Remember way back when? Those days when you would sit in school and discuss how much you were looking forward to that night's episode of Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central? The joy as you knew that a new catch phrase would be reverberating down the hallways next morning? Was that just me? Fine.So I went to see Dave Chappelle's Block Party with some friends. As we were prepping to go, it became evident that these guys weren't entirely aware of what they were walking into. I believe they figured this would be a 2-hour long Chappelle's Show... well, it's not. DCBP, as it will be called from now on, if a concert film. Yes, a Michel Gondry directed concert film with heart, soul and humor-- but a concert film nonetheless.
You'll see Dave invite a small Ohio college's band to Bed-Stuy, Erykah Badu make a startling revelation, and Dead Prez being generally insane... but you won't see Clayton Bigsby, Ashy Larry or the Time Haters. What you're left with is some damn good entertainment. The guys I went with weren't exactly rap-heads, but they generally seemed to have a good time with it (the hippees that volunteer their stoop for Dave's shindig are worth the price of admission).
For those of you that care about the music, everything is great aside from Talib Kweli's latest step in his neverending quest to destroy his fanbase. Kweli... stop riding Mos Def's coattails and learn how to catch a beat. Geez. The Roots band is awesome, and Kanye West displays his usual live show brilliance. Dead Prez, despite being insane (already mentioned), also put on one of the better performances from a technical standpoint. The stereotypical live-rap sludge act doesn't happen here.
If you want to hear rap and R&B in theater-quality surround sound, go see this now. With Kanye, Kweli, Mos, Common, Jill, Erykah, Wyclef, Black Thought, Cody and a hearthwrenching Lauryn all on screen, you'll get a kick out of it. On a side note, "ATL", which was previewed before this movie looks like a joke wrapped in an abomination. Gotta love Hollywood.
8/10
