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The D.I.Y. approach has defined punk culture since The Sex Pistols first roared into a microphone. While the D.I.Y. aesthetic can also be seen in hip-hop music and culture, it was the punks that originally named and claimed it.

Clad in ripped jeans, Doc Martin boots and leather jackets punk bands were notorious for having more moxy than musical talent. As a rebel yell against the politics of the ruling classes and the sound of pop music (across the ocean, hip-hop culture was battling the same demons), it didn't matter if you weren't an instrumental virtuoso and didn't have a five-octave range.

Although pioneering Black punk bands like Bad Brains and Fishbone bought different influences into the sound factory of punk in the early '80s (fusion, ska) there are many who still thought the scene was, as writer Nadine Anglin once wrote all about, "crazy white kids suicide music".

In 1980, former jazz fusionists who were more into Herbie Hancock than The Clash, Bad Brains group members H.R.(singer), Darryl Jenifer (guitarist), Dr. Know (bassist and Earl Hudson (drummer) were turned out by the audio angst of Rotten and Vicious, and never looked back. Performing regularly at the 930 Club in Washington, D.C., this rhythmic revolution was the beginning of the Afro-Punk generation.

The punkadelic influence of the Bad Brains has been the jump off for artists that include both classic acts and new jacks: Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy, PBR Streetgang, Living Colour, Lenny Kravitz, André 3000, The Beastie Boys, Chocolate Genius, Meshell Ndegeocello, Faith, Mos Def, Apollo Heights, Tamar Kali and countless others. Former 930 Club DJ Tom Terrell recalls, "Before the Bad Brains no other band had been able to combine white noise with black spiritualism and make music sound so powerful".

Fishbone lead singer Angelo Moore was also changed by the black noise of the Bad Brains. After a recent solo poetry gig at Manhattan nightspot Joe's Pub, Angelo reminisced, "Originally, I was a hip-hop kid with a jeri curl, a green metallic suit from Merry-Go-Round. I had appeared as a dancer in the movie Breakin'. When I first heard the Bad Brains, I thought, 'Those white boys are bad; when I found out they were Black, my world just stopped."

In the late '90s, Maverick Records signed the Bad Brains, though a record was never released. In 2004, king of crunk Lil Jon proved himself down when he recorded "Roll Call Bad Brains Remix" (a crazy cocktail combining "Real Nigga Roll Call" with the Brains classic "Re-Ignition), on his latest country opus Crunk Juice.

Twenty-eight-year-old filmmaker James Spooner is also a spiritual son of the Bad Brains. A fan of punk since he was 12, Spooner first wanted to be down with the sound the moment he met his soon-to-be buddy Chavez. "He was the first punk I had ever met," Spooner, who was living in the desert town of Apple Valley, California at the time, remembers. "Chavez wore combat boots and a leather jacket, and I thought he was the coolest kid."

Later, his new friend introduced Spooner to wildboy music of The Dead Kennedy's, The Sex Pistols, The Misfits and, of course, Bad Brains. "There was just something about the aggressive power of the music that empowered me." In the 16 years he's been on the scene, Spooner has gone to hundreds of shows and met many other Black punks (though Spooner is biracial, his mother is white, he is more Black identified) like himself. Indeed, it was through these meetings and friendships that served as the inspiration for Spooner's critically acclaimed film Afro-Punk.

"When I first decided to create Afro Punk, I had no idea how to make a movie," Spooner recalls. "All I knew was I wanted to make a documentary about black punk rockers. The D.I.Y. aesthetic that I learned in the punk community was definitely applied." While auteur Spike Lee has spoken out against directors who brag about not attending film school and are "ignorant to film grammar", Spooner refused to be swayed.

Touring the film festival circuit, including Toronto and Urban World since finishing the project in 2003, the black and white Afro-Punk is a 70-minute brilliant mess that that brims with blissful energy and enthusiasm. Though not as polished as the latest Michael Moore project, the film is an important document that serves as both introduction to a subculture and a cinematic manifesto that assures marginal Blacks with blonde mohawks that they are not "freaks".

"With Afro-Punk, I wanted to challenge the mainstream perception of what defines Blackness. I've made the kind of film I wish was around when I first got into the scene". Yet, beyond mere music, Spooner says, "Kids are using the term 'Afro-Punk' as a way to identify themselves". Although originally subtitled "The Rock 'N' Roll Nigger Experience", Spooner has since dropped it. "All I was trying to say," he explains, "was to be a Black person in white America you're always going to be a nigger to somebody, but the meaning was misunderstood".

"James has captured a lot of honestly in his film," Angelo Moore says. "These kids are dealing with issues of alienation, self-hatred, parental misguidance, and, of course, racism, but there is also a joy. And that's what it's all about."

Still, Spooner's commitment to the Black punk community didn't touch the corporate souls at Sony Music. "Angelo had given me permission to use a few Fishbone songs. But when it came time to license them through Sony, they (the record company) just wanted too much money." Although PBS and HBO, as well as Image Records, have come sniffing around, Spooner says, "Nothing has been signed yet."

Sitting in Spooner's office on Nostrard Avenue, a West Indian community in Brooklyn more known for steaming ackee than political anarchy, he says, "Before I set out to make Afro-Punk, I watched hundreds of documentaries. But the one that had the most impact was called Streetwise." Nominated for an Oscar in 1984, the film follows homeless teenagers on the streets of Seattle. "Watching it, I would be in awe, wondering, 'How exactly did they mic those kids?'"

Born in Brooklyn, where he lived until age six, his educator mother moved him to Cali and Panama as a child. "My mother was chasing the dollar," Spooner chuckles, explaining his gypsy childhood. "She went where the jobs were." His West Indian father was also a teacher. Though he is his mother's only child, Spooner's next documentary will concern the 20 brothers and sisters from his loins of his father. Today, big poppa is a social worker in Brooklyn.

While Spooner was surrounded by his parents' academic influence, he says, "That didn't stop me from barely graduating from high school." Choosing to skip college, Spooner bummed around trying his hand at other artistic endeavors, including play writing and sculpture. Yet, it wasn't until a night of restless sleep that he thought of the idea of Afro-Punk.

After buying a video camera and computer for editing, he set out on a sojourn across America in a rented car, interviewing over 80 scenesters. The film intercuts these talking heads with Spooner's four protagonists: 23-year-old Howard University graduate Moe, 29-year-old (Long Island, New York musician Tamar-Kali, 23-year-old student Mariko Jones and 25-year-old Matt Davis (Iowa City, Iowa), who sadly died from a heart condition before the film was finished.

Tamar-Kali, now 31, is pleased with the end result of Afro-Punk. "I think the film works on so many levels. It's a race piece that is very artistic. In addition, through the film and the Afro-Punk website, James is helping to build a network of folks. There have always been Black punks, but this is the first time there has been so much communication between us."

Though Spooner fell in love with punk rock at an early age, he says, "It was a rude awakening the first time I was ever called a nigger. There was a white kid on the scene (in Apple Valley) who just kept dissing me," he recalls. "I was 13 at the time, and one day he called me 'nigger lips'. Also, my hair was really wild, and sometimes the kids would (mockingly) scream, 'Afro'. That first year in punk made me feel a lot of self-hate. I know now that, because of our slave mentality, self-hate plagues a lot of Black America."

Maureen Mahon, author of Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race, says, "These are young people who refuse to be put in a box, but are still trying to make sense of themselves." An Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the African American Studies Program at the University of California, she invited Spooner to speak to her class last year. "Over the years, the concept of Black rock has been rejected by both Blacks and whites. The subjects in Afro-Punk show that there are other types of Black experiences. It's exciting to see Blacks who are unafraid to go a different way."

While some might see the term "Afro-Punk" to be a savvy marketing tool for Spooner to promote his film, web site and t-shirts, he doesn't see it that way at all. "Afro-Punk is larger than the music", he says. "This film is not about punk, it's about Black rebellion."

Still, there are others who are not quite so impressed. "I love Black people, but I'm here to make music," 32-year-old Chaka Milik says. Former lead singer for New York punk band Orange 9mm, he is also featured in the film. "I'm Black and I rock. I don't feel the need to stand under the banner of 'Afro-Punk' to define myself."

His roommate and life long friend 33-year-old Ego Trip cofounder and Bad Brains enthusiast Sasha Jenkins laughs. Humorously commenting "One day I can be Afro-Punk, the next I rock Afro-Puffs", he laughs. A former Vibe magazine music editor, Jenkins is currently working with Bad Brains guitarist Darryl Jenifer on various projects. "What many people don't understand is, Afro-Punk is a state of mind; it's not just about a style of music. When I think of Black punk, Miles Davis and Nina Simone also come to mind."

Milik interjects, "Myself, I hear a lot of blues in punk. The Bad Brains may not sound like Howling Wolf, but it's still the blues."