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Open Transport - The Movie Review
Hitman


It's been a while since I've seen a dope Hip-Hop documentary. Rhyme & Reason was nice, but I haven't seen anything I liked since. Especially being an underground cat. The rare times MTV tried to cover Hip-Hop it seemed like squandered use of air time. With today's technology, it seem like anyone can put together a product. From kids producing beats on their PCs to cat's with digital cameras making films. Not only has this paved the way for independent artists and labels (such as "Fondle 'Em"), but it's also helped many unknown directors get discovered (Quentin Tarantino or the guys that made "The Blair Witch Project"). Enter Open Transport...

Right from the start you'll notice the excellent job the directors did. Everything from the camera angles in interviews to the editing was done in a dope manner. The film opens up with Obscure Disorder in Montreal. They drop some science on the English/French speaking division in Canada. From there you get to see A-Trak rip it up on the wheels. From there it goes into an interview with Pharoahe Monch, he breaks down his writing style and also spends some time talking about "Simon Says," he explains the background story to the song. It actually makes you like the song even more than originally. The film continues on, and you have a conversation with Apani B. Fly and Mr. Complex. It then jumps to the West coast, as the Sound Providers talk about how they're moving forward in Hip-Hop by caring on old traditions (crate diggin').

After a little interlude with the Beat Junkies, you get to hear from one of my fav. emcees. None other than J-Treds, he breaks down his flow real quick and then he's out. This is when the film gets hot. The next stop is Philly, at this part of the movie they focus in on the All That Show. The promoters talk about, how they're following old traditions and doing $5 at door shows. In between all this we get to see performances from Cage and Mr. Eon (he's bent), and a dope performance from The Last Emperor of "Black Magic." The film touches up with both Cage and The Last Emp, before it moves to it's next destination. The next highlight is the Cali Agents with Madlib. Here we get to find out how Madlib discovered Quasimoto (I won't spoil it) and we get to hear Planet Asia's R&B debut (too hot). The Alkaholics drop in for a minute and they're up to the usual shit.

The film continues to touch on various spots. You'll get to see performances from Checkmark and Reks (Boston), you get to hear from Esoteric and Mr. Lif. They touch base with Shawn J. Period and he talks about his production style. Mass Influence drops some very interesting information about their operations in Atlanta. Ill Bill and Non-Phixion speak on their style. Kweli performs "On Mission" in the studio before recording it. Hi-Tek talks about bringing positivity in music and so on. The film even touches in and shows you some b-boys in Madrid, Spain. As the film gets closer to an end you get to Washington DC (my location), where get to see performances from Unspoken Heard and J-Live.

Open Transport is a dope film and deserves to be checked out. First it gives spotlight to dope underground emcees (like Last Emperor), not only that, but the camera work and editing were dope really well. It's even a lot better than some major documentaries (Rhyme & Reason and The Show). However, the film is not without flaws. It seem to have little direction to it. It jumps back and fourth from interviewing emcees to producers. Not only that, but it seems like production, graffiti, and breaking took a back seat to emceeing in this film. In conclusion, I think that the best has yet to come. Although it's not listed, this film will be apart of a series. Some of you might know this, but I'm a promoter in Washington DC. We've had the Open Transport crew film at both of our last shows. So you can expect to see some footage from our shows in Washington DC. Who knows maybe an interview with me isn't too far away.

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