Radio Raheem (2022)

I grew up in the 80s. Boom boxes, cassettes, walkmans – anything analog – is nostalgia to me. When I was brainstorming ideas for my next art piece, I knew I wanted to capture this. I stumbled across a picture of the ‘Super Jumbo’ boombox. It was instant – I had to incorporate it into a piece! Finding the picture also lead me to discover the movie ‘Do the Right Thing’ in which one of the characters carries around the boombox.

‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989) is a comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee. Wikipedia puts it as “a Brooklyn neighborhood’s simmering racial tension between its African-American residents and the Italian-American owners of a local pizzeria, culminating in tragedy and violence on a hot summer day.” I highly recommend seeing the movie so I won’t give any spoilers here. But I will say that the character, Radio Raheem, is significant.

In the movie, his boombox blasts “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy. What other songs might play from Raheem’s boombox – then and now? For fun, I put together a 32-song playlist. One song for each cassette tape in the border of the piece.