I’ve got to give it up to Beatdawg for tracking down some of the more obscure producers on this follow-up to his documentary from a few years back. Any flick that gives King of Chill, Easy LG and DJ Doc airtime alongside the traditional big names is doing something right. Having only seen a shitty bootleg VHS copy of the first installment (which had some hilarious quotes from Lord Finesse and weird footage of a sweat-drenched Diamond D), it’s clear that Deep Crates 2 is a far more polished piece.
That being said, however, in some ways it’s also just another installment in the growing ranks of “Beat Digging” movies – which seem to be popping-up every five minutes – so you’ll also have to sit through some not-so-exciting stuff about Japanese record spots, sampling laws and the old reliable “you ebay guys will never find this record!” rant from “Soul Brother #1”. As someone pointed out while I was watching this, it’s a shame that the actual songs and breaks being discussed aren’t playing in the background. While this is no doubt due to the fact that this is an independent film without the budget to pay licensing fees for all the songs that would’ve been needed, if you’re not familiar with the source material in question you’ll have to make do with footage of record labels.
But onto the good stuff – there’s a hilarious section where the guys like Marley, Ced Gee and Pete Rock are asked about some production credit issues, which leads to some entertaining responses. Guess old wounds never really heal in some cases….Although the main feature is good, the bonus footage is where this DVD really shines, as we hear stories about everything from why Shan wasn’t on “The Symphony” to how Ced first got exposed to the “Synthetic Substitution” break that forms the back-bone of the classic “Ego Trippin'”. This “25 minutes of uncut unkut interview footage” is worth the price of this joint alone, but overall this is a worthwhile flick.
“Deep Crates 2” trailer:
it’s weird that the Beatkingz DVD looks the same as this, confused me a month or so ago, seeing as they have come out pretty close to each other.
first Deep Crates wasn’t that great imo, and hear the beatkingz dvd is pretty good. Looking forward to some PR, Marley and Ced rants
PZ
I have the Deep Crates (1) and Beat Kings DVD’s and in both cases it’s too much talk and not enough music imo.
The only problem with the Beat Kings DVD was it wasn’t long enough.At least an hour should have been dedicated to Marley and Premier alone,then spread the following hour between everyone else,this Deep Crates2 looks interesting though.-Roger Jones