Rick James is Exactly as Wild as You Thought in The First Trailer for a New Documentary
Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James is out September 3rd on Showtime.
After making waves at Sundance earlier this year, the official trailer for the upcoming documentary, Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James, has arrived.
At just north of a minute-and-half-long, the preview is as high-octane as you might think, offering plot points in a film that promises to offer a glimpse at the wild life of a funk icon. Directed by Sacha Jenkins, Bitchin’ will cover the impossible highs and cavernous lows of James’ career as a hitmaker who bridged the worlds of r&b and pop at a particularly transformative point in music. The trailer features interviews with bandmates, tons of archival concert footage, as well as testimony from Ice Cube, Bootsy Collins, and Big Daddy Kane. It closes with life imitating art at the 2004 BET Awards, where James walked off the stage after declaring “Nevermind who you thought I was, I’m Rick James, bitch.”
Collins, a fellow bass-toting funk frontman, discussed Parliament-Funkadelic’s rivalry with James’ crew in an excerpt from the film released in June. “All was fair in funk and war, man” Collins says through a reluctant smile recalling how James would puff his chest and gloat over selling more albums and tickets than P-Funk.
The trailer for Bitchin’ arrives just days after Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan revealed he and Dave Chappelle, at one point, were going to flip their iconic Rick James sketch into a full movie treatment based on the musician’s life. Suppose this will have to do as a placeholder.
Watch the trailer for Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James below and read our review of the film before it debuts on September 3rd via Showtime.