It’s interesting how something like break dancing has made it’s way into something as western as American Apparel.

It’s interesting how something like break dancing has made it’s way into something as western as American Apparel.

Movie Review Commentary: Beats, Rhymes and Life the Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

I saw Beats, Rhymes and Life the Travels of a Tribe Called Quest and I realized that what is passed off as a documentary has become so formal and thus formulaic that the whole paradigm of what one should expect from a documentary, photographically and narratively has got to be changed. There was no reason for such positive Black story to be so mishandled (from an aesthetic perspective– not even getting into how Michael Rappaport did them dirty on the business side).

A Tribe Called Quest is one of the Black community’s cultural treasures and it was sad to see them treated as if they were only worthy of a soap opera that didn’t even go in depth into what makes them important– THEIR MUSIC. Literally half the movie was about the beef between Phife and Tip, which doesn’t even seem to exist anymore. Plus it looked like it was shot on a phone.

The animation was dope though, so props to whoever did that. This film was also an excellent reminder of ATCQ’s genius and a reminder about how we don’t have anything like that anymore in Black music from the male perspective. We don’t have male Black musicians pushing the FORM en masse like it used to be.

Gotta push the form

I recently watched Art 21, a show about contemporary artists. William Kentridge was on and he was talking about how he decided never to write a script or storyboard or really prepare in any formal way for making his films (they are animated) and I thought about how much preparation, planning, scripting, concepting, story boarding and just life and creative energy has gone into HWUF. On the other end of the process, when the art is done, you can’t actually feel any of that preparation. No one knows or cares…you as the artist don’t even care.

So I think after this film is done I’m gonna improvise a feature film, shoot it on film and do all the edits in camera. What you will see, is the film played out as it was shot, the way William Kentridge approached the animation. I’m pretty sure I will do that, it will take about a month I think.

I’m now hyper interested in working fast.

I recently spent a bunch of time shooting the pick-ups for this music video called Back to You. This song is by a Dutch rap group called L4. It’s going to be really dope and I will share it with you when it is done in a few weeks. In the meantime, here is a picture from the shoot.

Special shout-out and thank yous to Haby Berry of Emane Marketing, Ruby Amanze, Fatou Berry, Derrick & Narieda Flemming Small, Nalijah and Brianna for providing acting services for Back to You.

It was a rewarding and beautiful experience, but I look forward to the day when this all comes together a bit smoother.

I recently spent a bunch of time shooting the pick-ups for this music video called Back to You. This song is by a Dutch rap group called L4. It’s going to be really dope and I will share it with you when it is done in a few weeks. In the meantime, here is a picture from the shoot.

Special shout-out and thank yous to Haby Berry of Emane Marketing, Ruby Amanze, Fatou Berry, Derrick & Narieda Flemming Small, Nalijah and Brianna for providing acting services for Back to You.

It was a rewarding and beautiful experience, but I look forward to the day when this all comes together a bit smoother.

There are 2 great reasons to watch this video.

1) Imany is one of the most beautiful women EVER.

2) The director of this video, Andrew Dosunmu, is a BK resident. I know him and he directed Afro Dance for Les Nubians who we (Embassay MVMT) represent.

There are 2 great reasons to watch this video.

1) Imany is one of the most beautiful women EVER.

2) The director of this video, Andrew Dosunmu, is a BK resident. I know him and he directed Afro Dance for Les Nubians who we (Embassay MVMT) represent.

I have been working on quite a lot over the last few days. I’ll start with some very good news about How Would You Feel? – the compositing for Volume 5 is almost done (let’s say 60%). Sneak peak of an image from Volume 5 coming your way soon.

I am especially excited because I have been working with some of the same stop motion animators that worked on one of my all time favorite animation movies – The Fantastic Mr.Fox. It’s a good story in a  well executed animation.

If you are in the Dallas, Texas area on July 21st, you should check out NorvisJr (my brother). He’ll be performing live at Dreamworld Music Complex at 7pm.

Buy Tickets

Click here to view the embedded video.