TURF FEINZ "RIP Rich D" | YAK FILMS | ERK THA JERK | TURF DANCING in the...

B'Tzelem Elohim

I have a crazy old friend, a dude named Robbie Freed. Awesome guy, funny as hell, energy for days. Robbie's got style, a brilliant eye for design (and paid well to use it), a dead on social intuition and an enormous heart. Robbie and I share many sensibilities least of which is our affinity for the "underground" not to mention a kinship in our personalities. 

It is now a cliche´ to say that the dribble I (we) receive as "spam" from people we call friends via Facebook or email, drives me (us) insane! Though, every once in a while, one of my brothers or buddies will send a brilliant tidbit that is so exceptional, so remarkable, it can not be ignored and must be passed on. I forward maybe ten such pieces of media a year, max. So, when Robbie, a trusted creative maven sent me TURF FIENZ "Rip Rich D" I had to take a look. I could not have been prepared for the effect this piece had on me. As I watched those young brothers, "No Noize" and "Man" hold that corner even as the police rolled up, I had to think to myself, "Man, I already don't like where this is going." I have had enough of watching the sadness of ghetto-life. I don't need it romanticized, glorified, exploited or other, again. Because this piece came from Robbie, I held-up from closing the window and moving on to new "friend requests" just long enough. The long lens shot of the camera isolated, the soundtrack was becoming emotive, as the  brothers on the corner started to break it down. Moment by moment I was being pulled into their world. And then "B.J." and "Dreale" attacked from left. Bleak,  East Oakland illuminated by the honest truth of souls bare and open in the open. Man, oh man straight to heart those brothers went.

I knew I was experiencing a revolution. As I watched, those four boys put their souls on the chopping block I wanted them to know that a middle-class, 47 year old husband and father of two, in safe, suburban Los Angeles was blown away. I wanted them to know that they were changing my life, right there and then. That through a 15 inch computer screen they were literally inspiring me to become a better man. I wanted them to know how important they are, that they are affecting anyone who sees them. I wasn't the only one. The YouTube video has just gone over a million hits. Let me put this into perspective, this is a Hip Hop video of street dancers just breaking it down, There are 1,000's if not 100,000's of these videos on the net and television. I could have cared less, not that I am insensitive just that I am desensitized. Why was this different? Because it is raw, beautiful, breathtaking and honest.

I had to know everything! I jumped all over google and YouTube. I found the film maker and I befriended him on Facebook and through these sites I gleaned much information. The most important of which is these four young men made this film for Dreale's brother who was killed. You see on the YouTube site Dreale responded to the 1000's of comments of the past year today! Dreal said, "thanx everyone for watching this video, this Dreal and for all the people who didnt know this is the original. its a dedication to my brother, its been a yr he been gone. thanks everyone i did what i said i would he not livin in vein..."

By these young men I am inspired and by these men I am further educated. What I see when I look at this video over and over again, isn't poverty, strife, survival, ghetto-life. I see that we are exactly as we should be, that in our hearts and souls we are exactly the same.  "No Noize", "Man", "B.J.", "Dreale", and Adam Chambers are all the same. This isn't to say that any of our lives are better or worse than the other's. I have never walked in their shoes and them in mine. B'tzelem Eloheim is hebrew and translated says, "In the image of God". You see we all are holy, African American, Jew, Gay, Lesbian, Asain, Cop, Turf Fein, School kid, surfer, whatever. We are all cut of the same glorious cloth.

With this commentary I thank No Noize, Man, B.J. and Dreal for their devotion to be themselves, to express their love of their art and for letting us be a part of something so candid, so sincere. You inspire us to do and be the same.