IN SEPTEMBER 2004, Dave Chappelle decided to throw a block party in Brooklyn. Once the funnyman had found the ideal spot for his jam on a rundown Bedford-Stuyvesant street corner and charmed the natives into allowing him put up a makeshift stage, he asked some musicians to come along.
Those who said yes included Kanye West, The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu and The Fugees.
Chappelle figured he should bring some of his hometown folks along to enjoy the day out, so he went around Dayton, Ohio handing out tickets to store- owners, a couple of probation officers and various neighbourhood faces. When Chappelle stumbled across the Central State University marching band, he handed out another bunch of tickets.
Somewhere along the line, Chappelle enlisted Michel Gondry and his cameras. The director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind knows a thing or two about music videos, and what he shot is probably the finest music flick you will see this year on the silver screen. Dave Chappelle's Block Party is up there with Stop Making Sense. Yes, it's that good.
The only problem is it's already left town. Due to the glut of new releases and the ongoing inability of Irish cinemas to engage in any kind of non- blockbuster marketing, Block Party showed for one week only in a single Dublin city-centre cinema.
When I saw it last week, there were about a dozen people in the audience. While that dozen probably told a couple of dozen others to go see the film right away, it was too late. Screens have to be kept free for Garfield 2 and Little Man, you know.
Still, there's always the DVD, and that's already on release in the United States. As Chappelle himself knows from the best- selling discs of his wisecracking Comedy Central shows, DVD cocks a snook at both TV and cinema. Better and wider exposure means more sales, and the Block Party DVD release will produce plenty of cheddar for Chappelle in 2006.
Block Party will probably also get more people checking out Chappelle's own form as a comedian. If you giggled at the sight of Chappelle driving down a posh Brooklyn street hollering "Attention Huxtables, we're throwing a block party" through a megaphone, you'll probably dig the biting skits and sketches (especially his "I'm Rick James, bitch" performance) from the Chappelle Show DVDs.
Yet, for all of Chappelle's thoroughly likable freestyling and quips - there's an especially inspired set of riffs on race with Mos Def as his straight man sidekick on drums - Block Party is about the music. "This is the concert I always wanted to see," remarks Chappelle as he watches his heavyweight hip-hop cabal swing into action.
There's no end of highlights to choose from. Just when you think that Kanye West's version of Jesus Walk, aided by the buckshot funk of the Central State University band, is the keeper, Dead Prez deliver a spirited Hip-Hop, Jill Scott duets with Erykah Badu on You Got Me and Mos Def does a Black Star turn with Talib Kweli. Gondry captures the energy and verve of what's going down so well that you really do feel as if you're in that crowd.
You can only imagine how that crowd felt when The Fugees walked onto the stage. One of hip-hop's most engrossing soap operas, The Fugees hadn't played together for seven years before Chappelle's call moved them to action. And, after her car-crash MTV Unplugged album a few years ago, it's a real thrill to see that Lauryn Hill can still whoop it up.
From start to finish, Dave Chappelle's Block Party is an infectious, enthralling experience. Hip-hop may have its nihilistic gangsta woes and 50 Cent gombeens, but it also has artists and activists who know that the music is about more than just bling and bitches. On a soggy day in Brooklyn, they seized the chance to really shine. Thankfully, the cameras were rolling to take it all in.
