Roots

Our love of Black Dynamite inspired us to go back to the roots. Our chosen primordial blaxploitation: Dolemite.

It stars proto-rapper and comic Rudy Ray Moore, as kung fu pimp Dolemite. His main lady Queen Bee has convinced the warden to let him out of prison to clear his name and get the corrupt cops who have been protecting the local heroin ring. Or something. The bad news: Queen Bee lost the club to bad guy Willy Green. Good news, Dolemite's girls have been studying karate while he was in prison.

I wish I could say there's a ton of ass-kicking action scenes. There are some, but pretty weak. Dolemite is no Michale Jae White. In fact, he looks pretty over the hill. On the other hand, he's a beefy guy with a beat up face. You could imagine him doing some fighting. I kind of like the way most of the guys in this movie are beat-up beefy guys, and the girls are too, except the skinny ones with big teeth.

Along with comically bad fight scenes, you get some of Rudy Ray Moore's Signifyin' Monkey stories. These are sort of Uncle Remus stories, told in loose verse, with a lot of bad words. They have a kind of folkloric appeal, but if they are truly the roots of rap, this white boy can't hear it.

OK, so now I've seen a movie by the legendary Rudy Ray Moore. I probably don't need to see another. But I suspect I'll wind up watching at least Disco Godfather and Petey Wheatstraw - the Devil's Son-in-Law.