Drumline

Marching band culture finally got the feature film it had been waiting for with Drumline in 2002, starring Nick Cannon. Audiences were treated to incredible musical performances with high production value, wrapped into a predictable plot trying to teach us that skill alone is not enough. Join co-hosts Jon and Mark as they visit the campus of A&T Atlanta to see how Dr. Lee and the band are going to take on Morris Brown College at the BET Classic.

You have to learn to follow before you can lead!

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Jon (00:00)
Tonight in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, one band, one sound, Drumline starring Nick Cannon.

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll Theatre. My name is Jon. I'm joined by my co-host and my brother Mark here for each episode where we dive into movies, pop culture, all sorts of fun stuff. And today we're looking at Drumline, which stars Nick Cannon.

Mark (00:32)
Drumline was released on December 13th, 2002. It runs one hour 58 minutes. It's rated PG or PG 13, depending on the source that you check. In terms of what this movie is classified as, it's a comedy, drama, music movie. I guess it kind of dabbles in all three of those, and I could argue against all three of those being the core category. It was directed by Charles Stone III.

The budget for the film was twenty million dollars. At the box office, it scored fifty-seven million dollars. So that is a win.

The story of Drumline follows the main character named Devon Miles, played by Nick Cannon. He's a gifted street drummer from Harlem, New York. He ends up joining the marching band at a fictional university called Atlanta A&T. And he needs to learn that talent alone is not enough. Gotta have that discipline and teamwork. That's essential to succeeding there. This is one of Nick Cannon's first major starring film roles.

Other notables to audition for the role of Devon were rapper T I and Lil Wayne.

Jon (01:46)
Nick Cannon got started in a hip-hop group in high school called the G4 Dope Bomb Squad. Quite the mouthful there. he also did some stand-up comedy on his father's cable access show, and his music group got to open for people like Will Smith, LFO, 98 Degrees, and even Montel Jordan. So that got him a record duel drive records in 2001, which led into him starring in Drumline 2002, which was all kind of set up for his debut album, which came out in 2003.

Mark (02:14)
Drumline was filmed primarily in Atlanta, Georgia. There was also some filming in New York City. The campus scenes were filmed at Clark Atlanta University. That creates the fictional Atlanta A&T University that we see in the movie. Also in Atlanta, Morris Brown College, that's the rival school, so the villains. That was used for numerous college and band scenes.

The Georgia Dome was another location for large scale marching band and some of the football related scenes. So Nick Cannon trained for about a month with another drummer named Jason Price to learn the basics of the snare drum, marching techniques, some of the tricks you see him pulling off with the sticks, that type of thing. But he didn't actually do many of the drumming sequences. The more technical ones were performed by Jason Price, and he was Nick's Canon drum bubble.

Jon (03:09)
We're gonna get into all the drumming, all the marching, and all the drama that is Drumline. But first, if you haven't seen it or haven't seen it in very, very long time, hit pause right here. There's gonna be lots of spoilers ahead. We'll be right here waiting for you. And while you're at it, if you have a quick moment, I know people get tired of hearing this, but if you could like, subscribe, comment, download, whatever the case may be, wherever you're at in the world, we really appreciate it. We see lots of new people lately from all sorts of different places in the world stopping by the Rock N' Roll Theatre, and we really appreciate it. But for now, Drumline.

Mark (03:39)
Drumline opens. We see a black screen. It gets filled with this big logo, bold letters, sort of college type style letters. Drumline looks a little bit like Top Gun,

We're introduced to our main character, Devon, Looks like it's graduation. It doesn't openly say that, but we're assuming that's what it is. He's sitting there in his chair. He's got a very slanted posture while everyone else is sitting up straight. He's holding a pair of drumsticks. His hat is kind of on the side of his head. He looks like something's about to go down, something's gonna happen.

We cut to a scene of the band up on stage and they're rocking out. Devon looks like he's the star drummer of the show. He's playing all kinds of crazy fills. He's playing really, really fast. What I can tell at this point, though, is that this movie seems like it's got a higher level of production than what I was anticipating, and the playing does look real.

Jon (04:34)
The song they're actually playing is I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly. And yikes, did that not age well? So we'll move on from Mr. Kelly as fast as we can. Devon's showing off his skills here, all the kind of marching band drumming tricks that you would see. the rest of the band doesn't sound good, but that's obviously done on purpose to try to give you the visual that he is by far away the star of this group. his mother's really happy, everyone's really happy he's graduated and he's heading off to college soon. But first, he has a little side trip

He goes to see his dad, Ray Miles. And I guess Ray was never part of his life. Devon isn't really happy to see him, but he goes down and sees him anyway. And he says, Listen, I've never been arrested. I've graduated high school, and this is the best part. He tells his dad, I have no kids.

As of this recording, Nick Cannon, the actor playing Devon, has 12 children. And if you're listening to this in the future, maybe you should Google and see if he has more, because I think it's an entirely a possibility. Anyway, he's going to Atlanta to A&T on a full scholarship.

He meets some people on the bus, fellow bandmates, they start joking around, starting to get to know each other. They roll past Morris Brown University, who is their rival, and they kind of, ooh, you know, as they're going past, and the bus driver kind of starts talking about like, Hey, you need to beat those guys. And he thinks that quote the music direction at A&T is whack. So then we hear we cut to hearing the song Club Banger by Pete Pablo, and we'll have a lot more on him later on.

Mark (05:57)
One of the things that I noticed when they get off the bus and start walking around the campus is that Tevin's carrying his drumsticks openly in his hands.

Jon (06:04)
He's ready to throw down for his solo at the drop of a hat. we also are introduced to his love interest right away named Layla. She's introduced, and all they meet all the new drum majors that are gonna basically be their trainers. They're all really intense. They're getting in their faces. They're calling the rookies crabs. They have lots of rules for them. One of them is white t-shirts only, which might come back to haunt them. one of the rules is you must learn the rule book cover to cover, know everything in that book.

they told you have a curfew, instead they decided to go to the club. Good call.

Mark (06:31)
We see them get home from the club, and then it immediately cuts to a scene where we see an alarm clock that says 438 AM. What's going down? Outside in the hallway, we see some of the more senior students, I guess the veterans, they seem to be getting some of their gear ready. They're picking up a few drums, they're picking up a few cymbals, like what's about to go down here. They start walking down the hall and playing at full blast, waking everybody up. So I guess this is your.

Jon (06:39)
Maybe a bad call then.

Mark (07:01)
You're welcome to your new setting here at Atlanta A&T. We go outside now onto the field and we meet Dr. Lee. That's played by Orlando Jones, the music director. He's a very intense man, no nonsense. Devon, of course, while everyone else is in a white shirt, decides to wear a black shirt. his roommate ends up being late to practice. So Dr. Lee notices this and decides to go over.

To Devon because he recognizes, okay, this is his roommate. Why was your roommate late? And Devon's like, Well, you know, like I'm not his mother. So then Dr. Lee proceeds to tell the rest of the entire band this exact conversation. He repeats it word for word. Then I asked Mr. Miles and he said, I'm not his mother. Blah, blah, blah. Again, so what he's trying to enforce here is that if one person's late, they're all late. This reinforces the concept of one band, one sound.

We also meet a few other characters here. Sean Taylor, he's the leader of the band, played by Leonard Roberts. He's also super intense, like Dr. Lee, but maybe a younger version of Dr. Lee. He's still got his skills. They're still sharp. He's still doing a lot of the arrangements. We meet the only female band member who's part of Devon's friend posse here, Deidre. And they're glaring over at her during push-ups, kind of like,

What's going on here? And she kind of schools them all by doing a one arm push up and they're all like, whoa.

Moving along to the gear room. So the new recruits go into the gear room to get their drums, and they're clearly instructed by Sean, the leader of of the band, that their gear is on the left side of the room. What's Devon gonna do? Now he's going over to the right side of the room. Look at this, look at this nice drum here. So he goes over to the more experienced player's side of the floor and decides to pick up a drum for himself. So of course, Sean comes over. What are you doing?

That's not for you. What do you think's going on here? So right away we get this this tension. We know there's going to be conflict anytime Devon tries to do something that he wants. It's probably going to go against the institutional rules that have been set in place. So we wrap this up with a nice big training montage of everybody learning their instruments. And we see that the tubas are struggling.

Jon (09:28)
It can't be easy to play the tuba, run upstairs in the stadium in the blazing heat. so I don't blame the tuba guys for kind of kind of falling behind the rest of the pack there. But then we move on to meet President Wagner. this is a plot line we have seen before in the Rock N' Roll Theatre. President Wagner is just the flashy guy. He he wants just, pop music, new stuff, that sort of thing. Definitely flash over substance, while Dr. Lee is very much all about the substance, all about the music, all about the plane.

However, President Wagner kind of warns him here, and this is a plot that doesn't really get fleshed out too much throughout the movie, but it is here. he basically says that the alumni, they want to see us win this time. They want to see see us win the BTE classic, which is coming up, which is the big battle of the marching bands. So he Dr. Lee does not like this idea at all of going for a more flashy routine. He even mentions that he would not do the thong song.

But I kind of disagree with Dr. Lee. In two thousand and two, the thong song would have killed probably to any crowd. And you know what? It still kind of works today.

Meanwhile, we head over to the cheerleader practice. mainly Devon is a cheerleader practice to only do one thing, which is hit on Layla.

But there is a funner element to having the marching band practice with the cheerleaders, they're trying to make sure the boys are not distracted. So as they're learning their moves, they're learning how to walk with the drums and play at the same time. Sean is very intense on saying, never look down, look at me. And him and Devon start to have a drum battle a bit back and forth, and you can really feel the tension building. But then Sean kind of schools him a bit and says, You need to learn to follow before you can lead.

however, the crabs do make it through most of the training. there's a last assignment, however, though. of course they said now, who read the rule book? Devon did not read the rule book.

Mark (11:08)
No, we didn't. But I do think that never looked down scene is maybe maybe the best scene in the movie. It's it's pretty iconic. I think that's one of the standouts.

Jon (11:17)
I would that in the finale, yeah, are probably t two of the best scenes.

Mark (11:21)
All right, so we know that Devon needs to be able to read music, but maybe he doesn't. He also doesn't know the last rule in the book, so he's gotta shave his head. Sean states, look like me, but can't play like me. Devon resists this at first, but then a few scenes later, we see him showing up at a party with clippers.

Jon (11:43)
At the party, we hear Blowing Me Up, a song by JC Chavez, who is of in sync fame, and it was his debut song. We'll talk more about that song a bit later on. but Devon kills his audition, which really impresses President Wagner. They have them all on the field at night and they have to play for the president, for Dr. Lee, for everybody. And actually, the senior students are down the street in their cars and they're flicking their headlights to see if they like or don't like a performance that they hear. And Devon impresses everybody, he's a great drummer. And we see his romance with Layla's progressing.

we hear James Brown. This is a man's world. We hear that a little bit briefly, but I do believe the marching band plays a little segment of it later on. So a little foreshadowing there. yet again, they're told to practice in front of the cheerleaders, but told to pay attention at the same time. I think that's a good technique. I know other sports teams have done things like that over the years. Devon is clearly memorizing everybody's parts. He'll watch somebody, see what they play, and immediately play it back. So he's not actually reading the sheet music that he's being provided for for the different things because he can't read music.

But I mean, there's a huge art in that could be made. Some musicians can read music, others can't, and are still world-class players. So, I mean, this very hard and fast rule of you must be able to read music, but he could progressing to be the best drummer in your group. So maybe could come a little bit of slack. I don't know. But then we another good scene we have here too. Dr. Lee introduces him to the band Earth, Wind and Fire. specifically the song In the Stone, which is a really great song for the 1970s.

And he jokes around saying, if you want LL Cool J, you want Snoop, which honestly wouldn't be a terrible idea for his marching band, but okay. Earth One and Fire is definitely the blueprint for a lot of those songs. They were sampled heavily, heavily, and still are to this day. They're sampled and covered by people. Meanwhile, Sean decides to dub Devon Minimi and decides, try to knock him down even further, you have to go polish all the drums. But then one of his buddies comes and helps him out, and they start rap-battling back and forth together. And it's a good scene, it's a fun scene.

Mark (13:31)
Time for the big game. This is our first view into what it's like to be on the Drumline. I think one of the taglines for this movie was actually halftime is game time. So Sean tells Devon if you want to take the spotlight, take it. That's some good advice. We see the full power of the marching band on display. We see everyone's rocking out, everyone's really nailing it.

Devon is stepping up. He's getting the crowd into it. We see a clip of President Wagner. He's really digging this. He thinks, hey, this is great. People are liking this. We got some good energy here. However, backstage, once the performance is done, we see that there's some tension going on here. That that drum battle that Devon was engaged in, that wasn't rehearsed. So Dr. Lee, he's not loving that. He's a man of rules. He's a man of, what's proper. He doesn't want this, flashy,

What's going on? It just happens in the moment. That's not his style at all. So we can see that Dr. Lee is really not happy with Devon. But then President Wagner comes over and starts saying, you know, that was so great. That was everything. So we also get a bit of a sense here that maybe Dr. Lee is falling short in the eyes of the alumni in President Wagner who do want to see more flash.

Jon (14:50)
President Wagner definitely has his eye on the upcoming battle later on at the BTE Classic. So he likes the flashy moves out of Devon. Rehearse, not rehearse. He doesn't care. He got the crowd going. It was cool. And also, I I guess Dr. Lee, he's not a fan of the improv style that Devon has here, but it definitely got the crowd going, so I can't blame him for doing it. Meanwhile, Devon and Layla, their romance is progressing. he steps up to buy her lunch, a $2.47 hot dog. Big spender, Devon. But I guess it doesn't offend her too much because she decides to take him to her frats party.

there's a cheer and dance squad, I guess you would kind of call it frat at this university. frat fraternities are a very big deal in American university culture, usually centered around what the main activity of whatever that group of students would be. So this is like the cheerleader, cheer and dance party.

And the tier squad totally throws down at this party. They have intricate dance moves, all sorts of different lively stuff going on. Devon's really impressed. He really enjoys it, really has a good time. And it's it's a nice fun little scene of just so blowing off a little bit of steam after the big game. Meanwhile, Sean is starting to bully Devon pretty hard. he brings him down to the rehearsal room, the practice room, and he tries to get him to read the charts.

Which I mean, Devon can't do it. He fails at it. So therefore he can't, in Sean's idea, protect the line. So Dr. Lee is not happy about any of this. This has a lot of top gun vibes of like Maverick, you'll never fly again type of thing. Cause I get a feeling that Devon is very much gonna drum a lot more in this movie. But for now, he's busted down to not being drumming on on the main line anymore, to being in the background and he must take music reading classes.

Mark (16:27)
Time for another game day. This time we're against Morris Brown, the primary villain school in this movie. We see a clip of their marching band busting out jump on it. That's by Sir Mix-a-lot. So now A&T, they gotta step their game up, right? They gotta fight this. Dr. Lee calls out flight of the bumblebee.

Jon (16:40)
Good choice.

Lame choice.

Mark (16:52)
So that gets that that is the choice that's played. I guess it's performed well, but you know, the crowd's not feeling it. President Wagner, he he's he's not loving that. So maybe some failure to read the room there. Doctor Lee.

Jon (17:01)
It's not j it's not jump on it.

Mark (17:09)
So we even see in some clips that the A&T fans are starting to actually dance along to the Morris Brown band, like ooh.

Jon (17:15)
Ouch.

Ooh, that's embarrassing.

Mark (17:19)
Devon hones in on this though. So on the next A&T performance, he starts drumming, doing all the flashy stuff. He's trying to win the crowd back. But Morris Brown, they're they're here to go for all. So they go to the next level and they just shine right through, and they're the ones winning the day here. So President Wagner, again, not happy that Devon wasn't, central in in the play here by Dr. Lee.

Jon (17:45)
So after their defeat, shall we say, at halftime there, they have to load their bus. They have to head home. we see Mr. Wade, who's the music director, the counterpoint of Dr. Lee, I guess you would say, for Morris Brown. He's much more of a flashier guy. Obviously, he's he'd rather do Sir Mix-a-lot than Flight of the Bumblebee. Okay. and he starts chirping them.

see all the way BTEU classic, and they're all drumming while they're trying to load their drums on the bus. I like the scene. It was kind of, an insult to injury type of thing. So we move on to the homecoming, the A&T band are starting to sound better. there's a good drum battle scene here as well. Really good interplay. They're showing off. Devon, however, steps up and while he's doing his own drum solo, he leans over and drums on his opponent's drum, which I think is kind of a cool move.

But that is definitely, I guess, against marching band culture or rules. so a huge fight breaks out, someone hits someone with a tom drum. It's pretty wild, it's pretty, pretty crazy scene.

after it's over, everyone's kind of nursing their wounds and heading back to the buses. Layla was supposed to introduce Devon to her family, but after all the things that happened on the field, she pretends like she doesn't know him and completely blows him off. Devon tries to apologize to Dr. Lee, said, Hey, I made a mistake, I got caught up in the moment, I didn't know that guy was gonna react that way. But once again, in top gun mode, again, he is now kicked off the line in a very, top gun type of scene, like you'll never drum again type of thing, which like I said before.

I think he'll drum again. So Layla tries to apologize to her, but he blows her off. I mean, hey, fair play there. meanwhile, Dr. Lee is starting to get tired of all of this. And he tells Sean, you need to drop this feud and learn how to lead the group and learn how to find a way forward here. Cause we're not doing so well in the marching band battles.

Mark (19:19)
Meanwhile, Devon, not feeling so good about being at A&T, he decides to wander over to Morris Brown late at night and see what they're doing in terms of their band practice. He strolls up in the bleachers and Mr. Wade, who runs the Morris B Brown band, he notices Devon and he walks over to the bleachers and he says, I I know who you are and I I've been watching you and

You're really flashy. I bet I bet that Dr. Lee does he I bet he's not down with that, is he? And we all know that he isn't. So Devon is kind of, I guess, taking the temperature here to see if his skills are would be wanted at Morris Brown. And Mr. Wade is is is warm to it. So, okay. Devon goes back to meet with him a second time. this time they're they're a little bit more they're they're alone and they're they're talking, okay.

Here's what we can do. Next year I can most likely get you on the Morris Brown squad. But what's Dr. Lee up to in his next few performances here? Maybe the B E T Classic. like what's going on? Does he have a playlist ready? What kind of songs is he thinking about? And Devon is he's he's not down to to take this bait. He is not gonna spill any beans about A T and

He tells him, like, look, I honestly I I don't know and I I'm not gonna go get this info for you. So I guess the deal is off.

We move along we see Devon gets a package in the mail that he's not suspecting. He's in his dorm room and okay, he's got this this package. He looks at the label on it. It's from his dad, we see. It's funny to note that the package is supposed to be from New York, but it's actually postmarked Atlanta, Georgia on the on the label. So he

Jon (21:03)
I didn't I didn't

catch that on the until I read the notes here, but I guess I guess you're right. So I mean a deadbeat, right? So maybe he doesn't even know where he lives.

Mark (21:11)
He starts thumbing through the different tapes and he lands on one called the Ray Miles Funk Connection.

Jon (21:18)
So his dad was a musician. that was not explained until this very moment. the actual song that he starts playing here in his cassette player, is it's called Funkyard by Walter Wolfman Washington and the Roadmasters. It's a I'd never heard it before. It's a good song. I like it.

Then we go straight back to the studio for, I don't know, the umpteenth time here, and we see Sean and Devon yet battle again on the drums. But this time they kind of come to a stalemate because both have skills, both are really talented, so they decide to greet agree to work together as opposed to working against each other.

Mark (21:47)
Fun fact here, the sheet music that you see printed off is not actually percussion music.

Jon (21:51)
I did catch that one actually before I read the trivia about it.

We see a friendship montage of everything going down, and we hear Been Away by Jermaine Dupree and the Q the Kid. That song has a sample from Michael Jackson, I want you I want to be where you are. And that slides right into the actual Jackson 5 song, I Want You Back. I found this a little bit confusing as they're saying this is a new direction. We're bridging the the the old school gap with the new school gap with two really old Michael Jackson songs. Okay.

so they're starting to work on the whole arrangement now. I guess Devon's now the advisor or something, because he's kicked off the team, but he's there in every scene helping people out in a hoodie, not in his full uniform. we see a little side quest here. There were a couple other plot lines going on here that we didn't really talk about because they're so brief and they're not really central to the story at all. he helps his friend get a spot on the Drumline. Another one joins the fraternity. Like, okay, whatever. They're very quick little scenes. There's not much to them.

However, Dr. Lee's been thinking about things. And he decides he's he's thought about it for a long time, but he just can't let Devon on the field. Well, we'll see about that. Devon decides to start off fresh with Layla, so that's nice.

Mark (22:52)
It's time for the BET classic. We know that Morris Brown, they are the reigning champs, so they are the ones to be. We hear the national anthem, start off the event. That's done by Blue Cantrell, that's an early two thousands pop star.

Jon (23:07)
Google Blue Cantrell if you're out there, guys. first band up does a great version of Waiting for Tonight from J-Lo. the rest is kind of just your standard marching band type of stuff. Morris Brown brings out Pete Pablo. we heard a song Club Banger earlier in the movie, and he's also I says his most famous song is called Freak a Leak. I was a little confused by this. It doesn't seem to really match the marching band culture, but I guess that's the point they were trying to drive home. That Morris Brown are kind of unorthodox, they don't really care about tradition, they only want a big flash.

And bringing out a big name rapper, of course, is gonna get young people to act up and act crazy. also he drove it in a very nice Bentley, for a high school drumming show, he came in a Bentley and drove it through the stadium. but also I also think too, maybe a bigger rap name, like maybe like some of the Pentweek T I or Little Wayne, who are also rumored to play Devon in the movie. someone of that level,

I wasn't still am a DJ and I was playing clubs in two thousand and two and I didn't play PD Pablo too often, but I did play T.I. and Little Wayne a lot and still play him to this day. So I think one of those guys maybe would have worked better in the spot.

Mark (24:06)
A&T Atlanta are up next. One band, one sound. They go with a journey through time concept, which is kind of cool. So they're doing a medley of different songs and they spell out the years as they're walking across the field. So that's pretty cool.

We hear the song I Want You Back by Jackson Five. That's always seems to be working. It's a crowd favorite. And then get ready for this. It's time for our first round of judging. And the judges score it a tie.

Jon (24:39)
Guess who's in the tiebreaker? I'll give you one guess, you'll never get it.

Mark (24:42)
Morris Brown versus A&T.

Jon (24:46)
wow, no way. Yes, of course it's Morris Proud A&T. I mean this part's a little bit scripted and not really the best, but it's okay. So the final battle has to roll along anyway. So according to the rules, each band gets two turns, although I I feel like it's more like three, but that's what they say in the rules. they decide, wait a second here, to win this final big battle, we need to bring out the big guns.

So just like Maverick and Top Gun flying through the air at the end of the movie, Devon grabs someone's uniform, grabs a drum, and he's back on the line in the center spot. this scene's well shot. Both drum squads are excellent. You see all the different tricks. It's kind of like the accumulation of all the things we've watched tonight, like the different stick tricks, all the different moves they do, lying down in the field, playing each other's drums. both bands, like I said, are really good. There's a lot of back and forth with one side performing, then the next side performing.

So finally they meet in the center of the field one last time. Morris Brown takes turns drumming on A&T's drums, they drum back on their drums. That's kind of a callback to what Devon did earlier in the movie that started the big fight. But this time he doesn't take the bait. it reminds me a little bit of the final bat of the final battle in Eight Mile, where they're just taking turns back and forth, and it's the tensions building, it's a really good scene. we covered 8 Mile in an episode a few episodes back on the Rock and Roll Theatre, if you want to check it out. But at the end of the day, A&T wins, and it's rather quickly. They just end it really quickly, kind of pause on them celebrating, and then

In the credits roll and that's Drumline.

Mark (26:05)
Drumline Soundtrack was released on December 10th, 2002. It reached the number 61 spot on the Billboard's top RB and hip-hop albums chart. It reached number 10 in the top soundtracks list and peaked at number 133 on the Billboard 200. That was in 2003. So let's look at what we got here and see what's going on.

First up is the A&T Drumline, in brackets the Senate, D and K cadence.

Jon (26:41)
This is only 30 seconds, so I don't know how much I can say about it. Basically it's just an intro to the drumming. it's just basically the Drumline, the sound of it, and thirty seconds of marching band drums. it sounds good though. It's kind of a good intro to to what we're about to tackle here. But I mean, I don't think we need more than 30 seconds. There'll be full Drumline stuff later on.

Mark (26:58)
Q The Kid featuring Jermaine Dupree been away.

Jon (27:01)
we heard this earlier in the movie, and also we covered Jermaine Dupree in actually the Josie and the Pussycats episodes we had a few episodes back. He also produced that soundtrack as well. And this one I noticed has a marching band intro. With I mean RB hip hop songs of the time, you probably wouldn't hear that, but there's definitely a marching band feel to have to kick off the song. it's an upbeat song, it's a good inspirational kind of rap song. It's well done. It might be the best song on the album, pretty close to it. And like we said earlier, it does sample Michael Jackson's I Wanna Be Where You Are.

Mark (27:31)
Up next we have Joe featuring Jada Kiss I want a girl like you.

Jon (27:36)
This is so 2002. Jada Kiss and Joe. Th like I I played this song a bunch of times, actually DJing like teen dances and stuff in 2002. It's it's also got some more drums on the intro, which I'm not sure is on the original version. Maybe for the soundtrack, they did put a little more marching band type snares into some of the tracks. it's got an RB type vibe to it, of course, with Jada Kiss. And it's it's good. I mean, they have other songs too as well. They're very much in this vein, but it's a strong song.

Mark (28:04)
JC Chasez blowing me up.

Jon (28:07)
This is the debut single after he left NSYNC. It's good. it's not just in Timberlake, that's for sure. the intro's okay. It but the chorus is a little mm, you know, and the verses are so so. It's it's all right. I he did not have Mary Hits after that, but it's okay because NSYNC, play big shows all the time to this day.

Mark (28:28)
P. D. Pablo, club banger.

Jon (28:29)
this one's featured pretty heavily in the movie. It's got that classic kind of like southern hip-hop style that was very big around that time. I mentioned too as well that Freak Aliak was probably his biggest song. And it's very much he he was part of that Buster Rhymes, ludicrous type of scene. he worked with those guys many times. So if you if you're familiar with those artists, this is definitely fits right in with that. And I noticed while I was researching for the podcast, he is currently on tour.

Mark (28:54)
Up next we have Silena Jonson, faithful to you.

Jon (28:59)
Now we moved into kind of a slower R and B song. I wasn't super familiar with her before I heard the soundtrack. She has a really great voice though. I don't know much else of her material, but this was a rather strong song.

Mark (29:11)
Alicia Keys, Butterfly Z, The Crucial Keys Remix.

Jon (29:16)
This is another slowish kind of R and B song. Alicia Keys is very famous. I'm very familiar with her work. She's always good. I'm not so sure about the track order here. I mean, we went from one slow R and B song to the next slow R and B song. So I think maybe they could have moved these two around in the lineup.

Mark (29:31)
Monica,

Jon (29:33)
This is one of Monica's bigger hits. It was from her All Eyes on Me album. It got played a lot. I played it a lot as a DJ. And I think the kind of way the chorus is and the kind of weirdness of it, I think today like like TikTokers would probably like this and use this in little clips that they do. And hell, we have a TikTok too as well. So check it out for the Rock and Roll Theatre.

Mark (29:52)
Up next Raheem Devon, my own thing.

Jon (29:54)
A little different feel on this one. This one has a total Latin feel to it. It has a Spanish guitar intro into it. I was I wasn't very familiar with him either. When I researched it, he refers to himself as as an R and B hippie Neo soul rock star. And I think that's about right and that's kind of what this sounds like.

Mark (30:12)
Next is Nivea, what you waitin' for?

Jon (30:15)
This was pretty formulaic. I I didn't r I don't remember if it was in the movie or not. It did not stand out to me.

Mark (30:23)
Nappy roots, peanuts.

Jon (30:25)
Another great example of the Southern rap, Southern hip hop type of sound from that time period, that era. they're a good group. It's a good song. They had several hits in the, early two thousands.

Mark (30:34)
Here we go. The star, Nick Cannon. I'm scared of you.

Jon (30:38)
This is the only Nick Cannon song on the soundtrack, which I thought I was a little bit surprising. if you're trying to hype this up as this is his movie, I figured there'd be more songs of his. he had a debut album coming out very shortly after this movie. So he must have been in the studio. He must have been working on stuff. So I I did find it kind of odd. May maybe they weren't sure how how his singing's gonna be and they use it maybe more as an actor. I don't know what the case may be.

But it's not bad. The lyrics fit exactly in with what the movie is and what's going on. he has a good flow to it and I liked it.

Mark (31:09)
Too short and Bun B shout it out.

Jon (31:12)
yes, the Immortal Too Short. He has been around forever. He was at the very start of all the West Coast hip hop in the late 80s, early 90s, and he's been around ever since then. this song's good. He has better songs, but this one's pretty good though. And he's worked with literally everybody in his career from NWA to Tupac to Biggie, all the names the two short has worked with. It's it's pretty impressive.

Mark (31:37)
Up next we got Trick Daddy with Deuce Poppy Trey Plus Six and Under Pressure. Let's go.

Jon (31:44)
This is probably the biggest and most well-known song on the soundtrack. I kind of had a feeling I knew it would be here before I even looked at the playlist. I've played a ton of times in my life too. There are tons of remixes of this song out there as well. I'm not a hundred percent sure which one they use for this one. It's not it's not the exact same remix as the one I've heard many, many times. But it's still it's a good anthem type style song, which is great for marching bands, singing along in the crowd, that type of thing.

Mark (32:11)
Closing out the album now. We got two tracks left. First is basically all of the marching bands together, marching band Medley.

Jon (32:21)
This one's just basically to show off everybody's skills from the different marching bands. It is kind of weird to listen to it out of context without actually seeing the visuals of a marching band doing the actual moves on the field. But you get the the vibe for it, you get the feel for it, you know what's going on. they ended with Jackson Five, I want you back, which we we've heard a lot of times in this movie. So yeah, it's kind of fun.

Mark (32:42)
At the end, just Morris Brown and the A&T drum line. I guess this is the battle. It's titled The Classic Drum Battle.

Jon (32:50)
Yeah, I wasn't hundred percent sure if it was the actual battle from the movie, but it sounds like it was re-recorded in a studio. It whatever the case may be. cool to listen to once to just understand the precision and, the technique involved, but not something I would actually like put on and listen to.

Mark (33:07)
Looking at the critical reception for Drumline. Right now on Rotten Tomatoes, Drumline is scoring eighty one percent on its tomato meter, seventy percent on its popcorn meter.

This is a rare instance where we see the tomato meter is higher than the popcorn meter. I would have figured lots of fans of Nick Cannon and that some of the artists we've just gone over in the soundtrack would have bumped that up for the popcorn meter.

Jon (33:31)
I'm a little confused as well, too. And I noticed you put here it's six out of ten on IMDB. When I was researching this, the amount of comments and praise I saw from people that love this movie and have loved it for over 20 years now. I'm a little bit surprised it's it's like that because every clip I watched had tons of comments underneath totally loving and supporting this movie. So I'm I'm a little surprised it scored as low as it did.

Mark (33:54)
In terms of awards, it was nominated for two MTV movie awards and three Teen Choice Awards. However, it did not win any.

When I was looking through a lot of the different pieces from critics and just the overall reception of the movie, it it's pretty common to see that people like the musical skill and the artistry in the performances. Everyone seems to agree on that. Everyone thinks it's well shot. But it's also common to see complaints about how predictable the plot is. So I I can see that. There's definitely you can see where Devon's gonna walk into these.

scenes where he's gonna struggle and he's gonna have to overcome and learn the value of teamwork and all that kind of thing. And I wasn't really surprised by any of of those vibes in the reception, I'll say.

Jon (34:46)
No, that's why we spent so little time on some of the little side plot, side quest things they had that seemed totally tacked on for for no real reason, honestly. And there was some very predictable moments of like, that's it, you're off the the line, and we're like, come on, he's not gonna be off the line for more than a scene or two. And we were right, that's why we kept making the Top Gun analogy there of like, you're never gonna fly again, you'll never play the drums again. Sure. But for everything we look at here in the Rock N' Roll Theatre, whether we liked it, didn't like it, whatever the case may be.

My brother scours your net and finds a one star review of everything. So what'd you find for us this week?

Mark (35:19)
This week we're going to the internet movie database. We have a review from Baress Ford JD. It's from April 18th, 2006. One star out of ten. The title doesn't even attain awfulness. It goes like this. This is one very dumb movie. Cliched.

Weakly scripted and an insult to the intelligence of a moron. Whoever persuaded anyone to put up money for this sack must be some kind of genius salesman in brackets or woman. Canon could not act if his life depended on it, and the supporting players are not much better. I doubt very much that this movie was aimed at anyone with an IQ above two in that it succeeds.

I can watch almost anything, but could not watch any more than 30 minutes. I only made it past the first five minutes because I could not believe what I was watching. Why do movie makers insist on pumping out this rubbish is totally beyond me. Did it make any money? The public deserve better than this. Ten users found that helpful, seventeen thumbs down.

Jon (36:47)
Actually, it made quite a bit of money at the box office. It was a complete hit. I don't really trust the reviewer. The reviewer says I only watched five minutes or thirty minutes or whatever it was. So thanks for the input, buddy.

Mark (36:57)
So it is one of the most influential films that focuses on marching band culture. True, I would agree with that, but I don't think marching band culture is really at the forefront of the world in any way. It doesn't even really exist outside of the United States. It's kind of a US football-centric thing. Football, for the most part, especially collegiate football, does not dominate outside of America. So i it's a pretty narrow lane here in terms of

Marching band culture movies.

It's known for popularizing the phrase and philosophy, one band, one sound, as you've heard us say a few times in this episode. It is seen as a cult favorite, though, for some people, definitely. I've also seen it referred to as one of the defining musical sports dramas of the early 2000s. I might have to disagree with that. There's very little sports in terms of the drama. I guess there is drama, but like I said,

Earlier in this episode, this movie is called sometimes a comedy. I didn't think it was a comedy at all. Sometimes it's called a romance. Yes, the the main character Devon does have a love interest, but it's minimal to really what's going on with the core story. So take that for what you will. It's also worth noting that there was a sequel called Drumline A New Beat. That was straight to TV on VH1 in 2014.

But it was produced by Nick Cannon. It's currently scoring a five out of ten on Internet Movie Database and thirty seven percent on its popcorn meter on Rotten Tomatoes.

Jon (38:31)
Hmm, those aren't some good numbers for Mr. Cannon. However, if you would like the Rock N' Roll Theatre to cover the sequel, Drumline, and new beat, let us know in the comments. Cause as of right now, we don't really have it on our radar. Nick Cannon did many albums after this, went on to have a very successful career. He hosted the Wild and Out TV show on MTV, which I'm a little surprised he didn't win any MTV awards for this. He was so associated with MTV after this, but there you go.

And he it did as well as America's Got Talents, probably where not a lot of people know him from, and all sorts of other things. He's always up on media, he's always on your TV screen or in your your music player. What I do like about this, and when I was reading a lot of the comments online about this film, is how many people got into being in a marching band in university or high school through this movie. So this movie encouraged a lot of people to pick up an instrument to get educated on music and to join join something. I think that's awesome. I think that's amazing.

I think we need more school music programs and a lot more interest from young people in music. I think that's great. So if Drumline accomplished that, I think the movie's a success.

Well, thank you very much for joining us in the Rock and Roll Theatre tonight. If you could do one quick thing before you head out the door, if you could like, subscribe, comment, leave us a suggestion of what you'd like for us to hear, check out our YouTube, check out our our TikTok. But for now, the theatre is closed.