I don't think it's going to go down as one of the most memorable films ever, but it's a great summer movie and worth seeing. Olivia Thirlby and Ben Kingsley are particularly good. Method Man shows his, um, range as a Jamaican drug dealer, but his accent is a little too perfect, and things get a little matchy-matchy when he pops in a tape of "The What," his own real-life collab with Biggie. Still, I was very entertained for two hours and The Wackness does a nice job of capturing the feeling of New York in 1994.
June of that year was the first time I ever came to New York City. I was really into hip-hop and I was dying to go to the New Music Seminar that summer—so for my graduation present, my parents pooled their money and bought me a plane ticket, an NMS badge, and a room at the YMCA on the Upper West Side for a week. I would very happily stay there again. The room was $38 a night, the showers down the hall were clean, I pretty much had the whole floor to myself, and it was fully air conditioned. That came in particularly handy, considering it was over 100º the entire time I was here. I saw a lady faint on the Second Avenue F platform, it was so hot.
I got to see tons of shows—the Gravediggaz' first release party, the infamous Supermen DJ and freestyle battles, Jeru with Group Home and Premier, a big showcase with KRS-One and a bunch of other people where Ol' Dirt McGirt kept rushing the stage—and best of all, the Rocksteady Crew's anniversary party up at Rocksteady Park, where among tons of other good performances, Mad Skillz reprised his legendary freestyle from Stretch & Bobbito's radio show, and the crowd went freaking NUTS. I went to Fat Beats on the first day it opened on East 9th Street and maxed my credit card, picking up tons of stuff that was impossible to find in Seattle. I ate breakfast at the Carnegie Deli almost every day, on my way to the Seminar. I walked everywhere and when I couldn't take the heat anymore, I rode the subway to different parts of Brooklyn or Queens or Uptown, and walked around more. It was mind-blowing and I knew I would have to live here someday.KRS-One Hip Hop Vs. Rap MP3
Mad Skillz & Q-Tip Freestyle (from WKCR 89-tek-9, April 94) MP3