"I was the third brother of five, doing whatever I had to do to survive, I'm not saying what I did was alright, trying to break out of the ghetto was a day to day fight"
The film Across 110th Street is often called one of the greatest blaxploitation films ever made. Here's the thing. It's not a blaxploitation film. It's not abut pimps and hoes, there's no superhuman black heroes, there's no comedic moments and it doesn't star low budget actors who wouldn't most likely reprise the same role in other films before vanishing. The starring roles did go to black actors, but that's where the similarities end. It's just a great crime drama that happened to star black actors in the 70s.
The movie stars Yaphet Kotto, most recently known for a Childish Gambino song being named after him, as well as Antonio Fargas best known as Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch. The film follows a black cop who plays by all the rules who is teamed up with a racist white cop. They come together because they're attempting to track down three black men who robbed a mob bank and killed two other black men, three Italian mobsters and two police officers. Throughout the film they navigate the underworld and look at things such as police corruption and racism. The film also looks at issues facing recently released convicts. It's a great film, but we're here for the music.
The entire album is composed by legendary jazz musician J.J. Johnson who is backed by his all black orchestra and sang by Bobby Womack backed by the group Peace. Needless to say it's incredible sounding music that features just about every instrumental that you can think of. There's 11 tracks and 5 are instrumentals from J.J. Johnson and orchestra but Womack's tracks are the key here. They're not just random songs he's done over the years thrown in for the movie. Instead he insisted on recording all new music for the film to tackle the same issues as the film.
The first song "Across 110th Street," named after the film, became a signature Womack song and was used in other films such as Jackie Brown, for good reason. The song paints a picture of despair in the deepest darkest pits of America. It paints a vivid picture of people who have no hope to escape the ghetto. He starts the song stating "doing whatever I had to do to survive, I'm not saying what I did was alright, trying to break out of the ghetto was a day to day fight." He knew he was wrong, but as we've said before when it comes to survival morals go out the window. He goes on to mention how pimps prey on women who are caught in a moment of weakness, drug dealers keeping people high by any means. One line in particular says "In every city you find the same thing going down, Harlem is the capital of every ghetto town." No matter how special you think your city is, it takes place everywhere. The name may be the different but there's a 110th Street in every city. Harlem is the capital of all of them because it's no different anywhere else.
The track "Quicksand," sounds like a sped up disco track and has a cheerful sound, but again it's not. Behind that cheery exterior is a dark track. To put it simply, quicksand is the struggle we all know so well. He states "It's gonna take more than a hand to pull you out," because it will. No matter how much you lend a hand to people in bad situations, it can only help so much. If the children in the ghetto are hungry because there's no school during the summer, you give away bags of food or open a pantry, but that won't stop their stomachs from growling for long. I think the most important part of the song is "You keep sinking deeper, deeper, and the more you're try to fight, you keep getting weaker." I say this because when you're black, especially black and poor, life takes a toll on you, and it makes you weaker. My dad always told me "when you;re black you have to work twice as hard for half as much," and it's true. Black people with college degrees are less likely to get a job than a white high school dropout. If you manage to accomplish something people try to take it away from you by saying it's affirmative action. It's mentally tiring to watch the news now because every time you look, the police have killed yet another black person or the media has crucified a black victim while crowning their "white savior." It drains you emotionally, sometimes the acts of violence committed against black people are enough to make me sick to my stomach. Like the song says it's quicksand because if you don't try to get out you sink and die, but if you try to fight back you just die faster.
The song "Hang On In There," is the light in a dark tunnel. It's a reminder that no matter how hard you try to fight, people will try to break you down. However, Womack urges people to follow through on their dreams. He uses the old adage "whenever there's a will, you'll find another way around." It's a good reminder that no matter how close to death the quicksand has you, there's a way out. For example, one man may not have the ability to pull you out of quicksand, but if you work together with 3 or 4 friends, you can get out. We just have to hang on in there to find another way around. But, when we do get around it'll finally be worth it.
The song ends with a second version of "Across 110th Street," as a reminder. No matter how far you may go to get away from the ghetto, there's one everywhere you go. It's a nice bookend because the album essentially begins where it ends. Despite all the depressing topics covered on the album here we are again, at 110th Street. Womack once again reminds us that people in the ghetto were placed in or born into a bad situation and must find a way to survive. Most importantly he let's people know that they can't judge their actions from a moral high ground because "you don't know what you'll do until you're put under pressure, and across 110th Street is a hell of a tester."
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You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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