Ernest Hardy

Badu breaks down the biz in Before the Music Dies

''Just Be Butt Naked. With Glitter.''

Ernest Hardy
Before the Music Dies screened at Circus Theatricals, November 16 Last Thursday night, in a dozen locations across the country — in private homes, at universities, in actual movie theaters — the award-winning documentary Before the Music Dies continued its two-year trek from film-festival darling to grass-roots cultural buzz item......
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The Bluegrass Is Greener

Ernest Hardy
For artists tossed to the sidelines by tunnel-visioned major labels, freedom may await. We hear about the personal and professional suffering veterans endure in such situations, but there can be beauty and artistry on the margins — at least for those not broken by the rejection. Aged out of “contemporary”......
Slo Dios Sabe

Tenth Annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival

Ernest Hardy
When it debuted a decade ago, the Los Angeles International Film Festival was not only filling a void (although Latino films play at assorted “colorblind” festivals, representation can be slim and nonrepresentative of the myriad cultures under the umbrella of “Latino”), it was also a symbol of growing Latino cultural......
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Kansas Shitty Woman

Ernest Hardy
After an embarrassingly lackluster set by Angie Stone — who was handpicked by James Brown to open this historic show last Wednesday (Sept. 6) at the Hollywood Bowl — Butane James himself took the stage with a cocksure strut and a royal demeanor, conveying a but-of-course attitude to the crowd’s......
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Outkast in Love

Ernest Hardy
André 3000 enters the lavish hotel room wearing huge sunglasses and a stylish hat cocked to the side. Carrying a bottle of artesian water, he smiles broadly and extends his hand. He is magnetic in person, one of the few celebrities who isn’t smaller than you’d imagined. Soon after, his......
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Revenge of the N.E.R.D.

Ernest Hardy
Damn, how many times was Pharrell’s long-awaited, much-hyped solo debut, In My Mind, pushed back from its original release date? Three, four, seventy? How many singles, lavish videos and Internet “leaks” simply tanked with the masses? None of it had traction. That much label foot dragging, coupled with that huge......
Miss Rae is tasteful

Like a Star

Ernest Hardy
CORINNE BAILEY RAE at House of Blues, July 31 Corinne Bailey Rae’s exquisite, self-titled debut CD is not flawless, but it’s pretty damn close. Literate, subtly layered across genres and full of emotion, it’s the type of album that will be damned by hipsters and certain rock critics for being......
''I'm Petey Wheatstraw

Petey Wheatstraw

Ernest Hardy
Rudy Ray Moore, as the cult figure Dolemite, has come to straddle multiple adoring worlds — those of grimy rap fans and artists (see: Ol’ Dirty Bastard), white hipsters and dry cultural-studies types. His profane, ass-kicking character, rooted in Negro folklore and oral traditions, is ripe for both playful emulation......
(Thinkfilm)

Strangers With Candy

Ernest Hardy
For its first two seasons, the cable series Strangers With Candy was never less than good, and was often quite brilliant. A wicked parody of after-school specials and ’70s movies of the week, with their fear-mongering teen cautionary tales, the series managed to be both anti-PC and intrinsically progressive, a......
''I can’t think of a less appropriate choice to play Billie Holiday

Diana Ross: O.G. Diva Sings the Blues

Ernest Hardy
Voice too thin? Image too glitzy? Ambition too flagrant? The snipes against Diana Ross throughout her career have too often dodged the deeper truths of her talent and artistry. Now’s the perfect moment to re-evaluate Ross, and to stack her cultural spawn against her — much the way she was......