He’s also the producer of the film, so it’s not surprising that he gets a generous (and flattering) amount of screen time.īut a scene where he, while getting a hair trim, goes head to head with a co-sponsoring record company’s executive, berating him for what he sees as trying to steal the tour’s limelight, rivals any of the concert performance clips that thread through the film. The highlights may well be a couple of displays of entrepreneurial muscle by Damon Dash, co-founder and CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records and a key partner in the tour. While the boasts about the tour’s success aren’t really explored, the dynamics of such a venture and the personalities behind it unfold through what prove to be the most entertaining sequences. On the first front, Fiore makes good use of his access. And from his perspective, as shown in “Backstage,” it seems that there were three primary activities: doing business, smoking dope and ogling and/or fondling women. What did it take to be backstage on last year’s Hard Knock Life tour-touted as the most successful and problem-free major rap concert tour up to the time? Well, unless you were a rapper worthy of being in the company of Jay-Z, DMX, Method Man and the other Hard Knock performers or a member of their retinues or families, apparently the only way to get behind the scenes was to be a pot dealer or a young woman willing to expose body parts (or more).Īt the behest of the tour’s organizers, director Chris Fiore took a crew on the trek to chronicle the backstage life.

Backstage pass game fail