Having watched the trailer on my phone some time ago, I was vaguely excited for Ice T’s Something From Nothing, but it hasn’t been forefront in my mind enough to keep track of its release. Turns out the damn thing is in theaters right now, and I’m wondering if I might make a nice chaser to some Vampire-related dumbassery I’m in store for this evening.
If you’ve not caught the excellent trailer for the film, check it out below. A regionally-structured look at the history of the craft of rap, it features a massive roster of classic MCs and Hip Hop luminaries. It looks to have a conversational style packaged and put together with just enough documentary slickness, and it ultimately just looks super entertaining. One of my favorite documentaries I’ve seen this year was another craft-focused music doc called Regeneration, so I’m happy for another chance at a similar experience.
What brought the film back to mind today was an excellent interview with Ice T at Collider, where he dropped some science on what makes a rapper worthy of respect, how he managed to whittle down a 6-hour cut built from two years worth of footage, and, most notably, what he sees for his own directorial future.
I wanna do a feature. I want to do features. I wanna be the black Tarantino. I think there’s a lane there. You’ve got Cube doing the fun movies. You’ve got Tyler Perry in his own lane. Spike and John Singleton have got their own lanes. The only black director that I feel similar to is Antoine Fuqua. I think there’s an area for my vision. That’s my next plan. If this movie is a success, there will be a lot of opportunities for me to do that.
I’m thinking T is meaning more that there’s room for a black auteur working in a sphere of cultural riffing, rather than some “Urban Tarantino” shit that a marketer would come up with. I sure hope so, since I figure he can probably aim for better than being the black-version of anything.
In any event, see the guy’s documentary in theaters now. The list of places showing it is right here.