dream hampton (who spells her name in lower case, like bell hooks), has made documentaries such as Surviving R. Kelly and Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop, but has roots in music journalism, having written influential articles, including on the beginnings of feminist hip-hop theory. hampton shows us the beginnings of the golden age of American hip hop through archive footage from her time interviewing big names like Dr. Dre, Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg and Method Man, between 1993 and 1995.
Directed by dream hampton, It Was A Dream is a visual memoir from the director’s personal archive about the beginning of the golden age of rap and hip-hop, in 1993, when she was a journalist, music critic and film student at New York University. At the time, she filmed moments with various superstars, such as her neighbour The Notorious BIG, or names like Snoop Dog, Mobb Dee and Wu-Tang’s Method Man, and many more, taking us inside the studio during the recording of landmark albums in hip-hop history. A time so fruitful that Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Wu-Tang’s debut album, and Midnight Marauders, A Tribe Called Quest’s third full-length, are released on the same day, Salt-N-Pepa’s fourth album, Very Necessary, takes the band into the mainstream, and Doggystyle, Snoop Dog’s debut album, enters at number one on the Billboard 200, with 800,000 copies sold in its first week, and we were only at the beginning.
It’s a film in which we watch mostly unseen archive footage from the early days of this musical genre right through to its global conquest. (Helena César)
