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Wordplay: Director and rap legend Ice-T interviewing B-Real for his performance documentary, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo: Gunner Fox)

By ANGIE ROMERO
Channel: Entertainment, Sundance 2012

This one’s for the hip-hop lovers. If you love the art form as much as I do, then you almost never want Ice-T and Andy Baybutt’s exploration of the craft and skill of rap legends, Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, to end. 

Melle Mel once said: “An art form can only be as great as its masters.” And what’s better than hearing from those masterful MCs who have each left their own indelible mark on the game?

The doc starts, rightfully so, in the birthplace of hip-hop, with Ice-T and Brand Nubian’s Lord Jamar sitting in a New York studio talking about the first time they each tried to rap. For Jamar, it was the instrumental b-side to Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks,” which was called the “Do It Yourself version.” When he sat down with some friends and tried to rap, nothing came out. But he never gave up. 

Along the way, Ice-T meets with damn near everybody who’s anybody, asks them to spit something, and tailors the same questions to each individual subject, among them: 

-What do you have to say about rap as an art form?

-What’s a rhyme that’s stuck with you over the years?

-Why do you think rap doesn’t get the respect that other art forms do, like jazz?

-What’s your process?

The answers range from funny (“My name is Melle Mel, I started the game, the pleasure is all yours, fuck you very much”) to insightful (after a freestyle that’s simply bananas, Grandmaster Caz drops this gem: “Hip-hop didn’t invent anything…hip-hop reinvented everything”). And even if Ice-T misses a few key people here and there (Jay-Z was noticeably absent) you still walk out of this doc feeling satisfied — like you aced Hip-Hop 101. 

However, it’s not perfect, and one of my issues with the doc is that it doesn’t sufficiently represent female MCs or Latinos. 

Daddy Yankee once said something to me that stuck. He said, “Blacks and Latinos have the same problems, in different languages.” I guess that’s what drew me to rap in the first place, after I had tired of grunge in middle school. And though Ice-T does talk to my first love, Nas (before Biggie came and replaced him as the No. 1 rapper in my heart), he only talks to two Latino MC’s: B-Real and Immortal Technique—no doubt a lyrical monster with a lot to say, politically. During B-Real’s interview, the Cypress Hill frontman opens up about changing his rapping voice early in his career, after realizing the voice he was using wasn’t unique enough. Real was inspired by the Beastie Boys, who sounded like no one else. 

As nice as it is to hear from these two, I wish Ice-T would’ve talked to other Latinos who have contributed to the art form, whether it be Fat Joe (with Pun gone, I’d settle for him), or even Pitbull—that is, if Mr. Worldwide has some free time in his busy product endorsement schedule. Then again, Ice-T purposefully stays away from those rappers who have gone too overtly pop. During Mos Def’s interview, he unequivocally states: “Rap is not pop; it’s folk music.”

And when it comes to Southern rap, we only hear from Bun B. Having covered Houston, it really would not have mattered which city he picked (Memphis, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans), but Ice-T really needed to give Southern rappers a greater presence here. Instead, Ice-T covers the East and West Coast extensively—from Grandmaster Caz to Snoop—and only thrice ventures outside those regions (to talk to Eminem, Kanye West, and Bun). 

That said, 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.’”

Because there are just way too many moments that I loved in the film, I’m going to just go ahead and list them:

Q-Tip, donning Gucci shades and a Kangol hat, talking about being a chameleon, and how this has been the key to his longevity. Then he raps: “I be the upper echelon Don Juan when the mic is on.”

Self-proclaimed “method rapper” Chuck D breaking down how he constructs rhymes (with things like charts, graphs, and extensive notes). 

Bun B talking about how he likes to tell the untold story of “the hustler after he gets home,” or what Ice-T calls, “the b-side of the game.”

Raekwon talking about what constitutes wackness.

Doug E. Fresh beatboxing in a kitchen in Harlem, paying homage to his top three MCs of all time: Melle Mel (who taught him how to be spiritual), Kool Moe Dee (whose technique he studied), and Grandmaster Caz (who had slickness and style). 

Big Daddy Kane talking about the difference between an MC and a rapper. “A rapper is just someone who rhymes, “ he says. “Anyone can rap. Dr. Seuss is a rapper. An MC is someone who either has that party-rocking skill or that lyrical skill.”

Rakim talking about how when he was little, he’d listen to jazz, and visualize things even though the music had no lyrics. This was what made him want to paint a picture in every song, and make us “smell your momma’s perfume, or chicken cooking in the kitchen.” He then explains his complicated method of rhyming (he starts with 16 dots on a piece of paper, and then breaks everything down into bars of 4, then he tries to fit in as many words or syllables into those four bars.) “Even though you explain it, niggas still can’t understand it,” Ice-T jokes. 

Run DMC’s Run, dressed in head-to-toe Adidas, talking about the peak of his career when he was “out of control.” The picture he paints involves a hot tub, ashes from a blunt rolled with great Cali weed falling into the hot tub, a Rolling Stone reporter, “a ho,” and a Rolls Royce.

MC Lyte sitting on the top of a mountain talking about her first great teacher: George Lucien, father to [some of the members of] Full Force, who had her singing Salt n Pepa songs in her living room. 

Dr. Dre, standing at the top of a Hollywood hill, with an infinity pool behind him, talking about working with Pac, and how he builds relationships with artists in the studio. Cool fact: in his 27-year career, he’s only spent two weeks out of the studio! That’s how much he loves music. 

Kool Moe Dee talking about how he uses vocabulary to brag, and then busting into a sick freestyle.

Kanye West talking about losing his first rap battle (it clearly didn’t humble him). 

KRS-One in a vinyl record store, talking about the moment in his life when he knew he could rap (he was watching some guys battle it out on the street, when one of them randomly picked him out from the crowd and dissed his clothes; it was out of the need to defend himself that he freestyled for the first time ever). 

Also KRS-One, schooling us on the tradition of battling, which dates back to “the dozens,” when slaves were sold in groups and would use verbal warfare to attack each other, until one of them broke down or a judge declared a winner.  

Ice-T talking to Ras Kass about how, because cats don’t understand what he’s saying half the time, they dismiss him. To which Ras says: “You know who my fans are? People in college and niggas in prison…people who got time to learn.”

Ice-T sharing some of his stage tricks with WC. “One of them is when I [forget a lyric] I’ll pretend like the mic has been cut off,” he says. “Then I lip-synch for a while and at some point we have to start the song over.” Another trick is using a die-hard fan in the front row, who knows all his lyrics, as a human teleprompter. 

Snoop Dogg in the studio, talking about how he sees rap as a sport, and what his essentials are: “weed, old-school music playing in the background, and a couple of females to look at.”

The movie ends with Ice-T’s commentary over a beautiful New York skyline. 

“The answer is obvious. Rap means something different to every MC…but one thing is certain: hip-hop requires skill, whether it’s a great breakdancer, a graffiti artist, or a great MC… this is not a game, this is the art of rap.” 

And as such, it’s constantly evolving (today it’s Drake, tomorrow it’s …). In terms of paying his respects to the masters, Ice-T does a fine job.