| My
love affair with hip-hop began in the second grade when my brother
brought home the movie Beat Street. We watched it over and over; the
style, the attitude, the free-spiritedness were all so enrapturing.
It was so fun, so rebellious, so expressive. I'm sure that at the
time these were not the words that came to mind-I probably said it
was neat, or cool, or something like that. I practiced the dance moves,
went to the park to watch my brother and his friends battle other
breakers, and I even put on a show for the local church group. This
was hip-hop. It wasn't about material objects, near pornographic videos,
shiny suits, and gimmicky pop hooks; it was real, fresh and innovative.
 Brown
Sugar really captures this essence. It begins with a Wild Style-like,
grainy shot of city trains, followed by a montage of several album
covers of artists that helped define the genre-notably Public Enemy's
It Takes a Nation of Millions… perhaps the best hip-hop album
to date. Several artists-Questlove, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, Pete
Rock, Kool G. Rap, Common Sense, Black Thought-then talk about how
they first fell in love with hip-hop, a question journalist Sidney
(Sanaa Lathan) asks all of the artists she interviews. Sid recalls
when she fell in love with hip-hop, at age 10. She saw a group of
breakers in the park, and then watched a group of MCs battle (the
legendary Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh and Dana Dane). And it was when
she fell in love with hip-hop that she subsequently fell in love
with Dre (Taye Diggs).
 We
catch up with Dre and Sid in the present, both are in their late
twenties: Sid is taking over as editor of XXL magazine (she is leaving
the LA Times and moving back to NY), while Dre works for a popular
record label, Millennium Records. The two reunite at a Def Jam party,
where Dre announces to Sid that he is proposing to girlfriend Reese.
Yes, there is one of those kind of corny love stories in Brown Sugar
where childhood friends who love each other won't admit it, or recognize
it, until… we've seen it before, right? Well, this one has
a different spin. Sid's love of hip-hop is interwoven with her love
for Dre, so when she talks about her love for hip-hop she is often
metaphorically speaking about Dre.
Brown
Sugar also deals with some prevalent issues in hip-hop music and
culture. Dre works for a label looking for gimmicky acts that will
bring in the "bling, bling" (oh, how I loath that term).
Their most recent signing is an over the top, stupid group, The
Hip-Hop Dalmatians. Dre, however, is trying to sign an artist that
truly embodies and represents the spirit of hip-hop, Cabbie, appropriately
played by Mos Def. But Cabbie isn't interested in Millennium Records,
and Millennium Records-Dre excluded-isn't really interested in him.
While working with the Dalmatians in the studio Dre realizes what
he has become and what he is contributing to, so he quits, with
aspirations of starting his own label.
 Amidst
the corny, often sentimental love story in Brown Sugar is a story
about integrity, a story about realness. Dre realizes that money
is not important. It's doing what you love that is, even if it means
losing everything (the suits, condo, and money), things that are
really of no importance anyway: the music, the love and the culture
are what matters to Dre.
Not
everyone will like this film. It's got a nice love story, but is
a tad unoriginal. It's the theme of integrity and doing something
you love at the cost of losing all material gains that sets it apart
from other sappy films. And I love hip-hop. So I was able to relate
to the characters-we grew up in the same era; we're now ambivalent
about hip-hop, but still love it. While my musical tastes have become
much more eclectic over the years, there's still a place in my heart
for my first love: Hip-hop.
|
Review
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