Hustlers Convention

'Oooh, baby I like it raw.'

-Sushi bar customer

With a lot of things, I usually find the original is my preferred choice. Despite more polished and better produced follow ups often appearing in the music and comedy industries, I tend to favour the rougher, more erratic and raw feel of their predecessors, where ideas are more fresh and awakening.

So, you ask, what is the original rap album? Many would point to the likes of Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets as possible contenders, quite rightly so. But with Heron switching between poetry to drums and soul tracks, his maybe can't be considered as 'rap' albums. And The Last Poets clearly laid foundations with their spoken word raps over drums.

But, under the sort of pseudonym you would expect of a modern rapper, with raps that flowed in rhythm to the music of Kool and the Gang, it was Last Poet member, Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin as Lightnin' Rod, with the concept album 'Hustlers Convention', that can perhaps truly be called the raw original. And this is the answer that filmmaker Mike Todd has come to with his documentary of the same name.

Telling the story of prison story toasting and its influence on popular culture styles of the Sixties and early Seventies, 'Hustlers Convention' (the documentary) uses interviews with various poets of the era to show its development into early forms of rap music. Throughout these interviews, animated sequences visualise the story of 'Hustlers Convention' (the album) , throwing in interviews with rappers KRS-One, Chuck D, Melle Mel Ice-T and MC Lyte discussing their memories of the album and the influence it had on them and an entire culture. There is then talk of the album's making and interviews with Nuriddin, rapping about life, the universe and everything, before British poets that have worked with him telling their tales.

'Hustlers Convention' (the documentary) shuns a linear narrative, mixing different periods in time throughout, with different parts of the story flowing likes rivers in parallel towards the film's conclusion. This means it never gets too tiresome, labouring a single point, keeping the rhythm flowing, in what is a reasonably timed ninety-plus minutes. The different generations and backgrounds of those involved also shed different lights and perspectives, making it far from one dimensional.

While the animated accompaniment to the songs could draw comparisons with 'Searching for Sugar Man', the similarities can be stopped there, with Nuriddin involved throughout and happy to talk about his life, rather than being made into a mythical, mystery man. Though maybe this is what 'Hustlers Convention' (the documentary) lacks: a hook.

'Hustlers Convention' (the album) is made out to be the sort of album that everybody knows, yet nobody knows; the most copied album in history, that nobody's ever heard of. But not enough is perhaps made of this irony. With Kool and the Gang signed to a different label than that of the release of 'Hustlers Convention' (the album), the album was quickly pulled, with few copies officially sold, leaving little fortune or fame for the man where it all began. In the words of the album's final track 'Sentenced to the Chair': 'The real hustlers who were ripping off billions from the unsuspecting millions who are programmed to think they could win.'

But maybe the fact that this isn't dwelt on too much is again a strength. Nurridin himself, now in his seventies, doesn't sound too bitter about this fact, performing the album at London's Jazz Cafe at the film's climax, knowing that his words will have influence for generations to come, and maybe 'Hustlers Convention' (the documentary) can claim its part in furthering this.

'Raw I'ma give it to ya, with no trivia...'

The Art of Rap: Something for Nothing

'I’m like the kill the police rapper Ice-T’

- Richard Herring

Ah, rap music; ignorant, ignorant rap music. How I love ye. If only someone could make a documentary about it. Well, someone has: the kill the police rapper Ice-T in fact. Of course, many documentaries have been made about hip hop, largely focusing on more commercial names, many telling a similar dull story and aren’t particularly that well made.

So, what does director Ice-T have for us? Well, ‘The Art of Rap’ is less a documentary and more a collection of interviews with some of the more famous and influential names to bless the mic, as well as all proving their place in the film by showing their skills minus any beats.

Ice-T’s interviewing is essentially to ask three questions: why doesn’t hip hop get the same respect as jazz and rhythm n blues?; what is your contribution to hip hop?; and what advice would you give to any new rappers? This essentially comes back with the answers: hip hop has a lot more attitude; and hip hop is something different to everybody – things pretty much anyone could have told you.

But this isn’t a documentary designed to tell a story or come up with any great answers; it’s a showcase for the purists of some of the best emcees busting rhymes. Unlike ‘Scratch’ which tells a story of the origins of DJing, little is mentioned about the development of rapping beyond the chronological order in which emcees are introduced, starting in the various boroughs of New York before moving across to LA. More focus is rightly given to East Coast emcees, particularly the likes of Grandmaster Caz getting as much screen time as bigger names such as Eminem and Kanye ‘why am I here, really?’ West.

‘The Art of Rap’ is not designed to educate, simply entertain and show some top-notch freestyling while sat in a cinema, which is a good thing. Ice-T is the best person to act as host for all this, having the charisma of a Hollywood star with the added bonus of being the O.G. rapper. It’s interesting to hear the individual motivations, though there is little to really shatter the Earth beyond the closing thoughtful message from Snoop ‘always be Doggy to me’ Dogg, of all people.

Here’s a man talking…