THE SUNDAY DOCUMENTARY - Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James(2021)SHOWTIME

A new documentary explores the serious artistry behind this “punk-funk” legend’s outlandish persona.The main title of this Sacha Jenkins-directed documentary derives from a sketch on  Dave Chappelle’s still-mourned former show on USA Comedy Central. He regularly reenacted anecdotes told by the comic Charlie Murphy; in one of these, the funk renegade Rick James did some obscene blustering at a bar before announcing “I’m Rick James, bitch!” The sketch resulted in new visibility for James while also making him a cartoon.But then again, James’s outlandishness constituted the through-line of his visible career. This film strives to make the case for James as a serious artist, a social commentator and funk innovator who never got his due.To this end, the movie spends substantial time on James’s roots in Buffalo, N.Y. The contemporary rap artist Conway, also a Buffalo native, speaks of the miserable segregation of the city. James’s enlistment in the Navy in the early 1960s could be seen as a desperate bid to escape his origins. It was an unsatisfactory one. Going AWOL, he landed in Toronto and formed several musical alliances, among them an R&B inflected band with Neil Young that picked up many stylistic cues from the Rolling Stones. James was the lead singer and more than one interviewee from this time says he consciously imitated Mick Jagger......LINK BELOW POSTERS.

AMM

                                                               Courtesy of Reb Jukebox

                       https://mega.nz/file/50A3hQAZ#Wkq5K-wn4iQ7EjmXiIPjpzp-kieoXplfGPb4qTqR13A

Rick James

• as Self
• (archive footage)

George Clinton

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Bootsy Collins

• as Self

Berry Gordy

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Ice Cube

• as Self

Ron Jeremy

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Nancy Leiviska

• as Self

M.C. Hammer

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Teena Marie

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Charlie Murphy

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Eddie Murphy

• as Self
• (archive footage)

Donnell Rawlings

• as Self

Nile Rodgers

• as Self

• Director