epi 005 | part 2 — "blackbuster"

The 2000s were a wild decade for Black movies. Hip-hop became inseparable from cinema, rappers became movie stars, dance movies took over, Black family comedies became reliable box-office business, Tyler Perry built an empire, and Denzel Washington proved there was basically no genre he couldn't carry. In Part 2 of our 2000s conversation, we get into Paid in Full, Belly, Hustle & Flow, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, The Player’s Club, Holiday Heart, Stomp the Yard, You Got Served, The Cheetah Girls, Honey, Brown Sugar, The Best Man, The Wood, Soul Food, Barbershop, White Chicks, Precious and plenty more. We talk about hip-hop's takeover of the movies, Hype Williams' visual influence, Black romance and family films, the Wayans comedy machine, Tyler Perry's complicated legacy, Ice Cube's evolution as a writer/producer/star, and the careers Denzel Washington, Spike Lee and John Singleton built during a decade when Black cinema was expanding in every direction. From hood classics and dance movies to prestige dramas, rom-coms, studio blockbusters and movies critics hated that Black audiences made immortal anyway — we're asking what the 2000s changed about what a Black movie could be. Cool Theory Podcast: Episode 5, Part 2. Recorded at More More Now Records in Newark, NJ. Follow us on Instagram: @cool.theory Videography: Mick + Blaze