5 Sides of a Coin | |
---|---|
5 Sides of a Coin | |
Directed by | Paul Kell |
Produced by | Paul Kell and Jana Ritter |
Starring | Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, Gil Scott-Heron |
Cinematography | Paul Kell |
Edited by | Paul Kell |
Music by | Various Artists |
Distributed by | 7th Art Releasing |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 mins |
Country | Canada |
Languages | English, French, Japanese, German, Italian |
Budget | $16,000 CAD |
5 Sides of a Coin is a 2003 feature-length documentary by Canadian filmmaker Paul Kell about hip hop culture. The title references the five elements inherent to this culture, viz., emceeing, deejaying, b-boying (aka breakdancing), writing (i.e., graffiti or street art), and beatboxing. Each element is highlighted individually throughout the film's five chapters.
The documentary examines hip hop culture through interviews with hip hop artists such as Kool Herc, Jurassic 5, and Afrika Bambaataa. The interviews are interspersed with performance footage and archival footage from various periods of time in the history of hip hop.
Critical reception for 5 Sides of a Coin has been mixed. [1] Variety wrote a predominantly favorable review, commenting "Not quite definitive, "Five Sides of a Coin" is nevertheless a thorough overview of hip-hop's origins and influences. Nifty, well-executed docu emphasizes music's creative, bohemian side, skipping more commercial excesses." [2] The New York Times also commented on the movie, praising Kell for the film's attention to music but also writing that "Still, you can't help but feel that something is missing, that hip-hop has been around long enough, and is complex enough, to deserve something more than piety." [3]
Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper from the New York rap scene. Artistically, his music is often regarded as emblematic of the mafioso rap subgenre, a East Coast counter-subgenre to West Coast gangsta rap. He is widely considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, and one of the greatest rap storytellers of all time. Wallace's lyricism was often semi-autobiographical, telling of hardship and criminality, but also of debauchery and celebration. Vocally, Wallace garnered repute for his distinctive, laidback delivery that offset his lyrically grim content.
Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by American gangsta rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced by N.W.A members Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A members Ice Cube and MC Ren along with Ruthless rapper and unofficial member The D.O.C. Not merely depicting Compton's street violence, the lyrics repeatedly threaten to lead it by attacking peers and even police. The track "Fuck tha Police" drew an FBI agent's warning letter, which aided N.W.A's notoriety, with N.W.A calling itself "the world's most dangerous group."
Wild Style is a 1983 American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash, and ZEPHYR.
Scratch is a 2001 documentary film, directed and edited by Doug Pray. The film explores the world of the hip-hop DJ from the birth of hip-hop when pioneering DJs began extending breaks on records, to the invention of scratching and beat juggling, to the more recent explosion of turntablism. Throughout the documentary, many artists explain how they were introduced to hip-hop while providing stories of their personal experiences.
Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey is a 2000 documentary film about the martial artist Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do. The documentary includes never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage of Bruce Lee's life, as well as parts of the original footage of his incomplete film Game of Death, which had been left out of the film.
Nelson George is an American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Taqwacore is a subgenre of punk music dealing with Islam, its culture, and interpretation. Originally conceived in Michael Muhammad Knight's 2003 novel, The Taqwacores, the name is a portmanteau of "hardcore" and the Arabic word "taqwa" (تقوى), which is usually translated as "piety" or the quality of being "God-fearing", and thus roughly denotes reverence and love of the divine. The scene is composed mainly of young Muslim artists living in the US and other Western countries, many of whom openly reject traditionalist interpretations of Islam, and thus live their own lifestyle within the religion or without.
Illmatic is the debut studio album by the American rapper Nas. It was released on April 19, 1994, by Columbia Records. After signing with the label with the help of MC Serch, Nas recorded the album in 1992 and 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. The album's production was handled by DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and Nas himself. Styled as a hardcore hip hop album, Illmatic features multi-syllabic internal rhymes and inner-city narratives based on Nas' experiences growing up in the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York.
Big Apple Rappin' is a 2006 compilation album released on Soul Jazz Records. The album is a compilation of the early days of New York hip hop by Johan Kugelberg, who had collected early hip hop material, specifically records flyers and fanzines and other memorabilia with the idea to donate them to an academic institution. The music Kugelberg gathered for the compilation surrounded hip hop music released around the period "Rapper's Delight" became a hit song. The music is predominantly hip hop with a disco backing tracks which Kugelberg described as "the first great records." Along with the music, photography and flyers were compiled from the era, as well as interviews with DJs and rappers such as Grandmaster Caz and Glen Adams.
Simon Reynolds is an English music journalist and author who began his career at Melody Maker in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture.
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme is a 2000 American documentary film directed by Kevin Fitzgerald. The film depicts the art of freestyle rap.
The Grey Album is a mashup album by Danger Mouse, released in 2004. It mixes an a cappella version of rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album with samples from the Beatles' self-titled ninth album, commonly known as "The White Album". The Grey Album gained notoriety when the Beatles' record label EMI attempted to halt its distribution despite approval of the project from Jay-Z and the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
And You Don't Stop: 30 Years of Hip-Hop is a five-part documentary series directed by Richard Lowe and Dana Heinz Perry, written by Bill Adler, and released by VH1 in 2004. The series recounts the development of hip hop culture from its birth in New York City in the 1970s through its flowering into a global phenomenon in the 21st century. It was nominated for an IDA award in 2005.
"Say Something" is a song recorded by American producer Timbaland, for his third studio album Shock Value II (2009). The song features vocals from Canadian rapper Drake. It was written by Mosley, Jerome Harmon, Graham, Timothy Clayton and John Maultsby. The production was helmed by Mosley under his stage-name Timbaland while Harmon served as the assistant producer, under the stage-name Jroc. The song was tailored to Drake's sound and when the rapper wrote to it, he contacted the producer about the lyrics. Despite the verses feeling more like Graham's record, Mosley gave his blessing and went the product. The song was solicited to digital retailers on November 3, 2009 in the United States as the album's second single.
The Carter is a 2009 documentary film about the American hip hop recording artist Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., better known as Lil Wayne. The film was directed by Adam Bhala Lough and produced by Joshua Krause and Quincy Jones III, and documents Lil Wayne in the period before and shortly after the release of his studio album, Tha Carter III, which achieved platinum status and critical acclaim, and sold one million copies in one week. After being shown at the Sundance Film Festival, it was subjected to a lawsuit by Carter to block distribution but eventually was released direct to DVD and iTunes, where it topped all movie charts. The film has since been banned from legal sale again but is widely bootlegged on the Internet. Despite having no formal release, it has been rated as one of the top 70 music documentaries of all time.
dream hampton is an American filmmaker, producer, and writer. Her work includes the 2019 Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, which she executive produced, and the 2012 An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, on which she served as co-executive producer. She co-wrote Jay-Z's 2010 memoir Decoded.
Will Hermes is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to Rolling Stone and to National Public Radio's All Things Considered. His work has also appeared in Pitchfork, Spin, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Believer, GQ, Salon, Entertainment Weekly, Details, City Pages, The Windy City Times, and Option. He is the author of Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever (2011), a history of the New York City music scene in the 1970s; and Lou Reed: The King of New York, a biography.
The 50 Year Argument is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese and co-directed by David Tedeschi about the history and influence of the New York Review of Books, which marked its 50th anniversary in 2013. The documentary premiered in June 2014 at the Sheffield Doc/Fest and was soon screened in Oslo and Jerusalem before airing on the British Arena television series in July. It was also screened at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival and was seen at the New York Film Festival, in September, and at other film festivals. It first aired on HBO in September 2014 and was given other national broadcasts. It had a limited theatrical release in Toronto in 2015.
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is a 2022 feature-length documentary biographical film created by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine describing the story of Leonard Cohen, focusing on his song "Hallelujah". The film is based on Alan Light's 2012 book The Holy or the Broken.
We Were Hyphy is a 2022 documentary film about Hyphy, a sub-genre of hip-hop.