Hip Hop Hollywood

In a Theater near you!
Beauty Shop
Hitch
Are We There Yet? (this is the only new movie I’ve watched so far)

("I'm just a little anxious to get up
there and whoop Tom Hanks...
I mean ET's ass, that's all." )

Top 3 Movies starring Rappers playing in non hip-hop roles

Tie-Independence Day-Ali Two of the best examples why Will Smith should never get behind a microphone and rap. It’s ok! We like you in movies a lot more than on vinyl. Independence Day set it off for emcees looking for the killer crossover. Consider Smith the Jordan of the Hip-Hop Hollywood game. We don’t want to see him retire from his real game, acting, and we hate it when he decides to go play baseball, or make another record. Unless it’s for the kids or something…..he does those good too…

Barbershop 1&2. If Will is the Jordan of the Hip-Hop Hollywood game, Ice Cube is like Scotty Pippen with an attitude. To be honest, I like all of Cube’s movies, (Dangerous Ground and Ghost From Mars too) but Barbershop shows Cube perfecting his jump shot. All net.

Bringing Down The House-Alright, some of you will hate on this pick. I did at first. I really did not want to see Latifah in a movie next to Steve Martin. After I saw it, I thought Bringing Down the House was not only funny, but showed Latifah making that serious move into acting. I think it was a first for her, showing a comical side in movies. If so, it's odd as Kadijah Jones is no stranger to situation comedy. It’s not a bad look for her either, as she shown improvement in Beautyshop. And for the record, I haven’t watched “Chicago” or "Beautyshop" yet so I can’t include them in this list. I heard about the Razzie award thing too, but did you know that Latifah was originally set to play lead in “Monster’s Ball” opposite Robert Deniero? Did you know that Beauty Shop cleared $16,647,604 in one week?

("What you mean can Monie Love be in the sequel!?!)

Honorable Mention
~Heavy D-“The Cider House Rules” (small role for the Overweight Lover but he played it cool with Ms. Badu. It was a tie between this and his role opposite Bonz Malone in “Life”, but I think this one has an edge on it. Heavy D needs to make more movies!
~L.L Cool J –“Wildcats” LL Cool J got limited on screen time while Goldie Hawn took up about 90 minutes of film. Not done with football, J.T. Smith makes a movie with Al Pacino and gets into beef with Jamie Foxx at the same time with “Any Given Sunday”
~Snoop Dogg in “Starky & Hutch”-
~Tupac Shakur in “Gang Related”
~Ice Cube an Ice T in“Trespass”

Bad Looks-Movie that editing couldn’t fix
“Torque”
“The Cook-Out"
“Wild Wild West”

Interesting related story
Ja Rule says Sam Jackson is right about non acting rapper...he should know, he speaks from experience! (3 bad looks! The Cookout, Turn It Up & Half Past Dead)
http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/entertainment/23312004.htm

Hip-hop at the movies: rappers produce reel profits on the silver screen - The hip-hop economy: part 2 of a series - Industry Overview by Sakina P. Spruell

Ice Cube's verse from Public Enemy's
"Burn Hollywood Burn"

Ice Cube is down with the PE
Now every single bitch wanna see me
Big Daddy is smooth word to muther
Let's check out a flick that exploits the color
Roamin' thru Hollywood late at night
Red and blue lights what a common sight
Pulled to the curb gettin' played like a sucker
Don't fight the power ... the mother f**ker