Hip Hop Project - SUPPORT POSITIVE BLACK FILMS!!!

Today I went to see the Hip Hop Project. I won't go into a review of the movie because I feel that Aimee (below) does a good job. But what I do want to express is my heartfelt anguish about what I experienced. On a Sunday afternoon in Harlem at the Magic Johnson Theatres, there I was with 4 white movie goers and 2 Black. How on earth could there be barely 10 people on opening weekend? This is a movie that shows the positive side of Hip Hop, a hot button topic at the moment. This is a movie that showcases our people rising above the harsh realties of the inner city. This a movie that showcases a Black woman as an executive producer. This is a movie whose proceeds will go towards youth organizations. This is a movie that shows black youth doing something positive with their lives. WHY ON EARTH ISN'T THIS MOVIE BEING SUPPORTED THE WAY IT SHOULD BE? What disturbed me most, I think, is that we will swarm to watch a 50 Cent movie, or Scary Movie #7, or Norbit but there were barely 10 people in the theatre watching the Hip Hop Project????!!!????
Please support positive Black films and go see The Hip Hop Project today!



Source: www.daveyd.com

Looking Deep Into the Hip Hop Project
by Aimee Allison

In the twenty-five years since my personal world view was shaped by the biting social commentary of Grand Master Flash's "The Message", hip hop has become many things to many people - hard beats and clever rhymes, streetwise bravado, glorified violence, even in Don Imus' case an excuse for bad behavior. Many times, I've winced and avoided the b-word and the n-word of commercial hip hop.

But even for fans of the genre, the new movie Hip Hop Project - premiering nationwide on May 11th - demands you leave your assumptions at the door.

After attending the preview screening of the Hip Hop Project documentary - I see hip hop at its best, it is a healing art. Not since the Million Man March have I experienced a more loving, honest and poignant plea for self-healing.

It is a powerful story that spans a five-year period in which former foster kid Chris 'Kazi' Rolle inspires a group of New York teens on the verge of dropping out of high school. Leveraging the popularity of hip-hop, Kazi founds the Hip Hop project that connects these students to music business insiders who help them to write, produce, and market their own hip hop compilation album. Kazi is friend, father, mentor, and teacher.

He's a twenty-something survivor that shares the deep-seated pain of neglect, violence, and poverty with his students. The film shares the compelling stories of several students including Christopher "Cannon" Mapp, who faces his mother's terminal illness and eviction from his childhood home and Diana "Princess" Lemon, who agonizes over her abortion and imprisoned father.

These young people have symptoms suspiciously like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that afflicts many of the Iraq War vets I've met. They are stress-filled, twitchy, angry, impulsive, sad veterans of America's streets. In fact, the National Center for PTSD reports that more than a third of urban youth, and more than half of homeless and foster youth, have treatable PTSD. And Kazi has a prescription that works.

The Hip Hop Project is the polar opposite of the fake reality TV hype of P-Diddy's Making the Band or American Idol. There's no soul-depleting criticism or superficiality in the name of entertainment. This documentary shows the messiness of making art; the technical glitches, the humiliation of fundraising, the waning motivation, and the roadblocks on the way to producing a CD.

The star power behind the film - executive producers Bruce Willis and Queen Latifah and hip hop mogul Russell Simmons makes it possible for 100% of the profits will go to organizations dedicated to youth.

Hip hop is a powerful elixir for what ails an entire generation of disaffected people; a salve for the broken, a cure for the lost. And if the enthusiastic audience reaction is any indication, Hip Hop Project will be a seminal story of its time - destined to evolve our own thinking about ways to healing the young living in a damaged world.

The Hip Hop Project opens May 11th. See www.hiphopproject.com for schedule and theatre locations.
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Aimee Allison is an author and social commentator in Oakland, CA. Her
upcoming book, Army of None, is due out in July. Contact her at
aimee@aimeeallison.org