If firing up your Netflix app tends to instill in you the desire to pull on a cardigan and send a contribution to Mike Pence’s office, it might be time to balance that out with a new media source. Maybe something that will stir up some less-complacent, more-revolutionary feelings in your soul. Could be what you’re looking for is Bounce TV’s new streaming service, Brown Sugar, which caters to aficionados of ’70s-era blaxploitation films Shaft, Foxy Brown, and Across 110th Street.
“Brown Sugar is just like Netflix, only blacker,” genre mainstay Pam Grier says in a statement. “These movies are entertaining and fun, but they were also empowering to the black community as they depicted African Americans as strong leading characters and heroes for the first time.”
Serious music and film consumers who have yet to dip into this enormous and extremely entertaining well of cinema will likely encounter a lot of familiarity, and not only because they watched a Quentin Tarantino movie earlier in the week. “You can see the influence of these movies in every aspect of rap and hip-hop,” rapper Rick Ross posits in the same press release. “In the music, the lyrics, the fashion, and overall style—the Blaxploitation genre is where it all began.”
The $3.99-per-month service provides a decently sized selection of unedited and commercial-free classic content. And don’t worry, this isn’t an either/or decision. Once the credits roll on Black Caesar, you can always return to your beloved Netflix, content in the knowledge that Joe Swanberg’s delightful new indie series will be right there waiting for you.