BROWN SUGAR (2002)

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"Brown Sugar transported me to a place I hadn't been in years, and now I don't want to leave."

Slick Rick, Dougie Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Public Enemy, these were the sounds that kept me company throughout my childhood. See where I grew up all my friends listened to Iron Maiden, Metallica, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi and stuff like that. They inherited their musical taste from their brothers or sisters, or from neighbors. Not me I inherited my musical taste from the fuzzy sounds I heard creepy from the only station in town that played hip-hop. While some kids cherished their brand new copy of Metallica, my three-year-old static filled tape of hours of music I had taped off the radio never left my side. In fact to this day it holds a place of honor in my tape collection. I still know all the words to "Roxanne Roxanne" and I can't help but smile every time I think of the long days I spent trying to learn how to breakdance to KRS-1. Three minutes into Brown Sugar I could barely contain myself. The man sitting next to me had to endure a near constant barrage of me turning excitedly screaming “I know exactly what she’s talking about!” For any real fan of hip-hop I implore you to go see it, it is the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater in a very long time!I guess though I should tell you how the movie actually was. All the technical stuff you want to know. Quite honestly I have no idea, and that my friends is the mark of a truly transcendent movie. Brown Sugar transported me to a place I hadn’t been in years, and now I don’t want to leave.The story opens with a documentary style montage of rappers talking about the moments they fell in love with Hip-Hop. This is followed by our female lead, Sidney (Sanaa Lathan), telling us about the first time she met hip-hop up close and personal. Oh and she also met our male lead that day, Dre (Omar Epps). Cut to 20 years later. She is a Hip-Hop magazine editor and he is a record producer. We know they are going to fall in love, it’s a given. I read someone describe this film as a Hip-Hop version of When Harry Met Sally. Well folks story wise its is. Dre loves Sidney but is engaged to another woman. Sidney loves Dre but is dating some basketball player. Nothing ground breaking here. But I still loved this film. Hell they could have made the story about nuns reading the phone book and I would have loved it as long as they draped it around the coolness of hip-hop. The acting was perfect. Queen Latifah continues to prove she can act as well as any rapper out there. As an aside I hope you people out there realize that Queen Latifah was one of the FIRST women rappers in the game, show some major respect people. Omar Epps continues to impress with every role he gets. The real surprise though was Sanaa Lathan as Sidney. This is my first exposure to her and I have to tell you she’s pretty damn good. Look out for some familiar faces making cameos throughout the film. Not 4 minutes in you get to see Slick Rick, Dougie Fresh and what would become the Get Fresh Crew battle rappin like they used to in the parks of New York. Mos Def, Common they are all there, its like one big family reunion. And backing this all with hands down one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time doesn’t hurt either.The long and the short of it is this. The love story aspect has been done a thousand times over and we all know how it’s going to end. Don’t let that stop you though. This is one of the best examples of how to take an old story and make is fresh. I wish people made more films like this and stayed away from concepts like Three Men and a Baby 4. So throw on your Adidas sweats, dig that kangol out of the closet and cruise on over to your local theater. Take a trip back in time and remember how fun it was when you first fell in love with Hip-hop, hell you might just fall in love all over again. I know I did.