Filmmaker and cultural critic dream hampton was both shaping and reshaping the world around her decades before she was named in the TIME 100 most influential people list of 2019 (not coincidentally, the year Surviving R. Kelly, the Lifetime docuseries hampton executive produced, received an Emmy nomination – and kickstarted the downfall of the titular sexual predator).
In fact, between writing her first opinion piece all the way back in ’91 for The Source, now the world’s longest-running rap periodical, and hanging out with folks like her neighbor Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., hampton had both a front row seat to the birth of hip hop – and a seat at the table.
Which is what makes It Was All a Dream, hampton’s “visual memoir” (EP’d by Biggie’s son C.J. Wallace) much more than a walk down an early 90s memory lane. An all-archival work comprised entirely of footage hampton shot from 1993-1995 – and only discovered in two boxes last summer – the doc features a who’s who of brilliant artists on the precipice of global fame. (In addition to Biggie, Method Man, Mobb Deep and an adorably awkward Snoop Dogg all make memorable appearances.)
Or as the clear-eyed hampton so poetically describes these young guns in her also all-archive-sourced voiceover (text taken from her contemporary essays), “kamikaze capitalists who just happen to be teenagers.”
It Was All A Dream – Trailer from Tribeca on Vimeo.
Indeed, for these savvy entrepreneurs, fame seems more byproduct than goal – and an often lethal one at that. Method Man describes it as being like prison, while hampton herself notes that fame “turned on” (i.e., betrayed) Biggie. Though the filmmaker might very well have said the same about the music itself.
She likewise points out that women have stayed loyal to hip hop even when it hasn’t been loyal to them – and bravely tackles the subject of misogyny head on with several outspoken female emcees. The shift from party rap to gangsta ushered in an era of cartoonish misogyny; and as the stakes got higher, the body counts rose.
Interestingly, much of It Was All a Dream is poignantly grounded in hampton’s own desperate search to pinpoint how such a beautiful art form could go from bringing hope to disillusionment in the blink of an eye.
“Isolated we became obsessed with ourselves,” the critic laments towards the end. Though ultimately, this cinematic memoir could also be read as a painstakingly-crafted cautionary tale for the ages, no matter the genre or generation.