Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Whether you press the play button because you’re a diehard fan of the record breaking Chappelle’s Show, a film guru in love with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry, or you just want to see a collaboration of some of the greatest hip-hop and R&B performers of our time (complete with the reunion of The Fugees) – it doesn’t matter – you will sit there with a smile on your face stretching from ear to ear the entire time. Part comedy, part documentary and part concert, there is something for everyone in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.

 

The film begins with Dave Chappelle handing “golden tickets” to his mystery Brooklyn block party, to residents of Dayton, Ohio.  With promises to provide transportation there and back, he invites the old and the young, whites and blacks, and fans and strangers.  With no real understanding of the event, the invitees agree to attend nonetheless, completely oblivious to the artistic collaboration they are about to see.  From then on, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party cuts back and forth from stories of the audience, comedic touches from Dave Chapelle, and performances from Kanye West, The Roots, Common, Lauryn Hill, Most Def, Jill Scott, John Legend, Erykah Badu, Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, and The Fugees. 

During his interview with Time Magazine in May of 2005, Dave admits, "I want to be well rounded, and the industry is a place of extremes."  This statement alone may have been the direction behind Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.  For two hours, Chappelle works to forget the industry, to leave the money and (most of) the privilege behind.  By bringing these artists, like Lauryn Hill, and even himself, who have so often shown in an extreme light within the industry’s context, he made them human again.  He, quite literally, provided the venue to allow them to do what they started out loving with absolutely no strings attached.

On the other hand, many of the artists that performed are considered “underground” not “mainstream”.  They are not subjected to the extreme industry standards and expectations that Dave Chappelle relates to most realistically.   Academic author (with a focus on hip hop culture), Michael Eric Dyson says, “for many black and white Americans, hip hop culture crudely symbolizes the problems of urban black youth”.  Dave Chappelle and his film introduces new argument, suggesting that it is not hip hop culture that creates problems and violence within black and white youth – but maybe mainstream industry hip hop.  Sure, Chappelle is a fan of each of the artists that he selected to be a part of this performance and that is why he asked them – but is it merely coincidental that most of these artists are not heard on “Jammin’ 94.5 FM”?

In the midst of his mysterious trip to Africa and his refusal of a $50 million deal with Comedy Central; Chappelle managed to “bring it back home” with a film that gave you the funny and crude comedian fans know and love, without being self-indulgent.   Just as quickly as the screen pans to Chappelle cracking jokes about blacks, whites, and Mexicans, it pans to blue collar workers in rural Ohio, an old couple in Brooklyn who built their house from the ground up, and a college marching band that probably never thought they’d step outside of Dayton, much less perform Jesus Walks for Kanye West himself.   I watched the film with refreshing ease, mirroring the spontaneity of the documentary and of Chapelle with his guard down.  Of course there are the “Chappelle Show” moments, and there had to be. But through the musical collaboration that he composes and his attention to the surrounding artistic elements of his production you see Dave Chappelle as a down-to-earth fan and supporter of artistic creativity through all mediums.

“This is the concert I have always wanted to see, all of these people, before I ever met them, I was a fan of theirs.”  – Dave Chappelle