Do the Right Thing vs. Boyz N the Hood: Which one is more relevant?
Both are important Hip Hop films, but is one more relevant to today's times than the other? The HHMCs discuss!
Our original episode on Do the Right Thing
Our original episode on Boyz N the Hood
How much are the homes in the Boyz N the Hood 'hood today? (TikTok)
Come watch 8 Mile with us! Get tickets for our next screening at SteelStacks in Bethlehem PA, on Sept. 19.
Don't hate...educate!
Transcript
Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show that harmonizes the rhythm of Hip Hop with the
magic of movies.
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:Today we'll be debating the topic, which movie is more relevant today?
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:Do the Right Thing or Boyz n the Hood?
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:We're three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for you.
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:I'm DynoWright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime Hip Hop fan, and I say to my co -hosts:
kick that old robotic futuristic George Jetson crazy joint.
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:I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time Hip Hop fan.
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:And I just recently discovered the Hip Hop duo Joey Valance and Brea or JVB and I'm kind
of digging their early Beastie Boys vibe.
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:I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time Hip Hop fan, and I'm so hyped to hang with my man Ed Lover on
Friday for his event.
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:Ed Lover presents Mixtape Band Live at SOB's.
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:Okay.
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:So we'll get right into it.
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:As DynoWright kicked us off at the intro,
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:we will be talking about two classic Hip Hop movies
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:Do the Right Thing and Boyz n the Hood.
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:And specifically, which is more relevant today?
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:A lot of poignant themes here and important topics in both movies.
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:But let's see which one holds more relevance in today's world.
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:BooGie, you want to kick us off with talking about your take on both sides?
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:Yeah, so I'm really straddling the fence with this one.
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:I mean, as far as Do the Right Thing is concerned, it's probably one of my favorite
movies.
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:Glad we were able to review it for the podcast, but it talks about all kinds of themes
going on in that movie.
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:mean, talking about segregated neighborhoods, know, Bed -Stuy neighborhood in Brooklyn,
predominantly Black, but then it's also dealing with animosity towards immigrants in the
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:neighborhood.
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:We have...
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:police brutality, but unfortunately, you know, in the movie as well.
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:But it just, you know, it's super poignant and it just, you know, it grabs you and then it
doesn't really want to let you go.
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:And I love the way Spike Lee put that movie together.
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:So, Boyz n the Hood, they have John Singleton's take on South Central LA and the violent
culture that existed out there at the time.
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:I shouldn't say at the time because there are some pockets that still going on right now.
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:But we also see incidents of police brutality, drug culture, with Doughboy selling drugs
in the neighborhood.
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:We see a big theme that comes up in the movie is gentrification.
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:We see Furious Styles give us a moving monologue and breaks down exactly what
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:gentrification means and how it affects the neighborhood.
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:But yeah, I remember when that movie first dropped and it was it was eye opening.
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:It's like, in your face.
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:mean, nobody - Yeah.
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:Yeah, yeah.
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:lifted the hood off of South Central.
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:Like you hear about it, hear about some things in the music, but this is what these
teenagers had to grow up with.
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:And to your point on gentrification, and we were chatting before, that was the first time
I ever heard that term.
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:How a lot of the historically Black neighborhoods were just, you know.
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:being overrun and folks were being forced out to try to make it a more palatable community
for more wealthy folks.
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:And it's just, again, that piece is definitely relevant today.
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:Fast forward.
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:BooGie, you shared a, was it Instagram clip or something?
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:And they showed the home values and the look of the neighborhood and you can't afford, you
know, nobody lower.
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:middle income could afford these houses that are literally where Doughboy grew up in the
movie.
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:The prices are astronomically ridiculous.
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:It's like half a million dollars and up for, and you see, and you look at the movie, you
see the houses, not super big, they're like modest sized houses.
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:They're not huge at all, not in the least bit.
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:But yeah, you can get like a nice big house out here for that price.
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:You would also put these thoughts in your head about why is there a liquor store in every corner
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:and all those types of things and the whole crack epidemic that all those theories
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:behind it, these folks did not create that drug.
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:It was likely planted by folks and they wanted to kill each other and force people out.
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:So just really eye -opening for Boyz n the Hood for sure.
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:Definitely, both films resonate today.
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:For me, Do the Right Thing, and again, this might be a bit of an East Coast bias.
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:I think it's more relatable to a broader range of people because it's that intense racism.
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:And they talk about, like you said, even immigrants.
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:It was a lot of racism against Mookie and the Black community.
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:They're using every nasty epithet you could think of, N -word and others, but the Italians
and the Korean store owners, et cetera.
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:How everybody tries to get by with their differences and the intensity of it.
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:It was palpable, the hottest day of the year.
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:And obviously culminating with Radio Raheem's tragic death at the hands of police.
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:Fast forward to the past few years and all the other different
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:episodes over unfortunate incidents over the years in which
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:people of color have died at the hands of police, either
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:through misunderstanding or just by straight up brutality and all the way up through
George Floyd, et cetera.
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:And like, wow, that was ahead of its time of putting this on film from Spike Lee.
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:Yeah, I mean, there's been several hashtags just this year
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:that have circulated, you know, from unfortunate interactions with police.
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:You know, people have been shot and killed in their own homes.
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:You know, call the police, the police respond and they end up dead.
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:Unfortunately, there's way so many incidents, but this came out in, was it 1989?
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:Right?
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:Just like the song says!
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:And you can say Fight the Power, 1989 Another summer get down, sound of the funky drummer.
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:Yeah.
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:I mean, to put that out on film at that time,
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:unfortunately, these same things, these racial tensions and police brutality.
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:the social activism was out there and still strong today.
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:So, well, my take is like both films were excellent.
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:I mean, it's kind of like trying to pick a favorite child, so to speak.
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:It's like, if you're trying to pick a favorite or saying which is more relevant, they're both so relevant
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:and they should both be required viewing for any Hip Hop fan.
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:Actually, I would think sociology classes.
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:Absolutely.
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:Yeah, throughout the country should be required viewing film classes, sociology classes.
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:I think the difference is like, think John Singleton, this was, I think he went to USC film
school and like this was he had, you could see that he actually structured it perfectly
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:with the cinematography and the opening and the closing, like he did it.
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:whereas Do the Right Thing was a lot more raw, I think.
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:And that's why I think it's a little bit more relatable in my opinion.
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:Yeah, and I think too because even like that
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:Boyz n the Hood, that culture, the lingo, the way they talk and carry themselves, it's very specific.
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:Whereas Do the Right Thing, even though it takes place in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn
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:It's more of a generalization.
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:Like you could find most neighborhoods where people would walk, talk, or dress like that.
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:You know, even the background.
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:Like anywhere you go, any major city, you know, I could go out here
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:find a neighborhood that looks exactly like that.
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:You know, whereas, you know, trying to find a neighborhood that looks like a neighborhood
of Boyz n the Hood, I'd probably have to go out there to find it, you know.
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:DynoWright, what are your takes on, know, I guess the differences between the two films
and relevancy of those?
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:kind of two sides of the same coin, like two sides of the same country.
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:If you're looking for themes about racial tensions.
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:and police brutality, then Do the Right Thing is the movie that you would resonate with.
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:if you're looking for like systemic issues like gentrification and urban violence,
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:more of the socioeconomic kind of thing, then Boyz n the Hood is your movie.
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:So yeah, I guess depending on the day, you can ask which one's more relevant.
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:The next time we hear about another person of color suffering the...
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:police brutality you think about
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:Do the Right Thing, but if you're thinking about
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:but if you're thinking about larger like macroeconomics, maybe Boyz n the Hood is your movie.
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:Yeah, there's a lesson about, like you said, systemic racism and the cycle of poverty and violence.
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:That whole cycle thing, I think, is prevalent in Boyz n the Hood.
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:And there's lesson about mentorship and having positive role models to help try to break that cycle
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:in Boyz n the Hood as well, which is very, very prominent.
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:Yeah, you don't really see older figures being the type of mentor types in Do the Right Thing
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:unless you count Samuel Jackson or something like...
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:The mayor wasn't really someone to look up to that much.
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:Right. Yeah.
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:The town drunk.
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:He was strung out a bit.
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:He wasn't really it.
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:But Furious Styles is a really good and I think underrated part of Boyz n the Hood.
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:Of Boyz n the Hood.
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:yeah, sure.
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:Yeah, Laurence Fishburne was, he killed it in that movie.
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:was phenomenal performance.
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:Yeah.
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:And it was funny because I remember watching that movie
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:and I never even thought about it until I started watching that movie.
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:you know, I look right out here on my avenue right here.
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:There's a right as soon as I turn the corner, look across the street, there's a liquor store.
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:I go to that liquor store, walk to the next walk on the same same avenue, go one block over.
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:And it's another liquor store next to a check cashing place.
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:Yeah.
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:You know, and it's like, wow.
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:It's like, why are things the way they are? You know?
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:you touched on it earlier, JB, you said, you know, they didn't, the drugs didn't get here on their own.
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:You know, it's like, neither did the guns.
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:You know, the guns came from somewhere.
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:even if they were illegally owned by the people in the neighborhoods, someone had to
register to get those guns.
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:And wasn't the people in that neighborhood that was doing it.
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:So it's like little things like that, the influx of drugs.
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:And the one thing that, the crack epidemic hit the urban neighborhood like a nuclear bomb.
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:Like I remember specifically,
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:how nice my neighborhood was prior to the crack epidemic.
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:And it just destroyed the neighborhood.
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:I mean, granted now it's not as bad,
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:but I remember like people that I would see regularly
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:that I knew, just
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:all of a sudden just walking up and down the street like zombies.
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:You know, people that I knew, I would have conversations with them.
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:Now I see them, they're like clueless, spaced out.
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:And...
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:Yeah.
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:And you know Doughboy was hustling.
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:And you see people in the neighborhood like that.
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:And it's just like, wow.
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:But the way the movie breaks it down, like, it makes you think.
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:It makes you wonder.
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:like, yeah, we didn't do this.
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:The neighborhood didn't do this to itself.
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:It's almost intentional.
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:It came from somewhere.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah.
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:we watched Fight the Power, which was a documentary series on PBS that
Chuck D had produced.
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:And it's kind of like the war on drugs had got a theme of, more or less pushing people
out, almost like the war on people of color.
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:It's kind of like there's a whole theory behind that.
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:And I'm not going to get too political, but
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:it really opens your eyes and these films kind of put that out there as well.
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:Other differences like, Do the Right Thing to me, l
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:like the themes of that racism and they talk about the Howard Beach incident
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:and you really feel for Mookie what he's going
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:through.
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:It's kind of like he's oppressed by his boss played by Danny Aiello.
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:and he's called different names, but he kind of deals with it because he needs the job
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:and he kind of says, he's not that bad.
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:But that's one of those things, like
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:people put up with this, they just put up with it and they don't tend to fight back sometimes.
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:It's kind of like it comes with the territory and it really shouldn't be that way.
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:And the song Fight the Power as the anthem, mean, that, it just gets ingrained in your head and...
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:The fact that that became such an anthem is, you know, to fight the oppression.
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:Spike Lee did an amazing job with that, that song that he had commissioned Public Enemy to do for that.
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:to this day, it's such a strong message there.
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:Whereas I think in Boyz n the Hood, it's more of like a coming of age story.
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:has more of a plot.
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:Like I said, Singleton followed.
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:his film classes and how it should be done.
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:He did a masterful job.
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:And again, he's pulling the curtain back on how to navigate life as teens in South
Central.
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:There's a lot of gangs, violence, and the shattering of the dreams.
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:You know, like Ricky was going to be a star athlete and unfortunately he's gunned down.
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:It's just so powerful.
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:But I think if you're not in that area with the South Central, it's a great lesson.
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:But for me, just pulled a little bit more towards Do the Right Thing
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:as a social political commentary of racial tensions and race relations.
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:That's an interesting point that you made JB as far as the Mookie having to deal with the day to day struggle.
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:Because that's really a lot of what happens in real life.
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:It's like people deal with the racism, be it covert or overt,
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:but most of the time they don't even react unless it's somebody specifically calling them an N -word.
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:It's like even their day to day life is so delved in racism that they don't even realize that's what's...
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:what's on their back and they're just struggling to try to deal with the stress of going from day to day and surviving.
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:And I'm hopeful that we've evolved as a society in terms of people being able to speak out.
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:Unfortunately, as you see, there's a lot of violence and a lot of racism still.
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:We're still a long way from eradicating all of racism.
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:But yet people often suppress their feelings and then you see it all bubbles over
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:and with Mookie throwing the trash can and you suppress those feelings, you'll get them out.
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:That's kind of what happens there.
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:So super powerful stories, both of these movies.
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:It's so hard to say which is more relevant.
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:have a slight leaning toward, a slight leaning for me is
Do the Right Thing.
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:But Boyz n the Hood, like is a movie that I think is more finely crafted.
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:And if you say, wanna watch this one and I watched that more
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:times probably than Do the Right Thing, just because I pick up more on those.
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:higher socioeconomic type issues.
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:definitely two sides to the same coin, as DynoWright stated.
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:Yeah, for sure.
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:So I don't know if we have a definitive answer here.
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:DynoWright, you were asked to say, need one answer
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:and say, which is more relevant today, what would you say out of these two?
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:It's tough.
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:That's really tough.
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:It's really tough.
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:I think I even said this in our review of Boyz n the Hood.
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:John Singleton had the benefit of having seen what happened with Do the Right Thing and
watching and all that.
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:And so when Boyz n the Hood comes out two years later, he can build on what Spike Lee did
in the movie.
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:And in some ways, I enjoyed Boyz n the Hood because of that, because it had
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:It was able to expand on some of the things that Spike Lee established in his film.
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:And so when I recommend a film to somebody, I might go with Boyz n the Hood a little more.
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:I think the misogyny in the Do the Right Thing.
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:Not that it wasn't relevant or accurate or important to the story because it was, but.
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:I think there was less of it, I guess, in Boyz n the Hood, and so it was a tighter kind of
story.
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:I think when you said it's more finely crafted, I think that's part of it.
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:What he basically did to Rosie Perez it's really bad.
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:So there really is two sides of the same coin.
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:Yeah, no, true.
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:And Spike Lee was passed over for a nomination for Do the Right Thing for Best Director.
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:He did not get nominated, but John Singleton became the first African -American to earn
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:that Best Director nomination for Boyz n the Hood, and deservedly so for Singleton.
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:But you're right, it's like sometimes someone crawls so that other people can walk.
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:Sometimes the person, I think this was mentioned at our live event,
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:somebody, one of the audience members said, you know, the first person through the wall gets a little bit
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:bloodied, right?
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:So I think that really fits this.
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:It's like Spike Lee, you know, like he got snubbed,
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:but unfortunately there was misogyny, it's a learning experience.
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:It wasn't perfect.
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:And not to say that Boyz n the was perfect, but definitely it was a lot more polished.
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:And.
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:I do agree.
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:Like if someone says I recommend one movie to watch
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:between the two, I recommend probably Boyz n the Hood because of the plot line, the coming of age.
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:I'm a big fan of the coming of age stories.
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:again, the socioeconomic messages and societal issues for sure.
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:You really can't go wrong with either one.
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:No, you really can't.
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:Yeah.
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:Really, you need to see both of them as a unit.
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:It almost feel like Spike Lee has been in the public eye for so many years.
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:Unfortunately, John Singleton's life was cut short at an early age and Spike Lee has been kind of a bit of self -promoter.
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:Like he's always at the Knicks games at the court side
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:and he's done a lot of, all those Nike commercials over the years and he's done a lot more, a lot more films in his
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:filmography because he's lived much a longer life,
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:but that kind of keeps him in the spotlight and he's more able to, he's more visible and it's like a constant reminder of.
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:some of the classic movies as he's put out such as Do the Right Thing.
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:If listeners, if you haven't seen either of these or one or the other, you must go back and watch them.
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:Absolutely.
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:Put a disclaimer out there, the violence is there and the language is very harsh, but both highly recommended viewing.
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:Both films are true to life.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah, for sure.
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:accurate depictions of life back then, or even life now.
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:Yeah.
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:I have a teenage son and he's watched
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:these films and he realizes how
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:relevant they are and important, these are important films.
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:Yeah.
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:Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's JB, Boogie and DynoWright.
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:Theme music by Boogie.
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:We have a couple more live events coming up
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:and you can learn more at our website hiphopmovieclub .com.
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:On September 19th at Steel Stacks in Bethlehem,
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:we are presenting a screening of 8 Mile
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:with a Q&A and talk back.
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:Tickets available at SteelStacks .org.
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:And just because we talked about Boyz n the Hood
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:we should also mention that we have another screening in November
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:of Boyz n the Hood at Steel Stacks.
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:So find all that at hiphopmovieclub.com.
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:Whether you're listening to the podcast, watching us on YouTube, we appreciate you.
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:Thanks for tuning in.
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:And remember, don't hate, educate.
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:It's back to school time, y 'all.
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:School is cool.
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:Boy!
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:That's right.
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:and definitely come out and check Boyz n Hood on the big screen if you haven't seen it.
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:Yeah.
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:Worthwhile experience.
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:mm -hmm, mm -hmm.
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:Yeah.
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:Looking forward to that.
