Credit: Found On Internet

Directed by George Gittoes.

The latest documentary from film-maker George Gittoes (Soundtrack to War, Bullets of the Poets) is in the tradition of his past triumphs, incredibly heavy-going on the audience.

Gittoes follows the black American Lovett family who live in the slums of Miami, known as the Brown Sub community.  The place is a breeding ground of gang warfare, violence, killings, poverty and fear. The only respite is the family’s strong Christian faith and their passion for rap music and rhyming.

They pray that one day their most talented son Marc will become a successful rap artist and get them out of the ghetto. However during the making of the film, Marc is tragically murdered by a teenage hitman.  The youngest son of the Lovett family, the 14 year old Denzell, then takes on the mantle to become the rap star.

Gittoes shows us the Miami that tourists never see. This is crime central where gun shops and liquor stores are on every corner and open all hours. This only leaves the obvious options for Brown Sub residents: drinking and killing.  Music seems the only logical way out for the Lovetts. (The elder son Elliot joined the army after leaving school and says he felt safer in Iraq than the streets of his hometown. He also gets grief constantly from the locals for taking part in the Iraq war.)

Rampage then follows Gittoes’ attempt to get the young Denzell signed up by a major record label.  He takes Denzell out of the slums to the salubrious sights of Atlanta to record a demo; then on to New York to shop it around to the corporate major label executives.  They all make the right noises in front of the camera, “The kid’s a star. He’s a real talent.” But none are prepared to take the risk and sign him because Denzell raps about the real stuff he’s grown up witnessing in his young life. (Muggings, murders and gun culture.) The execs say they want Denzell to write about positive things like love and fluffy kittens. Well, not quite fluffy kittens but you get the idea. The thought of a 14 year old rapping about bad shit, (no matter how real and from the heart it is) is a turn off to the record buying public apparently.