Visualism takes fans on a ride behind closed doors in "A Day in the Life of a Player Named Quik." It offers the obligatory interviews, group introductions, back stage pass, and concert footage of a recent DJ Quik tour. Instead of a detailed documentary style program, however, the feature falls flat and comes across as an hour and a half MTV promo piece with quick snippets instead of the real nitty gritty.

One of the main problems with Visualism is the editing choices. Right when an interview gets interesting, it cuts to concert footage. Or the second the music gets you in the groove, there's an humorous clip thrown in. Continuously through the feature, I found myself wanting more. For example, after a brief introduction of Quik's right-hand man, Hi C, I would've liked an informative interview with the man. I wanted to hear what he thought about working with Quik, or what it's like sharing the same goals and dreams. Instead, there's a brief comment on growing up, then it's on to the next segment. It's like this for all of the group's introductions.

Worse yet, the segments about Quik's creative methods are superficial. I want grit. Get to the heart of the matter. I want to watch as a musical genius creates his next masterpiece. Instead of telling fans how fun it is to work on a mixer for 24 hours straight, show us. Let us watch as you work your magic to transform sounds. Let us watch the full creative process. That's what a back stage pass is all about. I want to see something special. Something you won't see on BET.

But perhaps I'm being a little too hard. The basic fact is that I wanted more, and I wouldn't want more if I didn't like what I was seeing. "Ah, man, let me hear the rest of that song," I'd say to the television when a beat was rudely interrupted. Or "Where's the rest of that interview. I liked where it was going." Perhaps that's why I was impressed with the section that showed how the death of Quik's friend, Mausberg, affected the group on stage and in day-to-day life. It was all there on film, with real emotion. Emotion that was hinted at in other parts of the film, but was never brought out all the way. Which is too bad, because viewers are going to know there's much more to DJ Quick.

A good documentary has a thread connecting one segment to the next. That's all Visualism really needs. A way to make the interviews and concert footage flow together. Combined with a little more in depth commentaries from the crucial players, and you would've had a feature that true fans will watch enjoy for years to come.

THE VIDEO
DJ Quik: Visualism is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and offers surprisingly sharp detail and vibrant colors. However, you shouldn't expect too much since many of the scenes are shot in concert halls with harsh stage lighting or in poorly lit studios. Some of the shots are a bit grainy, but nothing that distracts from the show. And since this DVD is more about the music, anyway, the video quality more than gets the job done.

THE AUDIO
Let's get right down to it: the sound's awesome. Visualism offers both 5.1 Dobly Digital and 5.1 DTS tracks (as well as the obligatory 2.0 track) and they both rock. The DTS track is more crisp and offers sligthly deeper base, but you really can't go wrong with either track. While the feature offers mostly interviews and other center channel workouts (I didn't note any rear speaker usage), the music truly comes to life on the digital tracks, especially for the music videos offered in the bonus section.

It should be noted that, for whatever reason, the cursing that takes place during concert footage is edited out (either in post production or actually at the concert…it's hard to tell exactly), while expletives in interviews or in the songs playing over images is kept intact. Weird.

THE BONUS FEATURES
The bonus features on this disc are pretty entertaining, but they aren't a big enough draw to cause viewers to overlook the sub-par feature.

DJ Quick Commentary— I was really hoping the commentary track would make this disc stand out from the rest of the music DVD crowd. The track could've been used to fill in the cracks and add depth to the feature. Instead, it's rather dull with lots of silence on Quik's part. Although the rapper does offer some good comments on a more personal note than those shown in the feature, it still falls into the "could've been" category.

Outtakes—This section should be called deleted scenes. For the most part, these five scenes were rightfully cut from the feature, but a couple were informative and entertaining. The best was a 2+ minute piece about backyard boxing, the group's way of solving personal disputes before they get out of hand. There's just something special about watching two people bash each other in the backyard with boxing gloves.

Photo Gallery—Eh, they're just photos from the feature. No big deal.

Music Videos—For DJ Quik fans, this is probably the best part of the disc. Four videos ("Born and Raised in Compton," "Quik is the Name," "Tonite," and "Trouble") are featured in their entirety and are offered in both DTS and Dobly Digital 5.1 sound. I've never heard DJ Quik sound so good.

FINAL THOUGHTS
DJ Quik: Visualism is a decent behind-the-scenes look at the rapper and his posse, but it leaves a lot to be desired. More detail and more music would've made the $15 price tag more acceptable. As it is, I'd only recommend it to true DJ Quik fans. For those with only a passing interest, it's worthy of a rental.