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Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap.

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On this episode of Hip Hop Movie Club,

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we tell you why this documentary stands out among hip hop documentaries

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for its focus on the craft of writing rhymes and rapping

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we have two mind-blowing, full circle moments,

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plus we're awed by the sheer number of rappers Ice-T included in this film

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and the fascinating insights he gets from them.

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So let's get into Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap.

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This was a documentary directed and executive produced by Ice-T, released in 2012.

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I liked how some of these rappers approach the writing.

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I think that's the real value in this film because other documentaries will talk about the

origins of hip hop and tell you the history of hip hop.

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this really gets into how do they actually do it?

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How do they make these rhymes?

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And so was really struck by what Rakim said about the 16 bars because, that's what you

get.

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if you can't move the crowd, literally,

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you gotta step off.

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Rakim saying, I start with 16 dots on a piece of paper.

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I'm like, that's amazing.

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Like, whoa.

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And then he tries to put the bars in there and he tried to do more rhymes per verse than a

lot of other rappers.

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And you can tell.

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he had different time signatures in his delivery and different poetic rhyming schemes within.

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And Eminem said something similar too.

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Like he looks at words like a puzzle and he like sandwiches things together.

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So.

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where he might be seeing things different than other people.

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I love these behind the scenes kinds of looks at the craft and the process, I’m very

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much “trust the process” and it was great to see how my favorite rappers like actually do

their jobs in that way.

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Watching Grandmaster Caz write that rhyme that we saw was really instructive.

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that was amazing.

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We saw Grandmaster Caz write this really creative rhyme about the whole history of hip hop.

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How before there was Sugar Hill, before there was everybody, before there was Mariah and these guys were laying down tracks.

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Yeah, we were in Bethlehem, PA.

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So we saw that live.

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That was insane.

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I was like, my God, that's the one we saw.

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Before Milk was chillin’, when P.E. brought the noise,

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Before Heavy D and the Boyz,

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Before the roof caught on fire,

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Before fresh was a word,

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Before Whodini and friends, and Roxanne’s Revenge,

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Before the freaks came out at night, before say “hoooo”

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Before the Crash Crew was rockin’ on the radio,

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Before Whitney, Mariah, and J-Lo, and Janet,

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Before Bam and the Soulsonic Force rocked the planet,

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Before these are the breaks, before hard times,

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Before the Sugar Hill Gang and before superrhymes,

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Before Reaganomics,

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And man, this had to have been the most star studded cast of all hip hop documentaries

that we've seen.

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It was just legend upon legend upon legend.

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I was just like nerding out like, oh my God, oh my God, this is crazy.

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Like how many people he interviewed, talk about

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their rap game, like what are your secrets to how you write your raps

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and he had some other guys I wouldn't even really consider them like mainstream, but like

MCs respect them.

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you had like cats like Immortal Technique, Chino XL, Rass Kass, dope lyricists, real dope lyricists.

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it was good to see them on there as well.

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Royce Da Five Nine.

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he's a heavyweight.

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he did a good job, Ice T did, of going through a range of different rappers, different

styles.

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Not many locations, mostly L.A. and New York, but he did cover a good spectrum of rappers and

different styles.

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Yeah.

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And a couple of females, just a couple, they had MC Lyte, she said that Full Force's father, Full Force, who we

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met on stage and had an episode, you know, a live screening with them of House Party.

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They were incredible.

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Bow Legged Lou and his brothers.

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was their father, Lucien George taught her how to develop her voice.

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That was MC Lyte.

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That was really cool.

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Yeah.

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I was geeking out around, I'm like, who's going to be next?

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And then he started playing a track from that artist.

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I'm like, oh, he's going to go see.

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He started playing A Tribe Called Quest.

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Oh, yeah, it's got to be Q-tip next.

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I thought it was great when he was like, what song is stuck in your head by any other

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artists right now?

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what's the difference between a rapper and an MC and why isn't hip hop on the same level as jazz and

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blues, at least in the public consciousness.

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that was a really cool set of concepts to go through.

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This really is a film for serious hip hop fans because it covers so many people and it

covers, like you said Boogie, some people that aren't quite the mainstream.

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And there was a quote in here too about hip hop didn't really invent anything, but it

reinvented everything, which I thought was a great quote also.

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Yeah, it's very true.

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Let's go around and rate this documentary.

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Sound good?

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right, BooGie.

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So I know where this is going, but for Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, would you

bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

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Bring this funky flick back.

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DynoWright, Would you bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

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Absolutely bring this funky flick back.

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Yes, sir.

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It's unanimous.

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We will bring this funky flick back.

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Ton of luminaries in this one.

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Yeah, yeah, definitely if you're a serious hip hop fan, this is for you.

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I'm glad Ice T did this oh

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Yeah, shout out to Ice-T

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Yeah, shout out to the OG.

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Yeah, the actual OG.

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We don't have that term without him, right?

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uh

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right?

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yeah.

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Thank you for tuning in to the Hip Hop Movie Club Show.

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For serious hip hop fans who want to deepen their cultural knowledge, I'm Dyno Wright,

filmmaker, designer, longtime hip hop fan, and I have give a shout out to Ice-T's metal

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band, Body Count.

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There goes the neighborhood!

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time hip hop fan, and for my money Q-tip's

voice is the smoothest to ever lay it down on a track.

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Ah, and I'm BooGie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan.

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And I actually remember meeting Ice-T way back in the day.

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There was a festival of some sort over in East Orange, next to Newark.

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he was there and he was giving out samples of one of his singles from his album.

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And years later, I found out why he was actually in East Orange because he was actually

born in my hometown in Newark, right next door.

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That's nice.

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Most people just think he's a West Coast guy all the way, but no, he's from, he's from

Newark.

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Yeah, yeah, Chino XL too.

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It's funny because I was actually watching this with my mom she remembers him.

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You

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She remembers Chino from around the way.

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Yeah.

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That's amazing.

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Yeah, RIP, yeah.

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Yep.

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And remember, don't hate, proliferate.

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Amen.

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uh