DAVE's BLOCK PARTY

..People watch Dave Chappelle for various reasons and hence there are certainly quite different interpretations and receptions with regards to the issues he deals with—most importantly in how he deals with such issues and proceed to re-present them. Perhaps something positively true about Dave Chappelle from the outset is that he is a funny-ass dude and probably the funniest person on earth at the moment (so many people would testify to this—from every corner and colours). However, something serious and very intellectual about his ‘art’ seems to always go unnoticed in the midst of all the humour!! If you’ve seen ‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party’ (2004), you’d probably denounce (at least preliminarily) any significance of that film (or documentary) in understanding the idea of ‘blackness’ (as vague as such term is)—and I am talking here about the same ’blackness’ explored and pulverized in academic discourses by authors from every corner and colours!!
Although there are some aspects or dimensions of ‘rap’ music absent in the film—such as ‘south’ and heavy ‘gangster’, ‘rap’ music is surely yet fully re-presented; as both an expressive tool for black people as well as an important entertaining apparatus. The latter is probably the most obvious in respect to the film as the entire film documents Dave putting together his ‘Block Party’ beginning three days before. And obviously, it is about fun and entertainment in a way quite peculiar to ‘black’ people. The featured artists ranged from more popular artists such as Kanye and John Legend, to more conscious-rappers such as Common, Mos def, Roots, and etc to more hard-hitting ‘revolutionary’ rappers like Dead Prez (in fact, I’d probably put Mos def in-between conscious and ‘revolutionary’), further, Fugees came together to close the Party. There are obviously other artists important but there was something quite implicit in the direction of the film that caught me.
The difference which exists between these artists in terms of their approach both to rap as a music and a way of living (business) was obvious on the stage; but there was something else perhaps important for anyone wanting to go into the quite old but yet still relevant dispute over whether “hip-hop is dead or not” debate. Something which seemed to be overlooked in the latter is why people make music and why people rap. Or perhaps reversibly might be more viable to this discussion—why people rap and why people make music. The interview with Lil-Cease outside the little yet quite historic day-care which rap legend Biggie Smalls attended as a kid is was probably the most profound part of the film for me. He (lil-cease) first told Dave about how this little daycare was kind of like a central point for junior Mafia ( almost like a little bedrock) and how Biggie attended it and his (lil-cease) family (cousins and nephews) also attends it even now and how he still comes by every day to pick them and all that other stuff. He then pointed further stating where who and who (in rap) came from. To his left, he pointed out that so and so came from three blocks down the line and to the right, he pointed out that Jay-Z lived two or three blocks down that way and Lil-Kim came from four blocks that way and etc.
Within a space of may be six blocks grew up the most prominent rappers of all time—who influenced a whole world and movement or music. All good and close friends who thought more about life as friends struggling and keeping out of trouble than starting a movement to which millions of people associate themselves—of course in their own ways and interpretations. Listening to Biggie, Lil-Kim, Lil-Cease, Junior Mafia and all those rappers is different from listening to the Fugees or Wyclef Jean because they each deal with different issues—and in instances where they do share the same topic of interest, they would talk and approach it in different ways and outcomes. It is the same with listening to Dead Prez; you definitely won’t hear the same shit with Wyclef.
Dead Prez would blame the ‘white man’ (in terms of an overarching and repressive image) and ‘his’ history for the struggle of ‘black’ people, while Wyclef would say “don’t blame the white man for nothing, the white man didn’t do shit, get yours”. Dead Prez would go as far as saying to “raise babies soldier styles” as well as saying “fuck education” as an American repressive institution while Wyclef would say “get your mayor to put some libraries up in your hood” and get educated.....Continue later.....