| Damon Dash Reaches Out Through "Mr. Untouchable" |
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| Written by Brad Balfour | |
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 "Mr Untouchable" tells the true story of Leroy "Nicky" Barnes, the unquestioned Head of the infamous "Council of Seven," which ruled the Harlem heroin trade throughout the 1970's  Damon Dash gives insite about the man that is Nicky Barnes in "Mr. Untouchable"  Damon Dash with producer Mary Jane Robinson and director Marc Levin brings "Mr Untouchable" to the big screen Once he split from the label as it was sold off to Def Jam, he started his own music group signing Nicole Wray, producing music for Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham and developing a reality show. His film group, Dash Films, has tackled some projects that had authentic cinematic credibility ("The Woodsman") and some commercial credibility such as "Paid in Full" (starring Mekhi Phifer). Lesser film endeavors by Dash, including "State Property" and its more successful sequel, were still serious money-makers. So Dash makes for an intriguing character--one who worships his Harlem home turf, yet aspires to a world well beyond it. Dash seems to be a mogul on the move--with his fashion and music empire being reborn--but being a film producer seems to stirs his greatest passion. When he got involved with "Mr. Untouchable," his main experience was with narrative features. Those ventures made money, so he figured, "why not?"—it's cheaper to make docs. He hooked up with producer Mary Jane Robinson and veteran director Marc Levin (who has a long history of doing docs on urban subjects). They managed to capture the story of notorious Harlem drug dealer Nicky Barnes, one-time kingpin of the New York narcotic underground during the '70s and part of the '80s. Barnes reigned supreme for a number of years, until the government took him down. When he realized he was going in for life—and was also betrayed by an associate—he turned government witness and was eventually released, only to be tucked away in a witness protection program. Q: When did you become first aware of Nicky Barnes? Damon Dash: When I was 10. It wasn't an awareness, it was always there. I was born into it. I don't know life without him. I'm from Harlem and the people were very affected by what he did. So when I got involved in the project, the majority of my family--excuse my language--their first reaction was, "Fuck Nicky Barnes. Do not bring him back to life. Let him die. Let his memory die. We don't want to remember Nicky Barnes." But then they saw the movie, and they realized it was important, because if this guy ever come along again, you better watch him. We all came from Nicky Barnes. Nicky Barnes came from Harlem, Nicky Barnes is a product of Harlem. Harlem is the genesis of "swagger," of cool, you know what I mean? We're snobby and all. We think we're cooler than everybody. We know we dress better, we talk better, we walk better, we get our cars done better...just because you black doesn't mean you're accepted and all. You understand what I'm saying? Nicky Barnes was the epitome of that. He was the president of that, he was the mayor of that. So what you have to understand is, the seduction of this movie is not the fact that was him, it was the betrayal. That betrayal was so severe that we haven't recovered from it. I've been betrayed by really good friends and I haven't recovered from it yet. So I know exactly how Harlem feels because I've been there. Q: When actors do films about gangsters they get praised, but when musicians make music about gangster life they get vilified. Why do you think that is? DD: For music, a rapper, when he speaks, it's a truthful point of view. It's a reflection of himself. An actor is acting. He's just doing a job, he's stepping into a role. When a rapper raps, he's speaking on his personal feeling and view. It's a representation of them. One is acting and one is real. Q: Does this sort of film glorify "gangsterism" or crime? DD: Let me make it mathematical for you. Sell drugs. Make a lot of money for a short period of time. And you end up dead, or going to jail for snitching on your friends. So any intelligent individual will look at that and say: "Wow, if I sell drugs, I can make money for a short period of time, but I can either end up dead or in a witness protection program, or jail." So I don't see how it could possibly glorify, it's just showing the whole equation. Q: When you're speaking about young minds, do you think they can grasp that? DD: I think the responsibility relies on the parent to translate that equation. But yeah, if I saw someone, as a young individual, selling drugs, and then saw them die, then that would make me not want to sell drugs. I think we can't underestimate the youth like that. But also I think it's also the person that's delivering the message. Hopefully I'm credible enough in that demographic, so hopefully they'll listen. But I think the question gets asked because that's an obvious question. Q: In some way are you or could you be seen as an heir to Nicky Barnes? DD: I think I could see myself as the heir of what he could have been, if he had taken a different path, yeah. But never call me the heir to Nicky Barnes. There are greater men than me who did survive and did it correctly. He's just the one people know about. Q: Are you conflicted about the way he was, and in what way are you conflicted? DD: Well, when I was young, I made a lot of money putting a lot of wrong values into the world. The repercussion of it was watching my family, watching my younger cousins and nephews, do the wrong thing thinking it was the right thing. And I knew I was directly responsible for that. I mean, that's why I don't make hip-hop music anymore, because I could never watch some kid rap about something negative, and me knowing that a bunch of other kids are going to watch that and be a part of it. The karmic repercussions of that are very severe and it's just wrong. So definitely I've combatted that by changing my hustle. You know as an individual, you evolve as you grow. I'm sure Nicky Barnes today isn't the same as he was 30 years ago, and he would probably go about things a lot different. But because of his ego and because he's so stubborn, he would never publicly admit it. Q: How did you ever get Nicky Barnes on film? Director Marc Levin and producer Mary Jane Robinson eventually convinced him to do this film. Was that because of "American Gangster" [about his associate Frank Lucas], or because he liked Marc's other films (such as "Slam") and wrote poetry? DD: Even with the poetry and all that, the real reason was that he knows what he was in history and he ended up a snitch. He knows what Frank Lucas was in history and there's no way in the world that Frank Lucas was going to take his shot. There's no way. Because he snitched too. He's like, that's not fair. I snitched, he snitched, he shouldn't be glorified, [Denzel Washington, who plays Lucas in "American Gangster"] should not be playing him, Denzel should be playing me. So that's the reason why he came out. He was content with not saying anything, but you know "Alright, I snitched...I got to eat that and now I won't have my place in history and the movie won't get made. I won't say nothing." But I think in his mind he was like "Yo Frank Lucas snitched too. He's going to be able to go down in history as the man?" Never that. Q: Do you think that making this film launched a turning point in your career? DD: No. I mean that it'll definitely help legitimize my brand and validate me as someone who likes to do things that are real, as opposed to things that are fantasy, that's not afraid of subject content, and the way I'm perceived, that's brave enough to be a part of things that people may not understand. I've traveled the world. Everywhere I go, the people have very different mentalities, a very different way of being. If you go to France, they live very differently from people in America. If you go to London, they live very differently from people in France. You go to Harlem, you live way different than the rest of America. It's a whole other mentality. What this is, is a tool to understand that mentality. You'll understand the mentality of a Harlem individual if you watch this movie. Q: Do you feel like this movie legitimizes something that's very strong for you? DD: In building any brand, you have to validate your brand. You spend a lot of time doing that... like Ralph Lauren, or anybody. You hear "Steven Spielberg movie"...you know it's a good movie. When you hear "Sean Penn's in a movie"...he started out in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and now he's in "Mystic River." There's that transition from an actor that did almost anything to an actor who does only good things. Of course I want my brand to be legitimized. Q: In light of that, how has Harlem has changed in your eyes? DD: It's inevitable in Manhattan that everything will be upgraded. Every piece of land on this island will eventually be made into something that will be profitable, period--whether it's Harlem, the Meatpacking district, or Tribeca. Any part of this island. That's inevitable, there's nothing you can do about it. But the ideals, the mentality is totally different. Barnes was the first "nail in the coffin" for that. He was the most influential, he was the biggest nail, he was the one that made it all right. When you're born and raised up in Harlem, selling drugs is just a part of life. Like if you're in a neighborhood where nobody sells drugs and all of a sudden someone sells drugs, then you're shocked. But when you're born into it, it's a condition. Whether you look at it as a bad thing doesn't matter. It was looked at as economic. People in Harlem will never leave Harlem. They don't want to get a job, they don't want to be told what to do, whether it's excusable or not...it is what it is. So within that... you have to have honor. You have to have rules and regulations regardless whether its not the rules in America--it's the rules of Harlem. And if you don't live by those rules, you're supposed to be shunned. It's not supposed to be acceptable. What happened was, the one that was president of those rules, the one that damn near wrote the rules, violated them. So what happened was, everyone else didn't have strong people around them and thought: "If Nicky Barnes can do it, then so can I." And that's what happened and that's why Harlem is where it is today. That was the beginning of the end. |