The one amusing aspect of Damon Dash’s useless hip-hop mockumentary, Death of a Dynasty, is his willingness to lampoon the industry that made him. Dave Katz, a dorky journalist draped in bling-bling suffering from delusions of hipness begins to think he’s part of the clandestine world of Roc-a-Fella Records after he’s hired to write about moguls Jay-Z and Dash, but his solid gold world falls apart after he learns everyone around him is using him.
Death of a Dynasty plays like a Chappelle’s Show skit, only 85 minutes longer and minus Dave Chappelle’s charisma and universal appeal. A couple good lines sneak in, as well as one funny scene featuring the surviving members of Run D.M.C. as rocking chair-bound geezers reminiscing about the old days (“Throw your cane way up in the air!” they shout). But the rest of
Dynasty lacks the spot-on goofball humor in 1994s under-appreciated rap parody, Fear of a Black Hat. Almost every joke and cameo — Carson Daly here, Ed Lover there — falls flat or feels insider-ish: Dynasty is a feature-length home video with so many faces popping in and out, it looks like a moving family tree. Dash and his cronies had fun making this; it’s just too bad we’re not in on the joke.
Opens April 29
