Well, I missed a week.

You know what I like about this song?

It starts with a sample from Dexter’s Lab!

But in all serious, there’s quite a bit to love with this song.

To start off my (frankly ridiculous task) of trying to talk about a song a week, I’m starting off with a lighter and more fun track. Mistadobalina, the on Del tha Funky Homosapien’s debut album, I Wish my Brother George Was Here was one of the first tracks I heard when I was trying to diversify my musical tastes. So I figured it would be a good song to start with. All of the songs I am going to write about, I have some sort of connection, as simple as that I just enjoy it, to more complex reasons.

In this case, I enjoy this song immensely, along with it’s influence on my musical taste.

Now that I’m done rambling, lets go through some history and talk about the actual song!

After writing lyrics for his cousin Ice Cube as a teenager, Del the Funky Homosapien would release I Wish My Brother George Was Here at the age of eighteen. Reflecting their working relationship, Ice Cube would help produce the album, as well as contributing vocals and ad-libs. Along with Ice Cube, the album was produced by Del and the Boogiemen (a group of music producers). Taking a somewhat different style of lyricism than typical Bay Area hip-hop of the early, Del’s lyrics tend to more reflect the burgeoning Alternative Hip-Hop style, with a much different lyrical focus than his cousin. Mistadobalina, for example, is built around a sample from the Monkee’s song Zilch, a bizarre track in it’s on right. In Del’s own words, “I just kind of conceptualized who Mr. Dobalina would be which is basically somebody who thinks he know what hip, he think he cool, but he’s really right off. Like he ain’t right on — he right off.”

Mistadobalina is not a guy you wanna be friends with. Del describes a man who desperately wants to be friends, but every fiber of their being seems dedicated to this in the most material, surface level ways. I think the lines near the end of the song best sum it up:

But what is funny is ya wanted to be down with my crew

But D-E-L is not down with any clowns or jesters

So I would suggest that you try to impress Uncle Fester, Dobalina

Because ya don’t impress me Dobalina

The style of dress is not the key Dobalina

It’s all in the mind and the heart, so you should start

By remembering ya gotta pay a fee Dobalina

I think this most captures the mood of the song, a kind of thesis statement that Del reached when he made up the character of Mistadobalina. I’m sure most of us have had to deal with a Mistadobalina at some point in their life. I hope I’m not one!

(And also this song is just fun. Also, I found an old, low budget music video for your viewing pleasure.) I hope you like this, and I hope I can actually do 51 more of these.

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Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing has left an undeniable mark on US cinema. However, I feel that his films can be a blind spot for many white filmgoers, including myself until recently. Of Spike Lee’s filmography, I believe Do the Right Thing is required watching, particularly for white Americans like myself. 

Informed by the Howard Beach incident and the killing of Eleanor Bumpurs, Do the Right Thing portrays a microcosm of a Bed-Stuy neighborhood during a very, very hot 1980s summer. The narrative focuses mainly on Mookie, played by Spike Lee, also starring Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, Bill Nunn, Joie Lee, and John Turturro. To summarize the plot in the most spoiler-free way possible, tensions rise over the course of a day in a Bed-Stuy neighborhood. 

With exquisite cinematography by Ernest Dickerson that makes the heat of the summer integral to the viewing and Barry Alexander Brown’s editing, I found this film to be one of the greatest films of the 1980s. 

The film portays a neighborhood, with all its flaws and prejudices, but also its love and relationships. Regardless of those individual prejudices, such as those shown in the montage scene, systemic racism and police violence is still an ever present threat, triggering the last 10 to 15 minutes of the film. Unfortunately, this is still relevent, with Spike Lee creating a new short film, mixing clips of finale of the film together with clips from the recent murder of George Floyd.

Of course this movie is more than just well made. It is, somehow, controversial. Following its release, several white critics implied, or outright stated, that Do the Right Thing would make black audiences riot. Absurd. We should ask what made these critics think this way. I know a simple answer.

Unlike Do the Right Thing, there are films that actually inspired violence, such as D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, which widely inspired the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan. Hell, white people have rioted over both wins and losses in sports. If anyone was going to riot over Do the Right Thing, it probably would have been white audiences.

I believe that white audiences should watch this film, and many other films by black directors, and analyze their feelings regarding those films. There are still films that I need to see myself.

Ways to Help:

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/:Contains petitions, funds, and info that supports the Black Lives Matter Movement.

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