the remainder of his time and returns to his family. While trying to reestablish connections with his former gang members, Sonny learns that the drug trade has claimed the lives of many of his former friends. With a renewed purpose in life, Sonny fights the drug trade under a new alias, Mwlina Lmiri Abubadika. The film ends in the 1970s, long before Abubadika's controversial involvement in New York City politics. Background The Education of Sonny Carson was produced on a budget of $1 million. Director Michael Campus was therefore forced to improvise in order to save money, such as obscuring the layout of a room with darkness, allowing the same room to be used for multiple settings. In order to film Sonny Carson's violent gang initiation, during which Sonny is beaten by gang members as he runs through them, the camera was placed in a metal cage and filmed from two separate points of view: one, in which Sonny is shown running through the gauntlet, and the other, which is shot from a first-person perspective. The film explores challenges facing the African American population during their struggle to obtain civil rights, and sheds light on both political and social issues of the time such as poverty, drug abuse, and police discrimination and brutality. In popular culture Wu-Tang Clan, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, AZ, Common, Ghostface Killah, Pete Rock, Lauryn Hill, Roc Marciano, 2 Chainz, Kur and DJ Rob Swift have sampled dialogue from the film in their music. Rapper 21 Savage sampled "Flashbulbs" from the Soundtrack album on his hit single "Bank Account" from his debut album Issa Album. Travis Scott sampled the same track on "Oh, My Dis Side" (with Quavo) from his debut album Rodeo in 2015. Meek Mill sampled dialogue from the film in his reply "Wanna Know" to Drake's diss track "Back 2 Back". Italian rapper Sfera Ebbasta also sampled "Exercise Run", a song from the film's soundtrack, in his song "XNX". Netflix's The Get Down uses the quotation "What you doing on our turf, punk?" in episode six. One Be Lo mentioned the movie in his song “The G Gap.” References External links 1974 films Films based on biographies Blaxploitation films Films directed by Michael Campus Films produced by Irwin Yablans 1970s English-language films American exploitation films American biographical films 1970s American films