Chronicles of a B-boy Superhero at the Hip-Hop Museum, DC

..As the interview ended Lord Finesse made his way from behind the table.  I cued the footage to the 1:28 minute mark, the exact moment Finesse could be seen speaking on the panel.  I did not say a word, I only turned the screen towards him so he could see what I was playing .  He stopped, checked it out, then realizing it was me, nodded his head and said "what's up?"  This all got Jeremy Beaver's attention and he said:

"Hey what's that?"

"It's footage from across the street, Howard University back in 1992 when we used to host a hip-hop conference.  This is rare footage featuring Lord Finesse on a panel, and participating in the DJ Contest.  As far as I know I am the only person that even has this footage."

"Email that to me so we can add it to the museum"

***record scratch

(This is not what we do here!)

##

This occurred Friday December 14, at the Hip-Hop Museum, DC which is directly across the street from Howard University's School of Business.  The event was an induction ceremony for the legendary Lord Finesse, and I went on a secret mission to attend this in person.  The reason being actually goes back to 1992.

Howard University used to host the Cultural Initiative Hip-Hop Conference when I was a student.  1992's conference was the second year of the conference's existence.  I had a camcorder (Minolta Master C-606) and recorded lots of footage of the conference from the panels, the inaugural DJ competition, and some performances. 

The Hip-Hop Camcorder

I had the footage archived on VCR tapes, until about a year ago when I finally obtained the means to digitize this event and store it in the cloud.  Doing a search online yields little to no information that this event ever took place, let alone there being any videos of the event either.  The Conference took place well before social media was a thing, and the only gadget some people had were beepers.

As I was going through the footage, it hit me that I should do something with it.  If I am the only person that has actual video of the Conference, I feel it's my duty to preserve this piece of history somehow.  I decided I would make a documentary about it!  I talked it over with one of my mentors, Maureen Singleton (will be credited as an Executive Producer), and she had a great suggestion for a way to tell the story, which would require locating people who I have in the footage, and get them to provide their perspective about what they remember from the event.  That's a great idea as far as I am concerned.

The VCR tapes of the Hip-Hop Conference

I started to take all the footage and edit it in iMovie, and came up with a teaser of sorts.  I posted it online through various social media channels, and got a pretty good reception from folks.  On Twitter the footage got the attention of Lord Finesse and we started to exchange messages via email.  I let him know my plans, and told him that I'd like to sit down with him so he can be involved, once I knew this would take off.  I don't believe in wasting people's time, and at the same time I want to make sure everyone involved can get properly compensated for their participation.  He was very agreeable about my proposal, and told me to stay in touch.

A few weeks ago, I saw a notification on Facebook that Lord Finesse was going to be inducted into the Hip-Hop Museum of DC.  I did a little research and saw that the location for the event was directly across the street from Howard University which I found...interesting to say the least.  My first thought was why something like this does not already exist on Howard's campus?  My second thought was whose in charge of this?  I asked folks in my network from the DMV area, and no one really seemed to know what the story with this museum was, other than it was actually a recording studio of some sort called Listen Vision Studios.  I did a bit more sleuthing online and this seemed to be a legit operation.  I reached out to Lord Finesse to see if he was actually going.  He confirmed to me that this was legit, and he'd be there.  I decided that I would go too, as it would be a good chance to meet him and show him more of what I had, and also to see what's the story with this museum.

I arrived in DC mid-afternoon and made my way toward Howard.  I had the cab driver drop me off in front of the bookstore, and chose to walk up Georgia Ave a few blocks to the address of this museum.  I made it to the address, which had two flights of stairs to go up and opened the door.  There were a couple of people inside cleaning up, and one of them said to me, "we're not open for tours yet." to which I responded by asking about the induction ceremony.  They confirmed it was taking place at 5 and I asked if it was open to the public which it was.  I said I'd be back.  From what I could see the space was definitely a recording studio, I could not at that point, yet make out much of the museum part.  I figured I could go check-in where I was staying, grab some food, and make my way back in time for the start.

Death Row Records Electric Chair on display at the Hip-Hop Museum, DC 

By the time I got back it was dark and rainy, but making my way back inside the space, the ceremony I could see had started, and sure enough there was Lord Finesse sitting behind a table being interviewed by Jeremy Beaver, founder of Listen Vision Studios.  Luckily, there were only a handful of us inside, maybe about seven of us so i was able to get a good view of the interview, which was streaming live and being recorded.  I took a seat, content to bide my time.

At one point they played footage of Lord Finesse on "Yo MTV Raps" with Fab Five Freddy, where he did a freestyle, and I smiled because I remembered the episode, and was able to even recite a few of the bars from what I remembered.  The induction ceremony/interview lasted roughly an hour with an interesting segment taking place towards the end called Unboxing.  According to Jeremy, every week they do the show, they do an unboxing of hip-hop memorabilia that they receive in the mail.  I believe I heard it said that these items were from eBay.  Some items that were unboxed during this segment were a copy of Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" album on vinyl, autographed by Chuck D and Flavor Flav which came in from Lenexa, Kansas, and a Macola Records Jacket which came from North Hollywood, CA.  I believe I found the listing for the jacket here.  I bring this portion of the show up to highlight how I started this piece, which we can now revisit.

***REWIND

Lord Finesse & Jeremy Beaver, Founder of Listen, Vision Studios

As the interview ended Lord Finesse made his way from behind the table.  I cued the footage to the 1:28 minute mark, the exact moment Finesse could be seen speaking on the panel.  I did not say a word, I only turned the screen towards him so he could see what I was playing .  He stopped, checked it out, then realizing it was me, nodded his head and said "what's up?"  This all got Jeremy Beaver's attention and he said:

"Hey what's that?"

"It's footage from across the street, Howard University back in 1992 when we used to host a hip-hop conference.  This is rare footage featuring Lord Finesse on a panel, and participating in the DJ Contest.  As far as I know I am the only person that even has this footage."

"Email that to me so we can add it to the museum"

I did not even respond to this 'request', instead processing what he asked me.  Here I am in DC, across the street from my beloved Howard University at a recording studio, which is also serving as a hip-hop museum, where the founder just interviewed an all-time legend, who I happen to have rare, unseen footage of from 1992 at a conference that took place across the street back in 1992, which to my knowledge CANNOT BE FOUND ANYWHERE ONLINE, and I am just supposed to 'email' this to you?

You can't even do me a solid and at least ask my name, who I am?

You can't even ask me if the footage can be licensed from me?  I just watched you unbox a bunch of hip-hop memorabilia that I believe you said you ordered off of eBay, so clearly you have some type of funds. 

Am I not worthy for some type of financial consideration, Mr. Beaver?

I did not even respond to his request, but I 'politely' took his card and continued to rap with Lord Finesse and by now a small group of people gathered around us (not Beaver) as we talked about the Hip-Hop Conference, and I made mention to those who were listening what my intentions were for what I had.  Lord Finesse asked me to play what i had of him at the DC Contest, and i of course obliged him.  He invited me to roll with him the following day on Saturday, but I told him I was returning back home.  He asked where I came from, and I told him Long Island.  I told him how great it was to finally meet him, and we would catch up soon so that I could complete my mission of creating a documentary of this footage.  I was able to snap a photo with him before I left.

Yours truly with Lord Finesse

As I exited the building into the night, where the rain had picked up considerably, all I could think about though was this Jeremy Beaver asking me to email him my footage so he could use it in the museum.  I guess on one hand, he's doing what he's supposed to do which is ask because you never know how a person would respond, and there may have been a time where naively I would have just sent it off without thinking about it.  But on the other hand, I did not think that was cool at all.  I have my own plans for my blood, sweat, and tears, and outside of any of the artist who are featured in my footage, no one gets to build up their platform, before I get a chance to build up my platform.  Once the documentary is complete, maybe i'll reach out to this guy with a real plan on how I want it showcased and presented, because it is quite honestly a piece of hip-hop history from the area.  But that is not happening before Howard University, and myself can reap any benefits that this project yields.

Until then check out the teaser that I released of my footage and stay tuned for an EXCITING announcement in the early part of 2019!

Word up son, word!

The Origin Story of a Game Tester

I was commuting to work on the LIRR, during the first week of October on a Thursday, when I received word that my entire department in NYC for Connected Devices Quality Assurance was being shut down, and I was getting laid off from work at Disney Streaming Service (formerly BAMTech Media) the following day.  That was supposed to be a great day, as it was the first day of New York City Comic Con which I was planning to attend after work via my 4-day Professional registration badge and had scheduled the next day as a vacation day.  Instead, I just became Craig from Friday, and was losing my job on a day off. 

I was upset, scared, and felt very hopeless at first.  How am i going to feed my family?  How will I keep the roof over our heads?  These questions and a million other things were racing through my mind.

Eventually I just closed my eyes, and stopped...

I thought about how this all started.  'This' being my career, and how I turned answering a simple newspaper ad into the opportunity of a lifetime.  I was not going to let this temporary setback, no matter how unexpected and devastating define me.  Sometimes in order to move forward, we have to look back.  So I thought about how I got on my career path.  It's a story that provides the kind of balance and focus I need to get through this transition  while also has empowering me to share what I am going through right now.

Rewind back to the summer of '98 when my homeboy DJ Parlay hit me up and told me he saw an ad in the paper that simply said, "Do you want to get paid to play video games?" for a company called Acclaim Entertainment.  I was only slightly familiar with the company by their name.  They weren't EA or Squaresoft, but I was definitely familiar with some of the games they put out like NBA Jam and NFL Quarterback Club.  Little did I know they were actually based out of Long Island in a city called Glen Cove, which was not too far from where I lived at the time.  A video game company in Long Island?  This was news to me.  Plus I wasn't even aware of what a job making video games even looked like.  If you asked me I probably thought it was something that only super smart people did, writing computer languages or something, which I didn't know how to do.  Having a job as described in this ad did not sound like an actual job, it sounded more like fun and playing video games was already a big hobby of mine going back to the days of the Atari 2600. 

As far as I knew then video game companies were either in Japan or on the West coast, and being a product of the east coast, those places were just so far away to me.  My peer group at this time was either in the music biz, or trying to make it in the music biz, and I was right along with them trying to make my mark in that industry as well.  I did not know any black folks who were in to the actual business of making video games other than playing Madden football, NBA Live or fighting games.  If I was going to do this "getting paid to play video games" thing, it was going to be uncharted territory. 

So Parlay and myself decided we would try to get this job.  What we had to do next was go to an Open House at Acclaim Entertainment on an early Saturday morning to get interviewed.  Unfortunately every other young adult from Long Island must have seen the ad too, because it seemed like there were hundreds of other folks out there.  Parlay and I got on line and we were given numbers which were in the 70's.  Shortly after receiving our numbers though, the person from Acclaim who was in charge of everything announced they were only taking numbers through the mid forties.  They thanked everyone for coming out, but told the rest of us to go home, and keep an eye out for another announcement of an Open House.  I was not going to let this setback deter me from what I felt was a dream job, so instead of going home right away, I came up with an idea. 

I told Parlay we should just wait around for a bit and let all these other kids go home, that way when these Acclaim people come back around and see it was only two of us left, we could convince them to do our interviews.  What did we have to lose?  Parlay was with it. 

So we waited.

If I remember correctly, we went to a deli down the street, got ourselves some sandwiches, re-entered the building, sat in the conference room, and even made some long distance phone calls if you can believe it!  We must have been in that conference room at least an hour before an HR representative came back and realized we were still there.  She asked us who we were and what we were doing.  I explained the 'scheme' to her, and asked her very nicely if she would interview us for the job.  I felt like I really pleaded our cases well to her. 

She politely told us both to go home.

BUT

She did acknowledge that this plot was a first, and admired the initiative it demonstrated.  She promised to give us a call the following week.  True to her word, the following Tuesday she called me and conducted a phone interview which went well.  I was asked to come back for an in-person interview a few days later where I was asked such questions as, "what are your favorite video games?" (Answer: Final Fantasy VII), and "how would you improve a game that you played?" (Answer: NBA Live - I would add the ability to play with using older players and teams from the past). 

A few days later I was hired as a Game Tester for Acclaim Entertainment in a temp to hire position getting paid hourly working on the day shift Thursday - Monday 7-3PM (weekends were MANDATORY for this position).  My primary job duty was to basically "write up anything wrong that you see" on the soon to be launched NFL Quarterback Club '99 for the Nintendo 64.  I was being paid to play video games, for the purpose of finding "bugs" (malfunctions) in the software code or as I liked to tell folks, I was paid to break things so that the product worked as expected when they were released to the public.  Trust me it is a real job, and is not as easy as some may think, but I have ALWAYS had fun doing it.  Perhaps in the future I'll write more about this. 

That's my origin story so to speak when it comes to how I got started in my professional career which has primarily been that of a Senior Quality Assurance Analyst.  Acclaim Entertainment is where it began, but in the years that followed I would go on to work at Rockstar Games, Avalanche Studios, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, and The Walt Disney Company working on projects such as the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Red Dead Redemption, Midnight Club, The Warriors, Just Cause 3, the WWE Network app, HBO NOW, MLBTV, and the ESPN+ app just to name a few.  As long as I always remember to show some initiative by thinking outside of the box, my next opportunity will never be too far away. 

Get Ready!

Master Ace & Craig G Live on Mr. Magic's Rap Attack Show 11-5-1988

Hip-hop radio shows based in the New York City area back in the 80's, at any time could have artists come through to be interviewed or perform live on the air.  It is one of the many reasons why it was always important to have your cassette and tape decks ready, because you never knew who would show up on any given night.  This spontaneity was one of the reasons why the culture was so exciting back in these days.  

The Mr. Magic Rap Attack show, which aired on 107.5 WBLS on Friday and Saturday often had members of the Juice Crew come through the station.  For those who do not know, the Juice Crew was a collection of emcees from Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island, whose members included Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Roxane Shante, MC Shan, and Kool G. Rap.  Marley Marl (also a member of the Juice Crew) was the station engineer of the Rap Attack Show and produced many of the records the Juice Crew released at this time.  Needless to say, a lot of their records debuted on the Rap Attack Show, thanks to Marley Marl. 

As I have been going through my personal cassette collection and listening to these classic radio shows recently, I have stumbled upon yet another gem.  The Rap Attack Show from Saturday November 5, 1988 with Juice Crew members, Master Ace and Craig G live on the air.  At the time of this airing, both of these emcees were fresh off their respective performances on the classic track "The Symphony" which also featured Kool G. Rap and Big Daddy Kane.  This may have been one of Master Ace's earliest appearances on the Rap Attack Show, while Craig G was a staple on the air already having released his solo records "Dropping Science" and "Duck Alert".  These two spent a few minutes trading verses over Eric B & Rakim's "To the Listeners".  

I've digitized the cassette and uploaded the segment which you can listen to the in embedded YouTube link below.  Enjoy! 

Rare Chuck D interview from Hofstra University P5 Hip-Hop Show (September 1988)

On September 10, 1988 the "Dope Jam 88" hip-hop tour made its way to the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, just a few traffic lights away from Hofstra University.  Eric B & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions, Kool Moe Dee, Doug E. Fresh and a few other acts were on the bill that evening.  Unfortunately this particular show is most remembered for a young man being stabbed to death inside of the arena.  Arrests were made, but that did not stop officials from the Coliseum from instituting a ban on rap concerts in the venue (which to my knowledge lasted until Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life" tour, which featured DMX, Method Man & Redman, rolled through in 1999)

One of the advantages of living in Long Island during this time when hip-hop on the radio was mainly relegated to night time slots, was the plethora of shows that could be heard almost on a daily basis.  Friday and Saturday nights, I was able to tune in to the hip-hop radio shows on the big stations from New York City, like 107.5 WBLS (Mr. Magic's Rap Attack) and 98.7 KISS FM (DJ's Red Alert & Chuck Chillout), as well as Adelphi University's WBAU on Monday nights, and Hofstra University on Saturday night.  Hofstra's station was 88.7 FM WRHU and their hip-hop show was called P5 (Post Punk Progressive Pop Party) hosted by Jeff Foss.

I used to record all of these shows on cassette whenever I could.  Some of them were labeled, but too many had no label on them.   Back when recording these shows was part of my regular routine, even if a cassette was unlabeled, I used to know what was on each them, based on the brand of the cassette and how much tape was on either side of the spool.  Having that sort of relationship with my music, gave me that super power.  Through the years that ability has faded, so now a little more work is needed in order to figure out what is on these recordings.

When I find time these days, I pop in the unlabeled cassettes and play them from Side A to Side B, making note of any highlights.  Imagine my surprise when I recently played a tape that had the Hofstra University P5 show on it, but more importantly featured an interview by Jeff Foss of the one and only Chuck D of Public Enemy!

The interview is about ten minutes long, and Chuck used his time to speak about Nassau Coliseum's decision to ban all rap concerts in the aftermath of the Dope Jam concert, saying that the ten thousand people that peacefully attended the concert, should not pay for the action of "ten knuckleheads".  He also discussed giving back to the community, plans for a world tour that Public Enemy was embarking on that November, and how the recently released "It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" had just hit a milestone on the Billboard charts.   I am not 100% sure, but I believe this is from September 24, 1988 for all the history buffs out there.

I have not heard this interview anywhere else online, so if you enjoy it, drop me a line in the comments, and please share!

Link to interview: Chuck D interview from WRHU FM P5 Hip-Hop Show September 1988

And here is a video from Yo MTV Raps that was recorded at the Nassau Coliseum Dope Jam concert with some interviews with Doug E. Fresh, KRS-1, and a few others:

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back: 30 Years Later

As a fifteen year old in 1988, any allowance money I received was spent on comic books, or records.  The closest place to buy music was a record store in Hempstead called Disc N Dat, which was on Main Street.  A few times a month I would ride the bus there to check out the latest releases on vinyl or cassette tape.  That year, "Strictly Business" by EPMD, "Follow the Leader" by Eric B & Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane's "Long Live the Kane" were just some of the purchases added to my small, but growing collection of hip-hop records.  One such trip into Hempstead that summer led me to purchasing what would ultimately become my favorite album of all time, and that's Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back"

From the moment I got home and took it out of the cover, it stayed in rotation on my record player for the rest of the summer and well into the new school year. The music was pro-Black, political, and made quite an impression on me.  There were plenty of hip-hop records in these early days that were conscious, but nothing like this.  The lyrics Chuck D was kickin' along with HOW he delivered them, thanks to his booming voice, over these incredible beats crafted by the Bomb Squad were like nothing ever heard before.  The inside packaging of the record came with the lyrics for each song, which allowed me to rap-a-long with each listen. Using their music as a vehicle to attack white supremacy, and uplift Black people, Public Enemy may as well have been real super heroes.  Having streamed it in its entirety recently, it dawned on me how timely and relevant this album remains during this Trump Error of America.  Here is a breakdown:

(I have previously written about the first time I heard the song "Rebel Without A Pause" which can be read here.)

Back cover of "It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back"

Don't Believe The Hype

Before Trump and his base popularized the term 'Fake News', Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" was made in response to some inaccuracies written about the group from Rock music journalists'.  While not fully aware of these circumstances at the time, I interpreted the song as a call to not take things at face value, not believe everything you hear, and to know your sources for information to better help form opinions.  Society today seems to absorb what they see online or posted somewhere as truth without verifying if its an actual fact, and as we learned from the Election of 2016, vast amounts of misinformation were spread far too easily.  Before accepting any information as fact, let's remember: Don't Believe the Hype!

Night of the Living Baseheads

This album was released at the height of the crack/cocaine epidemic that ravaged the United States.  Media coverage back then made these drugs synonymous with Black people, which shaped perception, and policy on how to combat the problem; harshly.  "Night of the Living Baseheads" was this album's powerful anti-drug statement.  The video in particular showed how these drugs were not just in Black communities, but on Wall Street as well.  Ironically, today the Opioid drug crisis has been framed as a white people problem, yet recent studies show that this drug is devastating the Black community as well.  Treatment for this addiction seems to be readily available in white communities, yet for Black victims too often the only options seem to be punishment via harsh drug laws or death.

Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos

With its haunting piano sample from Issac Hayes' "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" the subject of this song was Chuck D receiving a letter to register for the military, and his refusal to comply which landed him in jail.  Chuck's booming vocals defiantly rapped, "Here's is a land that never gave a damn, about a brother like me and myself because they never did" as his explanation.  There is a long history in this country of criminalizing and punishing Black people for taking a stand on social issues from Muhammad Ali, and his refusal to serve in the military when he was drafted, to Rosa Parks for not giving up her seat on a bus for a white person.  The most recent example of this is former NLF quarterback, Colin Kaepernick and the stance that he took, of taking a knee during the National Anthem prior to football games to protest police killings of Black people.  Cynics may say he is just not good enough to play in the league, yet his stats from the last season he played say otherwise.

She Watch Channel Zero?! 

Viewers of daytime soap operas were the target on this song, especially if they only seemed to watch or care about these types of programs, and not balance that out with activities that had more substance as highlighted by Flavor Flav's line "Read a book or something, Read about yourself, Learn your culture you know what i'm saying?"  Today the gender specific-ness of this song's title would not fly as both men and women are responsible for their fair share of ratchet television viewing.  The message remains the same though.

Caught Can I Get a Witness

This song addressed one of the biggest legal issues in the hip-hop music business back in 1988 which was music sampling.  How much of a song could be sampled to make a new beat, and how much would the original artist be paid for their work being sampled?  The biggest legal issue facing artist in 2018 is music streaming and getting paid properly.  Although these rates have gone up as of 2018, they still do not seem to be where they should be.


These are some examples of how my favorite album is still relevant thirty years past its release.  I wonder how this will hold up over the course of the next thirty years?  Time will tell.

Here are some videos off of the album.

"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" 

"Bring the Noise" (original version) 

"Don't Believe the Hype" 

With "Black Panther" Black Women are No Longer Hidden Figures in Hollywood Blockbusters

By the end of its third weekend at the box office, “Black Panther” will become one of the ten highest grossing movies of all time. 

This is a remarkable achievement for any movie, and especially historic in this case since there is Black talent in abundance on BOTH sides of the lens. When it passes “Finding Dory” to enter the top ten list, it will be able to add at least one more accolade to its already long list of accomplishments. It will be the first movie on this list that proudly, and so prominently, feature Black women in a Hollywood blockbuster. 

Black actresses have been somewhat M.I.A. as main performers on the all time domestic grosses list for films. Out of the ten highest grossing movies ever, Black women have only been cast with major roles in four (one of the women appeared in two of the movies). Even more disheartening, those parts did not allow them to be seen for who they really are, in their natural beauty. They have literally been “hidden figures”. 

Lupita Nyong'O, Zoe Saldana, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have each played characters in some of the biggest movie money makers ever. However, they each were relegated to parts that did not allow them the opportunity to appear in their own skin, instead appearing via computer effects. There is nothing wrong with doing this sort of work, but when opportunities are so few and far between for Black women in Hollywood films, compared to their counterparts, this situation is worth pointing out.  

Lupita Nyong'O as Maz Kanata in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

Academy Award Winner Nyong’O appears twice on this list courtesy of her role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (#1 on the list) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (#6 on the list) as Maz Kanata, a computer generated (CG) character. Lupita provided voice work and motion capture, but otherwise there is no way to tell its her under the special effects. 

Zoe Saldana as Neytiri in "Avatar" 

Zoe Saldana played Neytiri in “Avatar” (#2 on the list) who is an alien CG character with blue skin. Just like Lupita, Zoe provided the motion capture and voice work for this performance and did not show off her black skin any time during the movie. Saldana is no stranger to these types of performances, as she has worn green skin for her portrayal of Gamora, an alien assassin, in the Marvel Studios franchise “Guardians of the Galaxy”. To be fair though, she can be seen in the role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in the reboot of the “Star Trek” movie series, a character originally made famous by Nichelle Nichols in the original TV series. The new movie series is not on the list of top ten highest grossing movies of all time, so it would not be considered a blockbuster. 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette in "Beauty and the Beast" 

Finally, “Beauty and the Beast” (#9 on the list) featured Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, a character trapped in the form of a feather duster. The movie does show Gugu’s human features eventually, but not until the movie’s climax.  She spent more time being seen as an inanimate object, than being seen as a Black woman in this role! 

None of this is to say that there is ANY correlation between hiding Black women, equals a movie will earn more money, but Daisy Ridley (“The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi”), Kate Winslet (“Titanic” at #3), Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World” #4), Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Dark Knight” #7), Scarlett Johansson (“Marvel’s The Avengers” #5), Felicity Jones (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” #8), and Emma Watson (“Beauty and the Beast”) all had opportunities to star or co-star in blockbusters and they were each seen exactly as they are in real life. Where were these opportunities for Lupita, Zoe, Gugu or any other Black actresses? These three beautiful, black women could not have starred as the female lead in any of these other movies and those films not had the same financial success? 

This is a problem more exclusive to Black women. Black men who feature in movies from this list such as John Boyega (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”), Samuel L. Jackson (“Marvel’s Avengers”), Morgan Freeman (“The Dark Knight”), and Forest Whitaker (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) all appear in their own Black skin in these movies. 

The “Black Panther” showed us Black women as a General, Spy, Queen, and an Inventor in featured roles. This movie’s financial success does not excuse Hollywood’s poor track record for how Black women are displayed in its biggest films, but hopefully it highlights the issue, and leads to action that can remedy this problem. 

So this is another reason to root for the financial success of the “Black Panther”.

#WakandaForever