Pixiq

So documentary filmmaker Billy Corben tells us to pretend we are at the Orange Bowl. Before they tore it down, that is.

He tells us to close our eyes and imagine we are in a crowd of 60,000 crazed fans during a heated Miami Hurricane-Florida State Seminole game.

I’ve been to a few of those so I knew exactly what he was talking about. I didn’t even have to close my eyes.

And besides, Miami rapper Luther Campbell was in the studio with us last Thursday  leading the chants for what will become the soundtrack for the upcoming film, “The U”, a documentary about the Miami Hurricane football team.

Campbell, as you may know, was arrested in 1990 for singing profane lyrics to an adult audience in Broward County.

The case went to the Florida Supreme Court with Campbell (and the rest of the 2 Live Crew band) emerging victorious in what became a milestone First Amendment decision. This video sums it up pretty well.

Corben, Campbell and I are all longtime Hurricane fans. We are Miami natives who came from different backgrounds but were brought together by our city and our team.

So when Corben asked us to chant “It’s all about the U” for the soundtrack of the film, it came out natural. It came out even more natural when we were asked to do the “Fuck you, Seminoles” chant as you will see in the above video (turn the volume down if you’re at work).

Here is a brief synopsis of the upcoming film, which will premiere on December 12 at 9 p.m. on ESPN:

Throughout the 1980s, Miami, Florida, was at the center of a racial and cultural shift taking place throughout the country. Overwhelmed by riots and tensions, Miami was a city in flux, and the University of Miami football team served as a microcosm for this evolution. The image of the predominantly white university was forever changed when coach Howard Schnellenberger scoured some of the toughest ghettos in Florida to recruit mostly black players for his team. With a newly branded swagger, inspired and fueled by the quickly growing local Miami hip hop culture, these Hurricanes took on larger-than-life personalities and won four national titles between 1983 and 1991. Filmmaker Billy Corben, a Miami native and University of Miami alum, will tell the story of how these “Bad Boys” of football changed the attitude of the game they played, and how this serene campus was transformed into “The U.”

Corben and Alfred Spellman own Rakontur, the company that produced the Cocaine Cowboy movies, which became instant cult classics. They are young but they’ve already established themselves as some of the most talented filmmakers of the generation.

I’ve already seen a few clips from the upcoming movie and all I can say is if you’re a Hurricane fan, the film be inspirational. If you’re not, it will be informative.