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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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man sings to the front row of a concert
Screenings
Part of the series Summer Night Cinema: 50 Years of Hip Hop

This is the Life

  • This is a past program

Part of Summer Night Cinema: 50 Years of Hip Hop, celebrating the art form's impact on music, film, and pop culture. Curated by critic Ernest Hardy.

Ava DuVernay’s 2008 documentary chronicles L.A.’s groundbreaking alternative hip hop movement crystalized in Leimert Park’s legendary Good Life Café, which birthed a slew of underground rap legends in the 1990s, including Freestyle Fellowship, Jurassic 5, and Cut Chemist. Their collective rhymes, which existed in a parallel universe to gangsta rap, explored the complexities, humor, and everyday surrealism of life in L.A. and beyond.

DuVernay’s own background as a rapper (as one half of the duo Figures of Speech) serves her well here; her chemistry with the film’s subjects (Myka 9, Chali 2na, Medusa, Abstract Rude, Busdriver, and more) crackles through the screen as they muse on art, life, and the unpredictability of both. She fills the film with priceless archival performance footage.

(2008, dir: Ava DuVernay, color, 97 minutes)

Summer Night Cinema is sponsored by Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein

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