Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

             Percolating beneath Black music's underbelly, rap's party-rocking rhymes set out on a singular road that went on until the break of dawn. In time, rap embarked on a divergent path lyrically exploring utopian themes ("Planet Rock"), urban working-class woes ("The Breaks" and "Hard Times"), and current events. The peak moment of this seminal shift was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five featuring Melle Mel and Duke Bootee's "The Message" (1982).  Spawning no less than a half-dozen hard-knock life narratives ("What People Do For Money" "It's Like That" "You're Blind"), " The Message" also planted future inspirational seeds: regional rap markets found their own voices apart from New York hip hop stylings exploring similar subject matter. (See "The Message") On the heels of a few Message-tinged follow-ups, Melle Mel, now cemented as hip hop's resident soothsayer-...

    After watching Michael eight hours ago, I have come away feeling that this film will propel Michael Jackson's legacy further into the stratosphere of perpetual exploration and discovery. Two words describe Jafar Jackson's portrayal of his legendary uncle: encapsulated perfection.  At age 29, Jafar resides in a chronological sweet spot parallel to his late uncle: for the decade of Jackson's entire twenties, his solo and group career would explode into a higher gear.  Not only does Jafar capture Jackson's soft-spoken autonomy, drive, work ethic, and dynamic onstage performances---he also brings Jackson's lapses of insecurity, doubt, and familial burdens to life that jump off the screen. While Michael does an excellent job at exploring the infrastructure Jackson's solo success was built on: a powerful record label with deep pockets, a crack legal team, and an experimental and supportive producer---fans well-versed in Jackson's history may take issue with t...

“What did Marvin say? The boy that made slaves out of men?” A pivotal scene in Harlem crime thriller New Jack City (1991) finds reformed crack addict  Benny “Pookie” Robinson in surveillance mode alongside a cadre of cops bent on taking down drug-dealing villain Nino Brown.  Pookie's acid dismissal is sharp as a knife's jagged edge. Sharp as his clear-eyed focus regained after a rehab stint. Still, his words hold no weight: to the cops, they're nothing but an addict's  racial rock toss at a glass (crack) house. Pookie's words meant so much more. M inted in demonic duality, they were two sides of a chaotic coin: clear as day. D ark as night:  The boy that made slaves out of men…… Cribbed by screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper from a track off Marvin Gaye's 1971 magnum opus "What's Going On," the song's title--- "Flyin' High (On The Friendly Skies)" plays on a United Airlines commercial tagline. "What's Going On" lives...