It was a tale about a young up incoming artist, Sixto Rodreqize, from Detroit. He was discovered by a record label, Sussex Records and the creator of Mowtown; who was thought for big things. His album Cold Fact was given a rare review from Bilboard and given four stars but both his albums were flops. (Cold Fact and Coming from Reality)
In one of his heart hitting songs the lyrics read: "Fired from my job two weeks before Christmas". We'll that was kind if like a bizarre premonition because after his second album flopped, he was dropped from his label 2 weeks before Christmas - despite the producers he worked with saying he was in the top 5 artists they ever worked with. (And they worked with the likes of: Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvn Gaye and the Surpremes).
His album however got round to South Africa and pirated and sold as boot leg albums…and it captured the hearts of the entire contanint! The people however soon realised about how little they knew of the mysterious artist, and what with being dropped from his label he was proven impossible to track down.
Rumors started circulating of his death; a suicide on stage, from pulling a gun and shooting himself on stage after a gig went wrong, to pouring gasoline on himself and setting himself a light on stage.
This caught the eye of a fan who done some detective work, since his album had been estimated to have sold 500 million and had been selling for 25 years after it made its way to the contanint. He was officially bigger than Elvs! Anyway after years of investigating a star they believed to be dead…they found him…living in the house he'd liven in for 40 years.
He was then taken to South Afrca where he was unaware he was so popular because he was dropped from the label so didn't see a penny of it and was living in poverty. He done 6 sellout shows to 20,000 people a night.
The documentry was artistic and insightful and a must see not just for any film-maker but of all audiences
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