Cheo Hodari Coker Profile picture
Luke Cage EP/Co-writer of "Notorious","Lowriders" "Creed II"/@Stanford '94/@HotchkissSchool '90. Slow Marathoner. Gainful Black Employer.Definitely Earned It.
Jun 21, 2024 11 tweets 3 min read
Ok. Miles Davis had this idea for this new approach to jazz in 1959, ya dig. He didn't want his players, like John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly, to just riff over Western "Do Re Mi" chords. He wanted something different. "I wanted the music this new group would play to be freer, more modal, more African or Eastern and less Western. I wanted them to go beyond themselves..." he told Quincy Troupe for his Autobiography... ...It was deeper than that. The Africa Ballet of Guniea also hit NYC around the same time. Miles saw them at the behest of his future finance, dancer Frances Taylor, and was blown away. "It just fucked me up what they was doing, the steps ad all them flying leaps and shit," he told Troupe.
" And when I first heard them play the finger piano that night and sing this song with this other guy dancing, man that was some powerful stuff. It was beautiful. And their rhythm...I was counting off while I was watching them...So they would do rhythms like 5/4 and 6/8 and 4/4 and the rhythm would be changing and popping. That's the thing, that secret inner thing they had. It's African. I didn't want to copy that, but I got a concept from it."
Jun 8, 2024 64 tweets 12 min read
It's Prince's birthday. Should I tell you a Prince story? I've got some writing to finish. So that comes first. I'm going to leave you with a few things to marinate on until I come back to it.
Jun 7, 2024 28 tweets 4 min read
It's been 20 years...y'all want to hear a story about the 2004 VIBE Awards? I wrote the awards that year. We were doing pre-production all week. My cousin Thembi flew out from NYC, so I took her out to dinner at Gulfstream at the Century City mall...great seafood place, right across from Houston's....RIP to both....
Nov 13, 2022 20 tweets 3 min read
Wakanda Forever isn't as good as Black Panther....it's better. It's The Godfather Part II of Marvel Movies. You won't fully appreciate the full accomplishment and possibilities until you have the ability, on streaming, to watch them back to back like you would a series. The maturity and poise Ryan showed to beat back all you RecastT'challa muthafuckas is astounding. He melded poetic grief with real grief...and in an astounding way made Wakanda emotionally real for the audience in ways thought impossible in me-now fanboy social media era.
Oct 7, 2022 16 tweets 2 min read
The Color Purple just hit Netflix. One of the things I love about Netflix is it makes you excited to see old movies because the presentation is so good. The HD is clear, the framing is beautiful, the acting vibrant. I still argue it's Spielberg's best besides Raiders. The framing is exquisite. The camera moves. The dollies and focus pulls. Like Goodfellas, it's essentially directing school.
Feb 21, 2022 19 tweets 5 min read
Rewatching Luke Cage while I can on Netflix. They're going to do what they do. It's theirs. I just hope they don't sit on it for years to allow for an easier reboot, or re-air it with a different mix, or the N-Word muted. I'd love to do commentary tracks, or the original credits The original credits, before we did our more conventional bumpers, was LUKE CAGE in a yellow American International Pictures/"Tarantino" font. The jogging sequence from 106 was the original opening, with Luke jogging to Bill Withers "Harlem".
Feb 21, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
I'm really digging Bel Air. I know HBOMax is probably kicking themselves about not doing the show. The comparison contrast is fascinating in way that enhances appreciation of both shows. I think Geoffery and Uncle Phil had some links to the "bad man dem" back in Philly. How else is he going to afford that 15 million dollar house and have the "back channel" connections to negotiate Will's transition. What would be interesting is if Will's dad was caught up in that
Jan 7, 2021 6 tweets 1 min read
It happens this weekend. If you watch the patterns, Trump hates Camp David. He always goes to Maralago or Bedminster. They isolate him at CD and either the 25th happens or Impeachment happens. Don’t underestimate how shook the power structure is right now. The Senate is the holiest of Holy’s. They were lucky that the invasion was just the hillbillies. Imagine what a trained strike team could have done, or the hostage situation that could have ensued, particularly since they were “looking for” Pence and Pelosi...
Aug 29, 2020 22 tweets 3 min read
To not be sad for a minute...to fully appreciate the genius of Cobra Kai, watch "The Karate Kid" and then watch the series. The characterization is genius. The show is going to blow up on Netflix. The thing you have to appreciate is something I learned at Marvel: every villian is the hero of their own narrative. The irony is that William Zabka is now Pat Morita: a super in a run down building. And Daniel LaRusso is the villian. It's a class flip.
Apr 4, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read
As good as School Daze is, the directing leap that Spike Lee makes from School Daze to Do the Right Thing to Mo Betta Blues to Jungle Fever to Malcolm X in less than 5 years is astounding. Back to back. Every single year. You just gotta keep at it. Most important screenwriting lesson my uncle and John Singleton taught me is to watch movies constantly. To rewatch and rewatch. Film es otra lengua como espanol. The only way to become fluent is to constantly practice.
Oct 21, 2019 7 tweets 1 min read
Watchmen is amazing. I have no idea where it's going...and that's a great thing. Sometimes as Fanpeople we adhere so close to the mythology, we want things to match what we're familiar with. Damon took a much tougher road.... He wanted an audience to experience the same mindfuck we felt thirtysomething years ago when Watchmen dropped as a comic...it's a true adaptation because this show has adapted the previous mythology and evolved...