Spike Lee

"Baby Baby Baby Please Baby Please Baby Please." lol

Spike Lee, producer, writer, film director, Actor, and the World's BIGGEST and truest New York Knicks fan was born Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee on March 20Th, 1957. he has since become an Emmy Award winner and has been nominated for Academy Awards. He is best known for his films dealing with controversial social and political issues. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University.His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced 35 Films since 1983.

Lee was born in Atl, GA. the son of Jacqueline Shelton, a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician, and composer. Lee moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York when he was a small child. The Fort Greene neighborhood is home to Lee's production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, and other Lee-owned or related businesses. As a child, his mother nicknamed him "Spike." In Brooklyn, he attended John Dewey High School. Lee enrolled in Morehouse College where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B.A. in Mass Communication from Morehouse College. He then enrolled in New York University's Tech School of the Arts. He graduated in 1978 with a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television.

^Ya'll Know who this is... Its Mookie^
Spike Lee

Lee's thesis film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Center's New Directors New Films Festival.

In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, the film was shot in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office.

The reception of She's Gotta Have It led Lee down a second career avenue. Marketing executives from Nike (WOOHOO) offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company. They wanted to pair Lee's character from She's Gotta Have It, the Michael Jordan-loving Mars Blackmon, and Jordan himself in their marketing campaign for the Air Jordan line. (For all you young SO-CALLED "SneakerHeads" out there, this is when Jordan was releasing Quality Sneakers do your homework and figure out what I'm talking about.) Later, Lee would be a central figure in the controversy surrounding the inner-city rash of violence involving Air Jordans. Lee countered that instead of blaming manufacturers of apparel, "deal with the conditions that make a kid put so much importance on a pair of sneakers, a jacket and gold". Through the marketing wing of 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has also directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's.

Lee's movies have examined Race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues.

Personal Thoughts:

My earliest memory of Spike Lee has to be watchin "Do the Right Thing" as a kid, back then I didn't understand it nor do I remember how I felt while watching it, but I do remember a younger thinner Spike Lee walking up and down the Brooklyn streets as Mookie, wearing what I Believe was the Jackie Robinson Baseball jersey, some shots and some Nike Trainers. That was one of the coolest movie I had ever seen, and since I've loved most of his works. "He Got Game" was another one that I loved. Seein Ray Allen playing a Coney Island Basketball prodigy alongside Denzel Washington was just great to me. (I hate to have to mention it all the time) but damn Those Jordans that Denzel copped in the movie, made them even more great to me. Spike himself has always been quite the Jordan Loyalist himself which is one of the reasons I've felt I can relate to him. Whenever I'm watching a movie even if I don't know that its "a Spike Lee Joint" I can tell it is because of the use of Music, the actors used in the movie and of course that Floating effect that he uses. Spike is most def one of those people in Black History that deserves a lot of recognition and respect for the craft that he loves so much and produces for our enjoyment. With that said I wanna thank Spike for all his works that have raised Eyebrows, made people think, and scratch their heads. Thanks man. I'll always remember what Da Mayor (Ozzie Davis) said and 'Do The Right Thing'.