Spike Lee thinks that people from Chicago hate the movie Chiraq.
During an interview on V-103 Atlanta about his new film Highest 2 Lowest, Lee said the 2015 musical is one of the movies he’s made that people still don’t understand, especially those in the Windy City “People in Chicago hate Chiraq,” he said around the five-minute mark. “They hate that movie with a vengeance."
“Outside of Chicago, people understand what we were trying to do, but in Chicago, they hate that film like they hate the Knicks,” added Lee with a laugh. When asked about what he thinks people believe about him for making it, he imitated what he believes Chicago residents say about him.
“That N word don’t know anything about Chicago,” said Lee. “He ain’t from the hood. That kind of stuff.”
In another recent interview, Lee opened up about late jazz musician Eddie Palmieri’s final cameo in Highest 2 Lowest being “a blessing.”
Lee spoke about Palmieri, who passed away on Aug. 6 at the age of 88 after battling an extended illness, and his appearance in the film’s Puerto Rican Day Parade sequence.
“I would not say that’s a cameo, that’s a starring role,” Lee said to Entertainment Weekly, calling the day “joyous.”
“It was filmed live. We did five or six takes. We had to get different angles,” Lee added about the music. The legendary director also spoke highly of Palmier’s presence. “He was in his 80s, but he had more energy than me that day,” Lee explained. “The crowd loved him. It was a blessing.”
Highest 2 Lowest opened in select theaters on Aug. 15. The film premieres on Apple TV+ on Sept. 5.
The film is a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s classic film, High and Low (itself adapted from the novel King’s Ransom by Evan Hunter, which was written under his nom de plume, Ed McBain). In it, Denzel Washington stars as David King, a music executive who scrambles to keep his label functional after his son is kidnapped.
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