Fear of a Black Hat

Filmmaker Nina Blackburn is doing this documentary as a thesis for her doctorate in sociology. She chooses the rap group N. W. H. ("Niggaz With Hats") for her subject.

Sure, this is Spinal Tap... for rap. It may not be completely original, but it is opening a different avenue for satire. It has some low key fun and a few big laughs. The three characters do need to be dumber and it would help for them to be played by better comedians. Larry B. Scott is probably the best and I wouldn't mind keeping him. I remember him from Revenge of the Nerds. This is a good concept with mostly fine indie execution.

If you like rap or hip-hop, watch this movie, although it's funny if you don't get the references, as a straight comedy.

Haven't seen much of the much hyped CB4, but what I did see didn't have the heart that this little stormer has.

Haven't heard from the people involved since, which is a surprise. The film is very similar to Spinal Tap, which is no bad thing, and I think a lot of the dialogue, while priceless in Tap is funnier here, probably because I'm more into rap than rock theses days, so my own judgment does cloud that point.

The rap songs are funny as hell, and it's basically spot the reference for most of the film, not all of them are in-your-face, which means the physical comedy and the one-liners get priority over the take-offs.

Great fun, one to watch twice if there ever was a movie.

Well I don't personally like rap, but I still found Fear of a Black Hat hilarious. I'm sure I didn't get some inside jokes, but some I knew, and it was funny enough to make me laugh just after I'd stopped laughing. I'm a big fan of Spinal tap, so naturally I had to check this out. It was deriviative from This Is Spinal Tap, sometimes blatantly, but this film still stood on it's own as an original, intelligent, and funny satire. My personal favorite: "Back in the time of slaves, they didn't have hats to protect them from the sun, so at the end of the day they were too tired to revolt. Now we have hats."

C'mon...how can you be against a rap-mockumentary that features the line:

"I want to make you mine, slap yo fat behind, tie you down and make you whine. I want you to scratch my itch and be my b***h....cause I luv you girl."

One of the most consistently funny movies I've ever seen.

"Fear Of A Black Hat" is everything the (much weaker) "CB-4" SHOULD have been. Rusty Cundieff's satirical eye is ruthless, as he folds, spindles, and mutilates every aspect of hip-hop trends and culture. Does "FoaBH" resemble Spinal Tap? Yes, a bit. Is it derivative of Spinal Tap? No, not really. The aim is more focused, the satire is better focused, and to be honest, it's funnier.