E. RAYMOND BROWN INTERVIEW

Prior to my watching the advance screening of the new movie Ghettophysics: Will The Real Pimps And Ho’s Please Stand Up?  The Reel Hustler had the opportunity to sit down and do some reel talking with E. Raymond Brown who is a director, writer, producer, music composer and actor for the film. I got to be tell you this is one deep brother, he will have you running to get a dictionary when you talk to him. Truly passionate about what he is putting down.

Corndog: This film is based off your novel ‘Will The Real Pimps And Ho’s Please Stand Up-Peeping The Multi Leveled Global Game’. How or was it difficult taking it from book to movie?

E. Raymond Brown: Uh yeah, I didn’t have a formal training in film, so basically that aspect of life being an initiatory process. I had to get initiated in the game by people that were in the film arena. They kinda walked me through it, this is what it is, this is what you got to go through, this is what you got to learn. And it was like you go into battles, you know what I’m saying, you go into production situations and you looking at what you come out with on the other end. You’re trying to catch the magic of a situation on film with your equipment, with your netting or whatever. How good are you at it? I kind of got apprenticed into that. Had to go from a pimp to a ho.

The Reel Hustler: Where did the idea for the book/movie come from?

E. Raymond: At the core, it’s an expiration of the archetypal realm, as it relates to these terms. The archetypal realm is in everybody’s mythic cosmology, their stories about the world. Every culture has stories about how the world came about. I have studied the archetypal psychology and I’m saying these terms ‘pimps and ho’s’, I’m putting forth they have archetypal significance. The way they show up, the way it’s used, the terminology in hip hop cultural. The way I have observed it since late 90’s , 2000 and it points further and further. It wasn’t just about literal prostitution. It was about power interaction. So that’s will the real pimps and ho’s please stand up?

The Reel Hustle: You wore a lot of hats for this project. How difficult was that for you?

E. Raymond: It was very, very challenging. It was a lot going on at once and it was a big opportunity. I got the funding for it, that’s rare, for African American film makers to get films green lighted at certain levels and all that. It was an amazing opportunity. I had a lot of preparation, I had been writing. I was working more and more in the film domain, learning apprenticing, learning the ropes. Humbly learning from cats, allowing them to teach me what to do, its initiation, I like doing more than one thing.

The Reel Hustler: What is it that you would expect people that see the film to learn?

E. Raymond: What I want is the Trojan Horse, you know what I’m saying, that’s gonna hit them over the head with something different than they expected. Have them question what’s going on around them. Like it touches their own world, like whoa! Are there things that were happening that I wasn’t really present to, that I’m dealing with everyday? Am I in the game the way I want to be or do I need to wake up?


Ghettophysics: Will The Real Pimps And Ho’s Please Stand Up? opens in theaters October 8, 2010.