Fear of a Black Hat

So, I'm in Superstore checking out the boxing week sales, browsing through the cheap DVD bins when I come across one of those finds that makes you exclaim, "No way!", no matter how crazy it makes you look to those around you. I found a copy of Fear of a Black Hat. I love this movie. I happened to catch it on the dish years ago on one of the independent movie channels. In case you hadn't noticed, movies seem to happen in twos. This came right after CB4, although it was filmed before CB4. It is the This is Spinal Tap of rap. It's not quite as polished as CB4, but to me, it's smarter, funnier, which is more impressive since it was done on a much smaller budget. ITC has set a budget for exactly $999, 999.99, because they did not want to say they had approved a budget of a million dollars for a first time writer/director.

Rusty Cundieff is the writer, director and stars as Ice Cold, one of the rappers in the group N****z With Hats (N.W.H.). Cundieff had written this mockumentary because he and the producer were big fans of This is Spinal Tap. Cundieff had told ITC that he would like to mostly improvise the film, like Spinal Tap, and could do it with a good outline. They went along with that, but Cundieff found in rehearsal that a lot of the more minor characters would try to improvise themselves into the rest of the movie. So Cundieff began shooting with only a week's schedule written, and would write the rest of the scenes at night after shooting that day. He went on to direct many episodes/sketches of Chapelle's Show, because Dave Chappelle was such a fan of Fear of a Black Hat.


The film begins with documentary filmmaker, Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons), who is following the group for her doctorate thesis in sociology. N.W.H. is made up of Ice Cold (Cundieff, sort of an Ice T type character), Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence, a hippie PM Dawn type) and Tasty Taste (Larry B. Scott, an Eazy E type character). The guys go on tour and have run-ins with their rivals, The Jam Boys (Moon Jones, Deezer D, and Faizon Love, who I LOVE), record company execs, police, security guards and encounter women trouble.

The film follows a similar arc as CB4, in that it follows the group on tour, documents the rise of the band, the beginning of troubles until the band ultimately breaks up and goes their separate ways creatively. The film goes on to skewer a lot of the rap groups and songs that were popular at the time, with appearances by M.C. Slammer, Vanilla Sherbet, Yo Highness, and an appearance by black film director Jike Spingleton (who was short, angry and near-sighted before Spike or Jon). They are N****z with Hats because they have a whole "hat philosophy". In short, the slaves didn't have any hats, not even a babushka, so when they got done working at the end of the day, they were too tired to rebel (Ice Cold: "So what we saying now is, yo, we got some hats now muh-fuckas"). The film is also like Spinal Tap in the way that all N.W.H.'s managers die under unusual circumstances, like Spinal Tap's drummers did.


The film is hilarious and will be funnier if you remember the time around the L.A. riots, and bands like P.M. Dawn, C & C Music Factory, and everything else popular in the rap/hip hop world in the early 1990's. Also, it is full of profanity and liberal usage of the "n" word, so if something like that offends you, you may not find it so funny. The lighting is sometimes really crappy, but given their budget and the fact that it is supposed to be a guerrilla style documentary, may be forgiven. Try to find it if you can on Netflix or wherever you find movies to watch it, if you haven't seen it. The DVD has a feature commentary with writer/director/star Rusty Cundieff, bizarre interviews with Cundieff, Lawrence and Scott in character, and a slew of funny, deleted scenes. The following is one of my favourite exchanges during one of Nina's interviews while they are discussing the L.A. riots (following the Rodney King verdict)...

Nina: Did you guys agree with the riots?
Ice Cold: Oh hell ya, I mean, the media was trying to say that,you know, the people looting was all lazy and didn't want to work, but I tell you what....you try carrying a leather sofa all the way from like, Larson and Crenshaw down to like, Pico or Venice or something like that. And then going back for them matchin' end tables? That's some work for your ass right there.

Happy New Year and more ramblings to come.....