From the Chris Fara1 archives. Really – that’s how I used to spell my byline…

White people love black culture. But now the script is being flipped. Literally.

In Hollywood, black screenwriters are bringing old white scripts out for a ride around the hood. It’s a significant role reversal that the big movie houses seem to be perpetuating with great frequency these days. The question is whether it’s reparations for everything whites co-opted, from Elvis to Eminem, or just pure uninspired laziness.

While nobody’s claiming that Barbershop is Caddyshack with afros, or that Friday ripped off Up in Smoke, which is more than arguable, the recent release of Love Don’t Cost a Thing conjured memories of Can’t Buy Me Love. There’s absolutely no difference between the two. (In fact, Can’t Buy Me Love was Love Don’t Cost a Thing’s working title.) To its credit, the new version did change the names of the characters (whiteboy “Ronald Miller” becomes homeboy “Alvin Johnson”) but is otherwise just the same story about popularity and prostitution in suburbia.

Chances are that moviegoers have had a lot of déjà vu recently — reminiscing of times when shitty movies were only made once. These days every flick has a chance to live again, and major players like Miramax know that they can recycle winning formulas by shamelessly matching tired scenarios with black stereotypes.

“Keeping Hollywood’s record of race relations in mind, I don’t think it’s an intentional rip-off of mostly white cast movies in black face,” said Laurence Washington of Blackflix.com. “Black audiences go to the movies to see every genre. It’s insulting to think that black audiences don’t.”

Sure, the studios are using racial stereotypes to breath new life into old shit, but in the end, we should probably blame ourselves for supporting such artistically vapid commercialism.

“I’ve been saying for years that Hollywood recycles story lines because moviegoers let them. They’re dumbing it down for the movie lover, and we keep going,” said Washington. “Feature filmmaking is a business where the bottom line is the bottom line. Studio suits know that Starsky and Hutch and Spider-Man 2 has a pre-sold audience. So they’re not going to take a chance on losing money on art films or a thinking man’s film.”

Regardless of who’s responsible, there are a lot of similarities on the big screen these days. Here are some that you may have noticed at your local box office:

READ IT ALL HERE

I had just beat the entire UGHH staff in a 40 oz drinking contest .. And I was still doing my damn job. Fuck you if you think that I’m not a hard worker.

who can forget the response from OM Records recording artist The One.

Ironically the lyrics – “I ain’t gon take no shit while I’m working here” rang true. DJ ON&ON and I both take shit from every angle on a regular basis now.

KarmaLoop shows JTTS some love on the Daily Loop. Apparently our credibility is growing somewhat on the Interweb. My guess is our hits are growing just from Wite and Bushes reloading the page every 10 seconds; if so, thanks.

Shouts to Chelsea @ KL.

not since jessica rabbit have i possessed such a strong desire to fuck a drawing.

[See post to listen to audio]

jersey shore. i can’t get enough. i know it’s a few weeks old / everyone’s talking about it.. but i’m still obsessed. i think i’m in love with snooki. not just that innocent playground love, like.. i’m willing to throw it all away. my career, my family, my reputation.. just for a chance to make sweet love to my lil’ snookums.. snooki – if you are out there.. i love u. i need u girl. i want to drizzle a little olive oil on that skin of yours and sop it up with thinly cut slices of genoa salami.  tell me what u need.

[See post to listen to audio]

Ruste Juxx is a fucking animal with microphones. Dude spits like white trash in seed-spitting contests* on every verse.

His full-length with Marco Polo – set to drop in late March on Duck Down – will likely be one of 2010’s finest. Go ahead and prove me wrong.

The track below is just to whet palettes for this particular Polo-Boot Camp outing. Dude might originally be from Canada, but he can sure as hell tap the pulse of East New York.

[See post to listen to audio]

LISTEN: Ruste Juxx and Marco Polo – Pre-eXXecution

*-Line jacked from Pharoahe Monch