Keefe D arrested for connection of Tupac’s murder: My thoughts

For my previous article on the lead and investigation, click here.

A couple of months ago, there were news reports that there was a lead on the murder of Tupac Shakur. After 27 years, an arrest was made, but is it really resolved?

I have seen videos on YouTube from DJ Vlad and The Art of Dialogue where people had been interviewed, including the suspect who had been arrested, Duane Keith Davis, also known as “Keefe D.”

Keefe D is a member of the South Side Compton Crips. There was a lot of connection with the Crips getting involved in the 1996 Vegas shooting of the late Tupac Shakur. For nearly 30 years, there had been a lot of speculation as to who was involved. Some have said it was Suge Knight. Some have said it was Orlando Anderson. Some have also said it was P. Diddy.

Based on personal speculation, I have seen my share of videos from DJ Vlad and The Art of Dialogue, where some people have spoken about it, one of whom was Gene Deal, former bodyguard to P. Diddy. A recent video had discussed this as it was uploaded around the time of the arrest.

While Gene Deal made some valid points, I have also seen some videos where Keefe D was interviewed and if you listen closely, it’s implied he admit involvement. Maybe he didn’t open fire but he was connected.

However, I came across this video today.

I had read articles and watched videos on the subject, but this one right here has some information I had not heard before. I wasn’t aware of the connections Keefe D and Orlando Anderson had. I heard that Anderson was Keefe D’s nephew. It was also known that Suge Knight had a lot of Bloods working at Death Row Records. Not as talent but as security and also did other work.

There is also a lot of speculation that P. Diddy ordered the hit on Pac. Because of the widely-known beef between Pac and Biggie, it escalated a lot during 1996, especially after “Hit ’em Up” came out. Some comments on some videos believe P. Diddy will be next but probably won’t get a sentence or anything because of how loaded he is, especially since he is the head of Bad Boy Records. In that Gene Deal interview, he believes that no one at Bad Boy was involved and that the shooting was done in house at Death Row. Because the Bloods and Crips conflict was still a thing during the 1990s, it could have been some issues with Suge and his boys with the Crips.

In my opinion, sure, the arrest was made and some justice was served but I don’t think that it’s completely resolved. I had said in my other post that Orlando Anderson was killed two years after the shooting happened, before he could be taken to court. Keefe D may have been involved but there could have been other things there. The P. Diddy stuff still seems plausible after nearly 30 years. There was talk about a $1 million hit on Suge and Pac. This video talked about it.

But overall, with the arrest being made, maybe justice had been served, but now I wonder if Biggie’s murder will be solved after all this time. I mean I had read that some crooked LA cops were involved but maybe there was more to it than met the eye after all this time.

Movie Review – “Gang Related”

Release Date: October 8, 1997

Production Companies: Orion Pictures

It has come to this. I had covered all of Tupac’s other films, such as “Juice,” “Poetic Justice,” “Above the Rim,” “Bullet,” and “Gridlock’d.” So this had been quite a project for me. What separates this film from the others was that this was the first time I had watched it. That’s right. I had seen the other ones before, though “Bullet” and “Gridlock’d” had been once before and the first-time viewings were a long time ago. This one, however, I remember hearing about it. I had my chances but never got around to it. But with me doing this series of cover Tupac’s films, I had to watch it eventually.

Now that I have seen it, where do I stand with it?

Going into it, I had a feeling what I was getting myself into. While I hadn’t actually seen this movie before, I had read the plot synopsis and read that it was a crime drama about dirty cops covering up a murder. The plot involves detectives Divinci (James Belushi) and Rodriguez (Tupac Shakur) killing a drug dealer early in the film, only to find out he was an undercover DEA agent. The two crooked cops had to come up with the perfect alibi to cover up the murder. So they try to find some people to pin the rap on and also turn to a stripper named Cynthia (Lela Rochon), whom Divinci had an affair with, to help them out on this cover-up.

A lot of the movie has the plan fall apart as expected, but just how things fell apart kept me engaged. I had a feeling that Rodriguez, while dirty, was more sensible and wanted no part of the plan after a while. While I have seen plot elements like this before, I think they were executed well.

Belushi impressed me with his performance. His career has had its ups and downs, whether it was doing some unfunny comedies (I have seen some to which I can make an exception, however) and some serious films here and there. I do recall finding the 1988 film “Red Heat” with Arnold Schwarzenegger to be underrated and he did fine as the comedic cop as some comedic elements were more subtle than overt. In this film, however, he gave a chilling performance. His portrayal was rather terrifying as the film progressed.

While Tupac was one of the leads, I can’t say he was the focus for the most part. While he did fine in the role, there was not a lot of focus on his character. Most of the film’s plot focused on Divinci as it showed he was cheating on his wife and was also the one behind the plan. We didn’t know much about Rodriguez. Not to say Pac didn’t do well because these scenes showed that he had range. In fact, when you look at the two films that came out after his death, he didn’t play street thugs (“Poetic Justice” could be argued as he wasn’t a thug in that film), so he showed he had enough range to branch in some roles. Here are some examples:

One thing I will say about these scenes, and another that came after this one, is that it’s hard to watch when you know how he was killed. As a matter of fact, this movie was filmed in the summer of 1996. It wrapped up in August and then not long after that in September, he was murdered. It’s uncomfortable to see.

Another thing I should mention is that when I saw the opening credits, I noticed Dennis Quaid was listed. It took me a bit to finally figure out who he was in this movie. It was not until an interrogation scene that I had to look closely. Being that he portrayed a hobo, I could see how he was made up to look that way with the long hair and beard but then came when he had a haircut and shave.

I was at the edge of my seat for most of the film but the gripe I had was with the ending. I felt like not only it was rushed when filming but also had some rewrites. Another thing that I found confusing was that one prominent character was seen at the end all cleaned up and working again. This was supposed to be four months later. I don’t think that is enough time to get some skills back after being homeless and having mental issues. It would take more time to relearn such skills and a lot more time before one is ready to work again. Then you have the sudden ending. Maybe I should read the script to see how things went.

I would have to say that this is an underrated crime drama. The performances were done well. It had a good script for the most part and the overall tone didn’t feel too bleak. As for this being Tupac’s last film, because of his untimely demise, no one can know for certain where his career would have gone. There were rumors that he wanted to do a “Star Wars” film considering the first prequel was in development in the mid-1990s. There has been speculation that he was considered to play Mace Windu but then I had read that the original concept for that character was different. Like I had said before, this film and “Gridlock’d” were good examples of him branching out into different roles. While he was a dirty cop here, I wonder if he would have played a good cop at some point. No one will ever know.

Where do I stand with all of these films? Having watched six of his films for my series of reviews, I have to say that Tupac Shakur was indeed a talented man. I will admit that while I do like his music, I was never one of those fans who act like he is the single greatest rapper of all time and anyone who disagrees is wrong. I do admit that he left a mark on the hip-hop industry and there is a reason he is still talked about to this day. As for him as an actor, he was one of the better examples of rapper-turned-actors, though you could also say he was a rapper-actor who excelled at both. Yes, his more common roles were as street thugs when you look at “Juice,” “Above the Rim,” and “Bullet.” The other three films showed he had some range to do other types of roles. Yes, while I mentioned that “Poetic Justice” was debatable, he wasn’t a thug in that film. He was a mailman and for the majority of the film, Lucky was just someone who wanted to make a career in music. There was some depth to him that showed he wasn’t a one-dimensional character. Being that he had done six films, half of them he portrayed a thug and the other half were different roles. When you look at other rappers turned actors, whether it’s the likes of Ice-T, Ice Cube, DMX, etc., a lot of the time they played thugs but then there were times when they played different kinds of roles. The difference, however, was that Pac had an acting background prior to becoming a rapper. With “Juice” being his first film, the promotion for the film didn’t say anything like “starring popular rapper Tupac Shakur” or anything like that. If anything, “2Pacalypse Now” was released mere months before “Juice” was released. Plus, he wasn’t on the soundtrack to promote his music, either. So I think if he had lived, it’s possible he could have done more in acting.

That’s it for the series of Tupac films, but there is a side of me that may want to revisit something. Something I was not a fan of but I have the itch, even though I thought it was not a great biopic. I may get to that soon.

Movie Review – “Poetic Justice”

Release Date: July 23, 1993

Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, along with A New Deal/Nickel

Here is the second part of my Tupac Shakur movie marathon. What’s weird is that this coincided with some news about a lead involving Tupac’s unsolved murder and that I am doing this a few days shy of this film’s 30th anniversary since its release. Probably would have been more appropriate to wait a few days but I have some more to cover. As for the other subject regarding his unsolved murder, I will touch on that in a different post.

I wanted to talk about this film. I will do “Above the Rim” next as I am doing them all in order of release. I may also do a re-review of “All Eyez on Me” and possibly cover documentaries, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Although the poster for this only features Janet Jackson and she received top billing, this is very much a Tupac movie because he was one of the leads and later on when the film was released on DVD (back when VHS was going out of style and people converted to DVD) that he was featured on the cover art with his name on there. It has been a thing for more than two decades now. Then again, this was at the time when Janet Jackson was still huge and Tupac, while popular enough, he only had “2Pacalypse Now” and the year this film came out, “Strictly 4 My N.*.*.*.A.Z.” was released. I will note that I was rather iffy about writing it out fully but bear in mind that the term for that album was an acronym for “Never ignorant, getting goals accomplished.” Anyway, he may have had singles like “Trapped,” “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” and “I Get Around” up to that point but he hit his stride when he came out with “Me Against the World” and of course, “All Eyez on Me,” and I mean the album with that name.

What also must be of note is that this film was also written and directed by the late John Singleton. I had seen a lot of his films, many of which I should cover here. With this being his second film after “Boyz N the Hood,” how does it compare? Well, let’s see.

One thing that separates this film from “Boyz N the Hood” is that this is less of a hood movie and more of a road movie. While the first 20 minutes are spent in the ghetto to give some insight to the major characters and their environment, much of the rest was spent on the road. Interestingly enough, the movie starts off with what feels like a different movie altogether as you see Billy Zane and Lori Petty doing some kind of cheesy scene, only for it to be a fake-out and show that it’s a movie within a movie as it’s shown at a drive-in theater. So this is a prologue where it shows the titular character Justice (Janet Jackson) and her boyfriend Markel (played by Q-Tip). I never noticed this, but while “Between the Sheets” from The Isley Brothers was played in the fake movie, you get a remix of “Bonita Applebum” by A Tribe Called Quest with a similar beat to the former while Q-Tip rapping his verse. Something tells me a deal was made with Q-Tip for that scene or someone wanted to include it. I put on the commentary but nothing was mentioned about the use of that song which just happened to coincide with Q-Tip’s appearance.

Anyway, so the prologue leads to some violence, particularly Q-Tip’s character’s death and sets up the plot. So Justice has been through a lot since her boyfriend’s murder and works as a hairstylist and writes poetry in her spare time. Many friends of hers tell that she should move on and try to meet a man. Of course, part of the plot involves Lucky (Tupac), a mailman who has a daughter with either an ex-girlfriend or just someone he had meaningless sex with, not to mention is a drug addict. Of course, something happens when the baby’s mother was in another room about to have sex while her kids are in the living room just watching TV, causing Lucky to take his daughter away from the mother. The main part of the plot is that Justice and her friend Iesha (Regina King) have to go to Oakland for some fashion event, while Lucky and Chicago (Joe Torry) have to do a mail run out to Oakland. Did I mention that Chicago and Iesha were together? It leads to the two pairs together on the trip.

While the plot involves some things the quartet endure along the way, such as changes in relationships, a lot of the movie has a genre mix of drama, road movie, and romance. When I listened to a bit of the commentary, Singleton stated that he wanted to do a “street romance.” It was written on the promotional artwork for this film.

The story itself does work and I could say that Singleton had an interesting story and script. A lot of the acting felt real, especially from Janet Jackson and Regina King. They did feel like people who grew up in the hood. I could also say that Joe Torry and Tupac Shakur did fine in their roles. Sure, a couple of characters were not the most likable, but I think Singleton was trying to go for a realistic feel. However, Tupac and Janet didn’t have the greatest chemistry in this film. I had seen this movie a few times before but watching it again after such a long time, it’s clear that their romance didn’t feel genuine. While they may have looked good together, there were things about their romance that didn’t click. I had read a lot of sources that talked about Janet not liking Tupac and also that Pac refused to take an AIDS test for a love scene. For many years, Singleton had covered it up by saying it was a hoax, but according to trivia on the TV Tropes website, the film’s producer Steve Nicolaides, as well as Pac’s brother Mopreme confirmed that there was some friction between the two leads.

I have to also say that I had noticed some actors in “Boyz N the Hood” had appeared in this. I had noticed a number of them in past viewings but in my most recent viewing, I had noticed more of them in here. I know this was a John Singleton film, so I guess he and some others called some of the actors and asked them if they wanted to appear in this film. There was also a line from Iesha about “Monster and Dookie,” a couple of Doughboy’s friends from that film. While I saw the guy who played Dookie in one scene, as well as the guy who shot Ricky at the beginning, I wonder if this film was set in the same continuity as “Boyz N the Hood.”

Overall, while this movie may not be as captivating as “Boyz N the Hood” was, I would say this movie is just fine. I liked some of the camera work and editing in some scenes. Janet and Pac did fine in their roles but their romance wasn’t that believable. However, I could say that I enjoyed it okay.

3.5/5

Movie Soundtrack Review – Bones

Year of Release: 2001

Record Label: Doggystyle Records/Priority Records

Click here for my review of the movie.

I have been long overdue for this. I have been meaning to write a review on this for a while, especially when I do it in the middle of October. Last year, when I devoted most of my reviews to the Flatlinerz and Gravediggaz, I felt that I was missing something. I noted in one of my reviews that doing horrorcore rap albums should not really matter in the middle of October, as there are numerous horrorcore acts out there. But I had meaning to do this regardless. However, it would be hard to really label this a horrorcore album, as there were very few songs of that nature on this. How so? Well, let’s find out.

This soundtrack kicked off with an intro bit that had Snoop Dogg, who played the title character from the movie, “Bones,” of which this was the soundtrack. It was not really a song, but rather a narration of the character and his cause with music in the background. It had a nice beat to it, as it quite a funky and jazzy feel. However, what really kicked it off was the song, “The Legend of Jimmy Bones” from RBX, Snoop, and MC Ren. THIS song really had the horrorcore feel, and in a lot of ways, it was related to the movie as it talked about some bits of the plot, not to mention that there was a sound clip from the movie towards the end. The beat really gave it an unsettling feel.

One could expect that this album had a lot of Snoop’s affiliates on it, and that would be correct. Being that this was released under Snoop’s label, it seemed that it was to showcase some of the talent that it had. One song that stood out was “Lost Angels in the Sky” from Lost Angels and Kokane. I am not familiar with Lost Angels, though I am familiar with Kokane, who had done a lot of hooks for Snoop and crew back in the day. It had a great beat done by Battlecat, who had done “G’d Up” from Tha Eastsidaz and “We Can Freak It” from Kurupt in the past. In fact, a lot of people from Snoop’s crew appeared on here, ranging from Kurupt to Nate Dogg, and what better guy to do a hook on a song than this guy? May he rest in peace, by the way.

What I find funny is the song, “It’s Jimmy” from Kurupt and Roscoe. Not a bad song by any means, especially when it’s a collab between this brotherly duo, but this album came out around the time of “The Saga Continues” from P. Diddy and the Bad Boy Family, and the chorus was similar to the song “Diddy.” I am certain that the chorus was derived from another song, but it’s hard not to compare the two.

One song that can really get your head bump is “Death of Snow White,” which featured Bad Azz, along with Chan and Coniyac, 2/3 of short-lived female rap act Doggy’s Angels (Remember them?). Funny I should mention them as the other member, Kola, appeared on the track that followed called “If You Came Here To Party.” Warren G produced a phat beat for that track. If anything, some of these songs could be played at parties or gatherings, and some of them can be danced to, especially “Raise Up” from Kokane. Also, Snoop did a damn good job at paying homage to “Payback” from James Brown on “Jimmy’s Revenge.” Fredwreck did a good job on the production of this song, one of many songs that he produced for this album.

However, it was not just Snoop’s own crew on this album, as there were some cuts from D12 and Cypress Hill. I can’t complain about “These Drugs” from D12, and things were hot for them during the time this came out as “Devil’s Night” came out the summer of that same year. Cypress Hill has never disappointed me with their music, so it was no exception, though I will say a longer version of “Memories” appeared on their album “Stoned Raiders,” which was released not too long after this album had come out. There was another track from a group that was outside of Snoop’s circle, as Outkast appeared on here and collaborated with Snoop on the remix to “So Fresh, So Clean.” I don’t mind that track, by the way, but it felt kind of loud when hearing the beat. Another song from FT was actually pretty dope on a lyrical level and the beat wasn’t too bad either. It had an East Coast vibe to it.

One thing that I had noticed when I was younger is that a lot of these hip-hop soundtracks more often than not had to have at least one R&B track for some reason. Now I do like R&B, but it just seemed that there were not a lot of hip-hop movie soundtracks that were top-to-bottom rap. Anyway, I did like the song “Ballad of Jimmy Bones” from Latoiya Williams, as it did relate to the movie and her soulful vocals really captured the feel for the song. As for “This is My Life,” the singer Kedrick has some decent vocals, but it would have been better if CPO had at least another verse, so it could have been equally singing and rapping. I also liked how “Be Thankful” from William Devaughn was added, as that song was played in the movie. It was a shortened version, as there needed to be more room for the other songs. However, I don’t think that the song “Endo” needed to be put in, as I was not sure what the purpose was. Was it an original score track? I know that Fredwreck produced it, but it just didn’t feel like it needed to be on it.

This album had a good amount of variety on here, but it really did not have a horrorcore vibe as a lot of the cuts were gangsta. Some were even good to play at parties. Even 17 years later, this album still holds up.

4/5

Top Five Tracks

1. The Legend of Jimmy Bones
2. These Drugs
3. Memories
4. Ballad of Jimmy Bones
5. Fuck With Us

Movie Soundtrack Review – The Wash

Year of Release: 2001

Record Label: Aftermath Entertainment/Doggystyle Records/Interscope Records

When The Wash came to theaters, there was no denying that with who the two lead actors in that film were that there would be a soundtrack album to go with it. As I had noted in my review for that film, there was some heavy plugging for the soundtrack. But just how good was the soundtrack? Well, let’s see about that.

There was a time when you would see that if a recording artist had a part in a movie, whether the person was playing a character role or appearing as him or herself, there was a good chance that the artist would be featured on the soundtrack. In the case for this film, there is a lot of influence from both Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on this album, with Aftermath and Doggystyle respectively having their labels imprinted on the artwork for the cover and disc.

Both Dre and Snoop had a couple of tracks on this album, “On The Blvd” and the titular track called, well, “The Wash.” Not to mention that they were the first and last tracks on the album, respectively. Both tracks have their merits, with Kokane doing his bit on the chorus of “On The Blvd” and the beat definitely has the right feel when you would go out cruising, especially in a low-rider and hydraulics bumping in the process. However, “The Wash” stands out more in comparison. This song felt like an unofficial sequel to “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” from “The Chronic.” There were some parts of the beat that were similar to that song, as well as the mixing of other parts of Leon Haywood’s “I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You,” which was also sampled in “Nuthin’ But A G Thang.”

Those songs weren’t the only contribution that Dre had on this album. While he had some influence on the production of some other tracks, he had heavy influence on a couple of that songs that featured then-newcomer Knoc-Turn’al. “Bad Intentions,” which also featured Dre as a rapper, had an awesome beat with a good flute sample to go with it. Also, Knoc-Turn’al provided some good lyrics to go with it. However, “Str8 West Coast,” the other song with Knoc-Turn’al on there, showed more of what he had to offer as a rapper, with a good beat to go with it, too.

As far as the other tracks go, it’s sad to say that so few actually stood out in comparison to the aforementioned songs. While the songs like “Blow My Buzz” from D12 and “Bubba Talk” from Bubba Sparxxx are decent, they were already out from their respective albums that were released the same year. They were played in the movie, yes, so maybe that may have given them a pass. The same could kind of be said about “Holla” from Busta Rhymes, as that was also on “Genesis,” but that album didn’t get released until a month after this one. On the other hand, Xzibit had a standout track in “Get Fucked Up With Me.” It felt like he went back to his roots with the Likwit Crew with this one. It is definitely a good song to drink and/or smoke to.

Then you also had the original tracks from the rest of the artists on this album. Now I can’t complain too much about all of them, because some of them had their own qualities to them. For example, longtime DPG affiliate, Soopafly, did a decent job in “Gotta Get Dis Money, but the chorus gets annoying fast. Bilal had a good song on there, too. I remember when he had quite a presence during those days. Then you had some of the no-names on here. Out of all of the less-than-well-known artists, there were only a couple of tracks that stood out. One was the R&B track, “Everytime” from Toi, or I should say LaToiya Williams. She has a very soulful voice and the song can really get you in the mood for some alone time with your S.O., and also a good sample from J. Dilla’s beat to Slum Village’s “Get Dis Money.” The other is “Riding High” from Daks and R.C. Daks had some good rhymes to go with the beat by Focus. The one track that I kind of put in the middle is “Benefit of the Doubt” from then-Aftermath singer, Truth Hurts, along with rapper Shaunta (Not to be confused with Shawnna from DTP). Truth Hurts didn’t do a bad job on the song as she sang well, and Shaunta did fine on her part, but the beat felt a bit out of place. It felt like something you would hear at a Baptist church on Sunday with the organ sample. I was not big on the rest, though. “Don’t Talk Shit” from Ox had a good beat, but the rapper sounded like he tried too to emulate Busta Rhymes. While “No”from Joe Beast got old fast, but the beat was also nice. Then you had “My High” from R&B singer, Yero, who is not a bad singer, but the whole song sounded too much like something Musiq Soulchild would have done back then. Shaunta sounded too much like she tried to emulate Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown with her song, “Good Lovin’.” I don’t mind dirty rap, but she tried a little too hard with this one.

I remember that I had gotten this album as a Christmas present way back when. Now I don’t mind listening to it, but it definitely has not held up over time. The odd thing about this album is that the standout songs on here were from the more known artists. The rest had more to be desired. It was an average album in hindsight.

3/5

Top 5 Tracks:

1. The Wash
2. Bad Intentions
3. On The Boulevard
4. Str8 West Coast
5. Everytime

Rap Movie Review – The Wash

Year of Release: 2001

Film Studio: Lionsgate Films/Lithium Entertainment Group

When I first thought about reviewing “rap movies,” as I like to call them, I had initially thought about mostly doing reviews on these low-budget, straight-to-video releases that had a good amount of rappers in the cast, or at least ones that have a few in starring roles. A couple of examples that I did were Thicker Than Water and Hot Boyz, one movie that I fell out of love with yet still get a bit nostalgic over. The other being a film that I would rather use as a torture technique to punish someone who wronged me. However, I had also thought about the films that starred rappers that still managed to make it to theaters. Of course I had done a couple already that were given theatrical releases, Bones and Half Past Dead.

What is funny about all of this is that there are a lot of movies that have rappers in them, yet I am unsure on which ones to do and what not to do. Of course, at the moment I have a few in mind that I want to do, at least for the time being. One of those films is 2001’s The Wash.

This film was basically a starring vehicle for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. These two have a lot of chemistry when it comes to music. Hell, those two had collaborated a lot dating back to their days with Death Row. But the question is do they also have that kind of chemistry on screen? Well, that is REALLY good question.

Both men in their roles feel like they are playing themselves. Also, Dre’s character, Sean, is basically the straight man to Snoop’s Dee Loc, who is the wisecracker. In some ways it feels like when Ice Cube played Craig to Chris Tucker’s Smokey in the first Friday film. However, those two had amazing chemistry in that film. In this film, that comedic chemistry is lost on Dre and Snoop, despite having worked well together in music.

I have to also note that Dre and Snoop also have production credits in this film, among a few other people. Which I am like “Huh?” I can only imagine that only so many people can help the production of this film. But where the main thing lies is in the writer/director, DJ Pooh (For those who don’t know, his name is actually Mark Jordan). Of course, this film is not DJ Pooh’s first film credit. He had done some of the writing in Friday (And also played a character in that film) and also had written and directed 3 Strikes, a film that I also must revisit. Not to mention he also had a role in this film (More on this later).

Regarding the film’s story and writing is another part that shows how flawed this film is. In a nutshell this movie is about how Sean got fired from a job and ends up getting a job at, well, The Wash, which is the name of a car wash that has the employees washing cars for customers. So it isn’t one of those car washes where people can drive into and the car gets clean by the machinery. Nor is it a car wash where people can do it on their own with the use of hoses and brushes. It seems like a then-modern-day spin on the 1976 cult classic, Car Wash, but with more of a hip-hop/gangsta twist and no Rose Royce soundtrack to back it but rather rap tracks from Snoop and Dre, along with other hip-hop and R&B artists from Snoop’s label and Dre’s label. However, it seemed to have told three different stories in one film (along with a few subplots), which was one of the film’s problems. It even noted the different plot points on the back of the DVD case.

In the film, part of the plot had Sean, Dre’s character, becoming assistant manager to Mr. Washington (George Wallace), who was also called “Mr. Wash” as a nickname. Being that Sean tried to be an honest and responsible employee, he had gotten on the case of Dee Loc, Snoop’s character, for dealing and smoking weed while on the job and slacking. Of course, this rubbed Dee Loc the wrong way enough that it set up some conflict between the two. I must add that those two started off as friends at the beginning of the film who were also roommates. But then later on another subplot takes over the story which showed how flawed the writing was. The other plot of the film involved a kidnapping by Slim, played by DJ Pooh, who was the film’s antagonist, but he didn’t even show up until much later into the film. It was almost the storyline involving him was shoehorned in.

There were some subplots that seemed rather confusing and some that just finished at the snap of a finger. One example for the latter is a romantic subplot involving Sean and a female customer who he hit on at the car wash under the guise of an insurance salesman, when he happened to have stolen a customer’s jacket to hide that he worked at the car wash. Then of course that subplot was dropped not too long after it was revealed that he lied to her. That subplot was not needed at all and it would not have made a difference if it were out of the movie completely. On the plus side, she was never seen again, so there was no predictable part with her coming back and trying to give their whole thing another chance. As for another subplot, I totally wondered what the deal was with Eminem’s role in the film. He played a character who was fired from the car wash, but all he did was just call Mr. Wash and just threaten him. This was before 8 Mile, by the way, and it seemed like he was doing his Slim Shady persona when doing this film. Although I will say that he got some laughs out of me during his appearances.

One thing that annoyed me is that there was a lot of heavy plugging for the film’s soundtrack and also actually saying that the artists who did some songs were from Dre and Snoop themselves, the film’s lead actors. Okay, I get that they played characters, but it just seems odd how even the actors who played the characters exist in this universe as rappers. I don’t recall the Friday movies making reference to Ice Cube albums or ads with Craig present. In one scene, Tray Deee, one of Tha Eastsidaz and also one of Snoop’s boys from the DPG, was even referred to by his stage name and was acting as a character in this film. So he was basically playing himself and hanging out with a few moronic gangbangers? I didn’t understand it either.

Another thing about the soundtrack, and this is a minor spoiler here, is that in the credits, the video of “Bad Intentions” from Dre and Knoc-Turn’al was shown. It was an uncensored version, by the way, and the actual censored version was an extra on the DVD.

There were also some cameos by Ludacris, Pauly Shore, Shaquille O’Neal, and Xzibit. Also, one of the female characters was played by Truth Hurts, a singer who was on Dre’s label, Aftermath, at the time, but was credited by her real name, Shari Watson. One small note, but there was an appearance by Shawn “Solo” Fonteno, who is best known for playing Franklin Clinton in Grand Theft Auto V. He played Slim’s right-hand man. I also must add that DJ Pooh was the DJ for the West Coast Classics station in GTA V as well. This movie came out 12 years before that game did, but I just thought I’d mention that.

Anyway, this is not a good film, but I don’t hate it. I remember people had told me that it was not good when it came out, especially because I wanted to see it in theaters. According to some sources, it didn’t do well. It was shot on a $7 million budget but only made $10 million in the box office. I wonder if that was domestically. The first time I watched it was when I rented it when it came out on DVD. I had bought the DVD for this film much later and I had recently found it after having lost it. This film is more or less a time-waster or a movie that you can have on as background noise while doing other tasks. It is not a bad way to spend a boring Saturday or Sunday or any other day-off for that matter when you have nothing to do. You can do better but you can do a lot worse, too. I think it is mostly “meh,” if bad in some areas, but then again, a much funnier movie came out a month after this that starred rappers, which I will cover soon.

NEXT UP: HOW HIGH.

Album Review: Snoop Dogg presents Christmas In Tha Dogghouse

Year: 2008

Label: Doggystyle Records

Here I am in my final post for my holiday special, well, for this year, anyway. I had trouble finding another Christmas rap album to do, and then I bought this album because I was curious about it.

Up until sometime this year, I had no knowledge about this compilation. While I had planned on writing about Christmas on Death Row and High Fo’ Xmas for a long time, I had trouble finding something another Christmas hip-hop album. Initially I had thought about buying the Christmas Rap compilation, which also included the holiday classic, “Christmas in Hollis” from Run-DMC, but I didn’t get around to it. I realize that there are more Christmas albums done by rappers out there, so I could probably do those in the years to come. I wouldn’t mind throwing in a few Christmas albums from R&B artists.

Anyway, regarding this album, I will say that it’s kind of odd to listen to, especially during the holidays. I had said that “High Fo’ Xmas” is funny to listen to considering its content and how most of the songs had very little to talk about regarding Christmas, but this album actually took the cake in being an odd listen. For example, the song “A Gift that Keeps on Giving” from Damani felt like a song that belonged somewhere else. While holiday references were made, the flow sounded like he wanted to use that for a totally different song and the chorus repeated itself numerous times towards the end. It almost felt like it had skipped multiple times to the point where it felt like it wouldn’t end.

Also, “A Very Special Christmas” felt like the singer, Uncle Chucc, didn’t put a lot of effort into his vocal performance. It could have been better than it actually was.

In fact, many of the songs on this album left a lot more to be desired. I didn’t have a problem with the beats that were used in a few of the songs, as “My Mama Trippin on Christmas” had a nice beat to go with the holiday feel, but the subject matter in the lyrics didn’t go with the flow of the song. The flow of the rapping went with the beat better than the lyrics, however.

The parts that actually shined on this album were done by the veterans in Snoop, Kurupt, Daz, Lil 1/2 Dead and The Twinz. Nothing against the other artists, but I actually found more enjoyment in “This Christmas” from Tha Dogg Pound as well as “Just Like Xmas” from Lil 1/2 Dead and The Twinz. “Look Out” was another one that stood out as it included a few of the aforementioned veterans, as well as a good chorus from Nate Dogg (RIP). Snoop, Daz and Kurupt all had good verses in the song. “Xmas Trees” from Kurupt is actually a fun track to listen to, especially with a few references to weed. It lit up the album more, no pun intended.

The song “When Was Jesus Born?” from Lil Gee is a song I can give an A for effort, too, but it still could have been better. The vocals reminded me a little bit of T-Pain. The beat was decent, though, and I have to say that the subject matter really captured the Christmas spirit in the religious sense.

Back to when I talked about the songs from Damani, it was not his fault that the songs weren’t great. In fact I am curious about checking out more of his stuff in the future because he had shown promise as a rapper and I know he was also affiliated with Snoop. But the songs he did weren’t exactly great as he was not given decent content to work with.

In spite of a few good things that I said about this album, I really did not care for it. I don’t know if I will find myself jamming to this in the Christmases to come, at least not like Christmas on Death Row. I actually enjoyed that album and High Fo’ Xmas is something that I would put on if I am bored or something around the holiday season. I don’t recommend this album, but it’s a downloadable album so I would only recommend a handful of tracks. It really was not a good album in my opinion.

Top 5 Tracks:

1. Look Out
2. This Christmas
3. Twas The Night Before Christmas
4. Xmas Trees
5. Just Like Xmas

Other Christmas rap songs and Chronic commercials.

Hello, being that Christmas is near, and I mean NEAR, I decided to do a piece on a couple of Christmas rap songs that I like listening to around this time. I also want to touch on commercials for The Chronic, which came out in December of 1992. There are two songs that I will talk about, and they are “It’s The Holidaze” from Westside Connection and “Merry Muthaphuckkin’ Xmas” from Eazy-E, along with other Ruthless artists from that time. Now why on earth did I not do a review on the “Friday After Next” soundtrack instead, or even a review on Eazy’s EP, “5150: Home 4 Tha Sick”? Well I don’t own the “Friday After Next” soundtrack and if I get my hands on it, I will only do it around Christmas-time considering that film took place during the holidays. As for “5150,” I plan to do that one in the future. So without further ado, here are the songs.

NOTE: None of these videos are mine.

I have to say that the Eazy-E song is hilarious because it’s a total parody of Christmas songs with a bunch of violent, drug and sexual content added into the mix. One part that had always cracked me up was the spoof of “My Mom Kissing Santa Claus.” Same with Eazy’s bit when he spoofed “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Also, I later learned that a Will.i.am and Apl.De.App from Black Eyed Peas were once signed to Ruthless Records, but under different names. They were initially known as The Atban Klann and had recorded an unreleased album for Ruthless during that time. Unlike “High Fo’ Xmas,” this song is THE definition of a Christmas gangsta rap song. It is definitely not family-friendly, but it is good for a laugh, especially around the holiday season.

As for “It’s The Holidaze,” I remember watching this video many times throughout the years as it has become my own personal Christmas tradition to listen to it around this time of the year. I like how in the video with each verse, they all have the different color schemes that go with Christmas. Ice Cube’s verse has it all white, WC’s verse is all green and Mack 10’s verse is all red. Also, I noticed how the beats transitioned a bit to go with the flows of each rapper. My personal favorite verse of the song was WC’s.

Now here comes another part that is a little unrelated, but it goes with the holidays.

I know that Dr. Dre had released “The Chronic” during the holiday season of 1992, but what cracks me up about these ads is the Christmas tree looking like it was made entirely of hemp. Also, one of the ads had a female voice-over say “Dr. Dre’s got the chronic, so take a hit.” I really wonder where these ads were seen. I would only guess that they were mainly shown on The Box, MTV (When they still aired videos) and probably BET. Hey, at least Death Row knew what they were doing with their advertising during those days. It feels kind of dated now seeing album ads done that way, but it’s still fun to see.

Album Review: West Coast Bad Boyz – High Fo’ Xmas

Year: 1994

Label: No Limit Records/Solar Music Group

Track Listing:

1. High Fo’ Xmas
2. Intro
3. Lock Up Fo’ Xmas
4. Talk
5. Jacking Fo Da Holidays
6. Chillin’ N Da Game
7. Ghetto Nite
8. Christmas In Da Ghetto
9. Hood Carols
10. Rev. Do Wrong Xmas Party
11. No Limit Party

So now I am continuing with my Christmas/holiday special. I held on to my promise to do the compilation of “High Fo’ Xmas” from West Coast Bad Boyz. This is a No Limit album, by the way, and unlike “Christmas On Death Row,” this isn’t a traditional holiday album and I will admit that I bought this album as kind of a counter to the Death Row album. I saw that this wasn’t a family-friendly Christmas album to begin with.

If anything I bought this as a joke on my part. It wouldn’t be the first time that I heard some Christmas rap song that isn’t really appropriate to listen to. “Merry Muthaphuckkin Xmas” from Eazy-E is a rather humorous song that spoofs Christmas songs. Some songs on here are similar to that, and then you also have songs that didn’t need to be on this album to begin with.

I will note that this album came out in the days when No Limit still represented the West Coast, particularly the Bay Area. This was before they became a more south-based label when they had those gaudy Pen & Pixel album covers. Hence why this was a West Coast Bad Boyz compilation.

One thing that really got me about this album was that it had the intro as the second track, when the intro is often the first track of the album.

Anyway, a lot of the tracks on this album varied and mentioned Christmas and the holidays in passing, but there weren’t that many tracks that were about Christmas. For example, the opening track, which was also the title track, talks about getting high around the holidays in one of the verses, but then the rest has little reference to the holidays. Not a bad track. It has a laid-back beat that has the feel of a stoner song. Hence the name.

“Lock Up Fo Xmas” was similar in that it talked about being locked up during Christmastime but then went into the struggles of being locked up. King George, a rapper who I am really unfamiliar with, actually had good verses in this song. So this was actually a decent track. I will say the same thing, or maybe that this song was better, when thinking of “Jacking Fo Da Holidays,” as that song used a lot of beats from different songs ranging from “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” from Bone Thugs to “Funkdafied” from Da Brat. There were a lot of beats used on this song to name, and it was funny to hear P try to rap some of the verses similar to the rappers from each respective song.

One song that drew my attention prior to buying this album was “Christmas in da Ghetto” and it’s kind of a strange track to listen to as there is some transition in beats when listening to the chorus and the verses. One minute you would hear the chorus, which is similar to “Deck The Halls,” and then when you hear the verses from C-Murder and Master P, it has a totally different beat. I will add that when I listened to one verse from C-Murder, it reminded me of a song from RBL Posse, particularly from their album, “A Lesson To Be Learned.”

“Rev. Do Wrong Xmas Party” is another decent track from other No Limit rappers during that time, Big Ed (RIP), Lil Ric, and Dangerous Dame.

Keeping with the Christmas theme that this album has, a couple of interludes had different versions of traditional Christmas carols, like “Ghetto Nite” was a different take on “Silent Night.” While the “Hood Carols” was Master P singing his own rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” It’s actually rather humorous.

Remember when I said that there were tracks that felt like they belonged somewhere else? Well, those two songs are “Chillin’ in Da Game” and “No Limit Party,” which the latter is a remix. They have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, but they are decent tracks nonetheless. I now wonder where I could find the original version to “No Limit Party.”

The only thing that I have an issue with about this album is that it really didn’t have the feel of a gangsta rap Christmas album. Sure, there were songs that talked about getting high, the drug game or hard time around the holidays, but take that part away and it really wouldn’t have made a difference. It’s still a decent compilation, though. I plan to do other No Limit albums in the future and I know that there are a lot out there.

Top 5 Tracks:

1. Jacking Fo Da Holidays
2. Christmas In Da Ghetto
3. Lock Up Fo Xmas
4. High Fo’ Xmas
5. Rev. Do Wrong Xmas Party

Rap Movie Review: Thicker Than Water

Year of Release: 1999

Film Studio: Palm Pictures/Priority Films/Hoo-Bangin’ Films

So I basically had thought of something to delve into and that is “rap movies.” I don’t mean movies that had the likes of Ice Cube or Tupac Shakur playing characters and them being the only rappers in them. I am talking about those low-budget “rap movies” that went straight to video, or even ones that surprisingly made it to theaters. I might touch on hood flicks in the future, but this right here will be the start of a category I have been wanting to touch on.

If you lived in the late-1990s to the early-2000s, there is a good chance that you may remember that there were low-budget movies that had come out that starred rappers, and I mean a good amount of supporting characters played by rappers. It was a common thing way back when. What better way to start this column with a movie that I remember loving as a teen that starred Mack 10 and Fat Joe as the leads called “Thicker Than Water.” Now that I am older and wiser, does this movie this hold up? Or was I just too blind and naive as the 14-year-old boy that I was who thought it was the best movie ever?

The funny thing regarding how I found out about this movie was when I was in middle school I saw an advertisement for it for pay-per-view. I then remembered it when a relative of mine had the soundtrack and then I came across this movie on Showtime. Oh yes, I remember watching this a lot on Showtime back in the day. However, nostalgia can only cloud one’s judgment for too long, and when one day when I bought it at a store a decade after having seen it, some of those positive memories of having enjoyed something as a youngster have faded away.

The story’s plot is as cliche as it gets. What it dealt with was DJ (Mack 10) and Lonzo (Fat Joe) are rival gang members who decide to put their personal differences aside to get into the drug game. Did I mention that these guys are also budding music producers who are trying to pursue careers in music in hopes to get out of the hood? What’s weird is that these guys are getting deeper in the crime world than just gang-banging in hopes to make it in some legitimate business. Oh, and these guys also have girlfriends that serve nothing more than either as arm candy (Or eye candy to the audience), which also makes me see how sexist, if misogynist, this film is (More on that later). If anything, this movie is nothing more than a glorified rap video, and it was even shot like one.

Let me get into a lot of the ridiculous aspects of this film. We start the movie with Mack 10’s character, DJ, narrating about how life in the hood is messed up and how there may not be ways to get out. Next thing we see is a bunch of friends playing football in the park with music playing in the background. It’s supposed to look like a happy time, until a couple of women get into a scuffle. One of the women, Leyla, is supposedly “DJ’s woman” and going off on some girl because DJ had talked to her on the phone. She beats the woman up, and then she makes a snappy comeback only for Leyla to blast her with a gun right there. Next thing we see is Leyla dropping off DJ at his girlfriend Brandy’s house, and her giving him shit about how she “shot a bitch over him” and now she was dropping him to see another woman. I mean seriously, this was only in the first five minutes of the film, and I already see that a lot of the characters are portrayed in a negative light.

I must add that only the first 15 minutes of this movie take place within that day period, where during that time we also meet Lonzo, Fat Joe’s character, as he is first seen hanging out with his friends on his porch playing some word guessing game for some odd reason, one of whom was played by MC Eiht of Compton’s Most Wanted, and was more than likely in this movie because at the time this movie was made, he was signed with Hoo-Bangin’ Records, Mack 10’s label. Then when Lonzo’s girlfriend Kim called him inside, Lonzo’z boys just decided to rough up DJ because he happened to have been walking down the street where he was not welcome. It was funny to see considering the bad acting from these rappers, and there was plenty of bad acting in this movie, believe me.

After this host of sequences within the first 15-20 minutes of the film, we finally get to the crux of the plot. You see, with DJ and Lonzo aspiring to be music producers, they come across a few problems along the way. Lonzo was producing an R&B girl group, portrayed by real life group named Soultre, whom were signed to Hoo-Bangin’ at the time, and then went to go meet with a record company executive, only to see that the group had already met with him. The executive told Lonzo that he offered the group an exclusive deal to record for his label, which pissed off Lonzo greatly to the point where he pulled out a pistol and threatened him with it. The crazy thing about this was that Kim, Lonzo’s girlfriend, handed him the gun right before left for the meeting. I am sure he needed to be strapped for protection against rival gang members, but did he really need to carry the gun into the record company building? While DJ’s record equipment blew up on him during a session in composing the beats. So both men were fucked in that situation. So what are they going to do? They are going to put aside their personal differences and join forces to find a way to raise money by selling dope on the streets. Enter Gator, played by another rapper named CJ Mac, who is living large with his operations primarily based in New Orleans, La. but also had some influence in California. If anything, this guy was like the Tony Montana-type in this movie, with a mansion and everything.

So there you have it, the story is just them selling dope, and then of course we have some dissension in their operation along with them regaining their previous conflict. Not to mention that we had a stupid surprise twist at the end of the film that made little sense. I will not say what it was, but if you were to watch it, you would find the revelation to be stupid, too.

Another thing that I must add, the poster and DVD cover say that it starred Ice Cube, but that was far from the truth. Ice Cube appeared in the film, yes, but only for two minutes tops. He played DJ’s cousin who was a mechanic and gunrunner by trade. He was never seen again after that. We also had some other cameos by WC, Krayzie Bone, Flesh-N-Bone, Bad Azz, B-Real and Big Pun. No disrespect intended for the late Big Pun, but when I see the scene when DJ and Lonzo meet with him at the diner, I wonder how he managed to fit into the booth. He looked like he barely got himself in there, and then of course we see that he has a drug stash hidden inside a refrigerator.

I have to say that this film did not hold up from when I was younger. Not that I thought that this was a movie deserving of awards, but I still liked it then. Nowadays, I would only watch it if I want to get a good laugh because this movie was obviously shot on a low budget. The acting was horrendous, especially from the two leads, and the story was predictable. I also must say that I could only count any positive characters on one hand. One in particular was DJ’s mother, who tried to tell DJ about his life and his father, though that subplot was an afterthought because there were only two or three scenes that mentioned DJ’s father. Another positive female character was Brandy, whose character was that of a college student trying to make something of herself, but even she became an afterthought with the only scene she had any real dialogue was when her and DJ were talking about their future at the beginning of the film. The only other time she was seen was when DJ and her, along with Lonzo and Kim, went to a comedy club. She had very little to do in the film and I am sure that the writers only added her in at the last minute. The aunt seemed like the only other positive character. DJ’s stepfather was only seen in two scenes, and I will say that I thought that the exchange between him and DJ was kind of funny in one of those scenes. All the other characters made it hard for me to root for them, especially the two leads.

This was indeed a bad movie, no doubt, but I have seen worse, MUCH WORSE, and I plan to review them in spite of how I felt about them (*cough*Hot Boyz*cough*). In the meantime, thanks for reading this. Also, I will review the soundtrack to this film. Stay tuned for that.