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My favorite song was“ Crossroads” by Bone Thugs, without even knowing that crossroads is a blues thing that found its way into Cleveland gangsta rap. It was his uncle’ s death that changed everything.“ I started listening to music without him to explain it to me, trying to hang on to every word to find clues about his life, about why he loved it. And boom— I realized the genius of it all. That it was the foundation from which everything came.”
Buddy Guy and the living memory
Flashmag! Issue 169 February 2026
One of the most moving appearances in the film is that of Buddy Guy, the 88-year-old living legend of blues.“ Buddy Guy was the last musician my uncle went to see regularly,” says Coogler.“ He would dress up and go to his concerts until he died.” When Coogler suggested casting him in the film, everyone panicked. But he insisted. At Legends, Buddy Guy’ s club in Chicago, the guitarist greeted him with,“ I don’ t know who you are or what you do, but my grandchildren tell me I should meet you. So whatever you need, I’ ll do it.” Coogler showed him the film in Chicago.“ He gave his approval,” he says simply. Then he explains why Buddy Guy always wears polka dots.“ When he left home to become a blues musician, he told his mother he would make enough money to buy her a polka dot Cadillac. She died before he could do that. So polka dots became his trademark.”
“ Boyz N the Hood” at age 5
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Coogler grew up in the shadow of the Black Panthers’ military defeat. The dream of a better life in the West was dead.“ The first movie I saw in the theater was Boyz N the Hood,” he says.“ I was 5 years old. My dad took me.” Five Years. A brutal film about street violence in Los Angeles.. My father was in his twenties. He had lost his father just before I was born.