that's me.
as long as the hoofing is real, that i can do my thing, i can blacken up. let me hit it, beats and rhythms, express myself.
i'm gonna give you just a taste. my tap shoes are brand new. i haven't trained 'em yet.
rhythms, rhythms, rhythms. beats, beats, beats. no fred astaire here, baby. just rawness.
you might be right.
i'm not smiling.
it's that bad, huh? it's all over my face.
certified ladies' man, huh?
what's that?
seconds and thirds, too.
you'd try anything. i got first dibs. you get ya own stuff.
you ain't happy about the green light?
well, homeboy, looks like he's at a funeral.
pressure? dela, you don't know what the hell real pressure is. sheeett!!! this is lightstuff. now when you scramblin' out on the street in da january winter and the hawk is talkin' to you with no money and no prospects of money anytime soon, now that there is some pressure.
that's the way it came out. let me ask you one question. have you ever been in want, in need your entire privileged life?
the point i'm trying to make is that this is a blessing. it's going to be fun doing this show and we should all look at it that way.
must be the pressure.
i'm mantan.
sloan never told us she had friends like you.
a lot?
naw. i'll take the zero.
i feel fine.
sloan, will you take your boss out of here so i can get ready.
time!!!
this is my best friend sleep 'n eat.
we both left the hustle and bustle of uptown, harlem.
to come back to our roots.
no mo' "city slickers." ahh, can't you smell the sweet aroma of the ripe watermelons and high cotton?
well, thank you mistuh sleep 'n eat.
cousins, i want all of you to go to your windows. go to your windows and yell. yell, i'm tired of the drugs, the crack babies born out of wedlock to crackhead aids infested parents. i'm tired of the inflated welfare rolls while good wholesome americans bring less and less of their paycheck home every two weeks. i'm tired, you're tired, we're all tired of these so-called bible- thumping god fearing, whore mongling professional athletes. aren't you tired of these basketball-dunking, football-running, hop-hip rapping ebonic-speaking sex offenders who got ten kids from ten different ho's? i know i am and so is sleep 'n eat.
go to your windows and yell out, scream with all the life you can muster up inside your assaulted, bruised and battered bodies. i'm
so what's up with you?
the good stuff.
what else?
y'know my lady lucindy?
not her, the one with the little.
tomorrow is her birthday and i want to get her something really nice, like a.
she hates dem.
sleep 'n eat, one of dem slinky, sexy, little foxy.
to big. the in-between one, not too tight, not too lose.
i thought you got rid of.
dat's too much money. i can't 'ford it. i needs me a dress that cost no mo' than.
i'll buy her a less expensive dress, so i can have some money left over to take her out to dinner.
i heard ya lady is wild.
oh, because on our first date, she let me.
yes she did.
not that time.
around.
then what about.
perfect.
like macaroni and cheese.
like fried and chicken.
it's dat mean, evil overseer massa charlie.
why they gotta make my nose so big?
why is jess and reverend al down there?
you sound like the media.
same thing giuliani said.
hope the same thing doesn't happen to me. that's some big shoes to fill.
sloan, i got it like 'dat.
just a little something' somethin'.
gots no intention of ending up broke.
no, before my time.
never read a book in my whole life.
maybe i need to do a lot of things.
why all of a sudden are you flippin' on me? this blackface thing was part of the deal from the git-go. don't even try to play it like you ain't a part of all this. you down with delacroix.
we can look out for ourselves.
i fell out of my bed last night.
i slept too near where i fell out.
sleep 'n eat, what's the matter with you? using all dose ten dollar words?
hold on, you allegorical hypothesis. don't cross words with me.
dat's yo uncle ben. that reminds me, i've seen a lot of troubles lately.
i don't know who i am.
years ago i married a widow who had a grown-up daughter. my daddy visited us often, fell in love with my stepdaughter and married her. thusly he became my son-in-law and my stepdaughter became my mother because she was my father's wife. soon after dis my wife gave birth to a son, which of course was my father's brother in-law and my uncle, for he was the brother of my step-mother. my father's wife also became the mother of a son. he was of course my brother and also my grandchild for he was the son of my daughter. accordingly, my wife was my grandmother because she was my mother's mother.
sleep 'n eat, i was my wife's husband and grandchild at one and the same time. and lo' and behold, as the husband of a person's grandmother is his grandfather, i mantan, became my own grandfather.
i feel a song a comin' on.
i fell right dead in love. wid da sweetest little dove. little lulu snow from tennessee. she made a slave of me. an' from her i'se never free. i'd do anything she'd ask me to.
i'm tired of you pickaninnies messing up my choreography. it goes like this.
try it again.
better.
let's take a ten minute break.
what are you talkin' about?
meaning?
good. i've got a broken back from carrying you all these years anyway.
damn skippy.
don't shoot me, i'm just the piano players.
yeah, that's easy for you to do. you never had any talent.
i'm the star of mantan, so you do that. quit, walk away. and don't come crawling back, either.
for what? he left. not me.
my people love me.
y'know what?
you look beautiful like that.
no.
yo, dela, they tried to lynch my black ass up in dat piece.
yeah.
tavis, thank you for having me.
i'm more comfortable around my people.
yo, tavis, check it out. this is the two-one, the 21st century and it's all about the money. like my man mase says, "it's all about the benjamins."
money makes the world go round. it ain't no joke being poor. i know whati'mtalkin''bout. y'knowwhati'msayin'? i've lived on the street. i've been homeless. i've learned how to play the game, work the game, be in the game.
no if you go with the flow, tavis. that's what a lot of negroes don't understand. protesting isn't gonna do a damn thing. if people don't like our satire in our number one hit show then don't watch it. or better yet write your own show. do it better.
i don't know what a retort is, but it's simple. mantan - the new millennium minstrel show is universal. it's not just for negroes in compton or 125th in harlem. this is america. our ancestors helped build this country, we got a right, just like everybody else. i'm not gonna box myself in. this show makes people think, and they're laughing at the same time.
that's our opinion.
why? because i'm successful? because i don't use "causcasoids" as an excuse for not fulfilling my dreams?
that's a job?
what you did is dead wrong.
sloan is the hardest working person i've ever met.
i don't believe it.
how did you get this gig?
you leave something out?
and?
stop playing me sloan.
oh, you gonna make me say it.
did you ever sleep with dela?
aw, c'mon.
so you say. sloan, you wuz gonna use me up just like you used dela? work it to the top. i never imagined people in this biz could flip on you like "ihop." i'm damn happy dela fired ya ass.
don't try to change to the subject.
i know i won't be your puppet.
i wuz leaving anyway, for good.
they don't waste any time, do they?
my name is manray, goddamnit.