Rapper Movies

Movie ratings

There seems to be an outbreak of rappers invading Hollywood these days. Beyond my own deep dislike of almost any rap since ~1987, this phenomenon is startling to me.


I’d rate rappers in movies as follows:

Wil Smith - Has natural talent and has honed their acting abilities through years of training and experience. Commands respect of peers and capable of the lead in $100 million blockbusters.

LL Cool J - Has a lesser degree of talent. Has trained and gained experience over years of work. Can maintain quality supporting roles in significant production films. Tends to work in a single niche genre.

The rest of the bunch - May or may not have little/no talent. Has no experience at acting, and has bypassed trying to learn for quick money. Generally will be minor support in lower quality films, or occasionally lead/co-lead with C tier or less actors. Movies tend to exploit the rap image projected in music videos.

Of these types it seems that the last category is gaining more ground. Not that skill or talent has improved, just the economics. By that I mean that a low budget film (10-20 million is what Wil Smith is paid to be IN a movie) starring the latest video, not yet in jail for stupid actions, flavor can return 3x or more on investment. If more than one of these bottom tier, bail kids is involved the numbers increase dramatically. Why? Because they attract the rap/hip-hop crowd, whites who want to buy into the black experience that’s for sale, and the black community that says "We must support black films, even if they are garbage."


Of course this only motivates Hollywood to continue to pump out poorly written (slang instead of words - to be cool), poorly plotted (Why/How is this stuff in the movie happening?), Horribly acted (Would it be the same if Denzel or Samuel did it?) low budget trash (would anyone see this movie if it was exactly the same but had white actors? Would it even be made if that was the case?).


Well perhaps I will be surprised and find talent under the rock that is rap music, but I’m sure it will only happen after rap is replaced by the new music craze, just as rap did to rock.


Oh, by the way, Queen Latifah is on the LL scale (Oscar or not she gets to make movies like TAXI with jimi fallon) and she spent years getting good doing TV (like LL and Smith). Tupac had promise but got killed for stupidity (his lifestyle and the east/west thing). Janet and Whitney are singers.


As a side note I have a rating system:

A movie will proportionately decrease in quality with the addition of a rapper(s), and will exponentially drop in intellect based on the number of rapper(s) in it.