Rest in Peace, you Human Tornado

I guess it had to happen eventually, but the world has one less black superhero; Rudy Ray Moore passed away in Akron, Ohio at 81 from Diabetes-related complications. I'm sure all the ladies out there know, he was just too sweet for this world.

I first heard of the actor, made famous by his raps (before there was rap) and his film roles, most notably Dolomite, back in high school when the white man was getting me down. Rudy paved the way for me to seek out such great films as Superfly, The Mack, Black Samurai, Black Belt Jones, Black Ceasar (which has an amazing soundtrack by James Brown) and too many countless other films that empowered African Americans and enabled their culture to transcend geography. When I was in college, I made it my mission to pass on the works of these groundbreaking entertainers to as many of the unexposed as I could.

Unfortunately, we all have to die sometime and in a way, I'd like to think that Rudy Ray Moore was making one more push for race relations in his death in that he's saying, "Yo, Whitey, we all gonna die, that's why you just have to keep all yo' shit fly."

Here is Rudy in perhaps his most famous role, Dolomite:


Here he is in a clip from Dolomite which proves that he was rapping way before Grand Master Flash, Melly Mel or The Sugar Hill Gang:


And lastly, here he is in one of my all time favorite films, Avenging Godfather (also known as "Avenging Disco Godfather.") If you are a fan of Big Daddy Kane, this is where he got the phrase, "Put yo' Weight on it!" This movie has it all, disco dancing, kung fu, people getting dusted and having the same hallucination of witches and vampires and shit, OMG it is soooo good. It's really a 90 minute long anti-PCP PSA.



Yep, this is a pretty sad day for me. Those who knew me in my early 20's know that I was maybe this close to starting a religion based around Rudy Ray Moore's teachings. I think I'm gonna have to watch Disco Godfather one more time tonight.