Original subtitles

Yeah! I want Destiny's Child, y 'all. Put your hands together. Come on.

Man.

Yo, yo, let's get some mad, mad props to Latavia, Latoya, Kelly, and Beyonce at

Destiny's Child, y 'all. I want you guys to give a round of applause to the host

of...

But let's get down to business that the legendary Soul Train and Don Cornelius

is going all over the country from the hottest clubs in New York, L .A., Miami,

Chicago, looking for the hottest, sexiest people. And I see some of y 'all

here tonight, and you know who you are.

But for only the hottest, sexiest, we're going to invite you back here this

weekend to be on the live show. So show us what you got. Let's do this.

Every Saturday morning to keep you and Don, couldn't you?

Yeah, so dance, baby. They might pick you.

Nah, I've only got five hours left till our flight leaves.

Aw, come on. Our vacation starts tonight.

You can sleep on the plane.

Yeah, but what if they pick me? What am I going to do, fly back from Maui? Aw,

come on. Now we're supposed to be having a good time. This is a bon voyage for

you two.

Bye -bye.

Well, what are we supposed to do now?

Oh, dance, brother, dance.

Here we go.

Excuse me?

Don't you know who I am?

Yeah, you're the reason why I exist, lady.

It should be me on that stage.

Dream somewhere else, okay?

Excuse me, but I am Dana Brown.

Did you hear me? I said I am Dana Brown.

Dana!

Hello, baby.

Leave me alone.

Looking fine, girl.

Here, let me help you out.

Back off.

You guys go on the floor.

So what brings you here?

Planning a comeback?

You know better.

Get away from me.

Take it easy, girl.

But why don't you take that thing on back and go on back down to the

Oh, my God. Do you know who that is?

Yeah, that is Raymond Ross with Ride Records. No.

That's Dana Brown That woman saved my life

Let's get you home.

She's more than me.

Anybody who thinks she is free.

Stop it.

One is down.

Just another day.

It's all right.

Where am I?

You're in my apartment. I brought you here last night. You were in trouble.

No, no.

I don't want trouble.

Give me back my gun.

You were Raymond Ross.

No.

You hit your head last night. You almost got hit by a truck. You passed out.

Don't lie to me.

You were going to do me.

You better back up or I'm going to do you.

No. I brought you here to help you.

Why would you do that?

Because I'm a big Dana Brown fan.

Now that you heard, Dana Brown is dead.

I thought she was dead.

You saw her. She's alive.

Barely. I always knew that good Samaritan thing was overrated. Here she

Raymond Roth. He discovered her. He made her number one.

That's correct.

Hey, Bobby, any luck?

I've been all over the boardwalk, the beach, and the park, and there's no

of the girl or the gun.

You're in deep.

Yeah, I know.

Keep looking and keep quiet.

Russ was right. You should have gone on that vacation.

Yeah, well, if I don't get my gun back, I'm going to be on permanent vacation.

Is that the DMV run on Dana?

Mm -hmm, but it's useless.

Expired license, no current address. The last one is 10 years old. Her mother's

place? This is down in Gulf Town. Isn't that the name of her song?

Yeah, it's her old neighborhood.

And that's where I caught up with her last night.

Maybe she was trying to go home.

Dad, you going for the bottle?

I'll give it to him.

You want some?

Sure.

Hey! Hey!

I think you've had enough for this lifetime.

Where's your mother?

Mama?

She's dead.

I killed her.

You didn't kill her.

What do you know?

I know that suicide is a choice, and it wasn't your fault.

I know if I hadn't run off and turned Hollywood, my

mother would still be alive.

That's crazy.

She said my songs were the devil's music.

Look where they got me.

Yeah, but the music didn't get you here.

Yeah?

Well, who did?

I don't know, but I'm guessing that it was Raymond Ross.

Don't ever say that name.

You were waving a bottle at him last night. You thought that he was the one

sent me to kill you. I don't get it.

He brought you to number one.

And then he ruined my music.

How?

By filling it up with drum machines and horns and

tracks and fake samples, Raymond just doesn't

rob you blind.

He takes your soul.

Guess that does make him the devil, huh?

Yeah, but it's still your music.

Your words.

Those words saved me at a time when I really needed it.

I'm happy for you.

You belong in the studio.

No. On stage, in the spotlight.

I said no. Because of some ten -year feud with some gangster record producer?

Because if I ever, ever sing again...

That man will take a blade to my throat.

He threatened to kill you?

Not kill me.

Cut me.

Take out my vocal cords.

Maybe he was just bluffing.

You know Atomic?

One of Raymond's old rap acts that got killed in a drive -by?

No way.

Yeah, Raymond does fake carjacking.

Beatings. Jamie, sometimes folks just disappear.

Well, that's not going to happen because I'm going to look out for you.

You really don't know what you're messing with.

God,

no, not my hands, man.

It didn't always look dark.

That's how you're going to sound after Mudbone done with you.

Come on, Raymond, man. You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. I

pull your sorry eyes out of the gutter.

I get you on MTV.

And now you think you're an RP.

You repay my generosity a contract time with... No.

It's not fair, man.

Taking 50 %?

Beaves you with a hell of a lot more than you had before you were serving up

chicken and waffles at Roscoe's. Let me break his arm, man. It'll hurt more.

Nah. A broken arm heals in months, but mangled fingers take years.

Maybe never.

Come on, man. Not my hands.

I gotta play.

Like you've been playing me?

You're gonna make me get ugly.

Okay.

Okay. Okay, I'll sign it.

I'll sign it.

Pleasure doing business with you.

Why,

man? Now I can't play no more.

You still got your voice.

For now.

And I expect you to use it the way I tell you.

Morning.

Hey. Want some coffee?

We'll deal with this next week when you come back rested.

Raymond Ross has tortured people, arranged drive -bys, made clients

I know his reputation, but he's Teflon, and he's never even been convicted of

anything.

Look, if he's taken her royalties or he's blackballed her, that's a civil

422, anybody who willfully threatens to commit a crime... That results in death.

I know the criminal code, Strickland, but we don't even have evidence that

threatened her.

Yeah, but I can get it if I go undercover and I get him to repeat the

And I'll walk into court with Johnny Cochran and skate right back out.

Look, Jamie, we're undermanned as it is. If you want to waste your vacation,

that's fine.

But I don't even want to hear about it until you have something solid.

So you won't mind if I use my computer?

It's your vacation.

Now, do you want to explain why you want to give up your vacation to help some

homeless has -been?

No. What exactly were you talking about when you said she saved your life?

Look, none of that matters.

All I want to know is, are you going to help me?

I got you more studio time at a lower rate. The next step is to get you a

publicist. I've narrowed it down to three.

Publicist? I need clothes, doll.

Why don't we go hit the boutique?

Look at my defiance of me.

We didn't get a chance to meet the other night.

Raymond Rock.

I saw you at the Grammy.

You couldn't have.

That would have remembered you.

Well, I was watching it on TV.

Maybe next year.

Jamie Foster.

Manager. Who you got? You're looking at her.

Monica Lake.

Remember it.

With packaging like that, how could I forget?

You wouldn't be trying to snake my client, would you, Raymond?

Oh, no.

I just like to help new talent.

Yeah, that's funny. That's what I hear from all the A &R guys at the big record

companies. They're the real snake, the ones you gotta watch.

I'll try to remember that, since we're having dinner with two of them at the

tonight.

In that case, how about dinner tomorrow night?

I can explain the advantage of being an aggressive independent.

Do you write your own material?

No, but I'm working with someone I know you will like.

Are you crazy?

Like I told you, whether I sing it, Or write it. The man's still going to get

me. No, he won't.

But he'll try, and that's all we need to bust him.

So just give me one song.

I don't have any.

Then write one.

You think it's that easy, like turning on a faucet?

Well, how about giving me something old, something that he might recognize?

No.

There's got to be something somewhere. I'm just talking about one song.

Believe this.

A Dana Brown original.

No, this one's mine.

That was my mother's song.

Was she a musician too?

Mm -hmm.

Until she found religion.

Then she only sang in church.

My mother could blow some gospel.

She taught me how to play.

That's a great gift.

Look what I did with it.

What about your father?

Blues man.

He was always drinking and fighting.

He was always on the road.

My mother said he did bad things to us.

And that we were lucky he left.

Did he rip these?

No.

She did.

Her own thongs?

Got that one out of the trash.

I used one of her melodies in Ghost Town.

I guess that was my way of getting back at her.

Maybe it was your way of reaching out to her.

Stay here.

See, I told you. I told you Raymond has people watching me.

Well, I'm watching you now, so relax.

I can't.

Aren't you going to play it to the end? No need to.

Because you've got one of the most soulful voices I've ever heard.

Thank you.

So you like it?

Oh, yeah.

I liked it even better when Dana Brown sang it back in the day.

How'd you get it?

I'm representing Dana. She's making a comeback.

Funny.

Rumor has it she can't sing anymore.

Rumor also had it that she died.

Turns out neither one is true.

She got a demo yet?

She's putting one down right now.

Dana's voice is amazing.

Yeah, I heard it the other night. Kind of like a scream, yo.

Monica, would you excuse us for a minute?

I realize there's a whole lot of love in the room right now, but if you want to

discuss who owns Dana Brown, then let's just get right down to it. Oh, no.

Legal disputes are ugly.

What if we leave those matters for the lawyers so we can discuss the finer

things a night like tonight deserves?

Let's get our groove on.

Great.

I grew up in Venice.

No better than a stray dog.

I'd shout so much.

I dream so much of death.

But as a kid, I remember hearing something from the Bible.

That the kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth.

But men do not see it.

But I do.

I choose to see the beauty in everything.

Creating music is the best way of bringing that beauty to the world.

This is from the king of gangster rap.

The people's poetry.

It speaks their truth.

And our truth is beautiful.

Yo, yo, no talk, man.

Yeah, let's get our boogie on before I have to chat.

Excuse me?

What my man is asking you is to honor him with a dance before he heads out to

take care of some business.

Go on, girlfriend.

Get your groove on.

Okay, girlfriend.

You know I'm really not as bad as Dana tried to tell you.

Actually, she hasn't told me much.

You really want to play this game?

No, I'm not playing a game. I'm just curious.

Dana was a scared 16 -year -old runaway.

No experience in music.

But she had a voice in from heaven.

Nobody thought she'd make it but me.

I risked my money, energy, and time getting her single to number one. I made

dream come true.

Only once she was there, she thought she did it herself. Didn't need me anymore.

But to go from all that to nothing.

The fame and money.

Messed with her mind.

I should have expected it with that mother of hers.

I heard she committed suicide.

Hope it doesn't run in the family.

Oh, well, don't worry about Dana.

I've got producers all over town just waiting to hear her track. She's going

be large again.

Good luck on getting her straight.

If her new stuff's any good, I'd love to hear it. So would my lawyers.

Look, all the apologies in the world can't erase what just happened.

But I told you I've got backup now.

And I promise that will never happen again.

Well, can you at least tell me what happened between you and Raymond?

now that I have his version, I want to hear the true one.

You don't want to tell me, then tell me when I'm wrong.

You ran away when you were 16 and Raymond was like a dream come true.

With strong, seductive, protective. And he believed in your music.

Only it was more than your voice and your songs that he wanted and you didn't

give it to him.

Nobody says no to Raymond.

So he loosens you up with drugs and booze.

Got too high on the fame.

Only those became crutches to hide the pain.

The only problem with that is...

Memories and pain always come back.

So what do I do now?

Stop running.

The bitch got away, man.

She climbed through the bathroom window, shot me down the fire escape, damn near

broke her leg, jumped me down the first floor, man. Ain't no way I'm gonna catch

her.

Ain't no thing.

Man, you just stay close.

Find out what the hell she's up to.

And as soon as you get another chance...

Dog, I'm going to enjoy that.

That's what I want to hear.

It's all illusion.

Just a trick of light.

And shadows floating on the night.

No. No!

It's okay.

It's the nightmare.

The one you keep having?

Tell me about it.

I'm being stabbed.

Somebody has a knife and they're coming after me. Who?

Who's coming after you? I don't know. I don't know. I can't see the face. All I

know is that that's how I'm going to die.

Okay.

Go back into the dream. No. No.

Look at him. Who has the knife?

I don't know. I don't want to.

So, Dana, maybe this is not a dream. Maybe this is a...

A premonition or a memory. Oh, no, I don't want to go there.

Okay. Your mother said that your father did things to you.

Oh, no, no, but he never cut me. Well, maybe he threatened to or he tried to.

You've got to remember.

I can't.

You don't get it. Yes, Dana, I do get it. No, you...

All I could do is kill time.

What the hell is the point in that?

The point is that you are alive.

And that means that you have a future.

And you can do whatever you want with that future. Oh, please, please.

That's easy for you to say. You don't know what it's like.

And your mother didn't... I didn't have a mother. I didn't have a father either.

I didn't even have a baby picture. Then how did you get through it?

You got me through it. What?

When I was 16, I did time at a work camp for juvenile offenders.

Who'd you offend?

My foster father.

I shot him five times to stop him from poisoning my little sister the way he

poisoned me.

The place was freezing.

And I was surrounded by barbed wire.

And I didn't think that I would make it.

And I got this little piece of glass and I hid it.

And I took it to the bathroom one night.

And I was desperate.

I was going to do it.

But then I heard this song coming from a radio.

Your song.

And I took it as a message to let me know that I could make it.

That I wasn't alone.

It saved me.

You know, maybe you should take a listen to your own words. Because back then,

you had a strength within you that you didn't even know about. And I know that

it's in there somewhere because nobody can take that away from you.

He sees me singing on that stage.

My song.

My way.

He's going to lose his mind.

You know this means risking your life.

What life?

The one we're going to get back for you.

Come on, Lewis, man. You can get Dana one set next week. Not in my club, man.

Come on. You can say you rediscovered her. Now, don't tell me you're afraid of

Raymond. Yo, don't even say dude's name around me, man. Oh, why?

What'll happen if you help her?

Look, all I know is Dana Brown is dead, and I'm not joining.

What happened to Dana Brown?

She okay?

She's fine.

She's making a comeback.

I'm glad to hear that. That girl was super talented. We've been missing her.

Well, um...

You know that her manager blackballed her.

Well, not from Soul Train.

Don loved her when she did the show.

Oh, well, uh... She's back. She just needs someone to give her a shot.

Dig it, dig it. Well, I mean, I can talk to Don and see what we can do.

Okay, well, here's my card.

Give me a call.

Right.

You believe that, two -bit wannabe?

Got her on Soul Train and then want to badmouth me.

Yo, dawg, I'll handle it.

Damn straight you will.

And this time you'll get it right.

Hey, cut me a break, yo.

It's my first strike, a 'ight? That's one more than the guy before you was

allowed. You don't want to end up like him?

Don't make another.

Hey, I'll keep you clean, dawg. And I've kept you alive.

Blow this, you'll be wishing you were dead.

Believe me, man, I got it covered.

No, no, no. I got a better idea.

Find Dana and cut her up.

I love making her dreams come true.

I met a little club. I'm not ready for Soul Train.

Well, they're ready for you.

Show's tomorrow night.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not singing there.

Well, you better, or you'll have to answer to Don Cornelius.

She's so scared. Why is she going up there? Because she's sick of running,

this is a chance of a lifetime.

Soul Train calls, and she jumps up on stage. She didn't jump. I pushed her.

And the threat is real. That's why I need backup.

We've already been over this, Jamie. I'm undermanned. I'm sorry.

Fine. Wait till it's a homicide, then it's your case, right?

Hey, I'm still with you.

I looked up that list of Raymond's old clients, and you were right.

No one would talk.

Well, that's because half of them are dead, and the other half just left the

music business.

That's a shocker.

No, this is.

Wake up. Monica.

No, she's gone. It's me. I saw the face.

The one with the knife?

Who? Who was it? It was my mother.

She tried to kill me.

In the dream?

No.

In real life.

My own mother tried to kill me.

Dana, there's something you need to know about your mother.

Her medical records show that she was manic depressive. She stopped taking her

medication, and so that's why she destroyed her music. That is why she

suicide. No, my mother was not crazy.

She was just trying to save me, stop me from going to hell.

She was very ill, Dana.

I ran out on her.

You had to. I could have saved her. You had to save yourself.

I loved her and nobody.

Once she stopped taking that medication, no one could help her.

Dana, get upstairs.

Now!

Let her go. Yeah.

That's gonna happen.

I appreciate it. Welcome to the hippest trip in America.

We're glad y 'all could be with us until the Soul Train is going to be totally

blazing off the hook with spectacular performances from some of the hypest

groups to ever rock the Soul Train stage.

Glad you could make it.

I heard this might be an exciting show.

Butterflies.

No. No, Raymond, I'm... I'm fine.

Good. Good.

I just dropped by to tell you to break a leg.

Funny old expression, isn't it?

Considering I'm gonna break a lot more than legs when you've had your little

moment here.

Was that a threat I just heard?

Sure sounded like one to me.

And since making death threats constitutes a felony... What the hell?

You're not serious.

Dead serious.

You think you really got a chance in hell with this?

What we got is a singer named Lope Dog willing to testify on how real your

threats are.

You mean that fat -ass loser.

He's your best shot.

There's also Mudbone.

Mudbone's there.

Actually, no.

He's at St.

John's singing like a bird as we speak.

Let's go.

I want to talk to my lawyer.

In a minute.

First, there's a performance I know you don't want to miss.

From here in Los Angeles.

I want you to put your hands together for a super talented young lady. She's

been away for a long time and we're lucky to have her back. Give it up for

talented and beautiful Miss Dana Brown.

You okay there?

I'm fine. I'm fine. Can you stop me over again, please? Sure.

One more time for Miss Dana Brown.

on broken windows angry homies on the corner talking

jive crying baby someone cursing make it

shut up low funky bird booms the night as it drives by

slowing down to have a look at

shriek of light and shadow floating on the night

and if the sun could pierce the darkness

you would surely find ghost town is the state

You doing all right?

I've been drinking a lot.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Starbucks, Dietrich, Seattle's best.

As my sponsor would say, every coffee house in town knows my name.

So it's all working out.

I decided to fix up the old house now that all the ghosts are gone.

And the music?

My lawyers are actually entertaining a couple of authors from some new labels.

Oh, all right.

Dana Brown, back on top.

Oh, you know, that's not what really matters.

I'm doing what I love again.

That's what matters.

Yeah.

Well, I got to go.

My vacation officially ends in ten minutes.

Jamie, I really wish you the best.

And I wish you love, peace,

And go.

Don't try to talk it down.

Why, everyone likes all my town.

The fantasy, it works for me.

Take a look around.

Just another day in L .A.

Anybody needs more than me.

Anybody thinks he is free.

Someday.

One bullet down, just another day.