Wax Poetics interviews Darius James.
You mentioned that you thought Melvin Van Peebles was influenced by The Cool World. What’s your opinion of his film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)?
I love that film. There are gestures in the film that were clearly influenced by The Cool World, but I think the film itself is a remarkable piece of street poetry. That’s what it is. He’s trying to translate the rhythms of Black speech into film. That’s really the secret to the blaxploitation film genre that no one really addresses. When I wrote That’s Blaxploitation!, I was trying to write it to young people. At the time, I was disturbed that the hip-hop generation embraced the principles of the Nation of Islam as opposed to the Black Panther Party. To be fair, the Nation of Islam was there for them when the Black Panther Party was not, because it had been destroyed. There’s a lot to say about that period, and there’s a documentary called Bastards of the Party, which was shown on HBO, which talked about L.A. street gangs. It talked about the history of L.A. street gangs, COINTELPRO, and the FBI involvement in the destruction of the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam. I think that’s necessary viewing for everyone.
