First, the TV list… Roots The Cosby Show Chappelle’s Show In Living Color Boondocks Oprah Eyes on the Prize Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Def Comedy Jam A Different World Saturday Night Live Soul Train Arsenio Hall Show Living Single The Wire Good Times The Jeffersons Martin Different Strokes Video Soul Roc The News Flip […]
Roots is based on the popular epic novel by Alex Haley. Based on Haley’s real life search for his African ancestors, Roots begins with the story of a Mandinka warrior, Kunta Kinte, and traces his family history through the Middle Passage, the Civil War, and into modern day America. Very few works of art can […]
While we all have different ‘favorite’ films in black cinema, it is my argument, using the criteria I’ve established (relevance to black culture, the legacy or shelf life of the project after the initial release, the actual craftmanship of the filmmaking, the degree to which the film was noticed/recognized by the mainstream, and the Apollo […]
The Cosby Show, by almost any measure, was the definitive 80s sitcom. Based on the real life and stand up routine of Bill Cosby, the show revolved around the Huxtable family. Patriarch Dr. Cliff Huxtable, his lawyer wife Clair, and their five kids. A show that really doesn’t need much of an introduction, on to […]
Spike Lee’s third film takes place on the hottest day of the summer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York. I heard Spike say in an interview this week that while he didn’t know what he was doing on his first film, She’s Gotta Have It, and was finding his way with School Daze, with this […]
Already one of the most popular stand up comedians working, Dave Chappelle would bring his mix of supreme silliness and racial comedy to cable television with Chappelle’s Show. There are those who would argue that the short life span of the show has raised its status to a level it didn’t deserve. And they may […]
When I last made the 24 hour road trip from KC to LA, my buddy overloaded me with all types of CDs (WAY more than I was expecting, but to be fair, on that long trip, I ended up listening to all of them). Mixed in among the music I was expecting, she burned me a […]
Boyz N The Hood was the debut film by writer/director John Singleton. The semi-autobiographical tale revolves around three young black men, Tre, Ricky, and Doughboy, and their daily lives growing up in South Central Los Angeles. On to the tale of the tape… Relevance: While the phrase ‘black film’ can take on many different meanings […]
One of the shows that legitimized Fox as ‘the fourth network’, In Living Color was the brainchild of Keenen Ivory Wayans and his brother Damon. Forever referred to as the black Saturday Night Live, In Living Color was a primetime sketch/variety show with a much more pronounced African-American slant. I pity those of you […]
Based on the popular satiric comic strip of the same name, The Boondocks follows the lives of the Freeman family. Robert ‘Granddad’ Freeman, an old school brother is the patriarch, trying to raise his two grandsons: Huey, a 21st century militant, and Riley, a gangsta rap lovin kid obsessed with the ‘thug’ lifestyle blown up […]
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