The NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton opens this week. (Read my review here). If it disappoints, it’s not for a lack of trying. Because they have to compete with the actual music in terms of drama and storytelling, few movies can do justice to hip-hop. No other musical genre spins its own labyrinthine narrative like rap, which reports on the streets, lays out the drama, responds to other songs and pays homage to its own history. If you want to enjoy a soap opera between rappers, listen to their diss tracks. As for movies about hip-hop, try these five.
1. Wild Style (1983)
The very first hip-hop movie gets it right. Wild Style barely tries to tell a story as it follows a Bronx graffiti artist (Lee Quiñones) seeking recognition among other taggers, DJs, breakdancers and rappers. The loose narrative is simply our guide on a raw, surreal, almost Godardian tour through early hip-hop culture in all its forms – not just the music, but the visual artistry, too.
Graffiti murals are mulled over, Grandmaster Flash pops up to scratch records, the Rock Steady Crew lay out a carpet to bust some moves, and the Cold Crush Brothers take a turn at rocking the mic in this cultural explosion.
Wild Style is a hip-hop artifact, not only covering hip-hop’s roots but also influencing the music’s golden age. Among so many others, Nas sampled its sounds on Genesis, the introductory track to Illmatic, which is still considered rap’s Sistine Chapel. Watch online here.
2. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006)
Adding a few more words to the title could better sum up Michel Gondry’s documentary: Dave Chappelle throws a block party. The electrifying event is staged in Bed-Stuy, home to Big Daddy Kane, Biggie and Jay-Z. An exuberant Chappelle randomly rallies locals and excited visitors all the way from Ohio to enjoy the festivities. These people who join the crowd are just as prominent in the film as the performers. While it isn’t overtly stated, they’re all there to celebrate some political and cultural unity.
The film’s genius is Chappelle’s curatorial skill there’s no 50 Cent and change to be found. Instead, we get hip-hop’s socially conscious side, with a roster that includes Dead Prez, the Roots and Talib Kweli (among my personal favourites). Kanye shows up, too, but this was back when he had all the promise of a College Dropout who interned under Talib. Available now on Netflix Canada.
3. Biggie & Tupac (2002)
British filmmaker Nick Broomfield walks in like a bumbling detective who is way out of his depth, investigating hip-hop’s darkest chapter with the gall to chase Suge Knight around a prison yard for an exclusive interview. He’s searching for answers to who killed those titular legends. He talks to their friends, enemies and investigators while lending a mic to Voletta Wallace, whose fond memories of her son Biggie and determination to find his killer are the film’s emotional current.
Broomfield also goes on about the LAPD’s involvement in Biggie’s death, a seemingly paranoid conspiracy theory that in the time since this doc – Rampart scandal and all – has come to seem not so far from the truth. Watch on YouTube here.
4. Hustle & Flow (2005)
Hustle & Flow takes a bunch of hip-hop clichés – the pimps, hoes and hustlers – and gives them an earthy naturalism and heart.
The result is problematic, the inherent misogyny in a pimp’s efforts to become a rapper checked at only one dramatic point before being taken for granted again. And yet this is also the best attempt to date to make a hip-hop underdog story, thanks to felt performances by Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson and a powerhouse production scene that makes you want to ignore the fact that you’re chanting Whoop That Trick. Available now on Netflix Canada.
5. 8 Mile (2002)
Unlike the sprawling, all-inclusive Straight Outta Compton, the Eminem pseudo-biopic 8 Mile takes the smart road by focusing on the brief period when the self-proclaimed “Rap God” first finds his voice.
There may be clichés and some subpar acting in the mix but director Curtis Hanson has a feel for the environment – the working-class routines and hostilities between turfs and races – that informed Eminem’s unique brand and made him so desperate to escape.
Also, the rap battles at the end are pretty great, a fitting but rare climax for a hip-hop movie. Available now on Netflix Canada.
