iCandy: Sticky Remote

I have a bad habit to confess: yours truly is addicted to watching bad movies. Cheesy thrillers, predictable suspense movies and campy horror films. Whenever they're broadcast on cable, I find myself watching them over and over. The same ones, sometimes even twice a day.

Such is the case with Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood. Over the weekend, it must have been broadcast two or three times; I was glued to the set each time. The killer leprechaun sequel is so bad, it's good. This time, the crazed Lep is in the hood, chasing the gang bangers and hoochies who stole his pot-o-gold. One of his victims: Sticky Fingaz.

We first met four or five years ago, in downtown Brooklyn. I had just moved to New York, and was living across the street from Brooklyn Tech. A block away, at the corner of Fulton and Fort Greene Place, is a small chicken joint. Everyone in Fort Greene knows this spot. Students at nearby Tech or BAM grab lunch here. They rub shoulders with genteel Buppies that own brownstones on South Portland that face the park. Sticky Fingaz and cousin Fredro Starr used to hang there.



Sticky—born Kirk Jones—is best known for fronting rap group Onyx in the early- and mid-nineties. His signature raspy voice and brash MC style helped bring hip-hop sound into the mosh pit. Jones began performing with his cousin Fredro, and the pair was discovered by hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay. They formed Onyx and in '93 released their first album, Bacdafucup. Today, that album is part of hip-hop lore and legend. They dropped two more CDs before Fingaz went solo.

His first solo album, Black Trash: The Autobiography of Kirk Jones, was released in 2000 and is considered a conceptual album. His sophmore effort, Decade, followed in 2003. It didn't fare nearly as well as the debut. Initially, film work was his side hustle; today he's more identified as an actor, which is fine with me. I love seeing him on celluloid, even in critically-acclaimed B-movies like Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood.

Saying Fingaz has "presence" would be an understatement. He's stunning. Beautiful peanut butter brown skin, an arresting straight-outta-Brooklyn accent, cocky demeanor. (Sigh) The few times I saw him, he was cooler than ice, relaxing at a table, laughing on the corner with friends, making small talk with fans.

Gotta go. The leprechaun movie will start soon.