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"You got the Juice now!" (Juice screening and live talkback at SteelStacks)
Episode 58 • 15th March 2024 • Hip Hop Movie Club • Hip Hop Movie Club
00:00:00 00:13:55

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Our live recording after the Juice screening at SteelStacks in Bethlehem PA. Five facts plus trivia questions about the 1992 classic starring Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps.

Topics discussed:

🎞️ Tupac's filmography

🎥 Director Ernest Dickerson's work with Spike Lee

🎭 Cameos of rising hip hop stars in the film

💿 The Juice soundtrack: full of great hip hop music

🎥 The original ending that was filmed but not used

Also check out:

Ernest Dickerson discusses the original ending.

Credits

Many thanks to DJ ARM 18 and ArtsQuest for helping us put this screening and live talkback together! Check out 50 Years Down the Line and ArtsQuest.

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie. Follow @hiphopmovieclub on Instagram!

And remember:

Join us on Wed March 27 for a screening and live talkback of the 1985 classic KRUSH GROOVE at SteelStacks in Bethlehem PA – get your free tickets now!

Join us for "A Conversation with Chuck D" hosted by DJ ARM 18 on Tue April 16 at the Spartan Center on the Bethlehem campus of Northampton Community College. Free tickets at the NCC website.

Transcripts

Speaker:

Welcome to Hip-Hop Movie Club, the show

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that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop

with the magic of movies.

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On today's episode, we present our live

talkback at SteelStacks.

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After our screening of the 1992 classic

Juice, starring Tupac Shakur and Omar

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Epps.

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We want to thank Anthony DeSanctis

at ArtsQuest and our man, DJ ARM 18,

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Andrew McIntosh, for helping us

get our first screening off the ground.

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We're three

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oldheads who to put their old heads

together to vibe on these films for you.

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I'm DynoWright, podcaster,

filmmaker, long time Hip-Hop fan.

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And what you hear is not a test.

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I'm JB eighties and nineties

nostalgia, junkie, long time hip hop fan

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And I'm mad excited that Ludacris

is coming to Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA

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this summer.

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I'm BooGie, a DJ, a long time hip hop fan,

and this episode is about one of my all

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time favorite movies.

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So glad I've been able to

watch it on the big screen.

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And now our live Talk Back on Juice.

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There

we go. Hello, everyone. Check, check.

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We've got sound.

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Thank you for coming, those of you

who saw us for the first time.

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Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there.

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We're going to talk about a few things.

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We've got a couple of trivia questions

for some prizes.

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We'll. We'll wrap up the evening.

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So first first, we'll talk about Tupac,

right?

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Sure. So, yeah. I'll kick it off.

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So Tupac Shakur, the late Tupac Shakur,

he was amazing in this film.

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You know,

he really showed his skills as an actor.

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He was only 20 years old

when this movie came out,

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so he must've been around 19

when he was filming it.

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So he was age 20.

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So we had done a podcast episode

about this and we were just saying how

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villainous he was.

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Obviously he was,

he was a terrible person,

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but he was so charismatic and you can see

how he influenced his friends

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just because he was like giving these

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speeches where he rallied the troops that

you wanted to run, run through a wall.

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So I just want to talk really briefly

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about his filmography

and his short amount of time.

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So this movie came out in 1992.

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The following

year, he came out with Poetic Justice.

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He was a star of Poetic Justice.

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(Yes.)

The following year, Above the Rim. Yep.

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And then there was three more,

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and some of them actually came out

posthumously for him.

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There was Bullet, there was Gridlock’d,

and there was Gang Related.

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The last two were posthumous. Yeah. Yeah.

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So yeah, Tupac was just insane.

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So for those of you who are familiar

with Tupac's work, I know some of you

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haven't seen Poetic Justice or Above

the Rim and just saw Juice the first time.

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Any of you want to say

whether Tupac's in your maybe top

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echelon of rappers turned actors,

anyone want to comment on that?

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We certainly do.

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If you've come to some of our events

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and we talk about this on the podcast

as well of

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maybe our Mount Rushmore of rappers

turned actors, he's on that top.

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That top four list.

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Yes. You want to do a trivia question now?

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Sure, sure, sure.

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Tupac.

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So, so, so so Tupac obviously

had auditioned for the role of Bishop,

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but he actually tagged

along with another rapper

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and who was auditioning and ended up

that Tupac got the role for himself.

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Does anybody know?

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Raise

your hand and Wright would run up the mic.

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Who that rapper

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was that rapper was

who had auditioned for it.

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But Tupac ended up getting the role.

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Anyone?

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Anyone? Anyone.

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Any show of hands.

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I heard an answer.

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Rakim. Incorrect.

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Anyone else have a guess?

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Why don't we give the clue

that clue number one.

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Those of you who know Tupac knew

that he ran with Digital Underground.

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So this person was also

in the Digital Underground.

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So any other guesses?

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Shock G? An answer. Incorrect.

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Any other guesses? All right.

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We'll go to a different question

in a little bit.

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We'll just do another fact then about the

director of this movie, Ernest Dickerson.

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Anybody hear of Ernest Dickerson

before this?

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Couple people, maybe.

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A couple real movie heads would.

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But no Ernest Dickerson, Ernest

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Dickerson was Spike Lee's cinematographer

for a lot of his classic films.

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Do the Right Thing.

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X. Mo’ Better Blues.

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Mo’ Better Blues.

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School Daze.

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School Daze. Yeah, he was.

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He was Spike Lee's main man.

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Yeah.

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So there's one other film that Ernest

Dickerson was the cinematographer

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for was, the 1985 classic Krush Groove.

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And if you like this format,

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we are actually hosting the same type

of event on Wednesday, March 27th,

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where we will be showing Krush Groove,

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which, if you don't know,

is the story of the origin

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of like Def Jam Records

with Russell Simmons.

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His story, you get this,

It's like a time capsule.

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You end up seeing the Beastie Boys

when they were teenagers.

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L.L. Cool J. when he's a teenager.

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Run-D.M.C., Run-D.M.C..

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Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys

and Sheila E, many others.

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Yeah.

So come out for that one as well. Yes.

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All right.

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So let's do another trivia question,

and we just have a couple more.

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We won't keep you guys too long.

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By the way, the answer to that

first one was Money B, so Money

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B was the rapper who had auditioned

for the role of Bishop, and then Tupac

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took it right out from under him.

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Okay.

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You can anyone tell me who,

and you may have saw this in the credits?

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Maybe in the beginning.

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Who did the music for this movie?

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You got it.

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You got it. The answer was the Bomb Squad.

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It was actually Hank Shocklee

and the Bomb Squad.

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So congratulations.

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So I'll come up with the prize.

You can choose.

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I got you.

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Got you.

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Our friend here won a Tupac Shakur

T-shirt. Yay!

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Congratulations, sir. All right.

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Because you want to go.

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So there were a lot of cameos

and other hip hop artists in here.

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Boogie, run us through who we saw.

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I’ll see if I could name them all.

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So we had Special Ed who played

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the guy came along

and snatched Rahiem's girl from under him.

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Coincidentally,

they jumped in an Audi:

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Hadda throw that in there.

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All right. Yeah.

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That's good work by Dickerson there. Yeah.

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We had a classic hip hop duo EPMD,

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who was in the bar

as Blizzard was sticking up the joint.

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You got Cindy Herron from En Vogue.

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If you notice real quickly

while, they were in the pool hall

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in the beginning

before the police came in.

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Playing pool with with Tupac.

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Over in the corner was the group X Clan.

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They were all, it was the three of them

over there playing with him.

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He was, we had Oran

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“Juice” Jones was the Snappy Nappy Dugout.

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I love saying it.

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Snappy Nappy Dugout!

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Let me see that (Treach) Yeah. Treach.

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Yes. My goodness.

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God, how can I forget Treach, he’s

from around my way.

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Goodness God.

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So Treach.

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Actually, a member of Radames’s crew.

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And, of course, Queen Latifah.

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Oh yeah.

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Can’t forget the Queen, who's

also from around my way, Queen Latifah,

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who played, she's one of the judges slash

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emcees at the rap, the Deejay Battle.

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We also had Ed Lover, Dr.

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Dre in the audience with

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the Kool DJ Red Alert and also, Chuck

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Chillout were also judges as well.

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And Fab 5 Freddie.

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Fab 5 Freddie.

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And Flex.

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Alexander yes, Flex.

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Alexander Who was the guy who the deejay

who could not get his mixes right.

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He got booted

out of the competition by Queen Latifah.

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Did I think that's that's most of

the beats anybody, any old hip hop heads.

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Maybe it may recognize others,

but I think we got most of them.

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Yeah.

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Let's do another trivia question.

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So what's left is a couple of these.

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Funko Pop heads, mini.

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Minis. Yeah.

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One is Ice Cube, one is Notorious B.I.G.

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So the black and white film

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playing in Steel's house that inspired

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Bishop to, you know, rally the troops,

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name the film or the main actor

in that scene.

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Who knows that that movie was.

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From that black and white film.

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I thought I heard it was that someone

said, I hear it somewhere over here.

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Yes. Correct.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

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So who heard it.

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Or who was first? You got it on the way.

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you all.

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You all right?

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Go, go.

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He's running out into the hall!

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The movie is White Heat.

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It was, so the movie's White Heat.

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White Heat.

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Yes. Classic.

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Just it now I'm more of a Bo Diddley born.

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Top of the. World.

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Top of the world, ma! That’s

where that comes from.

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Thank you.

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All right.

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We deliver on our prizes,

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chase you, JB's running out into the hall.

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Yeah. All right.

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All right.

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So we did the cameos,

and now we want to talk just a little bit

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about the soundtrack.

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The definitely a great hip hop soundtrack

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and ARM was,

spinning some of these songs beforehand.

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If you if you got it a little bit early,

you were in for a treat.

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But three of the bigger hits.

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BooGie, you want to take us through them?

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Yeah well, one of my favorites was Uptown

Anthem by Naughty by Nature.

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We had ‘Nuff Respect by Big Daddy

Kane and Juice

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(Know The Ledge) by Eric B

and Rakim was probably the three

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biggest hits

to come off of that soundtrack.

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There are a plethora of others.

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if you haven't checked out the soundtrack,

by all means, do so.

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Teddy Riley.

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Tammy Lucas, Good to You.

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Those were straight up club bangers.

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Party bangers right there.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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Strictly bangers.

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Yeah. I was on the floor. Right, Right.

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I think we just have one more fact,

and then we'll do

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one final trivia question

that we can pretty much wrap.

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Wrap up here.

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Did you guys know that

there was an alternate ending?

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So you saw that dramatic ending

where Bishop falls.

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If you look it up on YouTube,

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you can see

and we talked about on our podcast episode

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as they were about to,

before they released it, they

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they did a focus group

and the ending that they wanted,

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Ernest Dickerson they thought about doing,

but they didn't they didn't do it.

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Was that Bishop actually let go on his own

and he fell on his own volition

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because he had heard sirens

and he heard police below

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and he was thinking,

I don't want to live - I don't want to.

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Yeah, get caught.

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Test audiences didn't like that.

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They didn't like having the

the villain have that much agency.

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And so reluctantly,

Dickerson changed the ending.

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They even added that scream at the end.

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Yeah. To that effect.

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Tupac wasn't too happy

about the ending being changed,

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so they had to appease him by

letting him have a little bit of a scream,

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as he fell.

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Like a half hearted scream.

Yes, Tupac didn't like that.

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But the voters, the view,

the focus group said this is

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just how we're going to do it.

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So that's an interesting tidbit there.

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Yeah, a lot to unpack.

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So we’ll do one final question

and then we'll wrap up.

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Does anybody know

Tupac Shakur's middle name?

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You. You got it.

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It's Amaru. That's close enough. Yeah.

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So he was actually named Tupac Amaru

after the very last Incan chief

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leader, Incan leader.

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So let me grab you a prize.

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Thank you for coming to this event

and know that we've got Krush Groove

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on the 27th and Andrew,

you want to get up here and talk

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about Chuck D again?

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here he comes.

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Just want to thank you.

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And you. And you.

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And you and you

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and everybody who came out tonight

and we've got one of our signature

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events in April is Chuck D coming on April

16th to Northampton Community College.

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It's going to be a conversation

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between Chuck and myself

and some of our students at NCC.

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Going to be a pretty live event.

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We'll have a way of

DJ playing Public Enemy and so on,

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and we're working on putting together

like a PE shrine.

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We want to sort of

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put a lot of of Public Enemy's albums

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and a lot of the music

that Public Enemy inspired from that era

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there and so on.

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But, you know, the other thing that's

going on, we really appreciate ArtsQuest

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for supporting this,

this series of the Hip Hop Movie Club.

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And we're we're hoping after Krush Groove

to continue to do some movies.

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So keep your eyes and ears peeled for it.

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And again, thank you for the support.

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Have a good night.

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Much thanks and respect to ArtsQuest

and SteelStacks.

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Absolutely.

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Thanks, everybody.

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Thank you. All.

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Bring it!

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C’mon!

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Hip-Hop Movie Club is produced by your

HH emcees: JB, Boogie and DynoWight.

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Theme music by Boogie.

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Just like the man said, our next

screening, at SteelStacks, is on March

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27th.

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We will enjoy the 1985 classic Krush

Groove and have another live talkback.

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More facts, more trivia and more fun.

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Get your free tickets

now at SteelStacks.org,

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and come out to a conversation

with Chuck D.

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Yes, Chuck D from Public

Enemy on April 16th

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at the Spartan Center of the Bethlehem

campus of Northampton Community College.

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We'll be there,

so come out and hang with us.

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Get your free tickets

for that at Northampton dot edu.

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Whether you're listening to

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the podcast or watching us on YouTube,

we appreciate you.

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Thanks for tuning in So

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real quick show of hands,

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who here saw Juice for the first time,

just now?

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Okay.

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All right.

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Thank you for coming

through. Bring it! C’mon!

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