Exclusive: Black Thought Talks New GrassROOTS Charity, Hosting Classic Hip-Hop Film Screenings

Black Thought, lead MC of The Roots, is hosting a special film screening of The Last Dragon at Nitehawk Cinema (136 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY) on Tuesday, April 26 at 7 p.m.

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The screening is the first in an expected series of events highlighting classic “throwback” movies with memorable soundtracks. Tuesday’s screening will be followed by Black Thought leading a first-time-ever conversation with the film’s star, Taimak and with El DeBarge, singer of the soundtrack’s biggest hit, “Rhythm of the Night.”

The events will also benefit Black Thought’s charity, GrassROOTS Community Foundation, which provides health and wellness programs for impoverished women and girls.

If you are in New York, you can get tickets to the event, here. For fans unable to attend, the evening will also be a digital event, with live streaming exclusively on blackthought.com. Online viewers will be able to join in by watching the film at home and live tweeting along with the theater audience. All participants will also have a chance to win autographed merchandise from Black Thought, Taimak and El DeBarge.

Click over for our exclusive Q&A with Black Thought talking about the event, the movie and the impact that The Last Dragon had on the city of Philadelphia.

Photo: Moscot

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HipHopWired.com: Tell us more about this event.

Black Thought: I am screening the films that were impactful in my life. So it’s a chance to revisit some of those gems and interact with the actors and people associated with the soundtracks to those films. I am doing The Last Dragon because it’s the first film I remember seeing alone without any grown ups. It’s a tragedy to triumph story, sort of like David and Goliath. It’s about realizing and unleashing the potential that was inside all along. It’s something that resonated with me as a Philadelphian because it was like Rocky, but a little more Hip-Hop. It spoke to the youth and touched people in a different way. At the time DeBarge was really huge too and they did the main song to the soundtrack. We went to see it on Easter Sunday and I just remember feeling a different energy after seeing the film. The city of Philadelphia hasn’t been the same since that day.

HHW: How so, what happened?

Black Thought: After the film, people rioted and looted in the streets. They threw trash cans through windows, did the smash and grabs. The cops were on their horses chasing people looting sneaker stores. To this day, The Last Dragon is the reason why the city of Philadelphia shuts down at 6 p.m. When the sun goes down now, most of the stores close. That was the introduction of the roll down gates. Before that riot happened I remember being able to walk through downtown Philly at night and be able to look through shop windows and actually still go in there. The riot also shut down a lot of the arcades too. We also started to see a different type of policing in the city too. It was the first time that I saw people wilding out like that. We was all charged up with adrenaline and testosterone after seeing Sho’nuff on screen. Everybody was screaming, “Who’s the baddest,” doing karate in the street. I’ve seen it happen other times like when the Phillies won the World Series. People show out whenever something big happens in the city, but I saw it first with The Last Dragon. The theater I saw it at has since been demolished, and it was that reaction to the film that led to the closing down of a lot of buildings and businesses. Nothing has been the same in Philly since that movie.

HipHopWired.com: Back in 1985, Hip-Hop couldn’t be blamed for anything yet.

Black Thought: Right, the DeBarge song “Rhythm Of The Night” wasn’t the hardest song. It wasn’t Hip-Hop that was to blame for that energy, but it was Hip-Hop-esque. So I thought it would be cool to screen the film and have a short discussion afterwards with the star of the film and the star of the soundtrack who have never been interviewed together. I get to talk to them about Vanity and now I can ask El Debarge a couple of questions about Prince. It’s gonna be cool and light, something for people who were there and remember that era.

HHW: How much of an impact has film had on your career and creativity? When we heard rumors about your solo album years ago, it was called Masterpiece Theater which sounds movie-like.

Black Thought: Just as a person, I’ve been heavily impacted by certain iconic films like The Wiz, Star Wars, Wild Style, Beat Street, Breakin’, Style Wars, Krush Groove, so many films. They kind of made me the person I am today. Scarface, The Godfather, certain joints you never forget. You remember where you saw it, what you were doing, how you felt before and after the film.

HHW: What was your favorite scene in The Last Dragon.

Black Thought: The final battle between Bruce Leroy and Sho’nuff. When the tables turned and Bruce Leroy gets that glow, that’s my favorite scene. The time when he catches the bullet with his teeth is up there too.

HHW: You have pretty hectic schedule doing shows and holding it down with The Roots on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. How often do you think you will do this?

Black Thought: I’m not sure of the frequency of how often I can do it. I’m hoping once a month or quarterly. If this one goes well, the next film I would like to do is Beat Street. I want to spark conversations and have people walking away feeling some emotion. I’m curious about how I’ll walk away feeling too. I might walk away feeling great about it in my adult life, or i could walk away feeling that it was crappy and wondering why I meant so much to me at the time. It may rekindle some interest in the artists and actors too.