‘saw’ this film. Meaning he pre-judged it before he really looked at the scenes he was editing. Thus, the film is sometimes hard to follow, ‘cause in spots, its narrative jumps all over the place. Again, David did this purposely, ‘cause he thought anything the Hip-Hop world produced, had to be inferior. Thus, he did an inferior job.
And quite frankly, Dave set out to destroy this film. And if it wasn’t for this film’s innate brilliance, he might have succeeded. And behind what he and the film distributor ‘Artisan entertainment’ did to this movie, ‘Hype’ never made another one. He continued on with his music videos, but the movie industry had done him so wrong, he never dealt with them again. ‘Cause they had in essence, ‘killed his baby’.
Now, ever since 2009, myself and scores of this movie’s fans, have been waiting for the ‘director’s cut’ of the film. To no avail. ‘Cause I think Hype’s experience was too painful for him to revisit.
And in my eyes, David Leonard is most responsible for this; ‘cause he’s the one that butchered this film with his terrible editing.
So, I’ve always wanted to revisit one of my written works, to basically ‘re-edit’ or ‘remix’ it, in the spirit of what I wish would’ve happened with Hype’s movie. And that’s what the re-working of this short story represents.
Also, the reason I’m endeavoring to do this at all, was the original story I wrote, got buried beneath too much ‘backstory’ in its final stages.
When I first conceptualized ‘The Coup of Carrots’, it read like this short story. But I was a little taken aback by a fourteen year old Brent Grimes killing ‘Big Tee’, his block’s most notorious drug dealer. I figured in countless other books, movies and TV shows, too many young Black men are portrayed as bug-eyed, gun-toting, sociopathic, drug dealing miscreants…and I didn’t want to add another of these characters to the literary world. Especially without telling people why ‘Big Tee’ chose that route. So I created a story for ‘Big Tee’, to tell about his abusive stepfather ‘Craig Johnson’, and how Craig made Terrence Johnson’s, a.k.a. ‘Big Tee’s’, living environment so unstable, it put his life on a trajectory that ending in him being killed at nineteen. Then this posed another problem. I didn’t want Craig to be seen as naturally predisposed to abusing women and children. So I built a narrative around him that showed how he grew up a severely abused child. Problem was, the opening scenes of Craig’s story, might have been a bit too brutal. After all, no one wants to read about the severe abuses of a twelve year old. So, this is why I sought to ‘re-work’ this short tome.
Now, the latter part of this story where the frat’s ‘saleswoman’ tells Brent how their Dutch frat brothers, had the technological advantage of ‘night vision binoculars’, is not entirely fictitious. Just like it’s not totally false that a myth was created saying some riflemen, had better aim in the dark, ‘cause they ate carrots.
See, back in World War II, british gun-runners had more success shooting down german war planes at night, ‘cause they had the technological advantage of ‘radar’. And to cover up this advantage, the brits created an urban legend, saying their pilots had better night vision ‘cause they ate lots of carrots.
That lie not only convinced the germans this was true, but had brits starting to plant carrots in their vegetable gardens as well.
Now, I originally got the idea for this story years ago, when I read carrots were genetically engineered to look the way they do now. It struck me odd that I never knew how this vegetable had a different appearance in the past. Also, I used a bit of artistic license when I had the ‘saleswoman’ telling Brent carrots once resembled ‘bulbous beets’. They always had the same shape, but they were usually dark purple in color. Now, I’ve never seen one of these purple carrots, but supposedly they don’t taste as good as the genetically engineered ‘orange’ variety. There’s also speculation that they were genetically engineered with the color orange, to honor the aristocrat ‘William of Orange’, who resided in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. But again, this is just conjecture.
But there is definitive evidence saying the carrot’s orange color, comes from its cross-breeding of yellow, white and other colors of ‘wild’ carrots. This got me pondering, what else is man-made that we just accept as natural? That’s when I thought about diamonds, and the fact that they’re all measured in ‘carats’. And this got me to thinking about an article in the New York Times, written by a ‘journalist’ named Alex Mindlin, on April 17th, 2011.
This article said Black people watch the most TV out of every ethnic group. And I remember hearing this fact throughout my childhood. So a couple of years back, I did some research on who the New York Times originally got this info. from— the ‘Nielsen’ TV ratings agency. Now, the Nielsen agency gauges TV viewership by giving out Nielsen TV ‘boxes’, to record household viewing habits. But if you’re a Black man or woman reading this, ask yourself, have you ever known a Black family with one of these boxes?
I didn’t think so.
That’s ‘cause the Nielsen company didn’t give these boxes to Black families; yet and still, we, the Black Diaspora, are made to believe we watch the most TV out of everyone. I did some more research to find how Nielsen TV ratings are notorious for being ‘cooked’ by executives. So the New York Times, one of the world’s most respected periodicals, told a bald-faced lie about Black people and everyone pretty much took it as the gospel truth.
Now this was done by the elites intentionally, to make Black people feel dumb-founded and dim-witted; and this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how Black people have been made to hate themselves more than any other ethnic group on the planet. And once again, if you’re a Black man or woman reading this, ask yourself another question: how many more times do the elite have to lie to us before we recognize them as pathological liars…and when do we start treating them like the liars they are?
So I guess the moral of this story is, let’s stop taking these people’s word as the gospel truth for everything. We should always be ready to investigate any information these people give us, knowing their history…and how they’ve co-opted ours.
Thanks for reading my e-book!
About the Author
MontUHURU Mimia is a novelist, short story, non-fiction, song and script writer, who is dedicated to eradicating the anglophilic tendencies he’s picked up in the american educational system. He is also researching and practicing the spiritual sciences of his ancestors.
Other books by this author
Revering Revolutionaries
Is the Black Diaspora ready to get free? I mean free from the tyranny of western fascists and their institutions; well, here's the tale of four brothas who dared to challenge the western status quo, while leaving a blueprint for the rest of us to follow; brotha Wesley Snipes, Dave Chappelle, Kat Williams and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
The miseducation of Michelle Rhee
Michelle Rhee was sold to the public as the savior of the Washington D.C. school system. She was an Ivy League darling who would be the person to finally reform the swarthy denizens of its poor neighborhoods and make them see the true value of an education. But the reformations she would initiate after becoming School Chancellor would have her looking more like Lex Luthor than Superman.
Sheltered
Brent Grimes is listed as a homeless resident of the East Side Men's shelter...only thing is, he's not homeless. Not only that, but his annual salary is well above the six figure mark. Brent's fraternity has him commissioned to perform a certain task at the East Side; and if he fails, his boss will make him pay dearly for coming up short.
Quickness
Brent Grimes has risen through the ranks of his fraternity to become Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Shortly afterwards, he's summoned to his frat's headquarters in Chicago. While there, he'll be briefed on their latest plan for his district. Unfortunately, there's a part of this dastardly plan, involving him that he's not aware of. And it's th
is part that will change his life forever.
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