
Affion Crockett began his career during the early 90s when he became a feature on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, a series executive produced by Russell Simmons who co-founded Def Jam Recordings in 1984 along with Rick Rubin. Simmons and Rubin partnered with different music acts like Run DMC, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, DMX, and Kanye West. In this movie, Crockett carries a character who bears a very striking resemblance to Russell Simmons, if not a direct clone. Crockett’s character however goes by the name “Roscoe Simons.” In every other respect, Crockett imitates Simmons’ appearance and how Simmons talks.
The first half of this film explains how rap music and hip hop began as a genre. Its history is traced back to the character played by Simmons. The summer of 1973 is for many the summer during which hip hop began. So this was last summer and last summer was the 50th anniversary and in order to celebrate that 50th, this film depicts certain moments. But the film is a spoof too much for Saturday Night Live. It’s a Mel Brooks plot. This film can also be compared to Keenan Ivory Wayans’ Scary Movie or I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, with the presence of some of Wayans’ family members. Brooks and Wayan’s films often ridiculed some genre of films but here Crockett is concerned with the ridicule of a type of music and rather one or two people.
It’s hard to imagine what Crockett thought about when he started on this project. He probably thought of Eddie Murphy, and for good reason. Just like Eddie Murphy, in Coming to America, in 1988 Crockett portrayed himself in several roles during one episode. For example, he pretends to be Jay-Z, a rapper and entrepreneur – the character he names ‘Jay-B.’ A lot of the time, the scenes involve Crockett bouncing against other actors, with both of them impersonating famous rappers. The majority of the parodies mock how the so-called rappers would speak and the types of women they were attracted to, which are not really jokes. It is not jokes that are fundamental.
The real controversy and the most fundamental question is When did Crockett write this and such a film create after all a tremendous amount of furor? Similarly, Scott Russell was the center of some personal controversies that translated into his professional life as well. Starting back in 2017, Simmons was subject to accusations of sexual harassment, assault, and even rape. In total, 13 women accused Simmons of inappropriate conduct, six of whom detailed that he raped them. Simmons had to resign from his companies. According to the last updates (February 2024), there were still active litigation procedures against him. Andrew completely shrugs off the allegations against Scott.
It’s quite embarrassing because Crockett’s version of Simmons is the main character in the film who in the end turns out to be a sort of a hero. Making a rapist a hero of sorts is weird if not outright disturbing. One may presume that Crockett does not like Simmons but only because he is not active enough or does not know where the hip-hop scene has gone and what it’s all about now. Crockett in this case explains that rap music was good in the beginning and that the best genre performers were the ones who’s been doing it for around thirty or forty years.
Crockett emphasizes that the younger generation of rappers are far worse than the older and more experienced rappers. To be fair, he does say that some of the older ones have lost their touch or don’t deliver the same quality as they used to. Still, he almost depicts that there are no talented rappers under 35 years of age. The documentary ignores the great work of Chance the Rapper Vince Staples Tyler the Creator Lil Nas X or Wale or Kendrick Lamar. Crockett’s film, however, does ridicule what is formalized as ‘mumble rap’ or the stars lacking lyrics or any meaningful messages in the songs. Other critiques that Crocket’s work dealt with purposefully, the ones that have been heard from the beginning, of hip hop management of violence and ghetto life.
In several regards, Crockett is making this same criticism that Cord Jefferson has expressed in American Fiction (2023). Sanaa Lathan’s On the Come Up (2018») also made a similar argument but focused on greater problems of rappers acting as if they come from the streets raping about violence while in fact that is not the life that they lead. They do this solely because it’s thought that is what attracts record sales. It is perfectly reasonable to take that as a critique, but Crockett is without a doubt one of the numerous issues.
It is telling who the rappers that Crockett chose to ignore. For example, there is no Lamar Kendrick, or a parody equivalent to him anywhere. At the end, Crockett puts together a song with a lot of rappers in it. Although there is no woman rapper among them. He has actresses who impersonate many female MCs including Lyte MC, Latifah, and Salt N’ Pepa. Still, none of these women end up on the final song that is put out at the end. Why is that? Why are these women so predominant in the rap sections, but don’t get exposure in songs? Jones, Russell Y. There are, no doubt, valid criticisms of some aspects of hip hop culture like subgenre mumble rap or trap, but do not paint a complete background. He tries to be very broad-based, but a significant part of what is presented here appears to be quite limited. And yes, I also liked the 45 Cent scene, who was a humorous take-off of the rapper 50 Cent.
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