After 30 years of sitting in a storage room, new footage of Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg come to light in the film “It Was All A Dream”.
The film is from journalist and award-winning filmmaker dream hampton, best known for her writing at The Source Magazine and producing “Surviving R. Kelly”. Hampton brings to the public screen her personal footage of the early 90s, the dawn of the golden age of hip hop.
In the documentary, Hampton documents Biggie before his debut Ready to Die. In an interview with WDET, the Detroit filmmaker explains that Big was her neighbor before any hits, and the recording began as a project for her filmmaking class at NYU. In the same interview, hampton shares that her recording of Snoop Dogg was only his 3rd interview at the time. The Long Beach icon was a young artist under Dr. Dre’s The Chronic success, having a shy relationship with camera.
Although the film title has references to the names in front and behind the camera, it stems from memory and an idea of what hip hop could be. This footage is from a time when hip hop’s roots were still planted with the idea of being a radical shift in music, the dawn of its commercial success.
How connected or disconnected has the genre moved since the recordings in the film?
The film premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9th. We hope to see it in Los Angeles soon! See the trailer below.