Juice (1992) Rebroadcast
On Feb. 28, we are back at Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA, for a screening of the 1992 classic Juice and a live podcast recording/Q&A/talkback! DJ ARM 18 will be on hand for a special DJ set too. Tickets are free!
To get ready for this fantastic evening, here is our original episode on Juice from 2022.
The screening and talkback are presented by the Northampton Community College Foundation and 50 Years Down the Line.
Credits
Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's: Boogie, JB and DynoWright! Theme music by Boogie. Hit us up on Instagram @hiphopmovieclub
Transcript
(Bring it! C'mon!)
2
:DynoWright
Peter Frankfurt, released in:
3
:DynoWright
We'll answer the question: How far will Bishop go to get the juice?
4
:Rapper
One, one, one, one
5
:JB
Juice is a:
6
:JB
Who spend their days skipping school, hanging out, shoplifting amid the street scene. Q has aspirations to become a professional deejay, but the leader of the crew, Bishop, convinces them to rob a corner store to split the money. Rahim and Steele are on board the plan, but Q is reluctant as he has a deejay competition that night. Bishop sees that as the perfect alibi for his plan.
7
:JB
Q impresses at the competition, but feels obligated to partake in the robbery. Things take a tragic turn. Bishop turns heel and leaves mass destruction in his wake. So Boogie want to kick us off? As what were your overall thoughts about the classic Juice?
8
:Boogie
Yeah, Juice is one of my favorite movies. I tell people that all the time. I mean, if I loved the storyline, the backdrop of New York City shot in Harlem is clearly. It's really clear that you can see that it's authentically New York just from the landscape, the hilly landscape of where they walk in it. But no, this is a great movie.
9
:Boogie
It's it's one of those inner city movies that gives you a nice, in-->depth perspective of what it's like to live in the city at that time. Specifically, the New York area, the Northeast. We have a group of crew there, really tight knit. They hang out all the time, you know, from doing little, little silly things like cutting school to hanging out in each other's houses when the parents are home to, you know, whatever.
10
:Boogie
But there's always that underlying grip of of crime that's in the area and how to make it quick come up. And they have a plot that that they're going to use to to make some quick cash. But it all it all goes left really quick. So it just shows you how even you have something that seems like an innocent plan to make quick cash days and go left real quick and friends become enemies real quick when there's money involved or in this case, quote unquote, juice and respect.
11
:Boogie
And there's always a power struggle that's going on that is very apparent in the movie. But yeah, it's a good movie. I mean, it's entertaining to me. I watch it all the time and each time I see it on, I always wash it no matter what scene is on. But yeah, I love the movie.
12
:JB
I loved it. I had not seen it. I've seen bits in close, but it hadn't seen it before watching it. And it just took me back to the early nineties and I loved, like you said, Bogie, that is like the juxtaposition of the New York City, the bus, hustle and bustle, New York City, the street life, and the early hip hop.
13
:JB
Even the intro, the introductory scene, just pulls you in right away. You have the The Juice Note alleged song by Eric B Rakim with the bustling traffic and the deejaying. There's a lot of nostalgia in here as well. You see scenes where they're playing Street Fighter and they're at the billiards hall, which was popular back then, and cameos from a lot of early nineties hip hop stars like Special Ed or Sermon from EPMD.
14
:JB
Queen Latifah had a nice little role there and Fab Five, Freddy, etc.. So the hip hop culture was was really prominent on the silver screen pretty much for the first time. Like this is the what kind of the golden age of hip hop, you know, really coming to the masses. And we got to see it. And obviously, Tupac, once again, scene stealers does an amazing job in his role as bishop.
15
:JB
Did you have early impressions on the show?
16
:DynoWright
Yeah, I really enjoyed this, too. I like that there was an actual hip hop connection to this. Like that part of the storyline was Choose DJ competition. And I thought even though this is like early nineties, it's it called back to some of the older movies that we saw like Beat Street and Wild Style. The queues room looked like double case room.
17
:DynoWright
That's what I wanted to do, like a side by side to see just how similar they were. I noticed like five, five. Freddy was in this movie, Ed Lover and the other Dr. Dre was in this movie Orange Juice Jones. So his name is Juice. He's in the movie Juice. I loved it. And then at the end, of course, they say the word juice in the movie, and I thought that was cool.
18
:Boogie
Yeah.
19
:DynoWright
Yeah. I really enjoyed this for the hip hop and the story. I mean, I was riveted. I watched this and I didn't know was going to happen next. And Tupac really, really does a phenomenal job with his acting. He's so multitalented.
20
:Boogie
Yeah. Yeah. His full on display, his acting skills were in full on display in this movie. I mean, poetic justice, they are you know, he's good. He's good. But this movie here, you know, even above the rim you like. All right. He was good at above the rim. But this movie right here really put his acting skills on the forefront like he he showed that he has it.
21
:Boogie
Well, he had it. Unfortunately, his life was cut short, but he he had it. He definitely had it. Because he made you really not like him, like you. You want that you wanted to hate him, like, really, really bad. Like, even more so than in above the rim.
22
:DynoWright
You wanted to hate him, but you couldn't stop watching him.
23
:Boogie
Like, right.
24
:DynoWright
Was almost like an antihero kind of you. You just kind of you kind of root for him by running against him. It was really well done. Few people can pull this off, and he did it like it's easy to him.
25
:Boogie
Yeah. And they said he's like, anti-hero because you know that he's a jerk. But at the same time, because of the dynamics between him and the crew, you hope that he has a change of heart in you know him in Q can reconcile and find a way to and what's you know what's going on but you know unfortunately it doesn't go their way.
26
:Boogie
But yeah, it was a great movie, man. Definitely. Definitely one that I watch all the time. Like I said, the cameos, you know. Yeah, hip hop, the nineties was on full display, even like R&B. Cindy Herron from involved was Ilana. You know, that stretch was in random acts as crew dude, e.g. Red Alert was in here as well or as Joseph that we might be dug out his name always.
27
:Boogie
His name always. Makes me. Oh, man is.
28
:JB
As you mentioned is this was Ernest DICKERSON directed by him, I don't know his directorial debut, but he directed it and he did a screenplay in the story. Whereas if you remember when we did do the right thing, he was the cinematographer for Do the Right Thing. And many of Spike Lee's early movies. So this was a leap for him and he just did an outstanding job.
29
:JB
I really loved is like the character development so early on they introduced them as children and they he introduces them right away in the first scene, how they're getting woken up in the morning. And you see just from that little small clip of them, you see cues room was smaller filled with hip hop steel and his brother had the bunk beds and the cartoonish bedspreads and Raheem gets up on his own.
30
:JB
They share the bathroom with his sister, and obviously Bishop gets up on his own. And he first addresses his grandmother and then his dad, who seems to be in like some sort of catatonic state, are traumatized. So there's some issues that he has, whether it's PTSD or drug related. We don't know. We never find out. But he puts money in his shirt pocket so you can see their different upbringings and kind of that how that shapes them going forward as part of the group dynamic in the crew.
31
:Boogie
Right.
32
:JB
So that was masterful the way he just did that and just the short scenes.
33
:Boogie
Yeah, yeah. Good takeaway because that's that's definitely the first thing you notice is yeah. Each one of those plays and how they the family in their family members and how it affects how they interact with one another as well. Their character and personalities are shown right there with little snippets. Yeah, absolutely.
34
:JB
It's you see a bishop obviously had to grow up a lot more quickly than these other guys. He had a very nontraditional upbringing. It looks like the grandmother may have raised him and he's helping to be a caretaker for his father. The mother is not seemingly in the picture.
35
:JB
She still is kind of a little bit babied. He's the he's a little bit more heavyset one. And you can see later on where he is very emotional with all the the, you know, traumatic experiences and stuff like that. And Q is kind of trying to stay on the straight and narrow was kind of with the hip hop.
36
:JB
So yeah, there's a lot of early character development, which was just great.
37
:Boogie
Yeah.
38
:DynoWright
This was his first feature film. Ernest DICKERSON Okay, great. An episode of great performances and then then went from that juice. Not bad.
39
:Boogie
Yeah, not a bad jump at all.
40
:JB
Yes. To these guys, obviously, like they're trying to find their way. They're skipping school quite a bit. The the scene where they they're caught shoplifting or they're actually weren't caught but it was funny when you was flirting with flirting with the store clerk there and then still hides the records underneath his newspaper.
41
:Boogie
Yeah.
42
:JB
That was kind of funny.
43
:Boogie
He was admiring her grill. Yes.
44
:JB
Yeah, that was big back then. The one truth with, like, the.
45
:JB
Lemons or Jim. Yeah.
46
:Boogie
Mm hmm.
47
:JB
And then there was that other crazy scene. I was talking to Diana right the other day about this real briefly, when we were about the beat up of a stick up scene with the guy. Blizzard's a blizzard is just another, you know, neighborhood thug. He had just gotten out of prison. He's on parole and Q had gone into this little Dove Bar pub just to get I think to get Cigarets or something.
48
:JB
And he bumped into this guy Blizzard and then chat and like, how is your crew? Oh, they're outside. We're good. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm just set up role. Yeah, I'm taking care of myself. And very casually, he's like, I'm about a stick up this place. You want in on this cue? And I'm like, What? Did he just sit there and I'm good, I'm good.
49
:JB
And he kind of just runs out and then Blizzard kind of goes off saying every strip down and the queue comes out, tells them what happens. And that's where you start to see Bishop the wheels in motion in his head like we're a second. This guy was about to rob this place Skelos money, and he offered you a piece of that and you said, No, no, I don't want no part of that, no one.
50
:JB
No part of that. And Raheem and him got into a little bit and then you see the wheels spin and then they spin even more. When Bishop was watching that, James Cagney movie and he's like, All right, this is this is the life I want. This is it. I'm tired of running away from the cops, you know. I'm tired of running away from Ramadan's screw, tired of running away from everything.
51
:JB
And we got to get the juice. You know, we got to be the movers in town.
52
:Boogie
Yeah. Even even when that. When they announced the news that BLITZER got killed in that attempted robbery in Bishop saying, you know what, we should have been in the back of it. We wouldn't have went down like that if we if we would if we were there would never happen like that. Now, he was like, man, listen, we were all there.
53
:Boogie
We'd all be dead.
54
:JB
Exactly. I was shocked that when it came on the news that I was saying he was shot and killed. And I would think that would be a lesson learned, like, wait a second, you don't want any part of that. But Bishop was intrigued by it. Yeah, yeah. We would have got away with. We would have would have made out some money.
55
:DynoWright
Blizzards kind of propositioning. Q was like so casual like, like if you want to stick a gun about the stink up this place, you want some gum. It's not like, oh, okay.
56
:Boogie
Where EPMD was at the bar like what it again.
57
:JB
And that was Eric seven was in that scene. He was sitting.
58
:Boogie
There. Yeah. Yeah. They both hear.
59
:JB
Him in.
60
:Boogie
Person. Yeah.
61
:DynoWright
You mentioned the James Cagney movie, which, by the way, is one of the great gangster films of all time. White Heat slowly shows up in a lot of different places.
62
:Boogie
Yeah, yeah, it's a popular one.
63
:JB
But how about Q played by Omar Epps? I mean, he was very charismatic. This is one of his bigger early roles. And I read that he learned to how to scratch records for this movie, and he just dominated on this competition that he had, the DGA competition where Queen Latifah was the judge. That was a nice touch here.
64
:Boogie
Yeah. Queen Latifah. Yeah, she was the judge and had a quick camera were flicks trying to get him from audition for a bit of competition and got rejected. Yeah, yeah. Those deejay contests were pretty prominent back then. They still are, though, now. They're actually international now. Like global. It was set up almost like the DMC competitions from back in the day.
65
:Boogie
Yeah, I love that. That sequence, that Cube uses on that, the competition that put me up. I actually do that a lot. I love that sequence.
66
:JB
Yeah. So it all culminates in where the turning point is, is where he has a DJ competition that he's been practicing for. And meanwhile, Bishop hatches a plan to rob the neighborhood store owned by a gentleman named Willis Quigley. And they would go in the store. They know him, but they want to rather store, you know, he has a lot of money there and they would get away with it because he's a little bit elderly.
67
:JB
It's slower. Right. So he hatches a plan. They're supposed to meet at the basketball court that night, though, again. Q Has the competition there so? Q is not fully on board on it, but he goes meets up with them. They're about to leave for the meeting. They have the plan in place. So Bishop sees it as an alibi that they would go to that competition early on and everybody would see them there and realized that, you know, they couldn't have possibly been the ones that stuck up to the store and all hell breaks loose.
68
:Boogie
Yeah. The pretty man mildly year, you.
69
:JB
Know so that the thing he does well and then you know he's staring out at them and they're like, all right, you guys come with us. So he was influence peer pressure, too, to follow up on the plan. They stick up, Willis, they get the money and they could have left. But something, for lack of a better term, trigger BISHOP He he shot in the shooting.
70
:JB
WILLIS In the head and killing them. They look out of there, you know, they wait for the cops to kind of clear way they run and then they leave and they're in an abandoned house and then arguments ensue, obviously, like, why did you have to kill him and everything? Bishop and Rahim are kind of struggling for the gun.
71
:JB
The gun becomes kind of like a source of power. Like whoever has that kind of has the juice, so to speak, or the power. And in that power struggle for a gun, Bishop ends up killing Rahim and still is very traumatized by it crying. And bishops kind of tell him, shut up and everything like that, and everybody becomes afraid of bishop, obviously, because he hear the loose cannon.
72
:JB
They don't know who else he might hurt.
73
:Boogie
Mm hmm. Yeah. Bishop's got a gun. It's crazy, but, yeah, it was always a bit of a a power struggle between the bishop and Rahim, where Bishop was. Hey, he was kind of reckless and wanted to, you know, he was very reckless and impulsive, whereas Rahim was very thoughtful and let's think this out. Let's make sure that we're doing this what's best for the crew.
74
:Boogie
There's no individuals out of this group. It's all the crew. It's about the crew. What's going to make the crew better? You know, the crew, one member of the crew, you know, fails. We got to all be there for that member, you know, so that Bishop was, you know, shot, clueless for no reason, for no apparent reason. He reacted.
75
:Boogie
Bishop was, unfortunately, with the gun in his hand. Where's Rahim? Witness shot Bishop, but Bishop took it as an opportunity to get rid of Rahim, threatening to do the same to the other two. If they said anything. You get to see how unraveled Bishop was because Bishop had the audacity to show up at Rahim's memorial services and repass it is mother's house hugging and kissing on, you know, family members and acting as if, you know, he knew nothing was had happened.
76
:Boogie
That's where you get to see how crazy like how good an actor, Tupac Shakur was. Because the way he was able to to to play those scenes as if something was really not right up top with him, it was just genius acting. It was like a masterclass right there.
77
:JB
And that was a chilling scene. That was one of the most cold hearted things I've seen off the screen is when he was consoling Rahim's sister and mother at his funeral service and saying, He was my best friend. We grew up like it's messed up that this happened. I mean, that's how cold hearted.
78
:Boogie
Yeah, it is. Staring at cue like, yeah, say something, you better not say anything. And then how about that scene where he shows up at the school and harasses Q At school.
79
:JB
In a locker scene was intense where he just pops up behind him like, All right.
80
:DynoWright
As cold as ice. Yeah, that's it. At the at the memorial, he's acting an actor. Acting like he's acting.
81
:Boogie
Layers to it. Yeah.
82
:JB
And then what happens is they get interrogated by detectives and police due to the manner of Quigley's and Rahim and Bishop is really cool under pressure.
83
:Boogie
You know he's.
84
:JB
He's got no couth these.
85
:JB
Stone faced and kind of joking around and you see their personalities as each one of them is interrogated. And Rahim, like you said, is very level headed and trying to keep it factual and steals, just bawling his eyes out because it's he can't handle it. And then, you know, I think Bishop kind of implicated Ramadoss and then Ramadoss, head of the Puerto Rican gang, he approached Bishop saying, you know, you're be me know, telling the cops that I killed Rahim and Gillis.
86
:JB
What's that all about? And obviously, that builds up tension between them. So Bishop is confronted by Ramadoss and earlier in the movie, one of the very early scenes that crew ramadoss crew was attacking Bishop and, you know, Steel and and I think it was Steel and Rahim maybe. Q They saw him. They as soon as Bishop saw he had back up, he started talking back and, you know, he had backup.
87
:JB
Now, after everything's transpired, they come upon him again. This time it was just steel and Q obviously, but they kind of back away. They don't support him because they know that he's evil.
88
:Boogie
Yeah, they moonwalk right down there. You know.
89
:JB
Cops come and Bishop ends up killing Ramadoss and then, you know, everybody's trying to escape from the terror of bishop. So you have steel and cube kind of watching their P's and Q's looking over their shoulder for steel, kind of was found by Bishop in the stairwell, you know, Bishop takes him outside. He ends up shooting him. Prior to that, Steel had called you from a payphone at the billiards hall saying you got to come here and kind of bishop overhears it, and he's like, What's going on here?
90
:JB
That's when he got to flip shot him. But he did survive. And as he's in the hospital, Garland is there working at the hospital. He still has his wits about him to under say that. Listen, Bishop's out there attacking us. He's trying to frame two leading up to that final struggle between Q and Bishop.
91
:Boogie
Q and you can even see the character of Q because he initially went down to get an illegal gun. Yes. For himself. And, you know, the woman who was selling the guns was actually a friend of his mother's from back in the day and kind of gave him a hook up even though he didn't even had a money to pay for it.
92
:Boogie
So she gave him something to work with. But even then, he didn't have the nerve or the desire to try to kill Bishop to the gun away.
93
:JB
Yeah, he had a conscience, and it's like.
94
:Boogie
He didn't even want to do it, you know? He's like, You know what? I know he's asking me, but this is not me. Just do that in a river, you know? It speaks to even his character, even in the face of danger. He doesn't even want to do the wrong thing to, even if it means that's what he has to do to protect himself.
95
:Boogie
He didn't even want to do it. Yeah.
96
:JB
He dodged a lot of bullets from Bishop Chase being chased away and end up on the rooftop. And then there's a very the climactic end where they're struggling, battling battle and back and forth and punching, and then just ends up that bishop ends up flipped over the building hanging on to the accuser after the long battle and then the fall of Bishop.
97
:JB
Excellent movie. I mean, I was just enthralled by it. I love the I love the music. I love the action. The acting was was on point.
98
:Boogie
Yeah. Yeah. Some of my my favorite songs of the era came out of this movie. You know, obviously, you know, The Ledge, Uptown Anthem. Oh, that's my song, especially growing up in the same area as those guys as Naughty by Nature. When Uptown Anthem came out, the streets were crazy, you know, Nerf Respect Club, arguably one of the best lyricists ever, Big Daddy Kane you know, Don't Be Afraid, classic R&B, new Jack Swing software whole.
99
:Boogie
And then speaking of new Jack Swing got the godfather of new Jack swing Teddy Riley was is a good to you featured me Lucas those songs right there that's that's definitive like nineties in the area you know growing up in that area oh man there's this soundtrack and like you say that then your backdrop you know just classic cinematography from the master cinematographer Ernest DICKERSON Yeah.
100
:JB
Yeah. Cypress Hill was a great use of their songs. I think it was the funky feel. One was how I could just kill a man and shoot em up. So Cypress Hill was prominent on that as well. And that elevator scene, which was really, really well done also.
101
:Boogie
Yeah, shoot em up. Yeah.
102
:DynoWright
Elevator scene. It's great.
103
:Boogie
Scene. Yeah, yeah. That whole scene like the speaking the elevator scene when they were struggling with a gun in the elevator and the gun drops and guy casually slides down and picks it up and hides it like, wow, you know, that just that little snippet right there is like, man, and that's just how it goes to man. Nobody knows that gun is probably going to do all kinds of craziness past what we see and use right?
104
:JB
And there were some some things that I question, though. There were it's like you mentioned the that scene where Q buys a gun from the woman her name's Sweets.
105
:JB
And she's like, Are you Lorraine Powell, son? Tell her Jackie said hi. And I'm like, like, what? Wait a second. First of all, it's like you're a gun runner, you're doing illegal things, and it's like you, you know, this family, you have an affinity for this child. It's like you're going to just give them a gun without kind of saying, hey, you know, you in some trouble, can I help you?
106
:JB
Or would she be talking to the mother or literally you want to say hello? Listen, I saw your friend got me this gun like it was kind of like didn't make kind of sense to me. I understand, you know, there's a connection, you know, but it was kind of odd for me.
107
:Boogie
I've seen crazier stuff. Yeah, you tell us.
108
:DynoWright
And I got to compartmentalize that stuff.
109
:JB
Yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean, the whole thing is crazy, right? The whole thing. So I'm. I'm picking nits, as they say.
110
:Boogie
Yeah. Oh yeah. That Oh that's what it is anyway. Yeah. So like that whole scene, like I've seen like instances where questionable behavior has come into play, these dynamics where full bar appearances like, you know, people running bars, okay, you know what? You are supposed to be here. But you know what? Come on in. Cause I know. I know your father.
111
:Boogie
I know your uncle. You know, stuff like that. Yeah. I've seen similar, like, questionable things where he's like, would you really should you really be doing it? Because, you know, my parents or their uncle or whatever, or should you call or say, hey, get your kids over here? You know, you might want to keep them out. Yeah, this.
112
:JB
Is just to to this extent kind of caught me off guard or like.
113
:Boogie
Yeah.
114
:JB
There's another thing where it was kind of interesting where Yolanda, who's a divorcee, there's a scene where Q comes in to see her the I guess the feud, the ex-->husband or future ex-->husband, Frank is there. That scene was almost like a non-->sequitur, like didn't feel like it belonged. It was kind of like, where are we now? What is this going on?
115
:JB
And then I'm thinking she's got an established career working at a hospital. Like, what is she doing messing with a high school or a high school hanging out with a screw it.
116
:Boogie
A little crazy?
117
:JB
Yeah. Like, okay.
118
:Boogie
I.
119
:JB
Don't see him as her type, but hey, he's good looking young kid.
120
:JB
To each his own, these are old, you know?
121
:Boogie
Yeah. I remember when I became when I first became aware of that dynamic as a as a kid. Yes. This that's Cindy from Vogue. So, yeah, I think. Oh, wait a minute. She's a she's working in a hospital where she's she's an adult and he's in high school. Yeah.
122
:JB
Frank looks like, hey, 35 years old, too. And, like, that's weird.
123
:DynoWright
All sorts of age.
124
:JB
Yes.
125
:DynoWright
Age, stuff, dynamics stuff. Yeah.
126
:Boogie
Yeah. Look, I look the.
127
:JB
Other thing I kind of question, I know these guys are amateur stickup artists and stuff, but like I'm like, why? Why did they stick up? Willis He knew their voices in their profiles because they were in that store lot. I mean, they knew because they they they knew the layout of the store. They knew that they could probably be successful.
128
:JB
But man, if that went wrong, whatever, they they could have got caught. They could've got caught easily. Like, I think a more seasoned criminals would probably go a few blocks down, maybe scope something else out, not in your neck of the woods, so to speak.
129
:Boogie
Yeah. Yeah. You know, you don't mess. Mess. You eat it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They were definitely yeah. He definitely shouldn't have been in their own neighborhood, but I guess they figured that, yeah, he was all in. If they flashed a gun, he wouldn't do anything, which he didn't do anything, you know, he didn't do anything with it.
130
:JB
Yeah. He was praying and said, you know, please don't shoot me in the you speaking Spanish. And the other thing that was kind of amateurish or quite amateurish was the way Bishop hit the gun was it was I think it was maybe after he shot Rahim, oh.
131
:JB
Running away. He's like, let me just lift up this rock and put it.
132
:Boogie
Here in the cinder block.
133
:JB
I'm like, That's a poor hiding spot. I mean, that's going to be found. And I don't recall if he had gloves or not, but man, fingerprints are on the rock. Your fingerprints are on the gun. And, you know, they could trace it back to this broad. That's where he was. There's blood on the scene. I'm like, man, this is.
134
:Boogie
In your back to get them. Yeah. Especially when it's a crime scene investigation with Rahim being shot. Yeah.
135
:DynoWright
I think there wasn't time in the movie for this to happen. But if you had gone through some forensics or ballistics, you would have figured out the bullets and killers and Rogaine were the same, right? And then someone investigating might be a piece of the story together. So maybe like, if this movie was another 20 minutes, that would have happened.
136
:DynoWright
But I've been watching. That was like, you know, someone could figure this out if they tried to figure it out.
137
:Boogie
But yeah.
138
:JB
Yeah, they were he was they were hiding. Like Bishop was not very secretive about his intentions when they first when he first brought a gun into the crew, it was like they were loud on the streets, talk about the gun and they were kind of talking, who should have it, who should own it? I'm like, They're just being loud on the street.
139
:JB
All about this gun, police everywhere. I mean, they were not being cautious. And I even think in that locker scene, it was almost like Bishop Incriminating myself. I think he was saying something about, yeah, I did it, I'm going to do it. You know, I'm like.
140
:Boogie
Yeah, you said I was crazy before and I was mad about it, but you know what I am.
141
:JB
Yeah, that was, you know, crazy. And then I was like, Oh, cuckoo.
142
:Boogie
Yeah.
143
:JB
But it was wild. It was really well done.
144
:Boogie
Yeah, definitely a, you know, keep you on edge. You feel a little bit through once it picks up. Yeah. You don't know. We don't know what's going to happen, especially after Rahim was killed early in the movie. You're like, oh, anybody can can go, wow. Yeah.
145
:DynoWright
Yeah. The stakes got much higher. That.
146
:Boogie
Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah.
147
:JB
Yeah. It's almost like the gun was symbolic. That was like, if you remember reading in middle school or high school, like Lord of the Flies, whereas the conch shell is like, whoever had that gun kind of wields the power. And I think once Bishop killed Rahim and he's like, All right, I got the power, I can, you know, I can do you know, I'm above the law, pretty much do what I want.
148
:JB
You mess with me. I got I got the power here. This is my my right hand man's gun here.
149
:Boogie
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely a parallel like that between the cop show and the gun. Yeah.
150
:JB
So researching this a little bit more, do you guys realize there's an alternate ending.
151
:Boogie
That.
152
:JB
Was put out? Yeah. You help? You hear that?
153
:Boogie
We have them. I saved it on my phone, like, probably a few weeks ago. Yeah. Okay. I'm across it. That was the first time I heard about it, though, after all these years. Yeah, I heard about it, like, maybe, like a few weeks ago.
154
:JB
Yeah, it was. It was fascinating because as I mentioned, there's a struggle between Q and Bishop where Bishop's hanging off the ledge and the hand kind of slips, but the alternate ending, and I think this may have been the original ending which they wanted to do, was while he's hanging, he bishop hears a sirens below and he literally says something like, I'm not going to I'm not dealing with the cops.
155
:JB
I'm not going to live in prison like and he of his own volition decides to let go. So he had he still had the power, the juice. Like he kind of controlled his own destiny, from what I understand. I saw an interview with the guy who played Rahim, and he said there was these focus groups before it went out and they decided against that.
156
:JB
They didn't want the villain to have the last word or the last say controls on destiny. So they changed it out. Tupac was very upset with that and he said, Can I you know, they wanted him to do that. A scream at the end. And he's like, Can I do a half hearted scream? And he's like, Ernest Dickerson's like, Sure, give me a half hearted scream.
157
:JB
So still a wonderful, powerful movie and the work. But I think the other ending would have been even more powerful for those that are listening. You might want to look that up. It's it's out on YouTube. Or maybe we could put it in the show notes, the alternate ending.
158
:Boogie
Yeah, I think that's very own brand for Tupac to want to go out on his own terms that that fits right with image at the time to want to control his destiny. Say, Hey, you know what this is? Go. I don't want to go out on my terms. Yeah, absolutely. I could see why he would not want to.
159
:Boogie
He would prefer to have it in an alternate version.
160
:JB
You know, maybe just to give kudos once again to Tupac's the late Tupac with his acting. I mean, as you said, Don, a right like antihero is like he's so darn charismatic. And that speech that he gave to the crew he was after, he's watching White, he and his guys. And I was like, whoa. He was just pulling out some some crazy rhetoric.
161
:JB
Like, it's like, you got to get the ground beneath your feet, partner, and go out in a blaze if you have to it. It's like, well.
162
:DynoWright
It's not, you know, through a wall. Like, I know.
163
:JB
It's like you should be given like Super Bowl halftime speeches or something. He goes, Man, he gets you fired up. And you're like, You know that that's not right. You should be doing that. But the way he presented that was like, wow.
164
:Boogie
He blew around rallying the troops speech, right? Yeah. Rush out into the open meadow. Open combat. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
165
:JB
Yeah. That's crazy. Usually I'm just tired running from everybody from Robert is from Quill is from the cops. And you got to, you know.
166
:Boogie
Let them members go, you.
167
:JB
Know, and he's.
168
:Boogie
Just yeah, yeah.
169
:JB
He's just speaking that very.
170
:DynoWright
What did you think of Samuel Jackson in this movie.
171
:Boogie
Trip.
172
:DynoWright
Through so good.
173
:Boogie
You're the one the one part that I always love with him. And it is when you goes to audition and he's coming out and in between, like people are having a little dialog. She's like, Hey, you know, I really like your style. You know what she means? Like you, you know, like, you know, quickly become like, Oh, gee, he's walking away and he's got that bump.
174
:Boogie
Like, he, I mean it a of stand that I could talk to somebody who's like, hey, I heard you. You made it to the contest. And she was like, I just walked out. How did you know that? He's like, Hey, you know, he is. I hear you. But it's like, how the heck could he possibly he had just walked out.
175
:Boogie
But the part always makes me laugh because it's so funny, because that's how people in Tripp's position to run that the pool hall and the game and everything is that you hear everything in that situation, whether you want to or not, because everybody converges on that spot. So you get a ear to everything. So he probably so many stories that he could probably tell.
176
:Boogie
They can make a probably a movie just off of his character. The stories that he's heard from running that establishment.
177
:DynoWright
Me, like a good prequel.
178
:Boogie
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
179
:JB
But is it was he the owner of the billiards parlor or at least work at work there? But yeah, there was a one line and I had to look it up because he's so wise, like you said, he knows. He knows everything that happens. Tripp was like, Don't you be looking for transportation out of town by now? He says It's cute.
180
:JB
He's like, Trip, man. You got to tell you what's going on. He goes, trips like he done slid down a razor blade and landed in an alcohol river. Where is you killed? Raheem and Grizzlies and Rivers. He was like, That's B.S., man. You know me better than that. Trips, like, I don't know that. And she was like, Come on, shit.
181
:JB
You know me since I was a kid. So I was like, I know a lot of killers since they were kids.
182
:DynoWright
Yeah, that's a good dialog.
183
:Boogie
Yeah, that was some great dialog right there. It is true. It's so true. I mean, look at look at Bishop, you know, he killed killed his best friend, attempted to kill the two other ones. Yeah.
184
:DynoWright
I'm sure he thinks. Yeah. His best friend's.
185
:Boogie
You know, killed his best friend and tried to kill two other ones. And they probably who knows how long we've known each other. You know, they probably grew up together. They probably grew elementary school up or whatever for whatever reason, though, you know, you never know with people sometimes.
186
:JB
Yeah. I mean, just, I mean, this could be a good kids and they go astray because they get into the scene just like above the rim. Kyle Right. I mean, great kid. Got a head on his shoulders and he was sort of hanging out with birdie who was Tupac's character. And that could have ended very poorly for him.
187
:JB
You know, it did ended poorly for the like, you know, obviously for birdie and for other folks there.
188
:Boogie
But yeah.
189
:JB
These can be good kids and they just get tied up with this wrong crowd or wrong place at the wrong time.
190
:Boogie
Yeah. Like a rookie from Boyz n the Hood.
191
:JB
Exactly. It's common theme.
192
:Boogie
Yeah, right. Three, three, three, three, three.
193
:JB
Could it be me today? What do you guys think?
194
:Boogie
I mean, this is the age of clout, chasing social media, previewing things, you know, people posting stuff and wanting attention. And I think it absolutely could. I mean, it would probably be a little different due to the technology that exists right now. But I think it absolutely could be made today.
195
:DynoWright
I think that's an interesting idea. The combine this movie with cloud chasing and influencing and you know, you hear about people who livestream their mass shootings and stuff. It's like terrible. People think this is a thing that they should do. And I could see Bishop wanting to have juice plus notoriety through social media.
196
:JB
I agree. It definitely could be made today with some more modernization.
197
:Boogie
Yeah, I mean, even down to the ultimate scene, you know, he's hanging off and you got people with the cameras. He's looking at the cameras like, right, you know what? I'm going to go out like, what are my terms with all of these views? You know, stream it in right livestream right now, you know.
198
:JB
Yeah, yeah. We already talked about the music, which was excellent. This is one of the best soundtracks all time for hip hop. The movie.
199
:Boogie
Yeah.
200
:JB
So let's give it our final rating then. Boogie, bring that funky flick back bring that something flick back from the interval.
201
:Boogie
Remember funky flick back classic dance Right.
202
:DynoWright
Bring that funky flick back.
203
:JB
And I'm with you Without a doubt Bring that funky flick back Go watch this one.
204
:Boogie
Check it out, listeners. Check it out. It's a good movie. Very good movie. You got to choose now. Yeah. All that light. Oh, my God. I forgot that line. You got the juice there? Yeah. Yeah.
205
:DynoWright
I. Hip hop movie club is produced by your hhn sees JB Boogie and Dino Wright Theme music by Boogie Check check us out on TikTok and Instagram at hip hop movie club. On the next episode of the Hip Hop Movie Club podcast, your H, H and C's review New Jack City Drops in two weeks. Subscribe today on your favorite podcast app and you won't miss it.
206
:JB
Watch that movie. You get about two week lead time and then listen to it. Give us some comments on our social media or email us.
207
:DynoWright
Shout out to your listeners. Thanks for tuning in.
208
:JB
And remember, don't hate communicate.
209
:Boogie
Communication is always key, right?
210
:DynoWright
Very key. They probably should have communicated more of the crew.
211
:DynoWright
Talking about their feelings.
212
:Boogie
Yeah, this more communication, the bishops. Your behavior could have been averted.
213
:DynoWright
An intervention.
214
:JB
Bishop wasn't trying to hear any of that.
215
:DynoWright
Nobody was.
216
:Boogie
He was.
217
:JB
He was still is crying. He's like, man, get over it, man. You know.
218
:Boogie
I was trying to rob a blizzard in a blaze of glory. Yeah, he was right.
219
:JB
He had those issues.
220
:DynoWright
Shout out to Bejeweled. Thanks for your support all the way out in the Green Mountain State. Shout out to Brain Freeze trivia in the Lehigh Valley. Check out the Instagram Brain Underscore Freeze. Underscore Trivia, double underscore time. That's Brain Freeze trivia time on Instagram.
