The 13th annual Tribeca Film Festival kicked off last night at the Beacon Theatre with the premiere of the Nas documentary, Time Is Illmatic. Festival co-founder and Oscar winner Robert De Niro introduced the film and admitted he was 20 years too removed to listen to hip-hop.
After premiering the documentary, Nas hit the stage and performed Illmatic in its entirety. Illmatic XX in stores now.
[RapRadar]
Half Of Me is a story told from two perspectives: The fans, and Rihanna herself. Watch how Rihanna and her fans empower each other to make their dreams a reality.
Really can’t wait to watch this documentary that Will Robson-Scott put together. Set for release August 13th.
Jabari is back with another inspiring documentary highlighting yet another independent artist who is paving their own road to success. Jabari presents Hoodie Allen, an independent hip-hop artist hailing from NYC. In this documentary, Hoodie shares the steps he’s taken in creating a bigger following (listen aspiring artists!), how he changed his career path and takes Jabari along with him for a couple shows.
You can find Hoodie Allen’s latest free-for-the-fans project, Crew Cuts, here.
If you have a semi-good internet connection and patience to watch Beyonce’s HBO documentary ‘Life Is But A Dream’ in a bootleg player or if you have no other choice then all power to you. Here’s a direct link just in case the player is being impossible.
Shout out to yardie.
Last week we sat down with the man behind Forbes Magazine’s Hip-Hop Cash Kings list, Zack O’Malley Greenburg. In our interview we talk about how he fell in love with hip-hop, how the list got started, and his take on “the race to a billion”. He also predicted who to watch out for to make a big climb up that list next year.
Great original interview provided by AlLindstrom.com.
This is dope!
The Source Magazine gets inside the head of Top Dawg Entertainment’s Ab-Soul and captures it all on tape for y’all. Check out the mini-doc, directed by Sean Lynch, featuring the West coast rapper.
Here’s my let’s-expand-your-horizons contribution of the day. In 2010, graffiti artist Banksy released a documentary (or as some may call “mockumentary”) titled Exit Through The Gift Shop. The promotion and hype that Banksy created, not only in LA but all over the world, for the film was completely awesome and exciting. I would always try to find his pieces before someone would steal it and sell it for billion bucks. True story. Anywho, below is a brief plot and let me just tell you, you may end up hating the main character.
According to Wikipedia:
Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film is a film by graffiti artist Banksy that tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art. The film charts Guetta’s constant documenting of his every waking moment on film, from a chance encounter with his cousin, the artist Invader, to his introduction to a host of street artists with a focus on Shepard Fairey and Banksy, whose anonymity is preserved by obscuring his face and altering his voice, to Guetta’s eventual fame as a street artist himself.
Don’t mind the Spanish subtitles. It’s still in English. I’m trying to teach you a new language while exposing you to street art. Love me for it. Watch the film after the jump.
Continue reading Banksy – Exit Through The Gift Shop (Full Documentary)
The World Famous Beat Junkies, comprised of members J-Rocc, DJ Babu, D-Styles, DJ Rhettmatic, DJ What?!, Mr. Choc, Icy Ice, Curse, DJ Shortkut, Melo-D, Symphony and DJ Havik have been putting in work since 1992. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the legendary Beat Junkies, LRG presents For the Record – a short documentary profiling the collective with contributions from the likes of A Trak, Q Bert and Peanut Butter Wolf – with DJ Jazzy Jeff commenting that “there are no DJ’s out today that have not been influenced by the Beat Junkies at all.”
For another great documentary on DJ culture, check out Scratch.
In support of his next documentary, 9th Wonder has released the first eight minutes of his last film The Wonder Years. To purchase the DVD and support his next film with Kenneth Price, The Harvard Fellow, at the same time, click here.
The other night I was throwing out documentary titles to a friend and I brought up the 2001 documentary on hip-hop DJs titled Scratch. Didn’t think I was going to be able to find it on YouTube but one person decided to break the sacred YouTube laws and upload the entire film in six parts. Whoever he is, I owe him a cupcake.
According to Wikipedia:
Scratch is a documentary film, directed and edited by Doug Pray. The film explores the world of the hip-hop DJ. From the birth of hip-hop, when pioneering DJ’s began extending breaks on their party records (which helped inspire break dancing and rap), to the invention of scratching and beat-juggling vinyl, to its more recent explosion as a musical movement called turntablism, it’s a story of unknown underdogs and serious virtuosos who have radically changed the way we hear, play and create music.[1] The documentary opens with Grand Wizard Theodore (New York) telling the story of how he first introduced scratching. Throughout the documentary, several artists explain how they were introduced to the field of hip-hop and scratch while providing stories and anecdotes of their personal experiences.
Shoutout to my homie Boogie B who showed it to me a couple years back! Whether you’re an aspiring or current DJ, hip-hop head or an avid film viewer, Scratch is a great watch and an opportunity to learn something new.
