Fear of a Black Hat
Tags: satire

Plot synopsis:
The film is a comedic mockumentary depicting the perspective of a filmmaker as she trails a hardcore gangsta rap group called N.W.H. ("Niggaz With Hats"), a play on the name of the popular group N.W.A In many ways, Fear of a Black Hat is similar to the satirical film about early 1980s heavy metal This is Spinal Tap.
The members of N.W.H. are:
Ice Cold (Cundieff), the main rapper and the intelligent and vulgar backbone of the group.
Tasty Taste (Larry B. Scott), the ultra-violent secondary rapper who always seems to be armed with a variety of dangerous assault weaponry. (His name is spelled "Tasty-Taste" in the credits but not in other parts of the movie.)
Tone Def (Mark Christopher Lawrence), the esoteric D.J., who is talented enough to scratch with his butt and his penis (the latter is not shown directly, but strongly and humorously implied). (His name is spelled "Tone-Def" in the credits but not in other parts of the movie.)
The film is told from the point of view of Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons), a sociologist who analyzes hip hop as a form of communication for her degree. She chooses N.W.H. as the subject of her thesis and follows them around for a year. She familiarizes herself with the band members, their beliefs, and their often strange behavior.
The members wear outrageous headwear during their performances. This is explained as an act of rebellion, remembering their slave ancestors, who had to work bare-headed in the sun. According to N.W.H., hats are a symbol for resistance and revolution since their hatless ancestors were too tired from working all day in the sun to revolt. This is a typical example of the bizarre logic the group uses to explain the deeper meanings behind their otherwise crude and base music and images.
A steady source of comedy is N.W.H.'s use of over-the-top graphic language (e.g. sex, violence and rantings against the police), which detractors see as a cheap means to sell records, but in their eyes is essential to convey a "socially relevant message". They offer jaw-dropping explanations why songs such as "Booty Juice" and "Come and Pet the P.U.S.S.Y." are in fact deep and socially significant, and that detractors obviously do not truly understand the "real meaning". Throughout the movie, it is difficult to tell if the members of N.W.H. truly believe what they are saying, or are just portraying an image.
A lot of time also goes into describing N.W.H.'s feud with another rap group, the Jam Boys. The groups constantly insult and discredit each other, even sometimes resulting in brandishing weapons. At one point, N.W.H. brings to light evidence that the Jam Boys' lead rapper attended a prep school, directly threatening his street credibility.
A macabre running gag—inspired by This is Spinal Tap—involves their white managers dying under mysterious circumstances (the group originally insist that they "wasn't in town when the shit happened"). They explain to Nina that their first few managers were black—in fact, were their relatives—and that they decided switching to white managers would be better for their families and the black community.
N.W.H.'s internal matters turn sour when Ice Cold cuts down his involvement because he wants to participate in a film, and Cheryl C. (Rose Jackson), a groupie, hooks up with Tasty-Taste. Although she is clearly more interested in his money than in him, Tasty lets her take over his life. When Tasty finds Cheryl and Ice Cold in bed, N.W.H. is no more.
The group breaks up and each member launches a solo career. Ice dedicates himself to house music; Tasty brings out a diss track in which he curses Ice; and Tone Def becomes a hippie (with obvious references to "flower rappers," such as P.M. Dawn). None sees much success until they ultimately reunite for a triumphant comeback in which their differences have been set aside, at least for the time being.

Review: After a big tip of the hat to Spinal Tap, this movie is hilarious.
Quebec Rating:13+ Canadian Home Video Rating:14AFear Of A Black Hat is one of the funniest, most original comedies I have ever seen.Its basically a gangsta rap version of the film This Is Spinal Tap.Its a shame not many people have heard of this gem of a film.If you manage to find this film anywhere don't hesitate to buy it even if you don't like rap music.There are not too many comedy films that I give a perfect 10/10 to.The only ones I can think of at the moment are this film,Clerks,The World According To Garp,The 40 Year Old Virgin and Chasing Amy.This film is a hilarious stereotype of the gangsta rap culture.The movie is about a woman named Nina Blackburn who is making a documentary about the fictional rap group N.W.H(N****z with hats).They are basically the stereotype of a rap group making many controversial rap songs about killing and being a gangsta.Fear Of A Black Hat is an excellent comedic film and I recommend it even if you are not a fan of the gangsta rap scene.Its a shame this film is not in the Top 250.Runtime:88min 10/10.
Although it rips off SPINAL TAP scene-by-scene in some instances, FEAR OF A BLACK HAT offers up enough belly laughs -- some of them very large -- to make it worth a look.
That said, there are moments when this movie nails some of the hypocrisies of pop music (not just hip-hop).
This is a really funny film, especially the second, third and fourth time you watch it.
It's a pretty short film, and i definitely recommend watching it more than once, you will 'get it' more the second time.It's like spinal tap but the rap version.
It has a lot of attitude in it which can be a negative thing in rap influenced films, but it's just a total p**s take and isn't a problem because of the irony it creates.Plenty of stand-out bits, one of those types of films which you will find yourself quoting lines with your mates, and it WILL raise laughter.My personal favourite part is the 'guerrillas in the midst' section.
If you like rap or hip-hop, watch this movie, although it's funny if you don't get the references, as a straight comedy.Haven't seen much of the much hyped CB4, but what I did see didn't have the heart that this little stormer has.Haven't heard from the people involved since, which is a surprise.
The film is very similar to Spinal Tap, which is no bad thing, and I think a lot of the dialogue, while priceless in Tap is funnier here, probably because I'm more into rap than rock theses days, so my own judgment does cloud that point.The rap songs are funny as hell, and it's basically spot the reference for most of the film, not all of them are in-your-face, which means the physical comedy and the one-liners get priority over the take-offs.Great fun, one to watch twice if there ever was a movie..
Well I don't personally like rap, but I still found Fear of a Black Hat hilarious.
It was deriviative from This Is Spinal Tap, sometimes blatantly, but this film still stood on it's own as an original, intelligent, and funny satire.
I'm too old to know (or care) exactly what the difference between rap and hip-hop is.
And, being Canadian, it's likely that I've never actually seen MTV, but I'm not certain.But I thought this film was very funny when I saw it, a bright little satire.
This movie is hilarious and while the satire leans against material dated from the 80's and early 90's, if you know enough hip hop and pop culture then you'd find it funny, even today.
The movie is consistently funny from beginning to end, with many of the jokes dead panned and often subtly delivered.
I have zero interest rap and in ghetto culture, i'm white and like classic rock, however, that did not stop me from appreciating this fantastic comedy.
Its pretty much a sequel of This Is Spinal Tap in the sense that it is the same movie, just about rap instead or rock.
One of the reasons why this movies was so funny was that it makes fun of rap from a different.
Overall, it's a funny movie with many jokes about racism, sex and music culture among the more obvious themes of humor.
This is highly recommend for any fan of This is Spinal Tap. They are essentially the same movie, just about different worlds, and yes, the same jokes work in both movies..
To like this movie, you must have at least an interest in black culture and, more specifically, an interest in the rap/hip hop culture, whether positive or negative.
I myself am a 25 year old white man, and used to be more or less indifferent to 90's hip hop but quite dislike the current trend of rap (which covers a total of four subjects: Violence, racism, misogyny, and superiority to others in some way or another).
But Fear of a Black Hat (FOABH from here) takes me back to the early 90's, when all kinds of musical styles existed and singers were judged more by talent than how they dressed.
The movie is fictitous and the people are all actors, but it is filmed in a documentary style with the gimmick in mind although these characters don't really exist, people quite similar to them do, and this is the movie that makes fun of them.
The director, Rusty Cundieff (playing "Ice Cold") has a great ear for dialogue and an even better one for melody, as the film contains a dozen NWH songs, each with its own theme and almost every one of them catchy despite being parodic material.
It's also acted well, with the characters coming off as believable yet ridiculous, with their giant goofball hats (which are in fact explained in a stupid yet thought-provoking diatribe) and their silly habit of making every ostensibly crude song actually stand for something much more intelligent.
It's somehow fun to watch these tortured geniuses at work, doing their best to carve a niche in the transitional period between early 90's hip hop and the edgier stuff we know today.
However, that does give the film and unfortunate outdatedness, as some joke characters (an MC Hammer parody) and now-uncommon phrases ("Word", "Kick It") fall a little flat.
Still, I definitely found it worth a look, especially to the black community or those interested in rap/hip hop culture.
Mr. Cundieff wrote, directed, developed most of the "MTV"-like song and dance scenes, and, of course, starred in this film.
You don't have to know a thing about rap music to love this screamingly funny satire about culture clash, the media, fame, hypocrisy and a lot more.A black woman (college-educated, oh-so-serious public TV type) is filming a documentary on a three-man rap group from the streets.
We watch the astonished faces of our rappers as they listen to his ludicrous slang, which dates back to Malcolm X's time.NWH even puts out a Christmas album called `Ho, Ho, Ho's.' A rival rap group dogs their rise to fame, each outfit trying to destroy the other.
The concert audiences are pimply white youth who ape the group's moves, clothing and speech mannerisms and for whom the rappers can barely disguise their utter contempt.Relating these details in no way spoils the fun, for it's the telling of the tale and the facial expressions of those to whom all of this happens that make the movie.No matter what your age or background, you'll be howling out loud through many parts of this parody.
Having seen both "Fear of a Black Hat" and "This is Spinal Tap", I can honestly state that while similar, both movies are truly must see.
its too bad that no one knows anything about this movie, and it gets old telling people it's rap's version of spinal tap.
and you know, im sorry i dont have any better comments, but damnit, go get the movie and watch it, and then make all your friends watch it too, just like im gonna..
Chances are, you'll think this movie is incredibly stupid the first time you watch it.
I picked up the movie with no cover and not even knowing what it was, but when I watched it I laughed so hard.
You've got to love the satire of rap groups (obviously NWA), certain rappers (Eazy E, Flava Flav, Ice Cube), and the humor of the three members of NWH.
If you know and like 90's 'gangster' rap, you'll be watching and laughing with this movie for a long time.
a group of my friends and i got together and watched "this is spinal tap," immediately followed by this movie.
as any of the other comments will tell you, the movies are almost exactly similar, although the jokes all work a second time in the rap genre, which was due for some good self-referential humor.
the one thing i would note is the humor in black hat is much more heavy-handed over all when compared to spinal tap (although i suppose it doesn't get more blatantly comical as christopher guest's character in that movie), which is probably why some of the commenters here found this to be funnier.
regardless, a fun and witty movie, and one geared more to the mtv generation, so give this a chance if you liked tap..
Rap parody in the tradition of Spinal Tap, but far outclassing CB4.
More like Spinal Tap than anything else, the film is clever from the start.
If you really want a good laugh and you like hip hop and are a little familiar with some old-school performers, definitley rent this movie.
A knowledge of many of your more popular Hip Hop/Rap performers greatly enchances the enjoyment of this movie.
There are so many little 'inside' jokes that you could sit for hours trying to figure out on who they were based upon, such as Vanilla Sherbert and my personal favorite, Tone Def's spirtual P.M. Dawn like 'awakening,' harkening his music video "I'm Only Human." Overall, it's too bad this movie doesn't get more press than the overhyped "Friday.".
This movie, Fear of a Black Hat, is an amazing comedy!
This movie, a Mock-u-mentary of the Rap scene, follows around the rap group N.W.H. or Niggas with Hats on thier rollercoster ride tour that has them running from the cops, fighting censorship (and the white man), Finding new managers (after losing all of them to gun fire) and climbing the Rap charts.
Through trouble with women, egos, cops and whitey, this group gets to the top of the gangster rap world, as this movie goes to the top of mocumentaries.
I know everybodies favorite mocumentary is This is Spinal Tap, for very good reason, however I think that if in the right mood, this movie is simply better.
The laughs never end, even for someone not into the rap culture.I'm a white guy, that has no interest in rap music, culture or anything else associated with it, however I love this movie.
Rusty Cundeif, who wrote the screenplay, songs and starred in it showed great potential and it is a shame that I haven't seen him since Fear of a Black Hat.
However, I have seen him one more time than you have, and is that, that I recommend Fear of a Black Hat to you for quick laughs.Remember, "Don't shoot to you see the whites!....of their eyes?
Fear of a Black Hat offers more inside jokes and more subtle humor and at the same time more poopoo humor than any other of the genre.
i first saw this movie as a hip hop fan and only got a few of the jokes.
both the movie and the soundtrack are record and video library staples for any true hip hop head..
Rap's Spinal Tap. If rap is not your thing, forget about this movie as it relies heavily on jokes and references derived from the rap/hip-hop culture.
However if you can tell your Ice Cube's from your Ice T's then Fear Of A Black Hat is an amusing satirical look at the rap music industry.The movie adopts a documentary style formula as seen in movies like Spinal Tap and CB4.
Three hip-hop wannabes manage to stumble their way into becoming gangsta rap superstars and have to deal with the pressures of women, managers, political indifference, a criminal who they ripped their image off, record labels and ultimately each other.While there are no outstanding performances like Chris Rock's character in CB4, Fear Of A Black Hat works in that it plays on the various character stereotypes in a humorous style while integrating them within the documentary framework.
I, on the other hand, being Asian (and thus belonging to neither group), had a great time viewing this satire of rap culture and its egos/trappings/values/pseudo-philosophies.
The songs are too funny to be believed.This film is one of the best pseudo-documentaries to come along, including "A Mighty Wind".
Fear of a black hat is a hilarious spoof of Hip-Hop culture.
It is just as funny as This Is Spinal Tap, if not funnier.
I first saw this movie about 4 years ago and i was expecting something funny, similar to CB4.
I will admit, you probably will despise this movie if you know nothing about rap music.
But if you are a rap fan, even a casual one, you will love the inside jokes and references.
FEAR OF A BLACK HAT (3 outta 5 stars)Nice try at making a spoof documentary (a la Spinal Tap) but directed at the world of "gangsta rap".
Of course, I laughed at "Jike Spingleton" but you almost need to be a hardcore movie buff to get the joke.Plus, the thing about the song parodies is...
It's basically meant to be Spinal Tap with a hip hop theme, but it fails miserably.
Recently in a discussion with other fans of hip-hop music, this film came up and was roundly lauded by those that had seen it as being hilarious, smart, cutting and a "classic" (albeit that that final word tends to get thrown around by fans of this genre so much that it really means nothing).
The plot therefore follows the group coming up, falling apart and then being put back together again, but it isn't really the plot that matters here.What matters is that the film is a comedy set in the rap world of the early 90's and as such it has plenty of artists and aspects of the culture to make fun of.
In terms of his direction I had no issues but to be honest it did feel like he must have watched Spinal Tap every single day before shooting, so similar was the style.
Overall Fear of a Black Hat is a broad spoof of hip-hop culture but one that doesn't seem to know what it wants to do.
It owes so much to Spinal Tap but yet is not as funny; it apes hip-hop culture but yet cannot work out if it is doing it affectionately or with an edge, so ends up doing neither.
Mildly amusing but too much like "Spinal Tap".
It's obvious that the makers of "Fear Of The Black Hat" had a HipHop-version of "This Is Spinal Tap!" in mind.
What's worse is that a lot of jokes are directly lifted from "Spinal Tap".
Great movie if you remember the 80's rap culture.
"Fear of a Black Hat" was unjustly ignored on its release, and, surprisingly, is just as funny and clever today as it was then.
It takes a few plot points from the immortal "Spinal Tap" - girlfriend troubles, problems with the album cover, an acrimonious break up and subsequent reunion - but this doesn't stop the acting from being great, the song parodies from being spot-on, and the dialogue from being incredibly funny.
I would recommend even non-rap fans to watch this movie.
The cast really pulls off a serious yet ridiculously funny performance.I had know idea what this movie was about, but after the first 5 min.
and when vanilla sherbert got his ass kicked, just like the record company executive is also hilarious and having they're managers getting shot every time too.people who didn't enjoy this movie probably didn't get it or were complete idiots, my opinion.
While some similarities exist, the humor is different, and the movie seems more like a real documentary (maybe because we don't recognize a single actor in this thing, even the guy who played "Lamar" from "Revenge of the Nerds").
THIS movie it's insane hilarious and all around brilliant from begining to end non stop laughter if only all movies were this funny a must see movie you've got to see this movie for yourself and then see it again you'll love the music video's all of them are great!
and and why do people compare this movie to that stupid spinal tap movie this movie unlike that one is actually funny you'll love tasty Taste and all his insanity and the music vidoes O boy the music vidoes LOL!
This film is a lost gem, a dead-on satire "mockumentary" of the early 90's Hip Hop scene, when MC Hammer had just began to fade away into that good night.
I first saw this movie when it came out in 1994 and just watched it recently and it is STILL funny.
This movie makes fun of all of that in a way that seems like it's an actually documentary.
Still, on it's own, without hip hop knowledge, it is still a funny funny movie.
This, in my opinion is equally as funny and in some ways, better than Spinal Tap. As Spinal Tap is to heavy metal, Fear of A Black Planet is to Rap. And the songs are off the hook also.