Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012)

The Worst Film Ever

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Ice-T does a documentary about rap. I wouldn't say that it's particularly focus. Mostly it's Ice-T chatting up other rappers about old times. It's not as enlightening as much as fascinating. There's some great stories. There's also some boring parts. If he could try to frame this as rap history, he could give this better structure. Although it does feel more free flowing like the rappers giving their own raps to this film. This is really just Ice-T traveling around, sitting and chatting with other rappers. Many people does a rap. They're not framing this as a definitive history of rap. Just people telling old stories.

Let me mention a few things at the top. The documentary by Ice-T does not have every MC in it. Not every rapper could have fit into the running time obviously, but you do wonder where someone like Jay-Z is? Maybe he'll be in the additional interviews that are on the Blu Ray/DVD as a special feature. Ice T did not react to a tweet I send him concerning that matter, but he gets so many tweets, he might have missed that one. He also concentrates his effort on MCs and not the producers or other artists involved in the making of a track.As he said himself, his great motivation to do this, was his wife Coco. They were in the car and she bluntly told him, she doesn't care about the lyrics to a song, as long as the beat is nice. You can imagine Ice-T was pretty shocked by that statement, being an MC himself and working hard to make his own lyrics work.The movie also does only involve American artists. If you're eager to know what French, Korean, British or other rap cultures are about, this will not satisfy you either. But again, there is only so much you can put in a movie. Having pointed out those things, the documentary is really light and shines the spot light on quite a few talents. If you're a fan of the music, you should know most of them (even if they're not active anymore).You get a lot of freestyle and a lot of little stories thrown into the mix. Other reviewers have mentioned a book that is out there, which is supposed to be good. I haven't read it, so I have to take their words for it. I might get that too, as an addition to the movie

One of the many interesting things about Ice T's directorial debut, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, is the explanation rapper Lord Jamar offers us as to how rap music came about. He tells us that growing up in the ghetto, there were obvious budget cuts and the public schools were woefully underfunded to begin with. He tells us that since instruments such as pianos and drums were taken away, the only instruments kids found were their own mouths and a record player. I'm positive those who idolize rap are not even aware of this.Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap explores just what its title proclaims; the art and craft of a genre so controversial and so openly slandered by critics, the media, and sometimes, its own audience. Rap is a lawless, anarchic breed of music, often objectifying women and promoting reckless behavior. Or has it let itself evolve that way? Has "swag," stupidity, and cockiness been traded for a subtle and unique panache? Nowadays, you'd be hard-pressed to find a rap song lacking the word "hoe" in any way, shape, or form. It seems the men Ice T (Tracy Marrow) interviews almost are ashamed at what the genre has become and faithfully spend their time recalling when the genre was more about being misunderstood and underestimated rather than boastfulness and amoral behavior.The key to success in the rap world is originality, we're told by Big Daddy Kane. If there's anything these men seem to have pioneered it's a unique sound and a unique outlook on life. Interviews with Afrika Bambaataa, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Grandmaster Caz, Ice Cube, MC Lyte, and Snoop Dogg take place as they offer their views on the movement and also don't hesitate to give us highly-skilled freestyles.Some of the interviews are informative and eye-opening - some have the unfortunate disadvantage of being concise and loose. The first hour of this documentary gives those who came for the insights exactly what they want. The second hour gives those who came for the music what they want. This is where Ice T's documentary begins to slightly fall from its throne. While there is a goal in mind, some of the interviews teeter on the edge of being rambling and rather irrelevant. There comes a point where the quality and the speed of the freestyles is favored over actual information inside the whole rap movement.But there is a wonderful devotion to the subject matter, regardless on what is chosen to be the primary focus in different scenes. Ice T doesn't seem to many as the one you'd want to direct a documentary on hip-hop and rap, but after the film was over, I couldn't really see anyone else doing it and doing it to the extent of what he has personally accomplished. He has proved to be not only knowledgeable on the medium but completely capable to delivering all the components of a film determined to explore the broad concept of rap.The documentary seems to run a little too long for this sort of subject matter. Perhaps if you're a die-hard fan of rap, you won't believe so. As an insightful look at the medium, it manages to wander into that sort of territory, but never does it gridlock itself to that area. It too manages to incorporate freestyles, jokes, old memories, and extensive interviews all in its runtime. On second thought, maybe it isn't too long at all.Starring: Ice T, Afrika Bambaataa, Big Daddy Kane, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Grandmaster Caz, Ice Cube, Lord Jamar, MC Lyte, and Snoop Dogg. Directed by: Ice T and Andy Baybutt.

I saw this movie followed by a live feed with Q&A of ICE-T (and others) in London.According to Ice-T this movie is just the appetizer and more will follow Well I for one can't wait to see more. Ice-T said he wanted to "give back" and I think he did with this movie. I certainly liked the stories told in the movie even If I do not fully agree with the distinction they make between Rhyme Sayers (rappers) and MC (entertainers), I personally think it really depends on the era.I've now dusted off all my old records and am listening to stuff I had not listened to for years. Ice-T also made me remember why I fell in love with hip hop. It was the old stuff that was like magic to me.It's not that I do not like modern hip-hop, I do, but in my mind I probably never granted the modern kind the same stature as the Old School.The term Old School it self is tricky. There were always fierce disputes as to what could be considered Old School in the nineties and who was part of it. Now every one of those disputing is over 30 and called old. Look up Old School in wiki for more info.On a personal note. I don't know if Old School is/was better but it certainly appealed to me at that point in my live. As I believe that what was on the radio back then was more diverse.I doubt that political rap of PE, KRS-1, Arrested development, X-clan, or the early Paris would even stand a chance against today's more mainstream popular hip-hop of Jay -Z Kanye, Lil Wayne and M&M. But the former was necessary at the time. It was an era of so many styles, ego tripping, enjoyment (party rap) and education (a tribe called quest, De La soul, intelligent hoodlum) and who would have thought that Miami Bass pioneer Luther Cambell (Luke) would be the one to defend artist's constitutional right to use profanity and parody.What I mean to say is that Old School laid a lot of bricks for newer artists to follow; you cannot have Jay-Z without Grandmaster Melle Mel.Something this movie makes really clear.