop was the only way out of the drug game. They do focus a lot on the hip hop side and they go in depth about what they are rapping about. Many hip hop artists were drug dealers and now they rap about their past experiences. Most are still stuck in the drug game and have no way out besides jail or death. You get interviews from Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, Pepa, Too $hort, Freeway Ricky Ross, Azie, B-Real, RZA, Raekwon, and more. This documentary makes me think back on my favorites songs and I can find some hidden messages from artists such as KRS-One, Rakim, Ice-T, Kurtis Blow, Kool Moe Deep, LL Cool J, and more. This film was interesting and fun and I recommend it to anyone who is interested or ignorant about hip hop and black culture.

I had a lot of fun watching this documentary. The Block Party looked like a lot of fun. You get a good look of Dave Chapelle behind the scenes. You also get a good behind the scenes look at many hip hop artists and groups such as: Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Common, Erika Badu (who takes off her huge wig), the Roots, Lauren Hill, Wyclef Jean, Dead Prez, Kanye West, and many more. Like I said, this movie is very fun to watch. It does start slow, but you get into it. It's very funny and interesting and it makes you wish you were their. I hope he eventually does another Block Party and I wouldn't miss that for the world. I was very surprised about how funny some rappers are back stage. Like Dave Chapelle says "all rappers want to be comedians and all comedians want to rap and personally, I'm descent at both, but found a way to make money." You also see Dave Chapelle in his home town and school and everyone gives him love. They're all proud of him and they respect him and this was cool to see. He made a lot of people happy by throwing this Block Party. If you like Hip Hop or comedy, then you'll enjoy this.

I've always been a hip hop fan and was always interested in A Tribe Called Quest. Before watching it, I knew a couple of their songs, but not enough. I was hoping to leave the movie theater ending up a huge Quest fan. Unfortunately, this didn't happen immediately, because the documentary didn't focus on the music as much as I would have liked it to. This movie did inspire me to do some research and about 3 weeks later, I have learned pretty much everything about A Tribe Called Quest. I was surprised about how much drama and how many problems behind the scenes they had. Phife Dawg (the 2nd MC of A Tribe Called Quest) suffers from diabetes and Q-Tip (the leader of A Tribe Called Quest) "took the gym teacher approach with Phife" and that eventually broke the group up. Q-Tip would push Phife into working-out and eating right, but Phife couldn't get over his food/sugar addictions and he resented Q-Tip for this. This resentment eventually escalates to the point where they could not and should not stay as a group. If their no love, they should split up. Unfortunately, Ali (a 3rd member of Quest) was stuck in the middle of these arguments and just watch friendships end. The story has an upsetting ending, but I now understand why the group has broken up. A Tribe Called Quest was really a revolutionary group for hip hop and they made incredible music.

Their are also a lot of interviews from producers and other hip hop artists/groups like: Common, De La Soul, Mos Def, and more.

The documentary also has a cool part where Q-Tip uses vinyl 2 turntables to create the beat for Can I Kick It? (their most popular song). I was very impressed with Q-Tip's creativity and intelligence.

If you are a hip hop fan, then you'll love them. It shows you everything about rappers and their beefs. It shows you the first beef and how rappers realized that if you diss artists or groups, you'll get more publicity = more radio time = more fans = more popularity = more money and fame. It truly is amazing to see how beef changes artists and makes them grow. Unfortunately some don't end well, but sometimes they squash it and they do a collaboration together. It also showed me the meaning behind some lyrics in some of my favorite songs. The best part is that I have learned a lot of new tracks from watching these. By the end of each episode, you can find out which hip hop artists are really hood (Ice Cube) and which are just fake and Hollywood (Lil Wayne). The interviews are interesting and who ever the edited the show and put everything together is a genius. They touch on most beefs and explain a lot. Sometimes it's not why the beef started, but where it ends up. Most of the time it's just a misunderstanding.

For a low budget movie, it was well done. The storyline is great. It all takes place in 1 day. And does a great job of showing you the struggles of entering the music business and the struggles of being a top hip hop artist. AThe acting was fine. Wood Harris is awesome. This movie is so underrated. For me, this movie is right under Juice and Friday and right above Belly and Hustle & Flow. It had a lot of guest rappers like Big Daddy Kane, Lil' Scrappy, Petey Pablo, Trick Daddy, Ja Rule, and more. Like all hip hop movies, this one has an explosive ending. More people should have seen this movie. Shame it didn't get promoted well, because it deserves more recognition.

Soundtrack isn't bad either

Before watching this, I didn't even know how Jam Master Jay died. If you are a hip hop fan, or an old school fan, or just like well done documentaries, then this is for you. I had no idea how big a role Jam Master Jay had on Run-D.M.C., on future DJs everywhere, and on other hip hop artists. Jam Master Jay found created so many artists and groups that I wouldn't of expected. The first half is about him and music and Run-D.M.C. It also focuses a lot on his upbringing and his home town. The last half is about his death. Unfortunately his killers' identities have not been discovered yet. The Jam Master Jay case was very complicated and had a lot of variables in it and detectives can't even find a suspect with a motive to kill such a great man. The biggest thing that I got from this documentary is that Jam Master Jay inspired a lot of artists and his impact on hip hop still effects us today. The story is very sad, but it's educational as well