- reviewer is asking for a movie about disco

well. it's about hip hop. i was dyin when ol girl said she wanted to sing disco and shao was like, 'oh, the wack part'. i eff w/ disco, but i've always thought of it like that. the bridges with all the over produced strings and happy chords an shit. the wack part. show is about hip hop. i ain't mad at that.


- reviewer has major beef w/ nas (from queensbridge) being the lyrical center of the show, and suggested KRS should have served in that role. (or kool keith)

well, if the reviewer has issues with the forced centrality of Flash to the whole plotline and reinvented history, what would have happened if KRS had been on the scene? aside from kanye, is there anyone with a bigger ego in hip hop? that would not have gone well. also, i understand the pointing out of the queens / bx historical antipathy, but, in reality, nas is prolly the only rapper who checks off enough boxes to do that role
-- gifted writer
-- has (and has had) commercial success and general audience recognition
-- had a multi decade career as a recognized giant in the art

black thought is a great writer and would have done a great job, but he never been commercial like that. jay? i don't see him as having the writing chops. if this movie was made 20 years ago, you could have used krs or kool moe d or somebody.

as it is, nas has done a great job (if it's all him) of writing the rhymes to fit how cats was rappin back in the late 70s, early 80s. books' poetry (the joint he wrote for class) has much more complex wordplay than the shit he spitting at the get down. had me nervous for a minute, but 3 Eps in, the rhymes seem right for the era, so far.

yeah, there's hella anachronisms. somebody like ?uest would be both knowledgeable AND anal enough to ensure that there were NONE.

i never watched (to my knowledge) any baz luhrman flicks, so i come into it with a blank slate. (didn't even know he did moulin rouge - never seent it, don't plan to).

the mythic shit *IS* somewhat offputting.

i guess the only thing that keeps it from irritating me too much is the kung fu / chinese / hk cinema aspects of it, where you intermingle fantasy and reality and it is just the way that it is. so i'm trying not to be so literal while watching. i think i've enjoyed it more once i figured out that it was NOT gonna be style wars, or some kinda documentary. so i'm tryna have patience w/ the goofy shit.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad