By Malice Intended

Enter The Dragon (1973)

Lee (Bruce Lee) is a martial arts master who has been invited to participate in a tournament being held on the island paradise of Han (Shih Kien), a former student of Shaolin.  Han is under suspicion of drug trafficking and prostitution by The British ntelligence agency.  The Agency recruits Lee to help them expose and apprehend Han.  Also competing in the tournament are Williams (Jim Kelly) and Roper (John Saxon), who both find themselves drawn in to the action.

Enter The Dragon was Bruce Lee’s last movie before his untimely death.  It was also the first Martial Arts film produced by a major Hollywood studio. It cemented his legacy in the Western World.  Lee has since become an indelible icon in the annals of motion picture history.  His impact on both cinema and the martial arts cannot be understated.

Bruce Lee’s swagger has left an unmistakable impression on Hip-Hop.  He offered the racial minorities of the world a defiantly powerful champion at a time when such images were non existent on the silver screen.  Afeni Shakur has gone on record as saying that 2pac was a huge fan of Bruce.  Lalo Schifrin’s musical score has been sampled by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan and The Alkoholiks.  Enter The Dragon also jumpstarted the career of Jim Kelly, the official Martial Arts master of Black Exploitation.

The Education of Sonny Carson (1974) 

Sonny Carson (Rony Clanton) joins a street gang at a very young age.  After a brutal initiation, his life becomes a series of gang rumbles and other crimes which eventually land him in prison.  Upon release, he resolves to change his life for the better.

The Education of Sonny Carson is based on the autobiography of Brooklyn Activist Sonny Carson.  Director Michael Campus, working with a meager budget, crafts a film so gritty that it sometimes plays more like a documentary than a biopic.

The film was sampled heavily throughout Ghostface’s debut album Ironman.  Sonny Carson himself had a more direct connection to Hip-Hop:  He was the father of the late Lumumba Carson, Better known to rap fans as Professor X of X Clan.

The Usual Suspects

Five criminals of varying skills and prowess are find themselves being forced to work for the mysterious and powerful crime boss Keyser Soze.  When the job goes awry, U.S. Customs agent David Kunjun (Chazz Palminteri) pulls the seemingly ineffectual “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey) in for questioning.  Verbal divulges information that may be the key to solving the mystery of Keyser Soze’s identity and whereabouts.

This mysterious crime tale revolves around a conceit that any rapper can appreciate: Keyser Soze’s violent reputation casts a shadow so large that even those who doubt his existence dare not question his gangster aloud.  The film presents Soze as an apparition.  He is never clearly shown, and his actual existence is not confirmed until the film’s final moments.

Fat Joe was the first to reference the fictional Hungarian crime lord in his verse for the classic posse cut “I Shot Ya”.  Jay-Z paid homage to the film in his video for “The City is Mine”.  Dialogue was sampled for the intro to “Assassination Day” on GhostFace’s album Ironman.

Black Ceasar (1973)

Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) rises to power as Harlem’s most powerful gangster.  Starting out as a hit man for the mob, He eventually becomes autonomous from them.  The ruthless means by which he does so puts his empire at risk, as both his friends and his loved ones conspire against him.

Former football player Fred Williamson was one of the true visionaries of Black Exploitation.  He eventually took a prominent role behind the camera, going on to produce and direct his own features.  The influence of his onscreen persona can still be seen in contemporary black action heroes such as Micheal Jai White.

Black Ceasar is often referred to as the quintessential Fred Williamson film, offering one of the first ever images of a black gangster who openly defies his white counterparts.  James Brown provided the musical score for the film, which in turn provided some of the most well known samples in Rap music history.  The film itself has been referenced in songs by both Public Enemy and Big Daddy Kane.

PART 1

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