Episode 75

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Published on:

17th Jul 2024

What IS a Hip Hop movie?

How do we define what a Hip Hop movie is? Listen now and find out!

Topics discussed:

  • The four major elements of Hip Hop and where you should start watching
  • The spectrum of Hip Hop movies, from the obvious ones at the high end to the low end
  • Must-watch films and under-the-radar ones to check out
  • Social commentary, time capsules, and biopics, galore!
  • What did we miss? Sound off in our inbox!

Also check out:

Join us on Friday, August 16th for our next live event: House Party screening and live talkback at SteelStacks, Bethlehem PA! Buy your tickets now.

Credits

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie. Follow @hiphopmovieclub on Instagram!

And remember:

Don't hate...calibrate!

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show

that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop with

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the magic of movies.

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Today we're answering the question, what

exactly is a hip hop movie?

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We're three old heads who put their old

heads together to vibe on these films for

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you.

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I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker,

longtime hip hop fan, and the first hip

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hop movie I ever saw in a theater was

Disorderlies in:

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I’m JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, longtime

hip -hop fan, and I'm not a fan of this

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young guy Shaboozy using J-Kwon's

hit song, Tipsy, to climb the charts with

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his “Bar Song”.

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you'll have to hear Shots Fire.

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Hot takes.

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Hot takes, people.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan,

and I played Not Like Us during one of my

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gigs on Saturday night and had the whole

crowd jumping.

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It was glorious.

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Oof.

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Everybody's loving it.

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Except for Drake.

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man.

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In this episode, we'll give you our

definition of a hip -hop movie.

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Basically, we define a hip hop movie as

any movie that showcases or contains one

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or more of the key elements of hip hop,

emceeing, deejaying, breakdancing, and

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graffiti art.

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Or it can star or feature one or more hip

hop artists within the film.

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So we've talked about this on other

episodes, but...

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it was about time we kind of break it down

for the audience in more detail.

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Boogie, you wanna talk a little bit more

about the elements and maybe some of the

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examples of what are the truest of the

truest hip hop movies that we've covered

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or that are out there?

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Yeah, sure.

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So, I mean, MCing, it speaks for itself.

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That's what most people call rapping, or

they refer to a person who does it as a

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rapper, but the old school terms MCing,

microphone controller, moving the crowd,

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just lyrics.

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The DJ, backbone of hip hop, started off

creating break beats, and now just

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spinning from one song to another, from

one turntable to another to keep the break

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beat going continuously nonstop.

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so that the party can keep going, just

laying a platform for the MC.

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The breakdancers, the B -Boys, those are

the guys who used to go out in the dance

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floor and they created their own dance

form.

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And they actually got the name

breakdancing or B -Boys from dancing over

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these break beats.

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And then we have Graffiti, the artistic

style form of lettering, tagging, mural

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writing that's prevalent throughout the

hip hop.

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culture.

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So we've covered some movies that cover

one, two, three, and some of them contain

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all four.

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The most prevalent ones that cover these

elements are the old school ones.

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You know, we have Wild Style, which was

the first hip hop movie.

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We actually have an episode on this.

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Check it out.

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We have a live event that we've also

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worked with our good friend DJ ARM 18,

where we featured the Cold Crush brothers

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and Grand Mixer DST as well as Charlie

Ahern, the writer, director, producer of

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the movie.

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Then there's another movie that kind of

took some of the format, formatting from

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Wild Style.

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It's a little more commercialized, a

little more polished up, and that would be

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Beat Street.

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The name is in it, Beat Street.

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Yeah

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takes place in the Bronx, early days of

hip hop.

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You see all of the elements on full

display.

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One of the main characters is a prominent

graffiti artist in the neighborhood, Ramo.

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You have a DJ who is prevalent throughout

the neighborhood and does all of the

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parties and also ends up in the end

breaking into the club scene.

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His younger brother and his crew, break

dancers, battle rival crews throughout the

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neighborhood.

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Some people don't understand it.

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They're actually having fights and they

end up getting arrested, unfortunately.

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But we have break dancing as well.

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And MCing, we have several prominent early

hip hop artists throughout the movie.

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And also we see kind of where the MCing

starts while the main characters actually

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DJing, actually speaking into the mic as

he's mixing.

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That's kind of where it started.

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And once he couldn't do it himself, then

another guy from the crew would step up,

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stepped up and started doing it for him.

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So there's two good movies right there

that contain all of the elements.

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If you wanna see what it's like in early

hip hop, check out those two classics.

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Great breakdown Boogie.

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So when we first started this podcast, we

got together and DynoWright, It was his

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brainchild.

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And then Boogie, our resident expert on

all things old school and hip hop.

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And we asked you like, which, where, where

should we start?

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Which one should we do?

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And right away you said, we got to do Beat

Street and we got to do Beat Street.

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And then we do Wild Style.

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So we hit the ground running with those

two classics that contain all of those

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elements.

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I think it's increasingly less common to

have all four of the elements because

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break dancing, even though it's coming up

at the Olympics, is not quite as popular

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as it was back in the eighties, late

seventies, early eighties, graffiti also.

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You don't think it's, you think it's as

popular?

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More popular?

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I mean.

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probably not as popular in the US per se,

but like worldwide, worldwide, yeah.

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yeah.

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You're right.

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I think worldwide you're right.

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In the US it's not, I don't see it as much

in the US, but maybe I'm just not looking.

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But yeah, no great breakdown there.

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DynoWright you want to clarify a little

bit more about some of the hip hop movies,

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other definitions, et cetera.

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Sure.

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We've talked about it being like a

spectrum.

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And so movies like Beat Street and Breakin

or Beat Street and Wild Style are very

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much on the one end of the spectrum where

they cover all four elements and it's

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very, very hip hop heavy.

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But there's other movies maybe on the

other end of the spectrum where they don't

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have as many of the elements.

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It relies more on hip hop songs to sort of

provide atmosphere or backdrop.

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And maybe they're less of a hip hop movie

than some of these other ones.

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And so we reviewed movies like even Bad

Boys starring Will Smith, not necessarily

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about hip hop culture, but hip hop is

definitely used in it to.

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give color to the story, give it kind of

atmosphere.

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So we count those too.

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Some people may not agree, but we count

them as well.

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Yeah.

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And there's other categories we've

covered.

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Musical dramas or comedies.

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Like even tangentially, like Hamilton is

the story of Alexander Hamilton and a lot

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of the Birth of Our Nation all told

through hip hop.

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So you're not going to see Graffiti in

there.

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I don't think there was any break dancing,

but it's obviously a hip hop film while

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they film adaptation of the Broadway play.

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It's definitely a hip-hop film and more

recently we just covered In the Heights

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and the same thing Lin-Manuel Miranda

production.

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There was hip hop throughout, but they did

have a little bit of the graffiti there

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and a little tiny bit of break dancing.

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And we do a lot of the, we did some

biographical films as well, where we

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talked about, we Notorious, or we talked

about, you know, Straight Outta Compton,

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which is a story of the rise of NWA.

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Obviously that's a hip hop film because

it's the story of these hip hop artists.

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We've also done movies that are like more coming

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of age type of stories and set it,

especially in the set in urban backdrops.

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They tend to lend themselves to hip hop

more.

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So like Dope was one.

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from Rick Famuwiya

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The Wood, with Taye Diggs.

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That was a little earlier.

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Those, we counted those as hip hop movies too.

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Yeah.

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I think the one where we stretch the

definition the most, and this was my

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recommendation, I think one of the newer

Transformers movies, because the whole

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soundtrack was like 90s hip hop.

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We need to release that episode still.

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And, okay, yeah.

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But I mean, that's one that we have spoken

about.

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We didn't really release that one yet.

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But we stretch it here and there when we

have to.

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Yeah, I mean, we've even gone as far as

shifting over to animation.

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You know, we watched Spider -Man into the

Spider -Verse.

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And if you've seen that movie, you can

definitely see some of the elements of hip

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hop throughout that animated feature.

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I mean, Miles Morales was a graffiti

artist, you know, right there, you know.

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And there's the soundtrack is...

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hop laden.

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I mean, there's beats and rhymes throughout

the whole film.

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So, you know, you're getting a good taste

of what it's like.

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And it's all, it's an urban backdrop.

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It takes place in the city.

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So you get that feel of, you know, you get

the feel right there, you know?

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So it's, you have to kind of, you know, in

a sense we have to be a little creative

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sometimes because I mean,

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Let's be honest, you run out of material.

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So you gotta have places where the niche

fits in.

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And like some of these movies, if you look

at them, you can definitely see why we

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viewed them as a hip hop film.

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I mean, there's other movies that people

have suggested to me and I'm like, I don't

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necessarily consider it a hip hop film.

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Yeah.

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And there's more elements to hip hop

culture than those four.

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Like Spider -Man and the Spider -Verse,

there's a sneaker culture aspect of it

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where there's the there's the Air Jordans.

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There's the fashion with the hoodies that

Miles Morales is wearing.

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There's a lot more elements overall to hip

hop culture.

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And so we'll pick up on some of those

also.

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In some of these films, yeah.

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Some of the favorite ones that I've

covered are the ones with the heavy social

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commentary.

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And I think you were pointing this out

before DynoWright.

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Do the Right Thing and Boyz n the Hood.

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I mean...

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For sure.

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Yeah.

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Hip -hop is weaved throughout and

obviously Boyz n the Hood stars Ice Cube.

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And you have Fight the Power prominently

played throughout by Public Enemy played

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throughout Do the Right Thing, which was

written for that film.

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But there's such a great commentary on

race and socioeconomic challenges and

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identity.

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And I think that combination of hip -hop

with those social commentary makes it even

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that much more powerful.

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Absolutely.

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I mean, because one thing that, you know,

you have to emphasize with the beginnings

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of hip hop was that it was a voice for the

voiceless.

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You know, people who created hip hop

weren't necessarily pleased with their

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surroundings and the way things were going

at the time.

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They needed an outlet.

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Yeah, some of it was to have fun.

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Absolutely.

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But some of it was to make their voices

heard and to speak about things that were

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going on in the neighborhood and things

that they weren't necessarily happy with.

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So when we come across films like, you

know, that JB mentioned, Do the Right

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Thing and Boyz n the Hood, they continue with

that voice of telling what's going on in

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the neighborhoods and getting that social

commentary out to the public.

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And it's, I mean, you have the

dramatizations.

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you know, know, you know, factual stories,

but these are everyday things that people

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deal with.

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And, you know, it ties right into the

beginnings and roots of hip hop.

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Right on.

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DynoWright Any other like flavors of

movies that we've covered that under the

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umbrella of hip hop movies?

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We did, we have done documentaries, Style Wars

being one of them.

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Wild Style is more of a stylized

documentary, I guess.

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It's sort of fictional, but those two were

definitely there.

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We covered a few Netflix series.

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We've covered Ladies First, the story of

women in hip hop.

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We covered...

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Dear Mama

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the five -part series with

Tupac and Afeni Shakur.

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And so we've done those.

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Definitely enjoyed those.

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Yeah, that one was more on that was on

Hulu and FX.

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But yeah, same same thing in series.

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Correct.

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We talk a lot about the music and some of

these in the soundtracks, those movies

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that have a heavy hip hop theme soundtrack

like Juice is a great example where it has

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Naughty by Nature, Eric B and Rakim and

some really recognizable songs.

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some iconic scenes like Belly.

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Yeah.

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Mm -hmm.

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feature rappers and.

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Strong soundtracks

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It also covered a lot of comedies.

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We did many hip hop comedies.

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Spoofs, straight up comedies, there are

many in the oeuvre.

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Yeah, I mean, probably the biggest spoof

of them all was, you know, Don't Be A

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Menace to South Central by Drinking your

Juice in the Hood.

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I mean, if you watch any collective of the

movies that we've reviewed outside of that

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movie, you're gonna see how that movie

spoofs a bunch of them.

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And it makes the jokes even funnier.

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Yep.

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And yeah, I got the hookup with Method Man

and Red Man when they started getting into

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film.

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You mean how high?

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How High, sorry.

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You said I got the hookup.

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We did.

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I got the hookup.

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That was Master P, right?

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I'm getting confused.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Exactly.

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Yes, you're going to get the full range.

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You'll get the serious movies, the

documentaries, crime dramas, straight up

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dramas, musicals, comedies, animated

movies, feature films.

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They're all even with sci -fi with the

Transformers, which is coming soon.

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But you're going to get the full gamut of

movies and they're all going to be nicely

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tucked into.

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our definition of a hip hop film.

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And if you watch them and listen to our

talking points on these films, you'll see

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exactly why we chose to view them.

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Yeah.

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One of my favorites too, and we had a

screening event was Krush Groove.

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The term I will consistently use is like a

time capsule because it tells a story of

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the creation of Def Jam records, but you

get to see LL Cool J as a teenager and

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Beastie Boys as I believe teenagers and

New Edition when they're even younger.

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It's just amazing that that's captured on

film.

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So you see hip hop.

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in its infancy before it was a billion

dollar industry when it was still kind of

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regionalized and to have the forethought

to put that on film, I'm still astonished

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by that.

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And the good thing to notice too is that

we're all on the East Coast, but yeah, we

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view movies that primarily take place in

the West Coast as well.

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So there's no necessarily East Coast bias.

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We're watching them all.

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South, yeah, we're watching them all.

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There's no bias here.

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Yeah, if it's hip hop related, we're on

it.

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And we've done a lot of the big ones.

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Like if you look up a list, we've hit most

of the major ones, if not all.

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But then we'll go off the beaten path a

little bit.

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Like the movie Bodied, which Eminem had a

hand in creating or producing.

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You know, you got a young guy that's doing

his master's thesis on rap battling and he

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gets...

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engaged into it himself and it's a

fascinating story.

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And then some of the lesser known ones

like On the Come Up, which we actually

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were able to promote when it was coming

out on streaming services.

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So yeah, some of these more obscure ones,

I would say, or less popular ones, they're

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worth listening to the episode and viewing

the films as well.

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They have some intrinsic value.

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So that's basically our definition of hip

hop movies.

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I wonder if anybody else has any of our

listeners has any other definition of hip

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hop movies or do they have any gripes with

any of the films that we considered hip

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hop movies?

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Sound off in the comments on YouTube y

'all.

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Or hit us up.

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HipHopMovieClub at gmail .com.

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Yeah, if you come across a movie that we

haven't viewed yet.

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There are still many we haven't viewed

yet.

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So, yeah, we haven't talked about the hip

hop dance film genre either.

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So the whole Step Up series, we have to

get to that still.

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the surface of that yet.

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We haven't even touched the surface of

that yet.

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That's a rabbit hole in itself.

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Ha ha ha!

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We even did a holiday film, Dashing

Through the Snow, which was a Netflix

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film.

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We've done Christmas movies, yeah.

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Hip Hop Nutcracker as well, yeah.

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We got it all, we're getting them all

covered.

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Yeah.

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Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by Your

HHMC's JB, Boogie, and DynoWright Theme

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music by Boogie.

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Come out to our next live event on August

16th at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, we are

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presenting a screening of the original

House Party, which will be preceded by a

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throwback DJ set and followed by a brief

talkback and trivia game.

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Purchase tickets now at SteelStacks .org.

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Whether you're listening to the podcast or

watching us on YouTube, we appreciate you.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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Remember, don't hate, calibrate.

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Yeah, I still gotta get my turntables

calibrated.

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You

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that.

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I haven't had a chance to get them over

there and drop them off, but it's coming.

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About the Podcast

Hip Hop Movie Club
Harmonizing the rhythm of hip hop with the magic of movies
Upcoming Hip Hop Movie Club events:

Feb 5 - Breakin' screening
https://www.steelstacks.org/event/16710/breakin/

HHMC is brought to you by a trio of longtime hip hop fans: JB, an 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, BooGie, a veteran DJ and graffiti artist, and DynoWright, podcaster and filmmaker.

Buy some merch: https://meteorwright.one/shop

More events to be announced! Subscribe to our newsletter and get updated on events: https://hiphopmovieclub.substack.com/