Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Promotional poster
Directed by	Michel Gondry
Produced by	Dave Chappelle Michel Gondry
Written by	Dave Chappelle
Starring	Dave Chappelle
Music by	Corey Smyth
Cinematography	Ellen Kuras
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures
Release date(s)	March 3, 2006 (2006-03-03)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3.3 million
Box office	$12,051,924

The Broken Angel House, the site of the documentary, in May, 2007.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party, also known as Block Party, is a 2006 documentary film hosted and written by comedian Dave Chappelle, and directed by Michel Gondry. Its format is inspired by the documentary Wattstax.

The film and its soundtrack are dedicated to the memory of music producer J Dilla (James Dewitt Yancey), who died from lupus one month before the film's release. An incomplete version of Block Party was shown prior to its official release at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. The film grossed over $12 million in the box office and debuted at #6 in its opening weekend, grossing $6 million in 1,200 theaters.

Plot

The film follows Chappelle during the summer of 2004, up until September 18, 2004, when he threw a block party on the corner of Quincy Street and Downing Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The film features nearby sites including the Broken Angel House in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn as well as areas in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The film was produced before Chappelle's highly-publicized decision to walk away from a $50 million deal to continue his hit Chappelle's Show, and gained prominence after the announcement.

He invited several hip hop and neo-soul musical artists to perform at the party, including Kanye West, Mos Def, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and The Roots along with The Central State University Marching Band. Lauryn Hill was also scheduled to perform at the party, but since Columbia Records refused to release her songs for use in the production, she decided instead to reunite The Fugees for the occasion. In addition, Chappelle performed comedy monologues and sketches in between the musical acts.

Performers

• Kanye West
• Mos Def
• Talib Kweli
• Jill Scott
• Erykah Badu
• The Roots
• Common
• Big Daddy Kane
• Kool G Rap
• The Fugees
• Bilal
• Dead Prez
• Cody Chesnutt
• John Legend
• Central State University Marching Band
• Dave Chappelle
• A-Trak

Soundtrack

Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Live album by Various Artists
Released	March 14, 2006 (2006-03-14)
Recorded	September 18, 2004
Genre	Neo-soul, alternative hip hop, East Coast hip hop
Label	Geffen

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
HipHopDX.com	link

A compilation of "music from and inspired by" the film was released on March 14, 2006.

The album was released by Geffen Records, and produced by Corey Smyth for Blacksmith Music Corp and Questlove.

1. Dead Prez - "Hip Hop"
2. Black Star - "Definition"
3. Jill Scott - "Golden"
4. Mos Def - "Universal Magnetic"
5. Talib Kweli feat. Erykah Badu - "The Blast"
6. Common feat. Erykah Badu & Bilal - "The Light"
7. The Roots feat. Big Daddy Kane & Kool G. Rap - "Boom!"
8. Erykah Badu - "Back in the Day"
9. Jill Scott - "The Way"
10. Mos Def - "UMI Says"
11. The Roots feat. Erykah Badu & Jill Scott - "You Got Me"
12. Black Star - "Born & Raised"

All the songs were recorded live in concert, except "Born & Raised", an exclusive new studio track from Mos Def and Talib Kweli's Black Star. Many performances, including The Fugees' reunion performance, could not be included due to legal restraints with the groups' record labels.

Chappelle's version of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" was featured in the film, but was not released on the compilation.

Box office and reception

The film grossed $11,718,595 in the United States and an additional $333,329 overseas, giving the film a total gross of $12,051,924. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of critics gave positive reviews based on 124 reviews with an average score of 7.7/10.^[1] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 91% based on a sample of 33 reviews. By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 84 based on 30 reviews.

References

1. ^ [1]

External links

• Official website
• Dave Chappelle's Block Party at AllRovi
• Dave Chappelle's Block Party at Box Office Mojo
• Dave Chappelle's Block Party at the Internet Movie Database
• Dave Chappelle's Block Party at Rotten Tomatoes