Kevin Epps: "straight outta hunter's point"

Thrasher Magazine, June, 2004 by Tony Vitello

TYPICALLY, THIS SECTION OF THE MAG is reserved for musicians whose tunes sound out from the stereos of skateboarders across the globe. Fortunately, Thrasher doesn't refer to the rulebook. Meet Kevin Epps, an urban cinematographer from the southeast corner of San Franpsycho. In 2002 he delivered Straight Outta Hunter's Point, an underground masterpiece depicting life in his hood. Epps' documentation style is frighteningly raw, gripping the viewer into an emotional roller coaster of danger, drama, and devastation. The film is formidable and its magnitude overwhelms the strength of any written verse. SOHP was his premier project, but the struggle continues. More important material is nearing completion. Thrasher is trying to enlighten you, the reader, but only you can help yourself. Know Kevin Epps. Learn from Kevin Epps. Understand Kevin Epps. Better yet, venture over to Hunter's Point and gaze upon his seismic canvas. Immersion breeds knowledge.

Intro?

Straight outta Hunter's Point. Back in '94 I hooked up with the Film Arts Foundation. Stuck in the streets, trying to survive, street hustlin'. I thought to myself, I gotta get outta this shit. This ain't the right way. All the cats before me, all the cats that I looked up to were gone. They were dead or got life in the pen. Then I went to jail and read books and when I got out I got involved in the Film Arts Foundation. I started learning how to make films, shooting shit here and there. I thought to myself, man, I wanna do a story about the hood, Hunter's Point, shot from the inside.

How do you think you were you able to showcase Hunter's Point in a way that an outsider could not?

Because I live there. They are comfortable with me with a camera. It's through the eyes or a person who live there. I could show you all the shit that you would never see.

Nobody would open up to an outsider?

Nobody. That's my tribe right there. I done been there: I'm the nigga. But I don't brag about that shit. I was in the streets, but I don't glorify that no more 'cause i don't want the young homies to think that's the right way. I didn't have a choice; I just got caught up. It's hard to talk to the youngsters about that because i switched up where I'm coming from. People come at me like "I don't want to hear none of that education shit. I looked up to you when you was a gangster nigga." There's beef because of that. I try to balance what I'm teaching.

You have the respect from the neighborhood to teach because you have already been where many of these youngsters are now.

With the film, I had no idea what would happen, I had a sick editor and I was like, damn, I want to tell this story about my 'hood. So we edited and I sat in on all the editing sessions until I felt this feeling like I was about to vomit. I was looking at it like, "Damn, that makes me feel like I'm home." So we put it in the film festivals and the shit just blew up.

What were your expectations when you released the film?

There were no expectations. I was like, "Man, this shit is too real. This ain't for everybody. They ain't even gonna understand this." But it worked. The timing with the emergence of certain technologies, being able to make a digital film--this is a new movement where we don't have to go through Hollywood. All these things came together. Most importantly, though, the story was just so gritty. You know what? The streets felt it. That's why pop culture got on it. When the 'hood started talking, that's when I knew this shit was gonna blow up.

The trends are set in the streets.

That's exactly how the mainstream jumps on. Trends start in the 'hoods and the barrios, boroughs. That's where the shit comes from. No matter how much marketing the mainstream can fuel something with, it all started in the streets. The mainstream can mass market it to the point where people believe that's who invented it, but the underground knows.

You mentioned having good timing as far as emerging simultaneously with the digital revolution. As an underground head new to the film business, how will you continue to improve and create a force in the underground?

There's a lot that I need to do. My shit was released independently. That whole principal and concept comes from the history of rap music in the Bay Area. When you come up out here you're independent. We grow up out here straight DIY. I saw the rise of Too $hort, E-40, Herm Lewis, RBL Posse, Nickatina. I saw these guys do their shit independently. I chose a different craft, digital film, and I knew how to make something independent blow up. That's how I grew up. My boy has an independent rap label and I used that same formula. I learned from the streets, from the game.

In the film, Hunter's Point rapper Hitman, who was murdered in 2003, makes a statement claiming that the gang war in HP now is no different than any other war fought by humans in the past. Can HP survive this war, or will SF's last major black neighborhood be destroyed?

RIP Hitman. He was shot up there on the hill. Live and die in Hunter's Point. He's right though. What the homies in the 'hood don't understand, though, is that they are further helping expedite the plans of The Man. Through redevelopment and gentrification the black population is falling. And killing each other only speeds up the government's plot. Everybody is fighting against them. They need to fight back against the repressors, not against those in the neighborhood. But it's hard when you're living in the cutthroat survival-of-the-fittest 'hood.