I slept yall. I saw this movie almost a month ago and I have been meaning to tell you about it. East of Havana is about Hip Hip in Cuba.
The filmmakers ? who are Cuban-American themselves ? zero in on a collective called El Cartel, composed of the charismatic Mikki (a flirt who raises pigeons), a poetic woman named Magyori (a street huckster who’s as tough as any guy) and the group’s political firebrand, Soandry, who laments the marginalization of politically tinged rap since its heyday in the United States in the early 1990s. (“I live trapped in that time,” he admits.)
Although the film is set in 2004 during the weeklong run-up to the International Festival of Rap Cubano and in the shadow of Hurricane Charley, there’s no phony urgency. The filmmakers are mainly interested in hearing the music and learning about the musicians’ compelling personal stories. (Soandry, for instance, longs to be reunited with his older brother, who fled to the United States a decade earlier.)
And trust. You WILL be a different person after you watch it. I know, my back pack readers, b-girls/boys, and the mtv jawns, might think, here she go with this sh*t again.
Following Magyori and fellow rappers as they prepare for an international hip-hop festival taking place in Havana in 2004, East of Havana sets their individual stories against the bitter, resilient landscape of Cuba’s political history. For the youth in the film, music doesn’t just have a purpose, it is a purpose, and the artists find in hip-hop a “mental freedom,” a lyrical and ideological purity that recalls American hip-hop before it crusted over with diamonds and demagogues.
But please believe there is nothing like seeing fools rap, JUST FOR THE SAKE OF RAPPIN.
Seeing a dude in Cuba, live near the beach, not really have a lot of paper, BUT has crazy love for hip hop.
NEW WORLD WATER
2 of the three characters had to go outside to get water either from a pump or from a cooler.
THAT SH*T was bananas. The female character in the documentary HUSTLES USED CLOTHES TO MAKE PAPER. The IDEA of Get Rich or Die Trying, or Bling, Or Coming Up, is foreign to them. I swear, for these cats, hip hop is like breathing. And it makes my 89-92 loving heart smile.
While it may not come to your local theaters.
Netflix it.
Myspace it.
Get that sh*t into ya life.
Trust.
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Hi Blog fam.
Has anyone else seen it?
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