Music and movies have always gone together. Musicals have been popular films since the golden era of Hollywood. Back in the day, it was almost required that film stars be able to sing just as well as they could act.
Sadly, the marriage between music and movies hasn’t been entirely blissful, especially when hip-hop is added into the equation. Over the years many films have been made with hip-hop culture at the focal point, or with rappers in starring roles, few of them worth the celluloid they were filmed on.
Here’s a look at some of the worst hip-hop films that we’ve seen starring rappers ternt actors.
Belly (1998)
This Hype Williams directed movie has only one saving grace: the work of its cinematographer, Malik Sayeed. Belly is a beautiful film to look at, but Williams uses every music video cliché possible and fails to provide an interesting story, or even a cast (Nas, DMX, Method Man, T-Boz from TLC) capable of making the film bearable to watch. After the nearly perfect intro sequence, the movie spirals out of control. Fortunately for movie-goers, Hype hasn’t directed a feature length film since this one. A sequel of sorts was released straight-to-DVD in 2008 and starred The Game but I didn’t even bother to watch it. I’m sure it’s worthy of a spot on this list as well.
State Property 2 (2005)
State Property 2 had a whole bunch of cameos and no plot whatsoever. How in the hell did Beanie Sigel get out of jail after shooting up the courtroom in the first place? Dame Dash tries to make an overblown Rocafella ad with all of the artists on the label without thinking of any character development or plot or acting. On the flipside, Noreaga is amusing as El Pollo Loco.
SP2 is also notable for it’s liberal usage of the F word, as evidenced in this below highlight reel from the film
Before I Self Destruct (2009)
It’s a film starring 50 Cent. Need I say more? Curtis stars in this film as a young guy who wants a basketball career, but after his mother is killed, he’s hellbent on revenge. This waste of time was packaged with 50′s album of the same name, and features one of the most ridiculous sex scenes ever filmed.
Full Clip (2004)
Busta Rhymes stars in this loose reworking of the 1970s film Bucktown as Pope who returns to his hometown to claim an inheritance left by his father. Pope finds that the town in a much different state than when he left and he partners up with his old friend Duncan (Xzibit) to reclaim the town. Wyclef appears in the film as the narrator of the story who you want to empty a full clip on by the time the film reaches its halfway point.
Cool As Ice (1991)
Vanilla Ice stars in this film loosely based on the classic James Dean film Rebel Without A Cause. Ice was at the height of his popularity when this film dropped, and his status as every teenaged girl’s fantasy couldn’t save this movie from tanking. Lucky for us, Ice delivered one classic piece of dialogue that will forever live in infamy…
“Drop that zero and get with this hero!”
Rappin (1985)
As a kid, I made an ill-advised trip to the movie theater with my sisters to see this Mario Van Peebles movie that came out when movies like the Breakin’ franchise, Krush Groove, and Beat Street were all the rage. Ninety long minutes later, we emerged from the theater wanting our $2.50 back. Rappin was a re-telling (notice a trend here?) of Robin Hood in which Mario Van Peebles starred as Rappin John Hood (get it?). No words can explain just how bad this movie was, so peep the trailer:
With all of the direct-to-DVD hood flicks that being hawked at barbershops across the country, we’ve certainly missed a few of them. Which ones would you put on your list???
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