Yup; "Madea" was tops at the box office for the 2nd straight weekend. And, that's not just with TP's movies; you'll notice that "Black movies" often finish strong in the box office (even in the presence of other potential strong finishers/blockbusters released the same weekend). When we go to the movies, it shows...and that speaks volumes to me (as an avid moviegoer). :)

Something New opened #5. It "only" made 5m. I believe after the first weekend, it fell off. 5m is NOT a good opening. It's not bad, but it isn't good.

SOME black films will do well, not all!

Good point. Nikki1920, I definitely see what you are saying, its just an interesting conundrum. I guess its the same train of thought as "you gotta crawl before you can walk." The sad thing is we are running all over hollywood. They just never seem to notice unless we are acting (and I do mean acting) "black"....

Lucifer Connections in Triple Six Mafia Music
 

When I was growing up in Memphis, it was well known among teens that the Triple Six mafia subliminally put things in their music in order to get people "hyped " "Crunk" and "buck" in clubs and at school dances. Their self owned record label is called "Hypnotized Minds" music and many of their earlier songs contained dark imagery about murder; brutal, grotesque type murders. They would place the soundtracks from murder scenes in horror movies in many songs and make songs sampling horror movie music. Now, this maybe just a marketing thing (kinda like the Wu-Tang Clan's fascination with martial arts imagery), but, they didn't call themselves "Triple Six Mafia" just because they liked the number 18. I'm not really sure if they worshipped the devil, but I was very "freaked out" by all of the imagery, so I wasn't a fan. A popular dance in Memphis in the Late 80's and early 90's was called the "Gangsta Walk" which people just really slam danced in line to a back beat. It caused a lot of fights, even some high schools either banned the dance itself, or in the case of my wife's school, stopped having school dances because of it. Needless to say, if you could capitalize on the trend by creating violent music, then you could probably sell a lot of it. I think this is what Triple Six did. Whether the music inspired devil worship is up for debate, though they did talk about "Damien" the supposed "Son of the Devil" alot in their early music (probably because of the movie).

So, I am torn by this, because on one hand, I can genuinely see that they were truly honored to just be nominated and win, and if you listen to the lyrics of the song, it really tells the story of the movie to a "T" (almost as if the writers of the movie wrote it, you're almost in the head of the main character, DJ). And the song itself tells of the plight of a man who has limited options, due to social structural constraints. It also talks of the conflicts that go on in a "conscience pimp's mind" (If there is such a thing). But, at the same time, because I am aware of and utterly destest the pimp imagery and the image issues that Memphis in general has, I don't know if this will do more harm than good.

Blackwatch!!!!!!

Well, yes; that's often the case and the downside (a strong or "decent" opening and then a subsequent drop off). But, being #5 (as opposed to, say, #15) is still good for a Black film (or *any* film, for that matter). Sometimes you have to take what you can get and be thankful for it.

I also think word-of-mouth can often make or break a film. And, again, that's often with *any* film. It's a crapshoot; that's Hollywood (my best friend grew up around Tinseltown; trust me on this). Our movies aren't the only ones that fall prey to that problem. I'm just sayin'... :rolleyes:

Warning- Graphic and Explicit lyrics
 

Here is a link to the lyrics of an early song from the Triple Six Mafia. It's called "Live By Yo Rep (B.O.N.E. Diss)". It's a "Beef Song" for Bone , Thugs and Harmony. It's very graphic and there are several allusions to the devil or Satan being inside of them. If you are offended by explicit lyrics, please don't click on the link.http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/468479.html

I am posting this as evidence of my earlier claims that the Triple Six thing is more than just a wierd name for the group, it has wierd origins.

Blackwatch!!!!!!

I heard this rumor this weekend also and I listened to it, and it does sound like a stretch for the chorus..... but that fool clearly says lucifer just before he raps (1st verse). when i was listening to it before, i heard it but i thought he was saying something like "new ish!" but naw man, he's saying lucifer. i had to delete that junk off my ipod!:eek:

I have been hearing a lot about this lately, I even got a message about it on facebook :p today, but I haven't heard it for myself...I am not really a fan of their music so I don't even own anything they have made.

i saw this quote on a blog page at Yahoo! and cracked up.


Awesome. Three 6 mafia won. This is like watching the Wu-Tang Clan crash a Bar-Mitzvah.

So Yea, it was added to my siggy:)