Newspaper Page Text
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 14
Laurence Fishburne and Ellen
Barkin Make for “Bad Company”
by Yasheve Miller
Thrilling, sexy, seductive, and full
of amoral characters are words that
give great definition to our genera
tion, but they more aptly describe the
new film “Bad Company”. This pic
ture, with its high paced delivery and
heart-stopping climax, is in theatres
now. Laurence Fishburne and Ellen
Barkin play the deceitful, cunning,
and provocative lead characters.
In the film’s opening,
Nelson Crowe (Laurence Fishburne),
a former CIA agent, is applying for a
job with an underground “CIA type”
operation. He is hired by Margarette
(Ellen Barkin) and Grimes, and be
gins the job immediately. Grimes is
the mastermind of this underground
operation called The Toolshed.
Margarette is his second-in-command,
and Crowe takes a seat immediately
under her.
Grimes’ corporation is embroiled
in a scandal with a whimpering mil
lionaire, which is the plot’s main con
flict. His case is being tried in the
State’s Supreme Court. If the mil
lionaire is found guilty, it could bring
down Grimes Operations. Crowe is
used to buy off the judge presiding
overthecase. A tragedy occurs which
makes an important impact on the
film.
The tragedy helps Margarette and
Crowe to carry through their plot to
murder Grimes and take over The
ToolShed. The idea starts when
Margarette successfully seduces
Crowe. She proposes the idea of the
two running The Toolshed together,
and immediately an unusual relation
ship between the two develops. The
heart of this relationship originally is
the conspiracy against Grimes, but as
events transpire, the relationship be
comes much deeper than your aver
age “kill for money” love affair.
Grimes’ murder affects the out
come of the film. Margarette devel
ops a lust for power. Feeling invin
cible after getting away with the mur
der, her obsession with power leads
her to the threshold of insanity. The
suspenseful ending answers your
questions of “Who is the most cun
ning, deceitful, and conniving?”
Acting in this movie is the best you
get. Both Fishburne and Barkin de
liver powerful Oscar winning perfor
mances. Fishburne delivers the cun
ning, amoral, and intense evil that
gives Crowe his backbone. Barkin
portrays the perfect deceitful
Margarette and gives her a tasteful
sexy flavor. What works best in “Bad
Company” is the intense sex scenes
between the two.
The editing, camera angles, and
directing are equally effective and
make “Bad Company” a must see.
Even though it is not an action packed
thriller, it really is intense. One thing
to watch for is the truth in the charac
ters’ relationship. Was it really deeper
than business?
By Marlon Regis
Like they say, it’s all a matter of
timing! Flooding the music market,
there are countless numbers of
dancehall/reggae artists scrambling
for Hip-Hop remixes to their releases
to successfully break hard into the
mainstream Pop music market. With
top dancehall artists such as Shabba,
Buju and Patra quietly awaiting their
turn again to pounce and sink their
jaws deep into the pop market, the
scramble is on for those other
dancehall artists to propel themselves
into Uncle Sam stardom. Who has the
wickedest bite? Well, it seems like
that 13-year old, pint-sized (some
times incomprehensible) rage of
reggae called LiT Vicious, now inter
nationally known as Vicious.
Vicious made his recording debut
in 1993, when he waxed the hype hit
“Freaks” (featuring a phenomenal
Doug E. Fresh beatbox performance),
marking a career milestone with the
much anticipated release of Destina
tion Brooklyn, his debut solo album.
A rocker's, rapper's, and dancehall
lover's delight, the scintillating CD
features the phat, funky flavor of
“Nika,” an out-of-the box single about
young romance. Just when I had it up
to here, hearing the overused sample
of the Isley Brothers classic “Between
the Sheets,” Vicious explodes with a
melodic and dynamic lyrical flow on
“Nika”. Incredibly, to be so young,
his awesome mic skills, powerful stage
presence, and larger than life persona,
border on genius. It was so funny to
see Vicious at the 1994 Caribbean
Music Awards, when he had to present
an award, and he could neither read
the words on the tele-prompter, nor
reach the height of the mike (actually
a box was brought on stage for him to
climb). All of us present just had to
laugh.
In addition to “Nika” and other
proven hits like “Freaks,” “The
Glock,” produced by ‘Hit-Man’
Howie Tee, takes aim at stopping in
ner-city gun violence. “ I got shot
once, which made me more aware that
a lot of kids are picking up guns,”
Vicious candidly revealed. “But when
they do that, they don’t realize that it
could happen to-them. That’s why I
wrote the song.” Destination Brook
lyn also includes “Life of a Shortie,”
a straight-up hip-hop jam, with a dirty-
watery groove, featuring a dope duet
between rude boy Vicious and young
Wu Tang Clan rap protege Shyheim;
and a definite Royal Peacock jam
(Atlanta Massive!) is “ The Lesson, “
featuring Beenie Man, arguably the
album’s most roots-reggae song.
Destination Brooklyn is a signifi
cant title for Vicious’ first album, as
Brooklyn is his homebase, it boasts
America’s largest Caribbean commu
nity, and is considered the dancehall
capital of America.
“Growing up in Brooklyn, “ Vicious
explains, “ Reggae music, especially
dancehall was always around me. I
listened to it, studied the DJs and
practiced my flow everyday. Since I
was real little, I knew I was going to
be reggae artist.”
No doubt Vicious will be writing
and recording many more hit songs,
and thrilling live audiences around
the world as his red-hot career contin
ues to blow up. With “Nika” (the
Radio Remix version is disguised-
crack) storming the charts and lead
ing the way, Destination Brooklyn is
the place to be. “ I want to show the
world that Black kids from the street
like me can do good things, and make
our dreams come through too, no
matter how much the odds are against
us,” Vicious concluded. “ This is what
the Creator put me on earth for, and
why music will always be my life.”
SOHO versus VELVETS
(Continued from page 8)
course the hard-heads, all mingling,
flexing, physically pulling, and
scoping out one another. So I ap-
sroached the dancefloor, grooving to
Mine’s one hit wonder song, and Dj
Mars was teasing the crowd with ex-
;erpts of Mob Deep’s “Shook Ones”,
ind when he mixed it in, the party was
an! The atmosphere was so New York,
;ven the white bar-tenders were nod
ding to the beats. Yeah it was just after
12:00am when Dj Sol Messiah
:hanged the pace to Old School Hip-
Bop and the cheers from the crowd
sounded like ‘touch-down’ cheers, as
ie blended “Sucker Mc’s” to “The
Show” into “Children’s Story”. At
his time I didn’t trust myself in leav
ing and heading over to Velvets, al-
hough the records did skip occasion
ally, and the speakers were messed
jp. But, as I was going downstairs to
>et some food, a fight broke out! Three
ii.g..rs were swaying, kicking, and
stomping into one another and one of
the bar-tenders even smashed a bottle
of Absolute Vodka on one’s head, as
hey were destructively approaching
he bar. The girls were screaming, the
music stopped, and the Dj was saying,
‘That’s why we can’t have nothin’
yo! Yo chill!” Anyway I guess it was
about that time to leave, so I exited at
1:15 am, only to see the crowd outside
increase. Then it happened! As I was
going to grab my taxi, I heard screams,
sounds of commotion, and looking
hrough the glass windows, the fight
ing was on once again. Everybody
was running (in no particular direc-
:ion); out came dozens of frantically
screaming party-goers through the en
hance, breaking the doors almost; the
bouncers were picking up chairs, and
it any moment you felt as though
someone was going to come flying
through the glass windows. But in
stead comes these two guys, physi-
:ally lifting up this humongous dude
ind slamming him (head first) into the
side walk, then repeatedly kicking
Jieir victim helplessly on the ground.
Chaos was still continuing inside as
you could see people scrambling un-
Jer chairs, hiding behind curtains, and
many still pouring out of the club
Hysterically. Before you knew it, a
posse was running here, running there,
people were running towards their
;ars, and tires were screeching! Oh
God, I thought, what the hell is wrong
with my generation! And then all of a
sudden, this guy ran out of his car, left
Pis door open, and started firing at one
posse. Shots were fired and every-
Dody was diving, screaming and some
were hit. He fled, and then I saw two
af his victims crawling in pain and the
:hird one was hellishly quivering on
:he ground (‘Higher Learning’ style).
Believe me, this is something you
ion’t want to see, except for in the
movies. The chaos continued, as the
paramedics arrived in no time at all,
md the police were pursuing the gun
man, but the screaming escalated and
:he crowd thickened. Exciting in a
sense, but extremely sad. To see a
Palf-dead body fighting for a chance
to live, death never looked so intimate
:o the hundreds of college students,
still pouring out of Soho.
VELVETS:
I was sort of shaken up, but that love
for Hip-hop made me hail down a taxi
in all the madness, and bounce to
Velvets. It was 1:37 when I arrived
and I could feel the difference of pro
fessionalism that instantly made itself
clear when I presented my pass. The
bouncers guided me to the back en
trance, where I was greeted by others
who first told me ‘good night,’ then
we were all allowed to enter in less
than ten minutes. The hospitality of
the bouncers made me wonder if there
were anybody inside. I was so wrong!
If you thought Soho was packed, “The
Blue Room” probably resembled those
slave ships. I squeezed through the
thick crowd so I could get a clear view
of the stage which was almost impos
sible. The stage was overcrowded with
photographers, musicians, rappers,
what?! - Back-up singers, and Outkast
had just approached their mics. The
atmosphere was so cool, so trendy
(genuinely trendy), and you could feel
the funk and peace all around you.
Everything started about 11:00 pm,
with Cello as the opening act, but I
was there for the main attraction:
Outkast. Together with band, Dj, and
back-up singers, their performance
was great and Player’s Ball (Reprise)
had the crowd swaying and grooving
with much love. Afterwards they in
troduced some other homies/perform-
ers: P-Funk, who rocked it with
“Peaches and Herb” singing all the
way through; a huge brother by the
name of Big Woo, dropped some
Garveyism knowledge on the audi
ence; and a Jamaican reggae artist,
Daddy Q, spiced up the flavor to the
heretical rhythms of the band. Yeah it
was live! People as far as Macon,
Georgia had drove up for the event,
and together with all the other repre
senting peoples, the atmosphere was
peace. After the performances, most
people drifted to the lounge to drink
and chill (‘mack’), while the others
danced to the continued Hip-Hop
jams.The party began to die out about
3:10 am, but all in all, “The Blue
Room” was all that and a slice of phat!
“The Blue Room”: a true reflection of
the satisfying flavor of what so many
highly reputable clubs across the na
tion and internationally try to achieve
on their Hip-Hop night.
Overall, you could say Soho threw
in the white towel, because their rep
resentations in the right comer was in
the wrong frame of mind, and their
glamorous appearance wasn’t a re
flection of the way they intended to
survive round Thursday. Velvets, on
the other hand, showed poise, cour
age, and heart. She stuck to the rules,
and proved that a Hip-Hop event with
such a high attendance of black people
could be fun, be a reflection of love
and happiness, and end very peaceful,
even with the strong element of “dem
Brooklyn kids”.