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View Full Version : Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (Ice-T)



EyesWideOpen
09-30-2012, 01:22 AM
imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2062996/)

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc261/gothamcentral79/something_from_nothing_the_art _of_rap.jpg

EyesWideOpen
09-30-2012, 01:42 AM
This documentary had a lot of promise but unfortunately comes up short. Ice-T starts off well he states that this movie is going to be about the craft of rapping and when he's interviewing rappers about the process that's when the movie is at it's best. Surprisingly the Eminem segment is by far the strongest in that respect. Where the film suffers is when it goes away from that. There are too many freestyles. I mean seriously probably almost half of this two hour movie is freestyles. Ice-T will ask a rapper just one question and then they do like a 3 minute freestyle. That's the format that takes over most of the movie. I mean most rap fans have heard these rappers rap. We don't need to be shown that. I want to hear more about how they started, how they write, working with a producer, etc. stuff we don't normally get from them. There is also no flow to the film. It just kind of goes from one artist to the next. It's like he's just going through his phone picking a name and interviewing them. There is no setup to interviews either. They start playing one of the artists song and then it cuts to him talking to them. At one point the movie starts playing "As High as Wu-Tang Get" so I'm thinking cool we'll get some Wu-Tang talk and it cuts to him asking Raekwon a question which he gives like a five second answer to and then that's it off to the next scene. He cuts to Immortal Technique at one point with no context of who he is and proceeds to show him freestyling for like 6 minutes and then off to the next scene. I'd much rather that six minutes be used talking to members of the greatest hip-hop group of all time then a freestyle. The film also uses hellicoptor shots of cities and urban life to go in between scenes which makes about 15 minutes of the film which is just pointless.

It sounds like I'm being really down on this film but it's just the potential was there but it doesn't come together. It's worth watching if you're a rap fan for the interviews even though most are less then a minute long but just don't expect any sort of definitive rap documentary.

number8
02-27-2013, 07:34 PM
Terribly put together documentary, which I guess makes sense since it's directed by Ice-T, but obviously it's a lot of fun to watch all these guys open up to Ice. 2 hours just flew by if you're into these guys. I'd rather see this same format as a TV show or something, with each episode focusing on 1 or 2 rappers.

Also, EWO, not all of those are freestyles. Kanye, for example, basically just performed his song "Gorgeous." Same with that Immortal Technique bit you're talking about. That's from his song "Frontlines."

EyesWideOpen
02-28-2013, 12:14 AM
Terribly put together documentary, which I guess makes sense since it's directed by Ice-T, but obviously it's a lot of fun to watch all these guys open up to Ice. 2 hours just flew by if you're into these guys. I'd rather see this same format as a TV show or something, with each episode focusing on 1 or 2 rappers.

Also, EWO, not all of those are freestyles. Kanye, for example, basically just performed his song "Gorgeous." Same with that Immortal Technique bit you're talking about. That's from his song "Frontlines."

Yeah I knew that most of the Kanye thing was from his song. I used the term freestyle as a generic term but yeah some of those were people just rapping part of a song. A lot of rappers do that in actual freestyles when they can't think of something else they just start going in to one of their songs. Still those are the worst part of the doc.

I agree that it would be far better to focus on one or two people. I want to hear about the craft, the industry, stuff like that and in more depth then the minute (if even that) that he gave most people.