brown sugar

i love hip hop movies. by that, i don't mean the run of the mill black comedies with a hip hop soundtrack ... i'm talking along the lines of scratch, brown sugar, and wild style.

good hip hop movies put me in the best moods ... and even more so, when i'm in bad moods, the feeling will usually passes within the first 5 minutes of a good hip hop movie. today, for whatever reason, i wasn't in the best of moods. i was antsy and wanted to get out and do something, but unfortunately, no one to do something with. toss in some other random stuff, and i wasn't in a good mood (though i knew it'd be gone by the morning). now, i don't like being in bad moods, and when i felt it coming, i turned to one of the things i can always count on. hip hop. i toss in brown sugar, and like that, all smiles. i LOVE the first 5-10 minutes of that movie (i actually didn't watch much passed that). if you haven't watched it, you definitely should. or watch it with me, and you'll see me smiling like a kid in a candy shop.

anyways, here is a list of some good hip hop movies.

1. wave twisters
dj qbert put out an album by the same name in 1998. the whole album was him scratching sounds, samples, and other records to create a story. in 2003, with the help of some producers and animators, qbert released wave twisters the movie. no sounds besides what was on qbert's album were added. the animation was made to match the album. in theory, if you muted the movie and played the album at the right time, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. pretty cool visual effects.



2. wild style
the original hip hop movie. talk about old school. you get to see grandmaster flash, one of the pioneers of hip hop, with his turntables setup in his kitchen scratching.








3. tupac resurrection
i am HUGE tupac fan. i have all his cds, read biographies, read his poetry, seen the movies he's acted in, and even threw a party on the anniversary of his death once (awesome party ... ask me about it some time). this movie is biographical ... but narrated by him. the producers took sound bites of his words and corresponded them to the events in his life ... even his death. very well done.





4. scratch
awesome turntablism documentary with some of the best dj's out there. i still remember the first time i saw it. much like earlier today, i was not in a good mood. people were being flakey and annoying, and quite simply, i got fed up with the bullshit. i walked my ass down to landmark theaters in berkeley and watched the movie by myself (i actually watched brown sugar in the theaters by myself for much the same reason). starting with the first beat, my bad mood vanished. the movie starts with gang starr's 'dj premier in deep concentration,' and anyone that knows me well knows that i LOVE gang starr and i LOVE dj premier (though both aren't what they used to be). i was in heaven.

5. brown sugar
awesome movie about a girl's love of hip hop and about the strange relationship between her and a long time friend. AWESOME AWESOME movie ... especially when you throw in the funny mos def.







i know there are many other good hip hop movies, but these are the ones that i am most familiar it. go see them all. besides scratch, i have all those movies at my place, and you're more than welcome to come over and watch. actually, if you want to see scratch, i'll gladly go out and add it to my collection for you.