This explanation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom contains spoilers and intense themes.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom follows a single day in the lives of blues singer, Ma Rainey, and her band. They are in a studio, recording some of Ma Rainey’s songs for Sturdyvant, a white producer. Keep in mind that he only wants to make a profit off of her songs. Before the session starts, the band is preparing downstairs, where Levee Green, the trumpeter, expresses that he is an artist and composer who does not particularly enjoy Ma's style of songs, as they are not new enough for his liking. Levee has also spoken with Sturdyvant beforehand, discussing the want of a new band that he can play his own songs with.
When Ma Rainey enters the building, she brings along her nephew, Sylvester, who has a stutter, and her companion, Dussie Mae. She finds out that both Levee and her agent, Irvin, want to use Levee’s arrangement of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” instead of the original, thinking it would become more popular and gain a greater amount of money. However, she refuses. Ma also insists that Sylvester will record a spoken introduction for the song. Both Sturdyvant and Levee get frustrated, and Levee continues to communicate to the band that this wasn’t what he wanted musically. The band makes fun of him for “kissing up to the white man,” (Sturdyvant), but he denies that this was what he was doing. To prove them wrong, Levee tells them a story from his childhood.
When Levee was eight years old, a group of white men raped his mom in front of him. Levee had tried to stab one of the men but was unable to do so. His father put up a facade once he found out, which had everyone thinking that he had accepted the situation. He was able to sell the land and move away. Later on, he killed four of the rapists but was unable to kill them all, causing him to be captured, tortured, and killed. Levee has to live with this memory. He wanted the band to know his background and that he was in no way trying to appeal to Sturdyvant. He wanted to prove that he too could laugh in the face of a white man just like his father.
As the group is trying to record “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Sylvester continues to struggle to complete the spoken intro without stuttering like predicted. Due to the time it was taking, Irvin continued to promote Levee’s version of the song. Ma obviously doesn’t like this and gets mad, demanding that someone gets her a Coca-Cola. When Sylvester and one of the band members are out getting her drink and everyone is on break, she communicates to the leader of the band that Levee is no good and will be fired. After a few more hours of practice, Sylvester finally completes the intro, proving Sturdyvant wrong.
Levee continues to communicate to Sturdyvant that he wants another band where he could play his own songs. Sturdyvant then, finally, turns him down, offering only $5 for each track he produces. Levee gets angry. He wanted to prove that he could make it as a black musician with his songs. As the band was packing up downstairs, one of the members accidentally stepped on Levee’s new, yellow shoes. Because of the built up anger and frustration, he took the chance to stab him, ruining any chance he might have had at an equal, ideal future.
Throughout the movie, Levee struggles to open a mysterious door in the band’s rehearsal room. It had always been locked when he tried to get in, which made him think about whether it was just a studio room. After stabbing his band member, he gets angry and finally kicks the door down, only to find a small, empty alley. Levee finally opening the door signifies that he has felt claustrophobic and helpless the whole time, influenced by both what just happened, and the racism and inequality expressed onto him.
In a little cut to the future, a clip of an all white blues group, singing Levee’s song, appears, indicating that it has been whitewashed and that Sturdyvant only wanted white musicians to play, believing they could make the song better and appeal to a greater crowd of people.
At the very end of the movie, as Ma Rainey, Sylvester, and Dussie Mae are getting ready to leave, Irvin tells Ma that he is unable to get money for Sylvester from Sturdyvant. He communicates that he can only deduct $5 from Ma’s pay and give it to her nephew. This irks her, arguing that he, like everyone else, is supposed to get paid. She threatens to not return to record another song. Ma knew her place as a black woman so she used that to her advantage. She advocated for herself and her nephew whenever white people, in this case Sturdyvant, tried to take advantage of them.
As the three are about to enter into a vehicle, Irvin rushes up to Ma, trying to get her to sign release forms for the song. Ma refuses, not wanting the white producer or the studio to gain money from her song. Irvin continues to ask her, eventually getting her to sign the papers, but also getting told “You tell Sturdyvant, any more mistakes and I can make my records somewhere else,” in the process. She expresses her toughness and frustration with the situation.
This film shows both the similarities and contrast in Ma Rainey and Levee. Both of them are trying to take the bull by the horns, trying to get as much as they possibly can out of people who only want their fame and fortune. Ma Rainey, compared to Levee, is more aware of her place in society which she used to her advantage, gaining strength and dominance over people who are just using her. Levee, on the other hand, struggled to take control of his problems, ultimately failing to be like his father and not being able to laugh a white man in the face.
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