Blaxpoitation and hip hop


Hip hop history goes way way back and one of the first things that the last generation was checking out was Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song.

I've seen this movie a couple times, brought a copy, and I don't know really what to make of it. It's like a bit of soft core porn, a big celebration of those "free sex" days of the sixties, and an artistic political statement all in one. It was suppossed to be the beginning of the whole "blaxpoitation" movement, but it seems so different, so far removed from the Superfly and Foxy Brown genre.

The whole theme of all these movies is the idea of the rebellious black man who is defiant against "the man". For me, there's nothing like watching movies like Shaft, Superfly and Foxy Brown and seeing black hero in the end get one up on their enemies. This gave the black audience inspiration and an escape from the reality of dealing with oppressive white bosses, police, crooked politicians all on the news.

Naturally, blaxpoitation was the forerunner to hip hop in defiant black entertainment. For that generation that took in Sweet Sweetback and Shaft faithfully, this was their outlet. Hip hop would do for the late 80's Reagan generation what blaxpoitation did for the late 60's Nixon generation.