![]() ![]() The assault undermines Black’s masculinity while elevating Tommy’s. This kind of humiliation gets to the heart of how masculinity can be weaponised by one and swiftly and thoroughly stripped from another. But instead of shooting Black, he fires shots around him and forces him to strip naked in front of everyone. (Like we’re all doing on a Tuesday night, right?) Tommy gets angry at one of his boys, Jay Black, and pulls out his gun. In one particularly testosterone filled scene, a group of presumable gangsters are in a basement, drinking, smoking weed and counting drug money. From the moment we see him we know he’s the man – the growl and aggression in his voice when he speaks, his hood uniform (oversized white tees, big chains, baggy jeans), the way he smokes his blunts and the way he relates to the people in his world, all of these signifiers identify him as the reigning archetype of black masculinity in the late 90s. Tommy embodies the heterosexual black (American) masculine ideal. The movie follows Tommy Bunds, played by Earl “DMX” Simmons. Released in 1998, Belly was slept on during it’s time – it was a critical flop but it’s become a cult classic. ![]() Watching Dope, I couldn’t help but think about the movie Belly. The soundtrack was dope and I love how the story was so in the spirit of black movies of the 90s whilst still being its own thing. The movie was for us and by us and I really felt that. Living in a city as white as Amsterdam, I live for the rare moments when black art is clearly speaking directly to black people without regard to the white gaze. Most of the jokes and cultural references went completely over the heads of the mostly white Dutch audience we were viewing with. ![]()
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