Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Walk On Niggas, Walk On
Ralph Bakshi made this amazing cartoon, called "Coonskin," that parodied blaxploitation cinema during the 70s, while also addressing a lot of racial and cultural issues that have, unfortunately, become embedded in the american identity. Even now, you can see how a lot of the stuff addressed in the film apply today. However, I try not to bring too much preachiness on here; the original draw this movie had on me is wasn't the racial or cultural significance of it's contents, but the fact that Barry White plays one of the characters and the intro song, posted up here and sung by Scatman Crothers (not to be confused with Scatman John), called "Nigga Man." The movie only gets better from there.
Here is a quote from Bakshi as to how he got away with making this film under the nose of big studio execs...
"Bakshi: I told them it was a remake of Song of the South set in Harlem. I told them I want to make the Uncle Remus stories. And then I started to make my film. No one's got time to hang out with an animator ... so it can be very subversive work.
They all thought they were going to make fortunes. That's how I got these films made. It was rope a dope. What these guys thought I was making and what I was making were two different things.
If you're making movies, the decision you have to make is: whether you're going let them take you, or whether you're going to con them into letting you think they take you. Contracts mean nothing, really. Every one of the films I pitched was different than the films I made. You can't beat 'em financially, so you trick them. While they think they're taking me, I'm taking them. I never thought I'd make a whole film. It still stuns me that I got so many done. Because I never fought them."
You can peep the rest of the interview here
The Bloods Win!
Leave it to the bloods to get over the bullshit hype of being thugged out and try something new to net an unlikely fanfare.
Meanwhile, the crips' spokesman does shit like this
A return to form
It's been a looong time, so the next few (or many) posts will be a lot of catch-up work, which means less text and more youtube. Sadly, we haven't been doing anything interesting, but at least I plan to be back.
Blackula IN.
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