Snoop Dogg’s frolic through the Jamaican motherland – a.k.a REINCARNATED – hits cinemas on the 22nd March. But as screens are fogged up by ganja-smoke and lofty philosophy, it might be good to look back at one of hip-hop’s greatest documentaries – Dave Chappelle’s BLOCK PARTY.
Nominally BLOCK PARTY is nothing more than the recording of a free hip-hop gig in a run-down part of Brooklyn, put together by a vaguely memorable American comic. It hardly sounds cinematic or thought provoking. Yet from somewhere amidst the songs and the antics comes a really great documentary film. Michel Gondry’s creation is an odd combination of a lot odd combinations. No explanation of what, how or why are given. From the moment Chappelle pulls out a megaphone on the Brooklyn sidewalk, all we know is that it’s happening and he wants people to come… he wants all people to come. The first half hour of the film is spent with Chappelle joyfully playing Willy Wonka in the North Eastern hinterlands. But he doesn’t use chocolate as an intermediary for his literal gold tickets. One goes to a parole officer, several to a marching band from Ohio, and, in a wonderful moment, one to an elderly white lady who one can’t imagine listening to Dead Prez let alone partying deep in Brooklyn. But she accepts!
“every comic wants to be a comedian, every musician thinks they are funny”
After this we move seamlessly into the show. And if you are a hip-hop fan, you can only sit and gawp at the line-up. Mos Def, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and, in a miracle move, the newly reformed Fugees. Each gives a few classics interweaved by some lewd one-liners from Chappelle – the one about the industrious prostitute is particularly and wonderfully low-brow. And even amidst these we have an perplexing range of interviews. It is rare that within one film, you can find a truly exceptional lady exclaiming with utter sincerity that she will marry Sergei Rachmaninoff in the afterlife; and heart-felt insight into the importance of libraries to underprivileged and violent areas. It all fits together like a Chinese puzzle. So how can this crazy combination of music, comedy and politics possibly work?
Well, comedy and music aren’t too incompatible. As Chappelle explains, “every comic wants to be a comedian, every musician thinks they are funny”. However, the true power of the film lies in its basis in politics. Everything from humour to music is a different comment, idea, or opinion on black America – its place and its future. Sometimes this is overt. In one of the most powerful scenes of the film, Wyclef Jean from the Fugees asks the Ohio marching band what they would do if they were a president for a day, only then to break into song of his own sad indictment of America’s intolerance. However, the film’s social commentary is also subtle. It is no accident that the film spends a lot of time focusing on the people streaming in on the buses. Gondry wants to know and show who is and isn’t coming.
music and comedy are not only the relief […], but also a dagger of social commentary cloaked as “fun”.
What we are left with is irresistibly involving. Even when you think you are enjoying a crude joke there is a social comment; every song in some way appropriate and selected. The brilliance of the film is that music and comedy are not only the relief from the less subtle messages, but also a dagger of social commentary cloaked as “fun”. Chappelle and Gondry are simultaneously the embodiment and muddling of these two points of attack. Chappelle delivers the jokes, and the more in-your-face views of black America. His presence is a bit like a bulldozer being applied to the watcher’s attention. However, lurking unseen is the spectre of Gondry. It is to the film and its director’s great credit that it can cut between a harsh and pulsating hip-hop crowd, and a the average runnings of a nearby preschool. Even stating it now seems jarring. But the film not only works, but is enhanced by this stratified approach. Why? Because Gondry creates a sense of universal relevance. We are looking at the state of Brooklyn, and both are relevant and telling. For all the film’s oddity and contrast there is a thematic through-line which is constant and constantly developing. Dave Chappelle’s BLOCK PARTY is a classic, and not just for those that enjoy hip-hop. There’s plenty of surface sheen and easy pleasures, but anyone and everyone will go away more informed, often without even knowing it.
httpvh://youtu.be/MwF9Y8dySHw