To say rap is not work is ludicrous, whoever said it must be new to this
December 5, 2016 8:09 AM   Subscribe

Adult Rappers is a documentary that chronicles the lives of 30 rappers stuck in between obscurity and making it, including battle rappers, retired legends, new blood, and many others from the U.S. and Canada who have achieved various levels of success, and explores what it means to chase your dream while simultaneously trying to earn enough just to get by. Trailer (Vimeo). Full documentary (also Vimeo).

The film is by Paul Iannacchino, Jr., aka DJ Pawl of Definitive Jux artists Hangar 18. Launched on Kickstarter in 2012, the completed documentary was released in January, and is now free to view online. The film features interviews from Masta Ace, Blockhead, J-Zone, R.A. the Rugged Man, Slug, and a host of other rappers discussing what happens when rappers get older, give up, or simply can't support themselves with a career as an MC.
posted by DirtyOldTown (11 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
(shoutout to lkc, whose deleted post on the Kickstarter for this film I tomb-raided for most of the more-inside content.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:10 AM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Looks interesting, thanks. On a first scrub-through, there are only dudes in this?

I'll prolly watch it later, so maybe they talk about it in the film, but that would be odd, no?
posted by monocultured at 9:01 AM on December 5, 2016


One of the things that I know I'm going to regret on my deathbed is having never defeated someone at a rap battle.
posted by Fister Roboto at 9:21 AM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


There are some failures of inclusiveness in this film, yeah. That said, "dude who ages but still wants to be a rapper" is a thing, so even if this a narrower slice of life than the creators might've gone with, it is still an interesting one.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:24 AM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


"dude who ages but still wants to be a rapper" is a thing

Does anyone run a fantasy rap camp, like the fantasy rock camps where you can hang with the guitar player from Mountain, yet? They are out there, waiting for you to take their money. Never got their big break, got married, had the kids, still dreaming of spitting rhymes.
posted by thelonius at 10:02 AM on December 5, 2016 [7 favorites]


You wanna know my occupation?
I get paid to rock the nation.
posted by prepmonkey at 11:35 AM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yipes! That was four years ago? When I posted the original I didn't know about the open kickstarter rule, and then I figured i'd wait to repost it, and then it took like forever to actually get made, and then took a while to track down some of the rewards, and then i kinda kept forgetting to re-post it, but then someone at worked asked me about it, and I was like "oh yeah, I had a mefi post about that I was gonna re-do since its actually out now". And then didn't.

so... Thanks, DirtyOldTown!
posted by lkc at 3:45 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Does anyone run a fantasy rap camp, like the fantasy rock camps where you can hang with the guitar player from Mountain, yet?

This thought has had me cracking up all morning, because all I can imagine is getting there and its like Flo-RIda trying to sell you that DJ gear, and like some dude who was in the background of an old Jeezy video and like, Kwame, polka-dots and the "gumby 2.0". Then you all get together and play Def Jam Rap Star levels of better peoples music.

On a first scrub-through, there are only dudes in this?
Can't answer this one, but I remember the initial pitch being fairly male dominated. There's definitely a lot more female MC's these days, but this project initially grew out of a ... pretty specific group of people. Since the person making the video was part of Def Jux, a lot of those people were directly tied to the same scene (mid-late 90s underground explosion).
The kickstarter was pretty modest (i think it was 10k), and i think the early filming got enough other people that they ended up having a lot more interviews and trying to get people actively touring, and some west coast people.

So, as it stands, i'm not sure what the final roster is. I see Eternia listed, but no other women else I recognize directly, which yeah, is a little too bad. Someone like Medusa from L.A. is a fierce MC and pretty interesting to hear talk about stuff.
posted by lkc at 4:11 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I watched this a few weeks ago and thought it was interesting to see. I didn't recognize capital a, capital s, capital e through the whole thing until I saw him at the end moments before they showed his name. Pretty crazy.
posted by cashman at 4:54 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Being a professional rapper is probably like being a professional athlete. Lots of kids want to do it, but only the top 1% of the top 1% have any kind of financial success at it.
posted by prepmonkey at 8:14 AM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Being a professional rapper is probably like being a professional athlete. Lots of kids want to do it, but only the top 1% of the top 1% have any kind of financial success at it.

The key differences between the two would be that people have only wanted to be rappers for a little less than forty years, and not in huge numbers until maybe ten years after that. Also, there's a built-in sell-by date for athletes, based on age, but for rappers, it's less clear.

And so, we're hitting a point where our first few generations of DIY rappers who didn't make it are hitting middle age and trying to figure out what to do next.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:31 PM on December 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


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