This one is just FUN. Dolemite is his name and … we can’t write the rest. Eddie Murphy gives us a gonzo, super-delightful ride through the world of “Godfather of Rap” Rudy Ray Moore and the making of iconic blaxploitation film Dolemite.

We are way out over our skis here as two east coast ladies with a passing grasp on the blaxploitation genre, but we loved this, we loved Dolemite, and we love Eddie Murphy, comic genius and embarrasser of the guilty (ahem, John Landis). While we discuss this film, we also talk about cultural gatekeeping, appreciating art that wasn’t made to be spoon-fed into your individual brain, if Dolemite is as artistically ambitious as Mean Streets and the work of John Cassavetes, German filmmaking nepo babies, Tyler Perry’s Madea, and so much more.

Dolemite Is My Name is directed by Craig Brewer and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and stars Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore, Keegan Michael Key as Jerry Jones, Mike Epps as Jimmy Lynch, Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Lady Reed, Tituss Burgess as Theodore Toney, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nick von Sternberg, Craig Robinson as Ben Taylor, Ron Cephas Jones as Ricco, Snoop Dogg as Roj, Luenell as Auntie, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris as Walter Crane, Chris Rock as Bobby Vale, and the one and only Wesley Snipes as D’Urville Martin.

Sources used in the episode include…

Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema

By Odie Henderson

Bustle: Rudy Ray Moore's Real Life Is Just As Wild As The Story Of 'Dolemite Is My Name'

https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate-is-dolemite-is-my-name-theres-plenty-of-truth-to-the-biopic-19742402

USA Today: Fact-Checking Dolemite Is My Name:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/10/25/dolemite-is-my-name-fact-checking-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/4062293002/

UCLA: Nicholas is my Name

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/nicholas-is-my-name

Film Talk: Nicholas Josef von Sternberg: “There’s no doubt that my father was a highly respected film director”

https://filmtalk.org/2019/08/28/nicholas-josef-von-sternberg-theres-no-doubt-that-my-father-was-a-highly-respected-film-director/

About the Dunbar Hotel: