Rui-Long Monico - Geneva // USA Conexion

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Usually Hip Hop documentaries are either cheap footage of thugs showing off their guns or a ridiculous cliche attempt from White America to understand its culture. I was crossing my finger for Rize, on paper it looked like the awaited Messiah, and I really didn't want to be disappointed.

Well my fears didn't materialize into reality. David LaChapelle did a great job and I should have never doubted him. Being one of the greatest hype photographer of the past ten years in the fashion and show-business, he brought all his experience to paint an aesthetically perfect canvas for his introduction to the clowning and krumping culture.

Although very different, Clowning and Krumping are two style of Hip Hop dances that grew up in South Central, Los Angeles. Clowning was invented by Tommy the Clown, an ex-drug dealer who started dancing dressed up as a clown when he got out of jail. The concept was soon recuperated and used in Crunk and Reggaeton videos. Yes, every time you see a ho shaking her booty to Lil Jon, she is clowning. Krumping is way more hardcore. In between heavy metal moshing (less brutal and more based on the rhythm) and capoeira, the genre is paralleled to African tribal dances by LaChapelle.

I'm not gonna waste my time talking about the plot ('cuz there is none) or to discuss the sociological effects (LaChapelle is a photographer not a scholar) but rather break down LaChapelle's artistic work.  

Opening up with archive footage of the 1965 Watts riot and the 1992 Rodney King riot and ending with a quote from Martin Luther King, Rize is a movie with strong images that delivers equally strong emotions. The soundtrack sounds like it was crafted to embody the moves from every dancer in this documentary, moves that LaChapelle took care to perfectly translate to screen with a rare grace.

Rize being the first great Hip Hop documentary in years, I highly recommend it to every purist anti-bling bling HH-headz out there.