Hip-Hop
icon Kurtis Blow has recently added ‘producer’ to his manylist of credits. Blow
serves as co-producer on the documentary, Slippin – Ten Years with the Bloods
currently airing on Showtime. The legendary rapper met Slippin director/producer
Tommy Sowards in L.A. over 20 years ago. The
two formed a friendship that led to numerous collaborations, eventually leading
to the project. Once
Blow introduced Sowards to Slippin’ subject Jumbo, a Blood he came to know
through the recording studio he ran, filming began soon after."I
met Tommy while he was still a graduate student at UCLA Film School," Blow
said. "I was doing demos at my studio and met this one cat Jumbo. After I
recorded a song for him, he introduced me to his boys the Rollin 20’s. I introduced
the 20’s to Tommy and he wanted to do a documentary about them with another cat
for German TV. Filming went on for 10 years straight. It’s basically a story about
these 5 cats in this gang and what they go through in ten years of gang activity
and gang life. It’s really an incredible story. Its action packed, thrilling,
and really emotional."Sowards
and co-director Joachim Schroeder compiled over 160 hours of footage into the
films 84 minutes. Slippin
went on to be shown at festivals in Amsterdam, Chicago, and the renowned Tribeca
Film Festival before finding a home on Showtime. According
to director Shroeder, the goal was simple. "We
wanted to show a film that was saying something. MTV provides the glitz and glam.
We wanted to show someone with no money living at home with Grandma. We wanted
to show that not everyone makes it living in the gangsta world."With
a recently acquired distribution deal with Kino International Films, Slippin-Ten
Years with the Bloods will be on DVD in early 2007. Blow
says, "For those that haven’t seen it, you are going to be blown away. It’s
gonna change some lives. It really gives you that education that the ‘life’ only
leads to jail or death."