Fear of a Black Hat
Spotlight on Black Cinema
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1h 28m
Directed by Rusty Cundieff | 88 mins | 1993
Overshadowed somewhat at the time of its release by another gangsta rap mockumentary send-up of the same year, the Chris Rock vehicle "CB4," Cundieff’s shoestring-budget feature debut gets just as many laughs at a fraction of the price, following sociologist Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons) as she discovers, for her graduate thesis, the world of hardcore hip-hop outfit N.W.H. (a burlesqued N.W.A.), a trio with a gift for assigning socially relevant meanings to their vulgar and misogynistic lyrics and a penchant for losing their white managers (like Spinal Tap drummers) under bizarre circumstances. Come for the rat-a-tat one-liners (“We anti-violent. Anyone says different, I’ll bust a cap in their ass”), stay for such classic tunes as “Fuck the Security Guards” and P.M. Dawn parody “I’m Just a Human.”
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