69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez

Vikram Gandhi definitely went into this project with an ax to grind. Throughout the interviews, you hear him throw not-so-subtle shade that he tries to disguise will feigned praise, which is ironic b/c although he claims during the prologue that he wants to know who the real Danny is, it's pretty clear that he was producing this film to gain clout from the clout maker himself. You're supposed to believe that Vikram is asking the "hard questions," but all he does is pander to 69's haters. There's even a point when Shotti points out that Vikram's preoccupation with Scumgang is comical b/c Scumgang never existed, "If Takashi saw this, he'd laugh." This was-at best-clumsy filmmaking and at worse, it was dirty journalism. Despite Vikram's high school Slam booking, he did a great job at finding generous interviewees. Shotti fo'sure provided the most balanced perspective on Danny, where it seems like Vikram also did a good job at gathering interviewees that would paint the picture he has of the 69. Either way, the best parts of the film are when you're hearing people closest to 69 tell their stories.

A little annoyed at myself for even clicking this doc out of curiosity, because idk how, but i didn't know of him at all, and the rainbow hair got me. And obviously I don't think this person deserves any more attention. I will say, I'm pretty intrested to see what it's creator comes out with in the future. So many poorly thrown together documentaries come out on streaming platforms, and at least after watching this I didn't feel duped in that way. I felt like even if it wasn't 100%, the person who made this cared about doing a good job.

You should listen to what the producer said at the very beginning of the movie. That they were interested in the difference between the persona people show online versus their real, interior self. Who is Danny Hernandez? The people who are reviewing this in a negative way cannot understand that you can watch this from an objective standpoint. This documentary talks about the real world themes such as the cycle of poverty, generational trauma, anger, what masculinity looks like, etc through the story of 69.I truly do hope that this movie begins a conversations about rap culture, why young men and young, at risk youth are attracted to hip hop, and what it means to show dominance and masculinity in our society.