The Objectively Correct List of the Greatest and Worstest Independent Rap Films Ever

With Straight Outta Compton debuting in first place with $60.2 million in its first week of release, Empire blowing TV ratings out of the water, and Dope doing exceptionally strong business on word-of-mouth, it seems like 2015 is under a veritable rap entertainment renaissance. The culture portrayed in hip-hop has been a part of cinema for years, whether it was baked into the core of the script like with Wild Style and Spike Lee’s early movies, or just used as a soundtrack in the Step Up saga. But in order to move forward, we must also look back, which is why I opted to review as much rap cinema as I could get my hands on. There are a few caveats: Obviously, reviewing EVERY movie starring a rapper would be too Herculean a task for one man (plus I really didn’t want to watch Are We Done Yet?), so I’m going to stick to a historical overview of rap cinema, focusing as much on fully independent productions as possible.

Movies like Boyz N The Hood, Menace 2 Society, or even Friday—while excellent—are ineligible because they ultimately got wide releases and critical reverence. The movies I’m focusing on are the dregs, the gas station DVD rentals, the real nitty gritty. Very few of these movies received any theatrical release, some are impossible to find legally. Most of them aren’t really Oscar contenders, but they do speak to a bygone era where young people had enough disposable income to finance an entire cottage industry of independent exploitation movies, largely black-owned and produced without any major studios. Come with me as we unpack these, decade by decade.

The 80s:

Welcome to the primordial ooze from which rap cinema crawled out of! While there weren’t many releases during this period since rap was about five years old, what came out set the tone and landscape for rap movie DNA. These elements include weird, static comedy, underdog street hustlers working for a better life, and a criminal undertone and a distrust of ‘The Man’, whomever they may be.

Beat Street (1984)

Style Wars Beat Street

Krush Groove (1985)

Krush Groove Def Jam Records

Disorderlies (1987)

Krush Groove

Tougher Than Leather (1988)

Run DMC and Beastie Boys Tougher Than Leather

The 90s:

The 90s were an interesting era for this particular type of film. It was just before the ubiquity of DVD, and it was also during a real transitional period. Movies like House Party, Higher Learning, Do The Right Thing, New Jack City, CB4, House Party 3, and many more garnered critical acclaim (in some cases), box office receipts (more importantly video rental receipts), and general mainstream clout with the movie-watching public. TV was also on fire, with A Different World, The Jamie Foxx Show, Martin, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, the entire WB network, and, of course, UPN’s Homeboys In Outer Space. I’d give my firstborn for a Homeboys In Outer Space reboot. Even so, Master P, ahead of his time as ever, founded No Limit Films and practically owned the 90s.

I’m Bout it (1997)

NOT BOUT DAT TRAILER LIFE

What is there to be said about I’m Bout It that hasn’t already said? Prince Paul has officially cited it as the inspiration for A Prince Among Thieves and Dame Dash unofficially looked at it and thought ‘Hey, we could do that.’ Billed as a comedy/drama, there is far more comedy than drama in Master P’s first film and the first from No Limit Films. Based on his real experiences what it lacks in any and all technical skill it makes up for with authenticity. It’s cheap and stupid, but this is really the movie that set off the direct-to-video rapsploitation boom and proved there was a market.

Da Game Of Life (1998)

NO VISUALS FOR YOU HERE, EITHER

Clocking in at a lean 35 minutes, Da Game Of Life is Snoop Dogg’s introduction to the list, but not his last appearance by a long shot. Ostensibly this ‘movie’ existed to show the world that Snoop was now a No Limit soldier and that his first album on No Limit, Da Game Is To Be Sold Not To Be Told, was coming out. It tells a mostly meandering tale of Snoop as the creatively named Smooth. He’s a prolific gambler, but believe me, the local gambling mafia is not happy when Smooth decides he wants to open a casino. Snoop gets shot and learns a valuable lesson and the credits have about four music videos. The Pen & Pixel artwork on the aforementioned album holds up a lot better.

I Got The Hookup (1998)

Belly (1998)

Belly

No Tomorrow (1999) / Hot Boyz (1999)

No Tomorrow

The 00s:

Finally. This is where rap cinema truly took the training wheels off and we saw Three Six Mafia and Eminem winning Oscars (but not for the movies below). This era also introduced rampant corporate synergy pioneered by No Limit (‘what if State Property were a group, an album, two movies AND a clothing line?’), and produced an unparalleled amount of content. And while movies like Hustle and Flow, 8 Mile, and the impressively-daunting amount of action movies 50 Cent was allowed to star in were cleaning up in the box office, it arguably opened up more room for the low-budget pulp features that we love so much. Plus it launched the film career of Cam’ron, the DeNiro of rapsploitation.

Lockdown (2000)

serious prison drama

Now Eat (2000)

THERE IS NO TRAILER, PROBABLY FOR GOOD REASON

Would you expect anything less from horrorcore pioneer Brotha Lynch Hung than an insane horror/comedy involving witches and cannibalism? It looks like it was shot on a Handi-Cam, the audio is near-unlistenable, and all the jokes are shot in super-wide angle, for maximum… well not impact, but awkwardness for sure. The plot has a neighborhood witch casting a spell on Brotha Lynch Hung that turns him into a cannibal (I think?). The movie ends with the witch framing the cop who was investigating the cannibalistic murders, and Brotha drops possibly my favorite line in any of these movies, ‘I gotta go kill me a witch.’ It’s unwatchable in the best way.

Da Hip Hop Witch (2000)

Da Hip Hop Witch this supercut

The Wash (2001)

Bad Intentions

Three Six Mafia – Choices: The Movie (2001)

THERE IS NO TRAILER

While borderline unwatchable as an actual movie, if you’re even a casual Three Six Mafia fan the novelty of seeing all of Hypnotize Minds earnestly stumbling their way through a morality tale is worth the price of admission (which is $0, because while there is no trailer you can really, really easily find the whole thing on YouTube). Despite its obvious flaws Choices manages to squeeze out some genuine charm, and seeing Juicy J act is really special.

Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001)

Beyoncé in her film debut Carmen Carmen

Love And A Bullet (2002)

Naughty By Nature

Paid In Full (2002)

Paid In Full Hit her with the Dougie shit.

Paper Soldiers (2002)

Starring Kevin Hart Jay-Z’s house

State Property (2002) and State Property 2 (2005)

State Property 2 State Property

Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ (2005)

The Wolf Of Wall Street 50 Cent

Boss’n Up (2005)

Killa Season (2006)

Killa Season Killa Season

A Day In The Life (2009)

Sticky Fingaz had a dream A Day In The Life

Mac & Devin Go To High School (2012)

Mac & Devin Skinflute

——

I did my best to cast a wide net, but many of these are just lost to time, or at least streaming services. Some are so lost I can’t find any record of them being available for sale EVER, like The Neptunes’ Dude, We’re Going To Rio, which is my The Day The Clown Cried. What do these movies say about rap, about culture, about filmmaking? Not much. Many of these movies only existed as a cheap cash-in product, but despite those less-than-artistic beginnings, they do work as cultural snapshots. More importantly, these movies were largely all-black independent productions and are worth celebrating as such. Hopefully, we haven’t seen the last of this genre. I want a Rich Gang road trip comedy, a Dej Loaf period piece, and maybe a Nutty Professor-style movie where Drake plays all five leads. It looks like Gucci Mane has us covered, though. See you opening night.

Adam Jackson watched all of these movies in one sitting. Follow him on Twitter.