by Shawn James
The idea behind this story was inspired by a joke at the dinner table. In an attempt to imitate rapper 50 Cent I came up with the following verse:
Steppin to me like you so tough,
Well you look like a punk when I spray you up.
With the joke, I was taking a jab at gangsta rap and gangsta rappers. But soon it evolved into a story about a no-budget movie called Spray Em’ Up, about a soldier taking on a neighborhood drug kingpin named Dex. I came up with the names of all the characters on the fly and cast it with a bunch of B-list Black actors. In the gag Henry Simmons was John Williams, Michael Jai White was Dex, and Halle Berry was Marcia. There would be a special guest appearance by the President of the United States Barack Obama.
Every time I would go into character and say a line from Spray Em’ up I’d get laughs. The more scenes I added, the more people liked it. The more they encouraged me to put the story to paper.
But I declined. I had other projects in the queue. Other projects I thought were better than this. Personally, I thought the story was awful.
However, after publishing All About Nikki-The Fabulous First Season I was rusty. I spent close to a year on the business side of self-publishing promoting and publishing books and hadn’t written an original story. Most of my time was spent editing old material. I felt I needed to do a story as a warm-up. Something to get the cobwebs out of my brain and get some words on the page. Spray Em’ Up was perfect premise.
My plan was to write a homage to classic low-budget action pics from the 1980’s like American Ninja, The Delta Force, Invasion USA, and Commando. These cheaply produced action movies were a staple of my life growing up in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.As a teenager I spent many an afternoon watching musclemen like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michael Dudikoff blow away bad guys and get the girl.
I always wanted to see an African American in that kind of action movie growing up back in the 1980’s. Unfortunately, the only one ever made was Action Jackson with Carl Weathers. The film was ok, but lacked the personality and the punch of Stallone, Schwazenegger or Dudikoff’s films. Weathers was OK, but they gave him nothing to work with story wise.
I wanted to write a story in the style of the Classic 1980’s action movies with an all African-American cast. I understood that the story model for these kinds of films is one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The heroes kind of wink at the camera and smile and the focus is on action, action and more action.
The entire Spray Em’ Up story was mostly in my head; all I had to do was get it to paper. So I spent most of July 2011 writing up the screenplay. Three-quarters of the way there I had to stop to continue my 2011 Summer Young Adult eBook Campagn. But in December I got inspired and finished the story.
I’m hoping you liked Spray Em’ up because I had a lot of fun writing it.
###
About The Author
Shawn James is the author of four paperbacks, two screenplays, and over ten eBooks. He is also a feature columnist for African-American social media site Onixlink.com. A graduate of Monroe College he’s been writing for over fifteen years.
The Saga of MastiKatious
Baptism of Blood
Isis: Trial of the Goddess
The Temptation of John Haynes
All About Nikki-Three Episodes From the Fabulous First Season
The Sneakers
Connect With Shawn Online:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/shawnsjames
LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/shawnsjames9973
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnsjames
Discover Shawn James’ blog at:
shawnsjames.blogspot.com