People Who Inspired Me To Be A Writer: John Singleton (filmmaker)

From the moment I was born, one of the most popular films that we frequently watched in my family household was Boyz N The Hood (1991). As a young Black male living in the ghetto at the time, Boyz N The Hood just naturally rubbed me as the everyday environment of my actual community displayed on screen. As I got older I realized that this creative on screen display of a reality that I actually knew is what made this movie such a great film. This realistic and in depth display of storytelling was the standardized gift of one of my all time favorite storytellers, John Singleton.

John Singleton was an American filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. He rose to great prominence in the early 90’s with his debut film Boyz N The Hood, which would go on to be a landmark film, earning John Singleton a historical Oscar nomination as the first African American filmmaker to be nominated for best director and the youngest filmmaker ever to be nominated for best director. Boyz N The Hood captivated audiences from every background with its gritty, emotional and very realistic take on life in the inner city of South Central, Los Angeles. This was a story that was not only emotionally gripping with its characters and personality, but also a story that was very conscious about real world issues on a side of life’s track that the majority of American society feels is too taboo to address like race and social class. With John Singleton you did not just have a film that told you a story, but one that was also having a meaningful conversation with you. Throughout the remainder of the 90’s and into the early 2000’s John Singleton would bring more captivating dramas to the big screen that would serve as a sequel of sorts to Boyz N The Hood including, Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), and Baby Boy (2001).

As a young African American male from the inner city, I grew up around the influence of street crime, drugs, gangs and a community in turmoil because of said circumstances. What made John singleton such a great storyteller was being able to take uncomfortable subject matter and turn it into an eye opener of a conversation that had everyone talking, regardless of what you agreed or disagreed with. From a young age I knew that this was the type of storyteller I wanted to be. One that could craft stories of realism and emotionalism together in a way that would make those stories timeless.

I feel it should also be noted that John Singleton’s style of story illustrated how film and music are connected. When you watched John Singleton dramas he always had a rapper featured in the film who’s musical content was centered around the subject matter of the film, such as Ice Cube in Boyz N The Hood, Tupac Shakur in Poetic Justice and Snoop Dogg in Baby Boy. A testament to how true this is would be looking at how John Singleton named Boyz N The Hood after the song that was written by Ice Cube and performed by fellow Gangsta Rap pioneer Eazy-E when they would both in the group NWA together. John Singleton originally wanted all members of the group to be part of the film. I have always been crazy about the connection between movies and music and John Singleton taught me how to perfectly sync the two together when telling a story.

John Singleton’s sense of character development would also inspire me in my discovery of wanting to be a writer. Something very creative that John Singleton did with characters in his stories was he knew how to make an antagonist that was likeable and a protagonist that was unlikeable. I always thought this was very creative because it gave the viewer an opportunity to look at things from a new perspective, one that may have been very different from their own. Whether it was a gang member like Darrin “Doughboy” Baker in Boyz N The Hood, a neo-nazi skinhead like Scott Moss in Higher Learning, or even just a man-child minded young Black male like Joseph “Jodi” Summers in Baby Boy, John Singleton knew how to craft a character who you may have rooted for cinematically, even if you rooted against them personally.

For years it was one of my dreams to be able to have met John Singleton. With his death due to a stroke back in 2019, that dream would never come to past. I was genuinely sad when he passed away because this is someone who even in death will always be one of my heroes of storytelling. Not only is he one of the greatest filmmakers on a cinematic level who inspired me to want to be a filmmaker, but he also helped to pave the way for future young Black artist who wanted to make a career for themselves in film, a way paved for young aspiring artist to walk through such as myself. Even though he is no longer with us in life, the impact of his stories will live on in the conscience of American society forever.

I dedicate this to John Singleton, an amazing filmmaker and storyteller who inspired me to be a writer.