Dave
Chappelle works outside his stand up formalities and organises the most teasingly
funny and powerful hip hop event in the reclusive alleyways of Brooklyn.
The documentary
revisits Dave's hometown around Ohio venturing to the vines of his past promoting
the event with a megaphone motoring down his neighbourly streets. His nomadic
approach is tearfully funny as his impulsive acts attains a middle age white
lady who compiles to experimenting the concert adding, " I don't know
what to wear to a Hip Hop concert - I know I should of brought a thong."
With the allegiance to Hip Hop and Neo Soul the wanderlust Dave travels to
New York to host his block party with luminaries like Erykah Badu, Mos Def,
Dead Prez, Common, Talib Kweli, Roots and Jill Scott. At first, the centre
stage is a mere construction of hollow stands and instruments stagnant before
the audience. Yet the sparks begin with Dave jetting onstage bold and bald
gripping into stomach-aching babble of freestyle comic.
The onslaught of entertainment heightens as Kayne West perches himself alongside
John Legend with the underscore of Ohio's Central State University to 'Jesus
Walks' a surge of hysteria infiltrates the crowd.
The live concert is an enjoyable performance from a montage of artists'- Erykah
Badu belting the lyrics to 'Back In the day' whilst tearing off her afro wig
and crowd surfing, to the appearance of Big Daddy Kane and the infectious
Dead Prez with 'Hip Hop'.
But nothing quite reiterates the sound of Hip Hop as the onstage reunion of
The Fugees ignites the finale - Lauryn Hill quells the deafening crowd to
'Killing me Softly' as the concert draws to an end.
Directed by Michel Gondry the documentary grasps the intricate segments of
backstage conversation and individual artists' comments through to the quips
of Dave in rehearsal.
If you love music sprinkled with the onstage humour, then this is for you.
As Dave concludes in the block party, 'We shook up the world' and they certainly
did!