This Is The Life: How The West Was One, the award winning documentary about South Central Los Angeles' legendary early nineties hip-hop spot The Good Life Cafe, is being screened tonight at 8PM (Monday, March 9th) as part of Amoeba's Monday Movies @ Space15Twenty at 1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Tomorrow, March 10th, is the official release date of the film on DVD, but it will be available today exclusively at the Amoeba screening. I just recently watched This Is The Life and must say that it is a truly excellent hip-hop documentary, one that tells its story with careful, loving detail. That story is of the 
special place that was the Good Life Cafe, a health food restaurant in South Central, that began holding hip-hop nights once a week at a time when NWA, the area's biggest rap ambassadors, were at their peak.
But the type of hip-hop being performed (a lot of it freestyled) at the Thursday night hip-hop gatherings at this South Central cafe could not have been further from the prevalent macho-gangsta posturing of Niggaz With Attitude (NWA).
special place that was the Good Life Cafe, a health food restaurant in South Central, that began holding hip-hop nights once a week at a time when NWA, the area's biggest rap ambassadors, were at their peak.But the type of hip-hop being performed (a lot of it freestyled) at the Thursday night hip-hop gatherings at this South Central cafe could not have been further from the prevalent macho-gangsta posturing of Niggaz With Attitude (NWA).
Started by the conscious African American woman Bea Hall and her musically minded son R. Kain Blaze with the objective "to shun the pervasive West Coast gang culture of the time and cultivate a robust,
progressive artist community," the hip-hop venue was not only insistently non-violent, non-sexist and non-discriminatory, but it also had a strict no cursing policy. This policy, which surprisingly was embraced rather than resented by nearly everyone, resulted in a higher level of creativity in the music. Another in-house practice that kept the creativity high and kept emcees on their toes was the Good Life's democratic "pass the mic" policy whereby if the house wasn't feeling an emcee's flow, deafening shouts of "Pass the mic" from the audience cut short said rapper's performance. One "pass the mic" victim was Fat Joe, who was cut short in his acapella flow despite being a signed major label artist who was passing through the club and expecting fawning admiration.
The fact that the Good Life was not the typical darkened nightclub environment selling alcohol and instead provided a well-lit, all-ages, positive environment that sold wheat grass and other health foods seemed to directly correlate with the more conscious and innovative type of hip-hop that was practiced there. Not only that, but many attendees' diets were altered too. "A lot of people got healthier because of it," noted Abstract Rude in the film.
Female emcee and former Good Life regular T-Love noted, "It was college. It was also church. It was also temple." In fact, a whole style or new sub-genre of hip-hop rhyme was concocted right there at the Good Life during its influential six year run, 1989-1995. WIthout the Good Life the sound of LA hip-hop would not have developed as it has up to this day. Artists who came up through the Good Life and are in the film include Freestyle Fellowship, Busdriver, Chillin Villain Empire, Cut Chemist, Chali 2na, Figures of Speech, 2Mex,
T-Love, Medusa, and Pigeon John to name but a few.The 137 minute documentary is full of rewind-worthy moments but some of my favorites include the super-talented Chillin Villain Empire (CVE) crew doing their "Calistyics" style, which is kind of like marching band meets aerobic moves with counting off style vocal delivery; and also the scene when the 2000 Crows descend on the Good Life parking lot one night to battle it out with rhymes. As noted in the film's closing credits, the emcees spawned by the Good Life went on to produce 120+ albums. They also have had a distinct influence on hip-hop music forever since those days and on areas far beyond LA. Sheena Lester, a former Rap Pages editor who featured Good Life artists on her magazine's cover back during its prime, pointed out in the documentary, "The ethic of the Good Life will never leave."
Over the weekend I caught up with This Is The Life director/producer Ava DuVernay who, as a former Good Life regular, drew from first hand experience in making this fine document of LA hip-hop history. I asked her about the legendary venue and the making of the film, what to expect at the Amoeba screening later today, and about the big Good Life Reunion Show tomorrow (Tuesday) at Hollywood's House of Blues including Chali 2na, Myka Nyne, Abstract Rude, Pigeon John, Medusa, Volume 10, 2Mex, and Cut Chemist. (Note that tix for this will be given away at the Amoeba screening this evening.)
Amoeblog: Up until now to what degree has the Good Life been documented?
Ava DuVernay: The Good Life has been documented more in print form than anywhere else until now.
Several academics have written about it. And Brian "B+" Cross wrote a book a while back called It's Not About A Salary that discussed the movement. Film-wise, Kevin Fitzgerald included a few minutes of footage from a Good Life battle in his excellent documentary called Freestyle. I might be missing something, but overall there's not been much.
Amoeblog: How did the idea for the documentary come about and what has the process been like?
Ava DuVernay: Many people have had the idea to tell the story over the years -- both people inside
and outside of the movement. It was just a matter of who, how and when. Certainly many of us realized that our tale had to be told. I think that recognition of its necessity and value was the reason why I had so much goodwill from almost all of the artists involved. Everyone jumped in and lent their time, their footage, their music. I financed this myself on a total shoestring, so I wouldn't have been able to pull it off had it not been for everyone's passion and generosity.
Amoeblog: How much documentation was there for you to draw from in terms of old video, audio, photos and flyers etc?Ava DuVernay: There were tons of music, footage and photos out there, but it was all over the place. So the big challenge was corraling everything. We obtained footage from the strangest places. It was in garages, under people's beds, in state, out of state. But most of the important stuff had been archived by an avid group of collectors who had kept the material safe and sound for the last decade or so.
Amoeblog: And when you yourself used to attend the Good Life -- were you taping or documenting somehow?
Ava DuVernay: No. I was trying to be fresh on the mic! Ha! Rhymin! I wasn't thinking about filming at all. I don't think I even had a camera. You gotta remember this was 15 years ago and hand-held cams weren't as readily available as they are now. If someone did have one, it looked like a small microwave. But I'm so glad people taped it. I don't want to think about the great history that would have been lost if they hadn't.
Amoeblog: How important a role did Omid Walizadeh, as the film's music supervisor, play?
Ava DuVernay: Simply put, we couldn't have made the film without him... period. The whole crew was an amazingly passionate, immensely talented group of people. There were just five of us: two awesome editors, Spencer Averick and Krishna Devine, our co-producer Ellene Miles and our DP Isaac Klotz. All were just ... beyond beyond. But no one else could have handled Omid's job. No one. He was the absolute perfect person to music supervise this film and I wouldn't have started or finished it if he hadn't
been on board. He is an original Good Lifer who archived the audio footage over all these years, so he knew the music, the artists and the material backwards and forwards. On top of that, he's a devastatingly talented music producer. So in addition to the music from other artists, we have tons of his own great music as connective tissue throughout the film. Then on top of that, he's sick with ProTools and all that. Omid actually sound edited the film, plus music supervised. And all with that warm spirit of his. It comes out in his music
and in everything he does. He's something special and I'm forever endebted. Amoeblog: Due to the Good Life's popularity for its once weekly nights, was there ever a move to expand the hip-hop night beyond just Thursdays?
Ava DuVernay: I don't recall any talk of that. We needed the whole week to make new beats and get our rhymes tight. I think the homies were straight with [just] the Thursday night shot.
Amoeblog: Did you and the other Good Lifers recognize that you were carving out a whole new style of hip-hop at the time? Or was it something that became more evident in hindsight?
Ava DuVernay: A bit of both I think. I mean, we certainly knew that what we were experiencing was special. Just the creative comradarie, the brutal peer mandate, the family-like bonds. I believe we all knew that, even at 19 and 20 years old. Did we know that the artists would earn fans worldwide and still be touring hard and making albums 15 years later with a documentary on what happened? I'm not so sure.
Amoeblog: As shown in the film, as the Good Life got big write ups and more mainstream attention, then the A&R reps started coming through. Was the attitude towards them welcoming or suspicion?
Ava DuVernay: Suspicion definitely. Emcees weren't really up there trying to get a deal at first, so that attention was all new. And I think many people didn't know how to balance their art and the commerce of it all. I know I didn't. Figures of Speech was signed to Warner for about two minutes. It was just a completely foreign concept to be rhyming for a parent company. Many people got a shot at that label life. For some it worked, for others not so much.
Amoeblog: What is Bea Hall doing now and what is her son R. Kain Blaze doing now?Ava DuVernay: Bea Hall is still in engaged in the community, and is still focused and committed to progress. R. Kain Blaze is an artist to the bone and still lives in LA. Last time I saw him was at his great studio space, where he was into photography and digital publishing.
Amoeblog: The Good Life mic nights ended in 1995, but why did it end?
Ava DuVernay: It ended and moved to another space in Leimert Park, Kaos Network, and the night was renamed Project Blowed. Bea Hall, the co-founder of The Good Life night, and Ben Caldwell, the owner of Kaos Network, pow-wowed. As elders, they decided that the night should shift places for a lot of different reasons, mostly to do with the growth of the emcees and evolving interests. Then there was a group of emcees that really took the lead on that and made it a reality. Project Blowed is still going
strong to this day. It's now lasted three times as long as The Good Life ever did. It's something everyone involved in that scene should be very proud of.
Amoeblog: What can people expect at the Amoeba's Monday Movies @ Space15Twenty screening this evening?
Ava DuVernay: Amoeba's been wonderful to us. Truly, the place is so iconic and important to the LA music scene, so to be the first LA documentary in its new outdoor screening series is just gigantic. This Is
The Life was scheduled right behind the premiere screening last Monday of U2's new joint for goodness sakes, so Amoeba is defininitely giving us love. It's a free screening. It's outdoors in this gorgeousSoCal weather. There's free popcorn courtesy of Amoeba, I think. I'll be there with Ellay Khule. And it'll be the first time that folks can buy the DVD -- a day early just for Amoeba buyers! I hope people come out and join us.
Amoeblog: And what about tomorrow night, Tuesday's reunion concert at House of Blues -- that seems like it will be a truly memorable night?
Ava DuVernay: Yes! It's legendary already! All these extraordinary artists are coming back together on the same stage in the name of The Good Life, in celebration of our film. Chali 2na's coming back off the Ozomatli tour for like 18 hours to bless the mic. Cut Chemist is gonna kill it. He's putting together something real special. Pigeon John, whose album drops that day, will be in the house representin'. Busdriver, Medusa, Abstract Rude, CVE, 2Mex and Xololanxinxo, Omid, Khule. And the great Myka 9 with DJ Kiilu. Ridiculous. It's truly a dream come true for me. It's happening Tuesday night, March 10 at House of Blues promptly at 7:30PM. Tickets are available at the door or at Livenation.com. It's going to be beautiful.
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If you miss tonight's free Amoeba screening of the film there are more screenings later this week and also next week including on Wednesday and Thursday this week (March 11 & 12) at Bravetown Theaters Downtown Indpendent location 251 S. Main St, Los Angeles CA 90012. Ava DuVernay will be present at each screening. Admission $10. Click here for more info.
I caught the show at House of blues and saw the flick on Fri nite and man I am still blown away that I didn't know nothing bout this crew all these years. Good look for turning the light on this here music cause I would have missed the whole thing.