Film,Soundtracks, and Black Music

Every so often, I'll watch a movie. And when I watch a movie as a music fan in general, I have to hear the soundtracks. For me, a great soundtrack could make or break a movie.  As predicted, a bad soundtrack, could really piss me off and make me become highly uninterested in a movie or show no matter how good it might be.

For example, Check out this trailer for The Interview:

This trailer is laced with Black music, and so is the entire movie. But the context of the songs is so very wrong. What does EnVogue's "Free Your Mind" have to do with anything in the movie? I saw this film and all I came away with was, what does Syl Johnson's "Is It Because I'm Black" have to do with the main characters walking up to the fortress?  That song is a very heavy song that was done unjustly by inserting it into a movie that falls into a comedy genre.  This had some great potential, but all of the misplacement of Black music, and the fake Black slang was a huge turnoff for me. I had to give it one star in hopes nothing like that would show up in my Netflix feed ever again. 

Another instance is the Deadpool trailers. Here's the first one

Here's the second one:

What does Salt N Peppa's "Shoop" have to do with the trailer? Does he sex somebody down in the movie?  In this case, I 'd have to see the movie to find out, but I suspect it doesn't fit in the entire movie. That placement of Shoop really turned me off. 

It's like the people who use Black music in their movies have no concept of context. It's like they go, "Dude! Here is a really cool Black song to put riiiight here! It'll be, like sooo awesome!"  Except with The Interview, they decided to create something of a White Blaxploitation film sprinkled with horrible slang.  It's like they don't really know anybody whose Black for real, and they had no Black writers, but somebody told them to "Black it up and make it feel more, ummm urban, ya know? Kay, thanks guys!" And a lot of the films have just one Black person in them. I don't remember if there were any Black faces in The Interview, and I probably won't see Deadpool because I'm an asshole like that when it comes to soundtracks. 

All I ask is for some accurate context for the placement of Black music in these films, especially if the show has no Black people in them and has Black music recklessly strewn throughout the entire thing. 

Am I asking too much?  Knowing the history of this sort of thing, I probably am. 

Mikey Bustos's "Twerk It Like Miley Parody/ I Have A Brown Body.

For those who know me, they know I like positive hip hop. I also like parody music every one in a while. That being said, check out  Mikey Bustos's "Twerk It Like Miley Parody/ I Have A Brown Body.





I like his message. He's basically saying, "Love the skin you're in and accept no adversity to it." This is a powerful  message because White supremacy has caused people to want to bleach their skin, and alter themselves in order to distance themselves from the darkness of their skin in order to appear so called "acceptable." This video is noteworthy to me because it seemed like the only race fighting against this thing was the Black people in the United States. It seemed that other people would distance themselves from that fight and continue to do whatever they can in order to appear more acceptable to White people and their sensibilities.  He appears to be the first international artist to openly do so and that gives a bit of respect in my book. Hopefully more artists will follow suit. 

Hip hop has been waiting for Nezi Momodu. It's always a 

treat to hear a dope MC whose a woman.





Her mixtape is available on Soundcloud:

X - Catch The Beat

Tryna catch the beat.

 

 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itsxmusic/catch-the-beat

 Website: www.itsxmusic.com

It's been a long time...

I shouldn't have left you...without a dope beat to step to.


That being said, Sorry about that. But I'll make it up to you, I promise. I'll bring you Busdriver;s latest mixtape called "Thumbs". He's out of LA and has one of the most interesting flows in hip hop. He's been rapping for a long time too. He's heavily understated and underrated.  Anyway, here's  a taste:



Pick it up at Itunes.

Look what I found!

I Don't Camoflauge: A behind the scenes look at how rap artists, and participants of the culture look at the idea of trying to "fit in" and how they handled this idea when they first encountered it.

The Problem With Ms. Hill (formerly known as Lauryn Hill)

I saw this article that Vibe Magazine put out and I decided I'd say something about it. Here's the video footage of the alleged "Kanye moment" as mentioned by the writer of this article.




 I get sick of people talking big shit on her. Sure, she had kids by a guy who she didn't marry and he was out (for lack of a better phrase) fucking and ducking. He broke her heart and she lost her mind for a while. That sort of thing happens to a LOT of people. Why did people shame her for that? She wrote about her relationships, and various things that happen in her life and people balked about what she had to say. They said she was trying to be "holier than thou" and trying to preach to people. I saw it as her trying to tell people what she had been through. Sure she did get at some men, but so what? Men shit on women CONSTANTLY in rap songs and no one bats an eye. She said something about some of the men she's been with or know about (without using or making up any derogatory slurs towards said men, might I add) and everybody was saying things like "Fuck that dumb bitch. She think she's too good, etc, etc." I guess women aren't allowed to mention said things (the aftermath of Nikki Minaj's Looking Ass Nigga was a great example of that) , but men can throw women under the bus all day and night and make up new slurs for all of the women they ran across. That shit is not cool at all. 

She's late to her shows. What planet are people on when they think a show is going to start on time? Shows NEVER, EVER start on time. At least she came to the shows and didn't use a stand in like MF Doom did, and yet people are still buying Doom's records. They said it was a "dick move" for him to do such a thing and left it at that. But oh no. Not Ms. Hill. She can't get a pass. Nope. And people want to say that she's rude. Newsflash! there are a LOT of rude artists out there, and I bet a lot of them are ruder than her. So What? If she's "rude to you" then don't see her play. Plain and simple. Nobody is twisting these people's arms or holding them at gunpoint and making them see the shows. If she is late to every show, people should expect that and prepare for it, since it's common knowledge in this case. In fact, this is the reason why I don't go to most shows. I just don't have the time these days. 

She is far from perfect, and is a flawed person. She's trying to get along in this world while people try to grasp at excuses to not like her. Whether it's for her music (That Thing, or any other song she wrote to blast on her ex-es WITHOUT male bashing slurs, might I add), or alleged "craziness" or not paying taxes. That being said, I haven't seen anybody talk shit on Wesley Snipes for not paying taxes, and he's been in jail for a while. In fact Murs wrote a song on the White Mandingo album called 'Free Wesley Snipes." If my memory is correct, people were mad that he got locked up and all of the Wall Street people are not locked up. People said that Wesley Snipes got locked up because he was Black, and people were mad about it. Why does Ms Hill get looked at in a different light? Sounds like she ought to write a follow up song to Mos Def's "Mr. N!gga" because it looks like she's getting the Ms. N!gga treatment to me. I'm just sayin.