By now, you probably have listened to DJ Kay Slay yelling out, "NEW KUNG FU KENNY!" all over Kendrick Lamar's DAMN., heard about Kendrick Lamar hitting the Coachella stage wearing a gi flanked by kung fu dancers, and watched Don Cheadle imitate Kendrick Lamar in the music video for "DNA." The name Kung Fu Kenny, Lamar told Cheadle (who relayed the message to Entertainment Weekly), is based on Kenny, a kung fu master Cheadle played in Rush Hour 2. This is all very fun and random, and, in addition to contradicting the narrative that Kendrick Lamar lacks a sense of humor, it provides me with the opportunity to write 2,600 words about hip-hop's kung fu canon.When you peel back all the surface stuff, hip-hop and martial arts films have a lot in common. Just as hip-hop is about using one's innate skills––think a rapper drawing upon their cleverness or unique flow; a producer flipping a sample or using a laptop to program a beat big enough to fill a stadium––kung fu movies are ultimately stories of people who rely on their minds and bodies for the focus and ability to do what others can't. The stars of each artform are more often than not those who are at their absolute peak, regardless of whether that peak involves Young Thug effortlessly bending the English language to his will or Bruce Lee moving his body in ways that had never been seen before and would never be seen again. And because of the surface-level thrills each can offer, both hip-hop and martial arts films are often fetishized and misunderstood by those who don't make an effort to understand them within their own unique contexts.What follows is a list of martial arts movies that every hip-hop fan needs to see. It is by no means complete, for I am but one nerd and cannot know everything there is to know about this sort of thing. To the absolute surprise of no one, it will feature a LOT of Wu-Tang Clan.Continue reading on Noisey.
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