After listening to seven unreleased tracks by Seattle hiphop act Grayskul, I became certain they would be the new year’s main hiphop event in the Pacific Northwest. In 2003, that title was unquestionably held by the Lifesavas, who are signed to San Francisco’s Quannum Projects; for 2004, though, it will be Grayskul, who are currently […]
Charles Mudede
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Unkind Words
Many Love In America. I Don’t.
In America dir. Sheridan Opens Fri Dec 12 Fox Tower Writing a bad review of In America is much like making fun of a person with special needs. It’s a mean thing to do. Like a person composing a poem, the director and the actors seem to have put every part of their heart into […]
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Unreal Rapper
Tupac’s Myth Unfounded
Tupac: Resurrection dir. Lazin Opens Fri Nov 14 Various Theaters Please don’t shoot me for saying this, but I really never cared for Tupac as a rapper. He made no real contribution to the form itself, and outside of a few rather maudlin songs about his mother, or being a complex thug, he had nothing […]
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Heavy Research
The Mind of Professor Peanut Butter Wolf
Peanut Butter Wolf Fri Nov 7 Ohm Founded in the mid ’90s by LA-based DJ Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw Records has released numerous 12″s and CDs, the best of which are Rasco’s Time Waits for No Man (1998), which produced a street hit, “The Unassisted”; Lootpack’s Soundpieces: Da Antidote (1998); Quasimoto’s The Unseen (2000); […]
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Sex First, Courtship Second
Anthony Hopkins Ain’t Black
The Human Stain dir. Benton Opens Fri Oct 31 Various Theaters The Human Stain is based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. It concerns the last days of a Jewish professor who teaches classics at a small New England university. The year is 1998, and a semen stain on Monica Lewinsky’s […]
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Where It’s At
Sun Ra’s Utopian Vision
Space is the Place dir. Coney Opens Fri Sept 12 Mississippi Records Parking Lot As a member of the Afrofuturist movement, which counts artists like Nalo Hopkinson, Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), and Kodwo Eshun as its prominent figures, I can safely say that Space is the Place is our cinematic bible. Despite its very […]
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Beautiful Failure
Dirty Pretty Things’ Conventional Interpretations
Dirty Pretty Things dir. Frears Opens Fri Aug 15 Various Theaters I’m sad to announce that Dirty Pretty Things is a failure. True, it is a beautiful failure, as it is beautifully shot, with beautiful set designs, and beautiful actors (Amistad‘s Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays, with great success, a fallen but still noble Nigerian doctor, […]
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SARS Attacks!
28 Days Later Captures the Horror of Our Times
28 Days Later dir. Boyle Opens Fri June 27 Various Theaters No book or painting could have captured the late ’90s better than The Matrix; no sonata or sculpture could have better captured the post-Iraq War 2 mood than X2. The same can also be said about Danny Boyle’s new film, 28 Days Later. If […]
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Eddie Griffin
He’s No Richard Wright
DysFunktional Family dir. Gallo Opens Fri April 4 Various Theaters The one thing this documentary of comedian Eddie Griffin’s return to his hometown of Kansas City proves is that pure luck is all you need to become famous in America. Where else in the whole wide world could a semiliterate insect of a human being […]
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The Hiphop Warpath
Boot Camp Clik and Das EFX
Boot Camp Clik, Das EFX Thurs Jan 23 Berbati’s When describing the early days of hiphop (1976-1984), critics and hiphop historians are in the habit of saying things like, “There was a sense of community” or “a sense of unity” or “a humble dedication to the art rather than bling, guns, and hos.” The birth […]
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The New Old School
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien Roseland Sat Nov 16 Del Tha Funkee Homosapien is a highly evolved species of MC. In fact, he is not so much an MC as an MC’s MC; he subsists on a thousand rap practices and ideas that have emerged, cohered, and hardened over the 20 or so years of hiphop’s […]
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Stengths, Weaknesses
The Obsessions of M. Night Shyamalan
Signs dir. M. Night Shyamalan Opens Fri Aug 2 Various Theaters First, the things I admire about M. Night Shyamalan’s past three films (his first two films are not worth considering): He is one of the few directors who, at the Hollywood level, has developed a distinctive, cinematic world and language. As with the modernist […]