Spike Lee's Django Unchained Diss: 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell Rips Director as "Scheming Uncle Tom"

Rapper slams Do the Right Thing auteur for trashing Quentin Tarantino's controversial film for its subversive depiction of slavery

By Alexis L. Loinaz Jan 16, 2013 4:03 PMTags
Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, Spike Lee, Luther CampbellAndrew Cooper/The Weinstein Company , Joe Schildhorn /BFAnyc.com, Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic

2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell is unimpressed with Spike Lee's unimpressed take on Django Unchained.

The rapper, aka Uncle Luke, has slammed the filmmaker for publicly trashing the Oscar-nominated spaghetti Western over director Quentin Tarantino's controversial, subversive depiction of slavery.

And Campbell is mincing no words.

In his Tuesday column in the Miami New Times, the rapper characterizes Lee as a "scheming Uncle Tom" who makes films "that most African-Americans cannot relate to." Harsh.

"Screw Spike Lee," begins Campbell's lacerating essay. "Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is a brilliant flick that more accurately depicts the African-American experience than any of the 15 movies about black culture Lee's directed in his lifetime."

The MC then begs the Do the Right Thing director to "get over himself" while praising Tarantino for being "one of Tinseltown's most clever directors."

"Some of the most brutal scenes in Django Unchained are metaphors for the unfair racial inequality African-Americans still experience today," he writes.

He did, however, save his most scathing barb for last, closing things out with this: "Spike is upset because Samuel L. Jackson's character in the movie is just like him: a conniving and scheming Uncle Tom."

Lee blasted the film shortly before it opened last month, tweeting, "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them."

Tarantino, however, is sitting pretty throughout the melee: Django snagged a surprise best screenplay award at last Sunday Golden Globes, and the flick is up for five Oscars including Best Picture.