Movies aren’t my only passion, music is another one. Although I don’t create it (anymore), it has always been a big part of my life (as I’m sure it is for most of you).
I wrote a guest post for Chris over at moviesandsongs365 about my 10 favorite hip hop songs. Head on over to his site to check out which songs have made the cut and let me know what you think of the choices.
Yesterday was the European premiere of this documentary directed by Ice-T. As I’ve been listening to rap close to 20 years I was excited to see this. Just looking at the trailer you will be amazed by the amount of well-known rappers that have participated in the making of this movie about their style of music. Ice-T interviews rappers who were there when it all just started, people like Afrika Bambaata, Doug E. Fresh and Melle Mel, but also artists whose star rose during the nineties (Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Treach from Naughty By Nature etc) and early start of this century (Kanye West, Eminem).
The documentary which was shown simultaneously in various countries with a live Q&A session streamed to the cinema I was in afterwards (which was also attended by Chuck D, Raekwon and Melle Mel, who all performed) held at the Apollo in London. So as a big fan of hip hop, what did I think of The Art of Rap? Continue reading
After my review of yesterday’s Sound of Noise I just happened to watch another movie which has a strong link to music. Yesterday’s movie was a lot more light-hearted than this one though as the music is just one small part of the story. Continue reading
Music is a big part of movies and is used to enhance the feelings you have about something that’s happening. When it’s done well you might not even notice it is there. It’s something that happens a lot to me and when I read other reviews commenting how great the music was I often don’t remember any. Sound of Noise is a Swedish movie where you will not forget it easily as music is what this movie is about. To be more specific, it’s about terrorist musicians (and is not what you might think it is reading that). Continue reading
I’m a big fan of the movie Once. If you have not seen it and like romantic movies I suggest you check it out. It’s about a street artist who falls in love with a girl he meets and the two create music together. The songs were great (the movie won an Oscar) and it’s one of the few movies where I still listen to the soundtrack. The roles were played by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who at the time were a real life couple. They formed a band (The Swell Season) and toured a lot. Continue reading
As a hip hop fan I’ve been listening to it for years and enjoy the music, but I always have this double feeling when listening to it. It’s not the kind of music you can play any time of the day, because of the extreme lyrics. Would you play it in front of your kids? I won’t because most of them are really unacceptable. They are usually not respectful to others, have a steady stream of curses, lots of violence and an image which I really don’t like. So it’s a bit of a love/hate relationship and generally I listen to it by myself. Byron Hurt had that same feeling and decided to dig deeper into the cause of this and ask why rappers feel like they have to show their superiority and masculinity. Continue reading
During the nineties A Tribe Called Quest was one of hip hop’s biggest groups who had various hits like “Can I Kick It”, “I left my wallet in El Segundo” and “Scenario (feat. Busta Rhymes”. The group fell apart in 1998 but did get back together from time to time to do a show. They didn’t make any more albums. Michael Rapaport, who’s a big fan of hip hop, decided to make a documentary about the group, interviewing all the band’s members and capturing one of their performances during the Rock the Bells tour (which they did to support Phife Dawg as he needed money to treat his diabetes). This documentary goes back into their history, tells why they were so succesful, but also the reasons behind their breakup. Continue reading
Hip hop is a world which is dominated by men. This is usually also the case for the audience. If you’d ask me to name 20 female MCs I would have a harder time to do so compare to male rappers. Say My Name looks at the women in hip hop and tries to find out how they experience this. A lot of well-known MCs are interviewed (Remy Ma, Rah Digga, Jean Grae, Erykah Badu, Estelle, MC Lyte, Roxxanne Shante and Monie Love) and some which are lesser known (Chocolate Thai, Invincible and Miz Korona) out of the US hip hop and UK grime scenes. Continue reading
If someone would hand you a piece of paper and would tell you that you’d have a minute to write down a poem, would you be able to write one that makes sense? What if you didn’t have the piece of paper and had to think of something on the spot. It would need to rhyme, have a rhythm and a flow, would you be able to do that? This is the world of the freestyle, in which rappers show how quickly they can think, say it and at the same time tell a story. It’s something which takes a lot of practice and when you are thinking of the next thing to say your mind is in a different place compared to what your mouth is doing (saying something you already thought up). This documentary focusses on the freestyle and does this the best way possible: By interviewing a lot of artists and show lots of freestyles. Continue reading
The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a documentary about Daniel Johnston’s, an American musician and artist who became a local celebrity because of his unique sound, lyrics and art. It didn’t take long to gain (inter)national recognition after appearing on MTV. As he is a manic-depressive it has had a big impact on his career, which has had many lows. Continue reading