Fear of a Black Hat

In the world's first ''rapumentary'' we meet Ice Cold, Tasty Taste and Tone Def. They are all members of the band N.W.H. Niggaz With Hats. Their lives are completely permeated with rap culture: in the studio, on stage and not least in the street where they actually belong. What do they think about racism and violence in the US? Why are their songs misunderstood? And how come all the managers of the band have been murdered?

COMMENTARY
After a number of hard-boiled films about black youths within the hip-hop genre we are struck with a downright comedy on the phenomenon. Of course it bristles with characters trying to look hard, intimidating and ''totally in control'', but here their hardships are reduced to situation comedy by the director and scriptwriter Rusty Cundieff.
The story is a rip-off of the heavy metal spoof Spinal Tap, a spoof documentary about a hopeless but typical group. In this case it's about a rap trio answering the name of ''Niggaz With Hats''.
Living and carrying on in the mean neighbourhood of South Central in Los Angeles, the same as the guys in Boyz N the Hood, we get to follow their way to the top through the eyes of the documentary film-maker Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons).
Unlike the proud heros and warriors of the above mentioned Boyz N the Hood and
Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, the nerdy tough guys in N.W.H. are a bunch of dumb dopeheads. Ice Cold (Rusty Cundieffl, Tasty Taste (Larry B. Scott) and Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence) are heavily burdened with stereotypes and non-selective messages. Other than this the dialogue is what really makes the movie worthwhile. The quick turns, the arguments' lack of logic and the never-ending torrent of words make you think of the kind of deadpan slapstick that, for example, Beckett made use of in his work. On the other hand, if you are familiar with ''the hip-hop idiom'' the film may seem too predictable. Of course not because hiphop people are as dumb as portrayed here, but because everything that has been picked from ''the movement'' has been turned against it. Or how about Ice Cold's thesis from his first book ''FYM'' (Fuck Y'all Motherfuckers): '' ... the blacks were sensitive long before Alan Alda ... ''.
Conny.C. Lindström