Ice-T "The Art of Rap" Film - In AMC Theaters June 15!

[Amaranthine]

PARK CITY — Few musicians are as qualified as Ice-T to direct a documentary on the accomplishments of some of rap’s top performers and legendary originators. After producing, acting and hosting roles in feature films, docs and TV, the original gangsta rapper brings his skills to bear on an insightful film about the creative talents that have made hip-hop an original, enduring American musical tradition.

With appearances by the likes of Afrika Bambaataa, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Run-DMC and Eminem, and revealing testimony on the origins of some classic releases, Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap is poised to school a whole new generation of fans with insights from some of their favorite artists. Loaded with a capella on-camera performances and a soundtrack of killer beats, the film already has a worldwide audience in place, as well as broad potential on a wide range of platforms, from theatrical to VOD.

PHOTOS: The Scene at Sundance 2012

As a solo rap artist, Ice-T emerged on the hip hop scene in the late 80s and went on to co-found Body Count before adding acting and producing to his resume. Something From Nothing pulls together all this experience with an inquiry into the skill and craft behind some of rap’s most enduring artists and performances.

The film’s format is straightforward: On camera, Ice-T interviews rappers in studio or on street corners, exploring their musical inspirations and the impetus behind some of their best-known tracks, with a short a capella rap accompanying the exchange. As several rappers note, the genre’s roots in jazz, blues and soul inspired a younger generation of musicians to adapt these forms for a new style of urban music. “Hip-hop didn’t invent anything,” observes Grandmaster Caz. “Hip-Hop reinvented everything.” Caz demonstrates the rapper’s requisite skill of quick composition and tight rhyming by writing and then performing an original piece on camera within 20 minutes.

STORY: Sundance 2012: Ice-T's 'The Art of Rap' Has Head-Bopping Premiere

“Planet Rock” rapper Afrika Bambaataa outlines the four pillars of hip hop: DJing, MCing, B-boying and graffiti art, noting that “Hip hop is the whole movement,” that unifies all these skills and “the MC is the communicator who commands the crowd” during a performance, he asserts.

Female rappers are represented by Salt from Salt-n-Pepa, one of the first all-women rap crews, and MC Lyte. Working in a male-dominated industry, both recall the challenge of finding their individual voices, both in terms of performance and onstage persona.

Moving on to the Detroit area, Ice-T hangs out with Eminem, besides the Beastie Boys one of the most successful and influential white rappers. In perhaps the most revealing and dynamic interview in the film, they explore Eminem’s process of writing, which involves rhyming as many lyrics as he can come up with in each bar of music.

“My mind 24/7 is thinking about ways to bend words” into rhymes he says. They also candidly discuss the impact that drug addiction has had on Eminem’s life and career. “Without rap I wouldn’t be here,” he frankly admits. “Who would have thought that one of the greatest rappers of all time would be a white cat?” Ice-T remarks after their interview.

Arriving in Los Angeles, he meets up with B-Real of Cypress Hill, KRS-One, Run-DMC, Snoop Dog, Kanye West and Dr. Dre, completing the East-West hip hop axis. Ice-T’s voiceover narration connects the artists and interviews, with most segments running under 4 minutes.

Neon-colored aerial shots of New York and LA, scenes of graffiti art and bustling inner-city streets, and archival performances provide dynamic B-roll footage. While the film showcases some of the biggest names in rap both past and present, Ice-T himself absorbs a good deal of screen time, both interviewing other performers and reflecting on the state of contemporary rap as well, which he feels has gone too “pop.” Repetition of questions and themes is also a distraction, but fairly minimal considering the stature and expertise of the talent onscreen.

Venue: Sundance Film Festival, Documentary Premieres
Production company: Jolygood Films, Westmount Films, Final Level Entertainment
Director: Ice-T
Producer: Paul Toogood
Executive producers: Ice-T, Paul Toogood, Jorge Hinojosa, Ice-T, Simon D. Pearce, David Kaplan, Alison Toogood, Jelena Nikolic
Directors of photography: Andy Baybutt, Jeremy Hewson, John Halliday
Editor: Kieran Smyth
Sales: UTA
No rating, 107 minutes

Source
I'm dying to see this.

[Amaranthine]

Also, this article has a lot of gems, too:

Throughout the film there are multiple insights and a generous helping of laughs, some of it showing that many rappers have a sense of humor about some of the trappings of the culture, from baggy jeans to reflexive anti-intellectualism. Among the great bits were Cube and Snoop describing their styles as “street knowledge” and “tae kwon do,” respectively; Ice talking about hearing rap for the first time while in the Army; Big Daddy Kane’s claim that Dr. Seuss was essentially a rapper; Marley Marl’s theory that rap doesn’t get the respect of the blues and jazz because hip-hop has always been defined by its beefs instead of its solidarity; Chuck D’s admission that he was listening to a lot of Sly and the Family Stone when he was writing Fear of a Black Planet; Mos Def’s description of rap as “folk music”; KRS-One’s explanation that battling between rappers is a descendant of a slavery-era phenomenon called “the dozens”; and Ice’s confession that when he forgets lyrics during a show, he simply looks to the front-row fan that knows all the words as his “human TelePrompter.”

Any potential distributor who comes up with a decent number and a creative plan for a theatrical rollout punctuated by city-by-city hip-hop shows involving some of the principals will make solid money on the enterprise and likely launch a brand in the process. (This may already be in the works, as there was talk during the Q&A about a TV series and a follow-up doc that takes a look at other rap subcultures.)

^Obviously that part is speculation on the part of the writer, but it gives you an idea of what could happen with the movie.

[firepower]

When does it drop?

[Amaranthine]

When does it drop?

It's only being shown at Sundance. Usually Sundance films are picked up by distributors and then shown in theaters, but that will take a while.

[Amaranthine]

Another review:

Ice-T is credited as director and executive producer of Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, but he's also (in effect) the tour guide, serving as on-camera interviewer and off-camera narrator (his thoughts are laid over shots of the rapper/actor strolling cityscapes, framed like an action hero). When he talks to his subjects, the grandfathers and modern masters of hip-hop, he's the cool guy having an interesting conversation; the casual dialogues recall the Fab 5 Freddy-hosted interview segments on Yo! MTV Raps. The trouble is, the film never accumulates into a cohesive documentary whole--it's like watching 106 minutes of those Yo! segments, back to back to back, with both the pleasures and limitations you'd expect.

Don't get me wrong--the film's got some great clips, and (unsurprisingly) a muscular soundtrack, the filmmakers assembling what amounts to Hip-Hop's Greatest Hits to illustrate the proceedings. What's more, Ice-T and co-director Andy Baybutt show a real flair for marrying images and sound; the music breaks are illustrated by city B-roll, all shot with blown-out, urban-flavored hot cinematography. Hip-hop is, more often than not, the sound of the city, and these little interludes are stylish and alive.

The roster of interview subjects shows the kind of respect and access granted to the director: he chats with Afrika Bambaatta, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Big Daddy Kane (sporting braces, if I'm not mistaken), Rakim, Doug E. Fresh, Marley Marl, Kool Keith, Chuck D, KRS-One, Kool Moe Dee, Eminem, B-Real, DJ Premier, Q-Tip, Redman, Raekwon, Mos Def, Common, Nas, Salt, Lord Finesse, Kanye, Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg (plus a few more I didn't get down).

Wow, you might think, that's a lot of people to get into one movie, and you'd be right--most get a couple of minutes screen time, tops. What's more, our journey through hip-hop is suspiciously Coast-centric; Ice-T spends the first half or so in New York, makes a brief stop in Detroit to talk with Eminem, and then goes to Los Angeles. Wait, no Atlanta? No New Orleans or Florida?

And there you have the problem: at this point in its history, hip-hop is just too big for a documentary of this length to be anything resembling definitive. The history is so rich and the personalities so colorful that, in spite of the relative brevity of its existence, we need something along the lines of Ken Burns's Jazz or Scorsese's The Blues.

So Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap is a survey, which is certainly welcome. But a few unfortunate choices in the editing room cause the film to miss its punch. The editing in the interview segments is heavy on grainy extreme close-ups, which are cut in with a frequency that calls too much attention to them. Nearly every subject delivers anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes of straight-into-camera rhyming, and a little of it goes a long way; I get wanting to include the art, but these self-conscious interludes do little that the well-chosen vintage cuts don't. More pressingly, the documentary settles into a structural formula early on--a rap-into-camera verse from each performer, followed by a brief snippet of interview, then a record and B-roll and on to the next special guest--that gets wearingly repetitious fast. It becomes clear that, contrary to the boldness of his opening voice-over, the director/star isn't really looking to explore themes or examine the art at any kind of length; by the end of the film, he's just showing off his Rolodex.

There are some good stories (Chuck D wrote Fear of a Black Planet while "listening to a lot of Sly and the Family Stone"), compelling insights (Eminem sees the writing process as the assembling of a puzzle), welcome history (KRS-One's story about the origination of the "dozens" was new to me), and hilarious errors (no, Snoop, Bruce Lee did not "create" Taekwondo). The music is wonderful, and the look is impeccable. But Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap is too imprecise a film to give its important subject the treatment it deserves.

[JAGODA]

Can anyone say me when exactly it's coming?

[2PointOBoy]

[Amaranthine]

^Nice!

A couple other reviews:

Finally, Ice-T's Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap is a thorough documentary that, in the hands of anybody else, might have been totally dorky. Actually, it's still dorky, but who better to ask Raekwon "What constitutes wackness?" Who better to ask Big Daddy Kane the difference between being a rapper and an MC. Kane's answer: "A rapper is just someone who rhymes. Dr. Seuss is a rapper. But an MC will get up there and use the word quagmire and people are like, "Quagmire? What the fuck?" In getting Eminem, Kanye, Melle Mel, Bun B, Q-Tip, Dr. Dre, Salt (of Salt-N-Pepa) and many more to talk about how they write verses, Ice-T has created a hip-hop primer, but nothing as dry or institutional as that sounds. The Law & Order star's charisma comes through as he grins alongside some of his friends and admits to forgetting the words to his own songs onstage (in which case he pretends that the mic went out or sticks it in the face of the super fan in the front row who knows all the lyrics). The obvious bonus to having Ice-T conduct the interviews is that everyone is really comfortable around him so the scenes, many of which are shot on the street or more natural surroundings, feel very accessible and organic and a normally wary, unsmiling subject like Eminem really opens up and shows enthusiasm the craft.

From the beginning, he says the documentary is purely about skill, not the beefs or the bling. The only time he hits on a serious subject is when he asks his colleagues why they think hip-hop hasn't commanded the respect that jazz and blues has. He gets several different answers: Unwillingness of rappers to offer respect to the forebears, an inability to properly listen to the language and, from Nas, the opinion that nobody wants this street music in their living room. He adds that he's a grown man so he can't wear his pants low anymore, but he'll hike them down just a little to "annoy you stiff motherfuckers." After a while, the format gets a little repetitive and it would have been nice if Ice-T had found a few more ladies. But the film never comes across as exclusive, only passionate.

Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap: The not-so-hidden secret of gangsta rap pioneer’s Ice-T life and career is that the controversial provocateur behind such incendiary songs as “KKK Bitch” and “Cop Killer” is an affable, ingratiating figure who was well-liked by the brass at Warner Brothers even as the controversy over “Cop Killer” threatened the corporation’s financial interests (as recounted in Dan Charnas’ wonderful history of hip hop business, The Big Payback). Who else would feel equally at home on NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and Pimps Up, Hos Down (other than Tom Bodett of course)?

Ice-T makes his directorial debut with Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap,a wonderfully casual, conversational exploration of the craft of hip hop, graced by its host/producer/director’s innate affability. Ice-T’s prestige helped line up a murderer’s row of lyricists eager to discuss their craft with one of hip hop’s pioneers and masters.

T has wracked up such an impressive line-up that it’s almost easier to name the star rappers who don’t appear (50 Cent, for example, is nowhere to be seen) than the ones that do. He begins by chit chatting amiably with his colleagues from the Old School before comfortably inhabiting the role of hip hop elder statesman in front of such luminaries as Eminem, Kanye West, Mos Def, and Redman.

Ice-T’s affection and appreciation for peers like Run and DMC, KRS-ONE, Big Daddy Kane, and Rakim is both infectious and gleefully reciprocated. Much of Something From Nothing is given over to performances, ranging from popular rappers like Kanye West and Eminem [apparently Em performed something? I assume freestyling] to the obscure but revered likes of Ras Kass (who notes that his dense, cerebral rhymes are best appreciated by two demographics with a lot of time on their hands: college kids and men in prison). Needless to say, no one wants to deliver a sub-par performance in front of a legend like Ice-T or be upstaged by the who’s-who of rappers also delivering impassioned, stripped-down performances. Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap argues persuasively that hip hop can be disarmingly friendly, as well as an invaluable tool for social criticism and self-expression. (B+)

And the Q&A from Sundance: [1] [2]
"You know, Eminem talked for like five minutes, but it was so good! We couldn't stop it." <- on having trouble including everybody they wanted to in the film and giving them more than a few seconds.

"As an MC, you gotta find an adversary. I think Eminem, he found an adversary in himself. He had that fight, you gotta have fight. And you know, that was our thing musically and also with your words, just have that fight with something that you have displeasure on."

[Amaranthine]

Video interview with Ice with a couple of clips from the movie: here.

And info on the movie's future:

Ice-T's debut doc Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, repped by UTA, has fielded pitches from a wide mix of potential distributors, including Paramount Vantage.

Also, the movie is showing through the 28th:

Saturday, Jan. 21. 2:30 p.m. • MARC, Park City (waitlist only)
Sunday, Jan. 22, 9:30 p.m. • Redstone Cinema 8, Park City (waitlist only)
Monday, Jan. 23, 9 p.m. • Tower Theatre, Salt Lake City (waitlist only)
Friday, Jan. 27, 8:30 a.m. • Egyptian Theatre, Park City (waitlist only)
Saturday, Jan. 28, 6 p.m. • Screening Room, Sundance Resort (waitlist only)

[2PointOBoy]

More reviews, more news 'bout Em:

"The moment when Ice-T travels to Detroit to interview Em in his home studio is quite memorable, with a sober and focused Em talking about his affection for Treach and how rap is the only thing that helped him bounce back from his darkest hour.

“I wake up in the morning and words just fall out of me complicated…Rap is the one thing I can say I’m good at; I really can’t do a fucking thing else,” Em says with a laugh. “Except maybe basketball; I’m kinda nasty.”

As he leaves Detroit, Ice-T rhetorically asks: “Who would’ve thought that one of the greatest rappers of all time would be a white cat?”

What leads to Eminem’s interview is an interesting moment with Redman. Ice-T asks Red which MC has earned his respect through hard work.

“Eminem,” says Red. “Because he knew he had a job to do. It was like, ‘Yeah, I know I’m white, but music don’t have no color.’”

http://univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/16 ... ng-the-art

On the Side: It is scary impressive how quickly Eminem spit a rhyme. Scary impressive.

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/film-f ... -alori.php

[Trimss]

It sucks that we won't be able to hear it soon.

[Slim Fiasco]

That's a definite pre-order for me whenever it comes available.

[Amaranthine]

More reviews, more news 'bout Em:

"The moment when Ice-T travels to Detroit to interview Em in his home studio is quite memorable, with a sober and focused Em talking about his affection for Treach and how rap is the only thing that helped him bounce back from his darkest hour.

“I wake up in the morning and words just fall out of me complicated…Rap is the one thing I can say I’m good at; I really can’t do a fucking thing else,” Em says with a laugh. “Except maybe basketball; I’m kinda nasty.”

As he leaves Detroit, Ice-T rhetorically asks: “Who would’ve thought that one of the greatest rappers of all time would be a white cat?”

What leads to Eminem’s interview is an interesting moment with Redman. Ice-T asks Red which MC has earned his respect through hard work.

“Eminem,” says Red. “Because he knew he had a job to do. It was like, ‘Yeah, I know I’m white, but music don’t have no color.’”

http://univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/16 ... ng-the-art

On the Side: It is scary impressive how quickly Eminem spit a rhyme. Scary impressive.

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/film-f ... -alori.php

Thanks man!

[Amaranthine]

Even if you have no interest in rap or hip-hop, Ice-T’s documentary Something from Nothing may just give you a new-found respect for the medium. If you’re in the camp that thinks rap is nothing but noise and loud beats, this may be the movie that shows you the intricacies of rap that you didn’t know existed.

Ice-T travels from New York to Los Angeles talking to dozens of rappers. This isn’t a movie that glorifies their lifestyles or their fortunes they’ve made in show business, this is simply a movie about the craft. We get to see rappers like Q-Tip, Mos Def, Rakim, and Eminem give impromptu freestyles. Grandmaster Caz takes 20 minutes and composes a rap called “The Art of Rap,” and it’s amazing to see what these men and women can do with words. Another item that may impress people is the way the rhymes sound without a beat in the background. Every time Ice-T visits a new rapper he asks them to give him their favorite lines of lyrics or to make something up on the spot, sans music or a catchy beat. What you’re left with is the pure lyrics, a kind of verbal poetry delivered with the stunning precision.

The premise is simple enough. Ice-T merely wants to shine a light on the inner workings of rap. He shows how rhymes are created and we soon learn that the beat, while important, is secondary to the lyrics. The lyrics are everything and the rappers he interviews discuss their process of how they create them. No two rappers are exactly the same. Some have to have it completely quiet to compose their song or as Snoop Dogg puts it, “I need to smoke a lot of weed, and have a couple girls there because I like looking at them.” Different styles soon emerge as rapper after rapper freestyles in front of the camera, each of them with a distinct way of using their voice, inflections, and lyrics. They discuss their inspirations, how they got into rap in the first place, and what goes through their heads when they’re composing new stuff.

Before the movie started Ice-T was introduced and admitted that when the movie was first submitted to Sundance that it was a three-hour cut. Before that it was four hours, and I got the impression that Ice-T wanted to keep it as long as possible. There’s just so much to cover, and I had no idea how involved the craft of rap and writing lyrics was. Like many casual rap fans, I’ve become a bit desensitized to how complicated rap lyrics can be. I find myself getting lost in the beat, and even Ice-T admits that today’s rap is diluted. It’s become pop music. He wanted to use this documentary to tell the story of true rap artists, the musicians that defined and invented a genre of music. In that he succeeds.

I can tell you that the mostly white, mostly over-fifty crowd I saw the movie with probably weren’t hardcore rap fans. Yet everyone in the audience seemed transfixed by the way the lyrics were created and the amount of talent that went into performing them. It’s carefully crafted to illuminate the gift that these artists have. Something from Nothing is an eye-opening documentary for anyone, whether they are rap fans or not.

Source
Hopefully the original 4-hour version gets released somehow, like on a directors cut DVD.

Another few details:

He conducted 54 on-camera interviews with hip-hop luminaries including Chuck D, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Eminem, Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. The hardest part, he said during a conversation before the premiere, was editing down enough material for a season-long television series into a 106-minute cut.

He decided to make the movie, he said, because he was growing disheartened by the pop direction much of current hip-hop music is taking.

“Rap, when we started it, we didn’t have pop ambitions — it was part of the counterculture,” he said. “So I decided I wanted to do something about the passion, and how it all started. It’s about the craft — how do we do it. The art form. We went to some of the masters, and talked to them about the process.”

Choosing which rappers to interview, he added, amounted to raiding his own address book. “This isn’t about getting to see your favorite rappers — it’s about MY favorite rappers, Ice’s friends,” he said with a laugh. “That’s how I operate. I deal with my friends, people I know. That’s been a mantra.”

The contributions of women to the field are limited to two short clips with Salt of Salt-n-Pepa and MC Lyte, and some superstars such as Jay Z and 50 Cent are MIA. But critics generally liked the film, and its chances of being picked up for theatrical distribution are good.

There’s no archival footage, though there are plenty of classics on the soundtrack, and many of the subjects rap freestyle on camera.

When pressed to name a favorite interview, Ice suggested viewers might be most impressed by Eminem, who got emotional discussing how much rap means to him and how it helped him survive his battles with drugs.

But when asked whose music inspires him currently, Ice had a hard time answering. “I don’t know. That’s probably why I made the movie. I’m not really being inspired by music right now. I’m listening, I’m bouncing to the beat, but as far as being motivated, no.”

Source

[Trimss]

Amaranthine is just teasing us.

Haha.