The Block Party

Well, it's the height of the British Summer and, as usual, we're wishing we were somewhere else. Having come across the trailer for Made In Queens recently, I am secretly longing to escape to a world of neighbourhood stoops, boomboxes, block partys, games of dice and so on. However, as I am inescapably white, English, middle-class AND old, these dreams are unrealistic and I should probably try and get into cricket or something like that.

Anyway, "Made in Queens" looks like it will be really good. Made by MTV2 Films, the people that brought you the cultural powerhouse that is 'Cribs' amongst other things (and I am going to hold them responsible for Zane Lowe, petty and inaccurate as it may be), it's a documentary about a group of Trinidadian teenagers in Queens, Noo Yawk who have this unexplainable compulsion to 'pimp' their BMXs with absolutely ludicrous sound systems. Illogical as it may be, they seem to be able to ride these machines and they look freakin' amazing. But at some point, you have to ask 'why?'. Mind you, when they look this good, who really cares?

This would be the perfect time to look at this BMX-related video from The Cool Kids, 'Black Mags'.



In case you didn't know it, they are apparently bringing '88 back. However, I am of the opinion that the early nineties produced a whole load of great hip-hop (golden era, anyone?) and I am evidently not alone. You may have heard of The Wackness, a new movie coming out soonish set in New York in '94, about a young hip-hop fan peddling weed around town in an ice-cream cart with his shrink (played by none other than Gandhi himself, Sir Ben Kingsley).

Now this movie looks ace, and presumably will have those of us that sagged our jeans in the nineties queueing out of the door. I'm sure the soundtrack could be slightly better though...



Right. Now that we are all done with that, I am going to include a link to 'The Block Party' by the late Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, because a) it's fantastic, and b) the video is kind of like Sesame Street on acid.