Hip Hop VIP's (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Hip-Hop Vip's Trailer-War On Wax
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	75:08
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Dr. Dre Raekwon Cam'ron Eve Aaliyah Redman Ludacris Ja Rule Method Man Russell Simmons Nas Xzibit Snoop Dogg
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    Before we get started, I just want you all to know that I actually am a Hip Hop fan. Sure, I’m lower middle class and white, but I listen to just about anything, and I’ll pump iron to tracks by Xzibit and rave to tunes by Prodigy and groove to tracks by N.W.A.. However, my response to this DVD is probably going to offend some die hard fans. In all honesty, I just don’t care. But, to show I can be positive, in preference to this DVD I highly recommend you go and get hold of the Up In Smoke tour documentary. That goes off. This, oh God ... I don’t even know where to start.

    Okay, first up, picture the worst movie you’ve ever seen. No, I mean ever seen. Now, imagine if that film were also a documentary hosted by this fat guy, known as Mr. Excitement, who mumbles and talks in half rap lingo, half nonsensical jargon through a series of interviews with absolutely no point whatsoever. Picture also, some very shaky video camera work and a bunch of drunk, stoned or bored rappers/hip hop artists staring at this camera going “What the f***?”, and often expressing as much in words. That’s Hip Hop VIPs for you. Let me give you a sample:

    Mr. Excitement, leaning over a sofa to put a microphone in Method Man’s face: “What’s goin’ on man? What’s goin’ on?”

    Method Man: “I’m just here. Me and this microphone we’re here. And we ain’t tryin not to hear nothin coz we’ve had it up to here. You know? Word up. I’m from Long Island originally." Then something I don’t quite understand, followed by: "Murray! Freaky Murray! ... Word.”

    Oh, the pain. The pain. And it gets worse. This is just the first interview. If you can even call it an interview.

    And that there is the real problem. Mr. Excitement has access to all these hip-hop artists, and he doesn’t have anything worthwhile to ask them. Nothing. So he just prattles on in nonsensical crap. If there were some music here, at least, just to break up the monotony of this guy who thinks he’s cool trying to hang with the rappers, that might have helped, but there isn’t. There is just a whole lot of pointless jargon, much of which you simply cannot understand because of the quality of the recording. And you can just see the nervous smiles as Mr. Excitement’s poor victims take a look at the camera and then edge towards the door or sink into their drinks and hope this is all just some really bad trip. Who the hell is this guy? they think. And why is he trying to put his arm around me?

    If you use only one DVD as a coaster this year, this should be it.

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, this is, by the looks of it, the original aspect ratio.

    What’s there to say? This was captured on digital video, and it still looks like video.

    While colours are all right, it is fairly blurry. Some interviews are incredibly grainy, like that with the legendary Dr. Dre, one of the only interviewees who isn’t drunk or stoned and perhaps makes a little sense.

    MPEG artefacts went largely by the wayside, which is perhaps the only saving grace. There was some aliasing and the odd bit of moire, but nothing really distracting.

    Thankfully there was no dirt on the print that I noticed, but there was a big line down the screen during the Dr. Dre interview.

    This is a single-sided, single-layered disc. There is no dual layer pause.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only soundtrack available is the English 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo track.

    It might as well have been mono.

    Dialogue is fairly muffled due to the quality of the microphone being used and the venues / settings. Mr. Excitement has difficulty keeping the microphone in front of his victims. And half of what they say is slurred, blurred or just makes no sense.

    There are no directional cues. Also, there is no surround presence and no subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced. The main menu has a 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo soundtrack.

Hip Hop VIPs Trailer (4:12)

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo.

War On Wax Trailer (2:20)

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo. This looks infinitely more interesting than Hip Hop VIPs, but that wouldn’t be hard.

    The R1 release of this disc would appear to be identical barring the NTSC format. I’ll give this to the R4 release because it is cheaper.

    Word up. You know? Like, yeah? Me and this, we’re like that. Just chillin. Yo. Word. ... Mmmmm. Yeah. That about sums it up.

    The video is pretty average.

    The sound is bland.

    The extras were pointless.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall