Number One with a Bullet SxSW Review

Published by Jeff Leins on March 21, 2009

Number One with a Bullet is a deep examination of the violent presence in hip hop culture.  Candid interviews with some of rap’s biggest names (Mos Def, Ice Cube) discuss the continuing connection between their music and gun violence.  Cypress Hill’s B-Real, former G-Unit member Young Buck, and other lesser names revisit the scenes where they themselves were shot, spotlighting famous faces as survivors of street shootings.

But the group of artists seems divided.  Some take an emotional moment to show gratitude for what they were lucky to keep, while others wear their bullet wounds like badges of honor after a rough life on the streets.  “Look, I made it.  Oh and while you’re at it, check out this loaded pistol,” they basically tell the camera.

The film spree visits cities across the country, and not just the notoriously gang-riddled locations like L.A., New York, or Detroit, but the slums of Mobile, Denver, and Nashville.  The message is clear in the montage of run-down neighborhoods and the faces of urban populations: poverty is the same everywhere.

In poor areas in the United States, the Darwin model has been altered to “survival of the outfitted.”  Individuals feel the need to carry a weapon in order to protect themselves, which ultimately leads to an armed community.  When everyone is holding a gun, it isn’t long before someone gets shot.  Where life is short, people look for quick money, like selling drugs, or the easy way out, like the seemingly simple rise to hip hop success.

In this documentary and Bowling for Columbine there is a general condemnation of a nation loaded with guns.  Both films spark healthy discussion (including in the theater immediately after the screening), but unlike Michael Moore’s plea for change this take doesn’t pretend to have the answers.  During the Q&A session at the screening, a curious member of the audience asked the filmmakers what there solution was for the obvious problem.  Director Jim Dziura admitted he didn’t have any.  The film deftly brings awareness to the epidemic, but doesn’t make any attempt to solve it (save for an anti-violence website buried in the credits).

For that reason, it seems a piece of the puzzle is missing.  There is plenty of preaching, but no call to arms against bearing arms.  The irony seems lost on the filmmakers who focus on gun violence and rap music as they stand next to a lyricist named 40 Glocc.

Dziura said, “We just wanted to lay all the evidence out there, and let the audience decide and take what message speaks to them.”  Some might argue that 50 Cent is no more to blame for gun violence than Marilyn Manson, or even go as far as comparing their art to that of a Schwarzenegger or Stallone.  “It’s entertainment,” various rappers told the camera and Mr. Glocc said following the film.  Just like the NRA says, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Others feel differently.  They see a gangster rapping about shooting someone to death as perpetuating the violent culture that already exists.  It’s a classic chicken and the egg scenario with no signs of going vegan.  Saintly murals are painted to immortalize Tupac or Biggie, two rappers gunned down in their prime.  Children idolize hip hop heroes who rhyme about violent retaliation.  Rich rappers and greedy record executives are feeding lines to the next generation of financially poor, potentially armed victims.

With an open-ended topic and no closing statements what starts as a fast-paced, almost rhythmic edit expands to a continuing riff session with the same contradictory talking heads.  For a film based on taking a hard stance to defend your principles, Number One with a Bullet doesn’t swear allegiance to either side of the debate or take aim at a hopeful message to stop the cycle.

3 out of 5.