美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Patti Cake$,' An Aspiring Rap Artist Reaches For The Stars

In 'Patti Cake$,' An Aspiring¹ Rap Artist Reaches For The Stars

DWANE BROWN, HOST:

For dreamers, there are few places on earth that beckon² like New York City. And it's especially tempting³ for those on the other side of the Hudson River, in New Jersey⁴. The tension between big dreams and daily doldrums is at the center of a new film called "Patti Cake$," which is out in theaters right now. The film stars Australian newcomer Danielle Macdonald as the title character, also known as Killa P or Patricia Dombrowski. Patti is a 23-year-old aspiring rapper trapped in a rundown home town, and she sees music as her ticket out of the Jersey suburbs. And just a heads-up for our listeners, her rhymes can get a little salty.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PATTI CAKES")

DANIELLE MACDONALD: (As Patti, rapping) Patti and Jerry (ph), we will be legendary⁵ from the bottom like [expletive], the game up missionary⁶. I'm in my own trap as I flick⁷ the world the birdie. My verse is full of curses 'cause I'm stuck in dirty Jersey. Let's move to New York City. We'll make a couple millies (ph), split that [expletive] up 50/50. I'd give my left titty and a kidney just to cross a [expletive] river. Brooklyn tunnel, come on, Jerry, sing it with me.

BROWN: To hear more about the film, I'm joined by its director and writer, who seems to be chuckling⁸ after hearing that clip, Geremy Jasper, and lead actress Danielle Macdonald from WBEZ in Chicago. Geremy, Danielle, thanks for joining us, guys.

GEREMY JASPER: Thanks for having us.

MACDONALD: Thank you.

BROWN: Geremy, can you start off, just give us a sense of who is Patti Cake$, and and what is she up against in this film?

JASPER: Patti is a young lady who's - has a lot of talent and a very vivid internal world, who's fighting a very greedy reality. And she's someone who knows inside, in her heart, she has all this potential and all these things to say, but the world doesn't - or at least her neighborhood doesn't really want to hear.

BROWN: And she's in New Jersey, which is across the Hudson.

JASPER: That's where I'm from. And New York is like - it's Oz. It might as well be 3,000 miles away or the moon, but you can - you feel like you can reach out and touch it, but it seems impossible to get to.

BROWN: And, Danielle, we know you're not from Oz, but you're originally from Australia. And I understand you didn't have any particular connection either to rap music or Jersey when you first read the script. So what drew you to the part?

MACDONALD: The story. The character. I - I mean, first of all, it was like a amazing story about finding yourself, bit of an underdog story, which I always love. But it was done in a really interesting way. I think Geremy just had a very strong vision. I felt like the style was so cool. And I just kind of fell in love with who Patti was as a person.

BROWN: And, Geremy, give us a sense of how this story came to your mind as you wrote it down because this is your first time out as a film director, writer.

JASPER: It is. It's my first screenplay. And they always say, write what you know. Well, what I know is that I was a chubby⁹ little blond kid in the suburbs of New Jersey who was obsessed¹⁰ with hip¹¹-hop when I first heard it at 9 years old and filled endless secret notebooks full of songs and kind of harbored this dream to be a musician and then found myself at 23 living in my parents' basement taking care of my grandfather with a broken hip and just, you know, working dead-end jobs and not feeling like I was going to get out. And I felt like I was living inside a Bruce Springsteen song. And so when I did finally get out, I decided¹² to channel that into this character Patti. And that's really her struggle.

BROWN: Well, let's play a clip from the film. This is from early on in the movie, when we are actually introduced to Patti's main partner in crime, Jerry. Jerry works a day job at a pharmacy¹³. And when Patti walks in to visit him, he takes it upon himself to usher¹⁴ her arrival in style.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PATTI CAKES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, over loudspeaker) Lords and ladies of the royal court, bow down. The queen is in the building. Introducing Ms. Patricia Dombrowski, aka Patti Cake$, aka White Trish (ph), aka Juicy Luciano (ph), aka Marilyn Mansion¹⁵ (ph), aka Jane Doe (ph), aka Killa P.

MACDONALD: (As Patti, over loudspeaker) And introducing the ladies' choice, the voice that gets you moist. It's going to be an Indian Summer, y'all. Mr. Jerri Curls, aka Young Stamos, aka Dipac Shakur (ph) aka the Durag Davinci (ph), aka Rawdog Zillionaire, (ph) aka the Quiet Storm. Boys and girls, I give you my soulmate, my homie-o (ph), it's Jeromeo (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) This isn't "Showtime At The Apollo," OK? We have customers here. Play make-believe on your lunch break.

BROWN: So that's reality, right? You aspire¹⁶ to be one thing but reality slaps you in the face and reminds you that you're at work. This is not the place to do hip-hop. This is not the place...

JASPER: To become your superhero alter-ego.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: When you think about this, Danielle, you never rapped before. You've certainly never had the thick Jersey accent. Is it true that you even had a coach to help you with the rap?

MACDONALD: Oh, yeah. I kind of started off - just Geremy would send me a new song to learn each week. And I would try and figure out how on earth I was meant to learn it and record it and send it back to him. So I kind of had to figure out how to breathe, which was pretty difficult, and just kind of learn rhythm and flows. And I listened to a ton of different songs, different artists and different styles of rap to see what I could naturally do better than - and what I really was bad at as well.

And then, about a month before we started shooting, I got a rap coach and he was awesome¹⁷. He's a local Brooklyn-based rapper named Skyzoo. And he's got a very different style than, like, Geremy for example. So it was really cool to figure out Patti with different influences. And he taught me how to get out of my head, how to move through my body. He helped me so much.

BROWN: Geremy, so much of the film is really about dreams deferred¹⁸ or unrealized. What has that meant for you to finally see this movie come together and go out into the world?

JASPER: You know, I've been making stuff and struggling to make stuff for over 20 years now. So the fact that all of that hard work, dreaming of being an artist since I was a little kid, and it took me 40 years to do it, but it feels like everything that I've been struggling to do - the writing, the music, filmmaking - has all come together. Now that the Patti's in the Jerry's out there in small towns can actually see this film, that's the most exciting thing for me.

BROWN: That's director Geremy Jasper and actress Danielle Macdonald. They spoke¹⁹ with us from member station WBEZ in Chicago. Their new film "Patti Cake$" is in theaters now. Geremy, Danielle, thanks for speaking with us.

JASPER: Thank you so much.

MACDONALD: Thank you.

1 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

2 beckon   

v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤

参考例句：

• She crooked her finger to beckon him.她勾勾手指向他示意。
• The wave for Hawaii beckon surfers from all around the world.夏威夷的海浪吸引着世界各地的冲浪者前来。

3 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

4 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

5 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

6 missionary   

adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士

参考例句：

• She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
• I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。

7 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

8 chuckling   

轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I could hear him chuckling to himself as he read his book. 他看书时，我能听见他的轻声发笑。
• He couldn't help chuckling aloud. 他忍不住的笑了出来。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

9 chubby   

adj.丰满的，圆胖的

参考例句：

• He is stocky though not chubby.他长得敦实，可并不发胖。
• The short and chubby gentleman over there is our new director.那个既矮又胖的绅士是我们的新主任。

10 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

11 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

14 usher   

n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员

参考例句：

• The usher seated us in the front row.引座员让我们在前排就座。
• They were quickly ushered away.他们被迅速领开。

15 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

16 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。

17 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

18 deferred   

adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从

参考例句：

• The department deferred the decision for six months. 这个部门推迟了六个月才作决定。
• a tax-deferred savings plan 延税储蓄计划

19 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。