Okay, straight talk no chaser, I used to do a little MC'ing back in the day. In the early 90's a friend of mine and I would travel all the way to Brooklyn, and spend all weekend with our producer laying down tracks, refining our lyrics, and crafting songs. We would hit the little mom and pop record stores looking for those classic or rare discs that had the right drum beat, the right bass line, the right horn blast, or the right melody and we would spend a King's ransom on those records, bring them to Brooklyn and get to work. No I will not tell you my stage name, just know it has to do with my being magical with the words. Anyway, Big Words brought all of those memories flooding back to me so vividly it was scary. The three main characters in this movie are guys I knew personally.
There is John, aka Big Words played by the very talented Dorian Missick, James, aka JV Da Mack played by the fantastic Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Terrance/Malik, aka DJ Malik The Cut Mystic played by the hilarious Darien Sills-Evans. Back in the early 90's, the golden age of hip hop, these three men made up the group DLP which stood for Down Low Poets. The name of the group brought about some of the most hilarious moments in the movie. Down Low back then didn't mean what it means today and there was a great defense of the name from John to Annie, played by Yaya Alifia. DLP was signed to Sonshine Records by Ike Shine, but nothing came out of their hard work but hurt feelings, heartbreak, and some jail time.
The son of Ike, Ben Shine played by Zachary Booth works at the same book publishing firm James now works at. James, a publicist asks about Ben's book he currently working on. Ben states he scrapped that and instead wants to write a memoir about his dad and his involvement in the golden era of hip hop. Ben pulls out a flyer of DLP and lays it on James' desk, much to his surprise. From that point on, this movie is full of surprises and predictability. The movie takes place back in 2008 on the night President Obama first gets elected and NONE of these men vote. In fact, neither one of them even seem to care about the election until the end of the movie. You find out what tore the group apart and you see, however tragically that these three men will never be able to salvage their friendships.
They may not find hope and redemption in each other, but they do find it in their personal relationships. Malik has a conniption every time he hears a certain song, that just happens to be the most popular of the day. He swears that the beat in the song is one he originally crafted and he wants EVERYBODY to know it. His girlfriend Bree, played by one of the most fiercest female MC's to ever grab the mic, Jean Grae talks him down off the ledge in the end and sets him in the direction he needs to head in. John and James also have similar moments with their significant others and the movie ends on a somewhat uplifting note. Big Words has that feel of someone just learning their way in the craft of film making, but Neil Drumming definitely has a future ahead of him. There is no soundtrack, the music is a hodgepodge of hip hop beats and song mixes. The cinematography won't wow you, but the look of the film is well put together. I would definitely recommend Big Words to those "hip hop heads" from back in the day and for the heads of today's version of hip hop, those kids need to learn the music's history. I'll see you at the theater.
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