Criterion's Fiftieth Anniversary of Hip Hop Collection: Fear of a Black Hat (1993)

Critics often compare Rusty Cundieff's mockumentary to Rob Reiner's This is Spinal Tap, and while  comparisons are often warranted, they do the film an injustice. Fear of a Black Hat, although it borrows and adapts some of the jokes, stands on its own as an insightful commentary of hip-hop culture. The film's  callbacks and inside jokes  will make anyone familiar with hip-hip history laugh out loud. Many of the spoofs are accurate, but more importantly, they are funny. 

Unlike other parodies such as CB4 (also 1993), the film spoofs more aspects of hip hop culture without relying on the gangster rap era. The parodies of different era's hip-hop stars are precise sendups of specific people and tropes. Direct references to these figures, particularly Salt-N-Pepa as Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme and M.C. Hammer as M.C. Slammer, call attention to the self-seriousness of the movement and its critical response. The group member's contentious rivalries with each other and their managers reflect that of real groups, and the death of their managers when they are out of town perfectly uses the Spinal Tap motif in a new context. 

Do not miss this film if you like music documentaries and other mockumentaries. While some of the jokes are dated, there are enough funny moments in the film to make this underrated film necessary viewing for music fans with a sense of humor.

Fear of a Black Hat is another entry from the Criterion Channel's Fiftieth Anniversary of Hip Hop collection.