Video: Trailer for “Soulboy”
You have to use your imagination to picture what a Northern Soul party was like in Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. A few snapshots help capture the image from what’s considerably the DJ’s bible, but if you weren’t there, all there is to settle for is some ameteur videos or a movie adaptation. Look at hip-hop in the ’80s, which has been canonized in Wild Style and Beat Street, yet the crossover of ’70s black soul into predominantly white nightclubs in Britain hasn’t been as popular at the box office.
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Video: A Walk Through Ft. Greene
Hip hop journo Nelson George co-directed this video showcasing how the legendary Brooklyn neighborhood has been an important force in the arts. Here’s the trailer featuring Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Rosie Perez, Vernon Reid, Carl Hancock Rux, Saul Williams and many more.
We Got to Have It: “Soul Power”
As James Brown famously sang, “That’s what it’s all about, soul power.” Soul Power, a new documentary on an amazing three-night concert series held in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974 featuring the most famous American R&B acts of the era, demonstrates the enduring, transcendent power of soul. Held in conjunction with Mohammed Ali and George Foreman’s “Rumble in the Jungle” and briefly discussed in the documentary When We Were Kings, Zaire ’74 (as the festival was called) showcased an abundance of soul power from James Brown, Celia Cruz, BB King, and Bill Withers, among others. Reconnecting with their African roots and the enthusiastic crowd, these performers gave the concert of their lives. After spending years in a vault, the film is now being released, and opens tonight in New York and Los Angeles. View the trailer below, and don’t miss it. —Gracie Remington
