Fear of a Black Hat

Gangster rap's answer to This Is Spinal Tap, Rusty Cundieff's 1994 mockumentary chronicles the rise and fall and rise again of black rappers N.W.H. (Niggaz Wit Hats)--Ice Cold (Cundieff), Tasty Taste (Larry B. Scott, whose constant refrain "I'm gonna have to pop a cap in yo ass" is still funny 10 years later), and Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence)--as captured by filmmaker Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons, who would go on to write and direct Eve's Bayou). The parallels to Rob Reiner's classic are legion: in addition to the year-in-the-life setup and the generous sampling of concert footage (and music videos in the MTV age), Cundieff's film also features a recurring figure who dies (the series of dead drummers is replaced with dead managers) and the ubiquitous girlfriend-on-tour (Rose Jackson) who strains band relations. Boasting sharp writing, hilarious songs ("My Peanuts," "F**k the Security Guards," "Granny Said Kick Yo Black Ass," and the side-splitting peace paean "I'm Just a Human"), and solid visual gags (in one scene a protester hoists the sign "Quakers Against Rap"), Fear of a Black Hat is still the bomb. And that's straight trippin', boo. The film is presented in a solid transfer with serviceable Dolby Digital surround sound, with fine extras that include a director's audio commentary, a brief feature intro and close (in which band members threaten to kick copyright infringers' asses), contemporary interviews with all three rappers in character (Ice Cold, 10 years later: "I figured by now I'd have an island or some shit like that, but nothin's happened"), deleted scenes, and a dozen music videos (including "White Cops on Dope" with Cars' frontman Ric Ocasek, a song that didn't make the final cut). Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)