InstaRapFlix 15.1: Born 2B Gangsta?

So, I've been checking semi-regularly (read: not regularly at all), and the defective video from my previous InstaRapFlix write-up, Born 2B Gangsta? (Netflix rating: 1.5 stars), is now working! Woohoo! We can finally watch it, so let's get to it.

The first question I found myself asking was: who is this for? The doc starts out with mostly unknown west coast gangsta rappers (though Coolio is included) talking about how they started selling drugs because it was the only way they could make a living, and why you have to be violent to make it in the business. Then an anthropologist (yeah, I was curious so I went and found his website) and a couple cops come on and say the same thing. A lot of the footage seems to come from a panel discussion, which features Davey D.

...There's also some handheld shot-from-the-audience concert footage of a Cee-Loless The Goodie Mob, which doesn't seem to be here at all. Some of the footage is shown without sound, even! ...I can only guess that this film first screened it with the sound, but were told to desist because they couldn't get the rights? But, then, why not cut it? When there is sound, you the sound is so low quality you can't make out what they're saying (I'm not even sure what song it was), anyway.

Some more known rappers do come up around the thirty minute mark for a segment on the word "bitch." All together, you've got Mic G, Royal Flush, Suga T, the Concious Daughters, Rappin' 4-Tay, Treach and JT the Bigga Figga. But, they're all only featured for about fifteen seconds each. It just feels like: why go to the trouble of getting these artists in your documentary if you're not going to give them a chance to say anything? I guess the answer is because they were just grabbing most of these artists at events for quick soundbites. And, yeah, like you see on the box, Ice-T is in this, too. It looks like footage of a mini-press junket in his house, where he plays a song off one of his tapes to a room of four or five people and briefly discusses it. The film cuts back to this discussion several times, so he does actually get to fully express a few points.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that there's not much movie here. Like I said, most of the footage seems to come from the same event, and the running time is just over an hour. The interview clips are all so short they barely get started introducing a topic before they're cut off. Most people aren't saying anything you haven't heard a thousand times already. It seems like somebody had all this footage of the event and decided to cut it into a movie to sell on DVD. They did make some effort to talk to the police and a guy who puts security systems in schools (more with him might've been interesting), but they definitely didn't pull together a movie's worth before calling it a day.

Bottom line: you're not gonna see or hear anything you haven't heard on the subject a hundred times before and better. The only thing of any real value or substance here is the Ice-T interview, which is still purely conventional fare.

InstaRapFlix 15/16: Born 2B Gangsta?/ Mixtape, Inc.

Right from the title we know we're in for, uhh... some kind of experience. It's telling that there aren't any user reviews/comments at all for 2005's Born 2B Gangsta? (Netflix rating: 2 stars), but if nobody else has watched it, that kind of almost makes it my duty!

...Except, it turns out nobody else has played it because it seems to be broken, and the video plays like watching a scrambled cable station, like trying to watch the Playboy channel without paying for it. Yeah, we've all been there.

So, anyway; I rang up their customer service number (it was a little embarrassing when I had to spell out for them, "to be is spelled like the number two and the letter bee, but one word, and then gangsta is with an A at the end, not an ER. Oh, and it ends with a question mark"), reported that one, and moved on to Mixtape, Inc. (actual onscreen title, Mixtape, Inc. The Movie - Netflix rating: 2.5 stars). This one looks like a better movie, anyway (the first comment starts out, "this is one of the best hip-hop documentaries I've seen!"); I just picked Born because it was shorter and I was being lazy.

It starts out with the onscreen question, "What's the difference between mixtapes and bootlegging?" and we're immediately answered by laughing voices, "nothing! Nothing at all!" This doc hits us with an impressive list of interviewees, like DJs Enuff, Doctor Dre & Ed Lover, and DJ Lady K, to artists like Kanye West (who busts an impromptu freestyle), Chuck D, Xzibit and Lloyd Banks. And a large chunk of the doc follows music store owner Alan Berry, who was arrested for selling mixtapes in Minneapolis, and a couple store owners in Cleveland.

There's some great history in this doc. DJ Red Alert gets on and talks about mix-tapes' rawest origins as recorded performances at parties and clubs, and being one of the original tape-makers for Bambaataa and the other originators in The Bronx. DJ Brucie B talks about how he originated and popularized giving DJ shout-outs on tapes. Ron G talks about the actual blank tapes (he used Maxwells), K-Slay talks about his criminal past, Clue talks about making the first mix-CDs, and almost everybody talks about how Kid Capri started changing the game by selling tapes based on his skill rather than how hot the records he was using were.

It then gets into the battle with the RIAA. They interview a copyright attorney, Berry's lawyer and a cop who busted a place in Queens for selling mixtapes (though they subtitle him when he's speaking perfect English, which seems like a weird jibe at his being Asian). Finally, it ends with a bit about mp3s and Itunes. It would have been interesting to look at mp3s starting to phase out mix-tape DJs (who needs to spend $15 on a Clue CD when you can DL all those exCLUEsives for free?), but I guess they're saving that for the sequel.

The only real downside to this flick is that the voiceover narration is corny as hell. It never adds anything worthwhile and just drags the film down whenever he gets on the mic... sort of like DJs adding name-drop all over their tapes. And the narrator sometimes goes on for a good stretch. Early on he says the film's not making any statements, just showing us how it is; but then the narrator gets on some pretty big soapboxes later in the film - they could've cut a good twenty minutes of that junk out (including his weird, extended "war games" metaphor).

But besides that and a few notable absences - nothing on the Invisbl Skratch Picklz or that whole west coast scratch tape movement (Beat Junkies, 5th Platoon, 1200 Hobos, etc) at all?? - it's a pretty comprehensive, almost definitive documentary on mix-tapes. Definitely some recommended viewing.

I guess it turned out to be a lucky break that Born 2B Gangsta? didn't wind up playing.