best rap biography movies

12 Best Hip-Hop Movies of all Time

Rap and Hip-Hop have been one of the most endeared and beloved genres of music for a long time. With its upbeat and groovy tempo, complemented by the fast-paced tracks, this musical style raises the adrenaline levels to new heights. From time-time, the talents of directors have brought together pieces observing, critiquing and showcasing the industry. From Eminem rapping his way through in ‘8 Mile’ to 50 Cent pursuing his ambitions to change the scene of music in ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’, from Lauren Lazin composing an art on Tupac in ‘Tupac: Resurrection’ to artists building new hip-hop groups in ‘Straight Outta Compton’, the films have showcased the industry with passion and love.

For this list, I have taken into account films which blend the technique of filmmaking and inculcate rap in its narrative with brilliance. The films on this list provided a variety of aspects of the art and the artists. Some are intrinsic documentaries looking into the artistic yet dark sides of the profession, some are fictionalised portrayals of artists and some are a figment of crative imagination looking into the world of rap, hip-hop and music as a whole. So, without further ado, here is the list of top rapper movies ever made. You can watch several of these best rapper movies on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.

12. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005)

Starring 50 Cent as Marcus “Young Caesar” Greer, ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is a biographical crime film. Directed by American screenwriter and filmmaker Jim Sheridan, the film chronicles the life of inner-city drug dealer, the protagonist Marcus Greer, who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, which is rap music. Sharing the name from the highly successful rap album of the same name, composed by 50 Cent, the film is an acquired taste. Not the most cohesive narrative, ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is modelled for 50 Cent devotees and rap music connoisseurs.

11. Notorious (2009)

Directed by American filmmaker George Tillman Jr., ‘Notorious’ is a biographical drama of the titular American rapper Notorious B.I.G. or Christopher Wallace. Starring American actor and rapper Jamal Woolard as the titular rapper, the film explores his life as an artist as well as his personal life. While the film has its flaws, ‘Notorious’ was quite appreciated by several critics for the film’s detour from traditional biopic tropes to focus more on the person rather than the star.

10. Style Wars (1983)

Directed by Tony Silver, ‘Style Wars’ is a documentary which explores the rich growing subculture of hip-hop in New York City in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, specifically focusing on graffiti art and breakdancing. Not quite popular among audiences, ‘Style Wars’ is built upon memorable moments and mesmerising scenes, credited to the talents of the writers.

9. Beat Street (1984)

Directed by American filmmaker Stan Latha, ‘Beat Street’ stars Guy Davis as aspiring DJ Kenny “Double K” Kirkland, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter; try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture. With the musical talents of Guy Davis, the film showcases groovy hip-hop tracks with deftness. What makes the film such a great watch is the fact that ‘Beat Street’ is stemmed deep into the hip-hop culture. The performances are impeccable and resonate with solid music and direction.

8. CB4 (1993)

‘CB4’ follows a fictional rap group, the titular “CB4”, and builds the narrative by parodying the tropes of hood films and rap groups. Starring American comedian and writer Chris Rock, ‘CB4’ is directed by American filmmaker Tamra Davis. Rock showcases is comic chops with dexterity and brilliance.  He film holds a foot tapping soundtrack and explores the world of rap while dexterously parodying it.

7. Hustle & Flow (2005)

Directed by American filmmaker Craig Brewer, ‘Hustle & Flow’ stars American actor Terrence Howard a Memphis hustler and pimp, DJay, who decides to become a rapper. The film resonates with groovy tracks, for which it won an Academy Award for Best “Original Song” and the echoing performance by Howard, for which he was awarded an Academy Award nomination for “Best Actor”.

6. Wild Style (1983)

Directed by American filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, ‘Wild Style’ is about Raymond ‘Zoro’, essayed by ‘Lee’ George Quinones, an indefinable graffiti writer. The film further explores the various facets of Zoro’s passion for his art and his personal life.  True to its rhythmic core, ‘Wild Style’ is a great flick with a true heart. ‘Wild Style’ was an immense critical success and has since seasoned to have an enormous cult following.

5. I’m Still Here (2010)

A mockumentary comedy-drama, ‘I’m Still Here’ stars Joaquin Phoenix as himself as it explores the actor’s career transition from the profession of acting to the art of becoming a hip-hop rapper. While the film drew attention for Phoenix’s absurd method acting techniques, ‘I’m Still Here’ is one hell of a ride. The film is powered by the hilariously subtle performance of Phoenix and is a must watch for its creatively ridiculous tonality and narrative. The film also showcases the seemingly absurd world which is perfectly personified by Phoenix’s infamous method approach towards the character.

4. Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

Directed by debutant filmmaker Lauren Lazin, ‘Tupac: Resurrection’ is a documentary film about the life and death of American hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur, one of the greatest rappers of all time. Nominated for the Academy Award for “Best Documentary Feature” at the 77th Academy Awards, ‘Tupac: Resurrection’ is a well-crafted film exploring the nitty-gritty of the music industry and patrols through the tragic murder of Tupac with compassionate dexterity.

 3. Scratch (2001)

A Doug Pray directed documentary, ‘Scratch’ explores the hip-hop culture and the birth of hip-hop as a musical genre. The documentary breaks down in different chapter and juggles with the explosion of the infamous turntablism. Adding to that, the film focuses on the world by brilliantly exploring the stories and personal experiences of the hip-hop artists. Unlike many other hip-hop rap flicks, ‘Scratch’ provided a much more introspective look into the culture. While other documentary films on this list showcase a particular artist, ‘Scratch’ looks into the culture as a whole, making it a distinctive from other documentary films. Listed as one of the best films of 2001, ‘Scratch’ is passionate look into and research of the then dwindling hip-hop culture.

Read More: Best Black Movies on Netflix

2. Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Directed by American filmmaker F. Gary Gray, ‘Straight Outta Compton’ chronicles the rise and fall of the gangsta rap group N.W.A and its members Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr Dre. Resonating with a chart-bursting album, ‘Straight Outta Compton’ explores race relations and racial discrimination in the USA.  While the film is divisive, given the thematically charged narrative, ‘Straight Outta Compton’ is an important film and a great watch. The films critical success earned it a wave of awards nominations and wins, including an Academy Award,  a Screen Guild Award and an AFI Award, to name a few.

Read More: Best Hood Movies

1. 8 Mile (2002)

A semi-autobiographical film of the life of Eminem, ‘8 Mile’ is a dexterous infusion of a narrative fuelled by music with sharp dramatic tension. Directed by American filmmaker Curtis Hanson, ‘8 Mile’ is a character-driven narrative as it explores a young Jimmy Smith’s goals and ambitions in the midst of obstacles such as monetary woes to rifts with his mother. Unsurprisingly, ‘8 Mile’ boasts of adrenaline rushing music with a resonating performance by Eminem. An instant fan favourite among Eminem fans, the film holds a deep impact in the hip-hop culture, as the rapper does in real life. A critical and commercial success, ‘8 Mile’ went on to win an Oscar for “Best Music” and a Grammy nomination for “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media”, to name a few.

Read More: Best Black Movies of All Time

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Total Recall

10 definitive hip-hop movies, in this week's total recall, we look at ten essential films dealing with hip-hop culture..

N.W.A.’s landmark 1988 debut album Straight Outta Compton  launched the gangsta rap genre, served as a springboard for the group members’ assorted solo careers, and infuriated authority figures and conservative cultural pundits along the way. This week, these hip-hop legends get the biopic treatment with Straight Outta Compton the movie, and to celebrate, we decided to dedicate this week’s feature to a look at some of Hollywood’s best efforts to interpret, analyze, and honor a culture that’s all too often misappropriated and misunderstood. Get ready to rock it to the bang bang boogie, because it’s time for Total Recall!

Brown Sugar (2002) 67%

There’s no shortage of movies about best pals who wake up to their love connection long after the audience has realized they’re perfect for each other, but director Rick Famuyiwa’s 2002 romantic dramedy Brown Sugar adds a fresh twist by making the protagonists (played by Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan) grown-up hip-hop kids who met during the genre’s formative era and have found successful careers in the music industry. Sugar further cements its hip-hop bona fides with supporting performances from real-life rappers Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) and Queen Latifah, as well as an appearance from influential MC Kool G. Rap — all of whom contribute to the ample charms that help the movie transcend the rom-com conventions of its plot. “A romantic comedy, yes,” admitted Roger Ebert, “but one with characters who think and talk about their goals, and are working on hard decisions.”

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Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005) 92%

Near the peak of Chappelle’s Show mania, Dave Chappelle used some of his newfound Hollywood clout to throw the greatest block party in history — and have director Michel Gondry film the whole thing, turning it into a cinematic love letter to live music and hip-hop’s deep New York roots. Interspersed with new stand-up material from its star, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party treats viewers to one incredible concert, featuring sets from Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT, and Big Daddy Kane — plus the reunited Fugees — all filmed with a fan’s loving eye. Calling it “a concert film for people who don’t like concert films,” FilmFocus’ Joe Utichi said the result “does such a good job of putting you in the middle of the action that only the end credits can remind you that you’re sitting in a movie theatre.”

8 Mile (2002) 75%

With 2002’s 8 Mile , Eminem joined the relatively short list of celebrities who have starred in their own biopic — and unlike most of his predecessors, he managed to come out of the experience with a critical and commercial hit. Of course, it definitely helped that the multi-platinum MC had led a fairly cinematic life, rising from humble beginnings as a bullied and impoverished Detroit youth before rocketing to fame with a rapid-fire rhyming style and deeply confessional, confrontational lyrics — and 8 Mile ’s big-screen success also wasn’t hurt by the fact that it played fast and loose with his story, changing the “character” names and adding various narrative nips and tucks to make the whole thing hit harder on the big screen. “Since his ascension to pop-culture royalty, Eminem has transformed the messy emotions of his life into musical black comedy,” wrote Nathan Rabin for the AV Club. “In 8 Mile , that life becomes an equally riveting drama.”

House Party (1990) 94%

In terms of storyline and structure, House Party may be little more than an updated version of the cheapo ‘50s rock flicks that tried to use the music as a Pavlovian bell to send screaming teens rushing to the cineplex, but whatever it might lack in sophistication, this cheerfully amiable 1990 hit more than compensates with its sheer exuberance, a killer soundtrack, and a pair of immensely charming stars. Led by hip-hop duo Kid ‘N Play, House Party tosses up the bare remnants of a plot (which is basically summed up in the title) and then colorfully decorates the joint with standout performances — including appearances from Robin Harris, Martin Lawrence, and Tisha Campbell — held together by Reginald Hudlin’s assured direction. The result, noted Desson Thomson for the Washington Post, is “fast-moving, never dull, extremely funny, and manages to touch, with lighthearted (and R-rated) profundity on almost every youthful issue you can imagine, including police harassment, teenage sex, the all-too-easy road to jail and alcohol drinking.”

Hustle & Flow (2005) 82%

Plenty of rappers have boasted on wax about growing up on the streets and rising out of a life of crime. In Craig Brewer’s Oscar-winning Hustle & Flow , those dire straits are depicted as something to escape rather than romanticize: Terrence Howard plays a small-time crook named Djay who, tired of pimping and dealing, decides it’s time to make a play for hip-hop stardom — only to discover that leaving your old life behind isn’t always as easy as putting together a dope demo. “ Hustle & Flow suspends you in its spell of mood, of feeling, of climate,” wrote Stephanie Zacharek for Salon. “It’s a pop picture that finds its richness in peeling down to the essentials of good storytelling.”

Time Is Illmatic (2014) 98%

While rock fans have been spoiled over the years by a growing list of documentaries devoted to the genre’s classic albums, hip-hop’s greatest hits have been given relatively short shrift. Time Is Illmatic , a 2014 documentary assembled in honor of the 20th anniversary of Nas’ classic debut LP Illmatic , offers an absorbing example of the many fascinating tales waiting to be told by directors willing to look to rap’s past for inspiration. Helmed by first-time filmmaker One9, Time Is Illmatic offers an overview of Nas’ upbringing and early life, leading to him signing his first record deal at the tender age of 20 and releasing his watershed album just a year later, then surveys Illmatic ’s impact and legacy over the ensuing decades. As Kyle Anderson argued for Entertainment Weekly, “As both an origin story about a great artist and a distillation of ’80s urban blight, it’s as breathless and real as any street-corner rhyme.”

Planet B-Boy (2007) 83%

For many people, breakdancing was little more than a short-lived fad that died out in the early ‘80s, but director Benson Lee proved the opposite with his critically lauded 2007 documentary Planet B-Boy . In fact, as Lee shows here, the dance not only persisted beyond its time in the ‘80s zeitgeist, it’s flourished throughout the world; to prove it, Planet follows young breakdancers from Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States as they train to compete for top honors in the Battle of the Year. Those of us who remember how much fun it was to watch popping and locking in the schoolyard and on MTV will not be surprised by the words of the Houston Chronicle’s Amy Biancolli, who wrote, “If I could, I would spin on my head to express how much I enjoyed Planet B-Boy .”

Scratch (2001) 94%

It’s the MC we tend to hear loudest (and whose talents tend to receive the widest recognition), but there’s nothing quite as incredible as a talented turntablist, and some of hip-hop’s most brilliant DJs finally got their cinematic due in Hype! director Doug Pray’s 2002 documentary Scratch , which takes an incisive and insightful look at the elevation of the art form from early pioneers like Afrika Bambaata on up through latter-day leaders like DJ Shadow and DJ Qbert. As with any great documentary, Scratch transcends its subject; in the words of the Capital Times’ Rob Thomas, “Those moviegoers who would automatically bypass a hip-hop documentary should give Scratch a second look.”

Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012) 86%

For the rap novice looking for a primer course in the development of the art form, Something for Nothing is essential viewing — but even for those who’ve loved hip-hop for years, the movie offers an engrossing look at some of the key artists who helped shape the genre during its formative era, with co-director Ice-T arranging an assortment of legendary MCs and younger rising stars (including Afrika Bambaataa, Big Daddy Kane, Eminem, and Kanye West) to tell their stories while opening a window into their craft. “The interviews are often revealing and funny,” noted an approving Michael Phillips for the Chicago Tribune. “And much of the music is tremendous.”

Wild Style (1982) 90%

Hip-hop would go on to inspire plenty of films with bigger budgets, wider releases, and more ambitious stories, but they all owe a partial debt to Wild Style . Produced, written, and directed by multi-hyphenate artist Charlie Ahearn, Style takes a docudrama approach to hip-hop in early ‘80s New York, featuring many of the era’s top acts (including Fab 5 Freddy, who helped work on the script, as well as Grandmaster Flash and the Rock Steady Crew) playing themselves as part of a story about a graffiti artist named Zoro (Lee Quiñones) and his relationship with a journalist (Patti Astor). Like quite a few of the entries on this list, Wild Style boasts a killer soundtrack, but it’s also one of the more critically respected examples of hip-hop cinema, capturing a crucial moment in time with its loosely scripted approach and low-budget aesthetic. “Hip-hop rolls on tractor treads now, unafraid to colonize those who hesitate,” noted Sasha Frere-Jones for the Village Voice, “but in 1982 it was small, self-selecting, and as specific to New York as the World Trade Center.”

Finally, here’s ’80s hip-hop hitmakers the Fat Boys covering the Beatles’ “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” from the soundtrack to their 1987 comedy Disorderlies :

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The 50 Best Hip-Hop Movies and Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now

Because you need something to watch that isn't Spring Breakers.

Image via Complex Original

The canon of what's categorically considered to be a "hip-hop" movie or television show can include films about graffiti, break-dancing, DJs, or rap, let alone any of the things rappers explicitly rap about, sure. But that's not all there is out there.

Krush Groove is a crucial hip-hop movie, but it is as influential or important to hip-hop as Brian De Palma's Scarface ? Is the impact of Will Smith and "Fresh Prince" on rap equal to or greater than that of "In Living Color" or "Chappelle's Show"? When sorting out the best of what we considered to be some of the great hip-hop movies and television, we opened up the field a little. Past just documentaries, and stories about rappers. We don't need to tell you. Hip-hop's bigger than that. Just ask some of the Netflix viewership and amateur review movie corps, who have some...interesting...things to say about their favorite flicks that are readily available on Netflix streams. Granted, they don't have all the best movies that hip-hop's yielded or embraced (like, of course, Scarface and Krush Groove ). But we found more than a few gems worth watching.

These are The 50 Best Hip-Hop Movies and Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now. If you don't know, now you know (to stream them before they're gone).

50. I Got The Hook-Up (1998)

Genre : Comedy/Action Director : Michael Martin Starring : Master P and C-Murder. Other people, too, but does anyone else matter? Worth Watching, Because : There's probably no better way to understand just how big No Limit was in 1998 than by watching this movie and contemplating that someone actually let Master P make it, let alone paid to distribute it. Sometimes, it's actually good. Mostly, it's so-bad-it's-good. Also, you're living a life unexperienced until you've seen C-Murder act. Netflix Viewers Say : "Although I will say, that this is the best movie that Master P has ever stared in. A.J. Johnson saved this movie."

49. Ghostride the Whip (2008)

Genre : Documentary Director : DJ Vlad Starring : Sway Calloway (Narrator) Worth Watching, Because : DJ Vlad directed a movie, narrated by Sway Calloway, about hip-hop and the Bay. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will. Netflix Viewers Say : "Sway sounds like he's reading a storybook to a group of slow children, but other than that, this is a solid documentary about a neglected time and place in hip-hop history."

48. The Big Score (1983)

Genre : Action Director : Fred Williamson Starring : Fred Williamson Worth Watching, Because : Because Fred Williamson is the shit, and The Big Score — one of the former linebacker and blaxsploitation star's lesser-known flicks, incredibly — is just about Williamson, as a rogue cop, rolling around with two other badasses ( Shaft actor Richard Roundtree and Roper from Enter The Dragon ), busting a $100 million drug deal, kicking everyone's ass they run into. It's the most low-budget of low-budget blaxploitation classics, and fun for being such. Netflix Viewers Say : "... not much money in the budget but well done anyway."

47. Phat Beach (1996)

Genre : Comedy Director : Doug Ellin Starring : Coolio, Brian Hooks, Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins" Worth Watching, Because : The guy who would later go on to create HBO's Entourage once made one of the dumbest (ergo, most hilarious) raunchy late-night comedies of the '90s, however unintentionally. And this was it. And Coolio was in it. Netflix Viewers Say : "'Phat Beach' is an American institution so incredible, Nertflix doesn't even need to post a trailer. They just know you're here for the goods."

46. Blue Chips (1994)

Genre : Sports/Drama Director :  William Friedkin Starring : Shaquille O'Neal, Nick Nolte Worth Watching, Because : Understanding the entire cover reference behind one of the greatest rapper mixtapes of all time. Also, Shaq's "acting" debut, before he decided to "rap." Netflix Viewers Say : "Without question, Shaq's greatest movie."

45. 30 for 30: No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson (2010)

Genre : Documentary Director : Steve James Starring : Allen Iverson Worth Watching, Because : Allen Iverson is the player who came to represent the war between the culture of hip-hop in the NBA in the late '90s/early '00s, and the efforts by the owners and the league to quell it. This is the definitive origin story that explains how he came to be that person — or rather, almost didn't — expertly told by the same guy who directed Hoop Dreams . Netflix Viewers Say : "This is a story about a mega superstar who has it made but does not see it."

44. Bucktown (1975)

Genre : Blaxploitation/Action Director : Arthur Marks Starring : Fred Williamson, Pam Grier Worth Watching, Because : Because Fred Williamson and Pam "Foxy Brown" Grier made a movie together, is why. And you've heard "Bucktown" referenced in two ways in rap. One's to Brooklyn. This, wherein Fred Williamson goes down south to bury his brother, and ends up re-opening his old nightclub, only to find enemies in the local police force, and kick the shit out of them is the other one. Netflix Viewers Say : "This is one of my favorite Fred Williamson films. Pam Grier is hot. They make a hot couple."

43. Wu-Tang Clan: Live at Montreux 2007

Genre : Concert/Documentary Director : N/A Starring : The Wu-Tang Clan Worth Watching, Because : Because, odds are, you're never going to see this many members of the Wu-Tang Clan in the same place, at the same time. And if seeing this many members of the Wu-Tang Clan together in the same place, at the same time isn't on your bucket list, it really, really should be. Netflix Viewers Say : "It was good It would have been better if ODB was there."

42. Foxy Brown (1974)

Genre : Blaxploitation/Action Director : Jack Hill Starring : Pam Grier Worth Watching, Because : You know the rapper, and of course, the countless references, sure, but do you know the blaxploitation heroine who inspired her name? Pam Grier set the bar for female action heroes who kick ass as Foxy, and per her name, also happened to be a dime. Netflix Viewers Say : "my personal favorite part is when Miss Grier clad in leather pants shows up to the bad girls house and presents her with her BF's dismembered member."

41. Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel: The Life of an Outlaw (2002)

Genre : Documentary Director : Peter Spirer Starring : Tupac Shakur (Footage) Worth Watching, Because : The most prolific documentarian in hip-hop went all in on Tupac Shakur, and produced a movie that — while not as popular as Tupac: Resurrection — was one of the first truly comprehensive (and remains one of the most essential) documentaries to capture the brilliant essence of 'Pac in a meaningful, profound way. Netflix Viewers Say : "I THOUGHT I KNEW ALOT ABOUT PAC BUT AFTER THIS I WAS SADLY MISTAKEN ALSO IT WAS NICE TO KNOW PEOPLE CLOSE TO HIM BELIEVE THE LAST PIC TAKEN BEFORE HE WAS SHOOT THAT HE KNEW IT WAS COMING. R.I.P. TUPAC"

40. The Untouchables (1987)

Genre : Action Director : Brian De Palma Starring : Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro Worth Watching, Because : While it might not be one of those other Brian DePalma movies referenced by every other rapper countless times over the last twenty years ( Carlito's Way and Scarface , but like that needed explaining), references to The Untouchables and its characters have made their way through some of the most famous rap songs out there ("California Love" "Ready or Not," etc, etc). Get to know the inspiration, a killer movie with an all-star cast, a brilliant director, and not too bad of a screenwriter on it, either ( Glengarry Glen Ross wordsmith David Mamet). Netflix Viewers Say : "I see why De Palma is Tarantino's favorite Director. I like his style."

39. The Human Tornado (Dolemite II) (1976)

Genre : Blaxploitation/Action Director : Cliff Roquemore Starring : Rudy Ray Moore as fucking Dolemite . Worth Watching, Because : Rudy Ray Moore as Dolemite is the peak of blaxploitation ass-kicking greatness, and a reference point for everyone from A$AP Rocky to Action Bronson and back . You want to know what Snoop was talking about when he said he was "pimping hoes and clocking a grip like my name was Dolomite." Even if you don't know it yet, yes, you really, really want to know. Netflix Viewers Say : "Forget generic blaxploitation stuff - they're Disney compared to The Human Tornado ! So screamingly crude and funny - and weird - you'll die laughing."

38. Bling (2007)

Genre : Documentary Director : Raquel Cepeda Starring : Raekwon, Paul Wall, Kanye West, Jadakiss Worth Watching, Because : Diamonds, an entire sub-category of subject matter and ubiquitous fixture of rap, have a human price. Watching two rappers (Raekwon and Paul Wall) go to war-torn Sierra Leone to see what the diamond trade actually involves is an eye-opening experience, both for the rappers (kind of, see below) and any hip-hop fan who thinks they've given the matter an appropriate amount of thought. Netflix Viewers Say : "How on EARTH can you argue with the owner of a diamond industrial company (IN Sierra Leone, mind you) about his business being unethical and unconcerned with the struggle of the people when you have three diamond chains around your neck?I"

37. Jamie Foxx: I Might Need Security (2001)

Genre : Stand-Up Director : Chuck Vinson Starring : Jamie Foxx Worth Watching, Because : Jamie Foxx is funny, but his story about that time LL Cool J assaulted him on the set of Any Given Sunday is straight-up incredible , which goes without mentioning his entire insta-classic "punch in the club" routine. Netflix Viewers Say : "THIS SHIOT RIGHT HERE IS Hilarious with a capital H!! I LOVE YOU JAMIE FOXX!!"

36. Rhyme & Punishment (2009)

Genre : Documentary Director : Peter Spirer Starring : KRS-One, Slick Rick, Beanie Sigel Worth Watching, Because : Prison—and the millions of black American men in it—is a constant, ominous theme in rap, and a not-uncommon narrative in the rise and fall of many a rapper legacy. Peter Spirer put the two themes together, and as always, delivered essential viewing. Netflix Viewers Say : "Who ever is saying the artist represented in this documentary are addicts and crack heads are not giving this film justice."

RELATED: The 25 Realest Rap Songs About Prison

35. Backstage (2000)

Genre : Documentary Director : Chris Fiore Starring : Jay-Z, DMX, Method Man, Redman, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek Worth Watching, Because : You never knew that watching Dame Dash scream on Kevin Liles would be the most inspiring thing you'd see this weekend. Also, over a decade later, it's nothing short of amazing to watch a young Ja Rule, young DMX, and young-ish Jay-Z, each on their respective rises to the top. It's easy to forget, but the Hard Knock Life tour was a groundbreaking national rap tour. Netflix Viewers Say : "...not only does this take me back to my favorite age of hip hop, the goals and attitude of Damon "Dame" Dash inspires me."

34. The MC: Why We Do It (2005)

Genre : Documentary Director : Peter Spirer Starring : Mekhi Phifer (Narrator) Worth Watching, Because : It's a documentary about MCs, and not just what it means to be one, but what a rise to the top actually entails: business, industry contacts, networking, and where talent or hard work will (or won't) take you. Also, the assembled group of subjects and interviews? All-Stars. Think KRS-One, Rakim, Kanye West, MC Lyte, Too Short, and Common, and Jay-Z. Netflix Viewers Say : "THIS IS THE TRUE MEANING OF 'REAL HIP HOP'"

33. Copyright Criminals (2009)

Genre : Documentary Director : Benjamin Franzen, Kembrew McLeod Starring : George Clinton, Chuck D, El-P Worth Watching, Because : There could be a documentary alone just on the arguments for, arguments against, legal ramifications, and artistic impact of sampling, an essential component of hip-hop. And in 2009, there was. Chuck D, El-P, George Clinton and others weigh in on the matter, not offering up any top-to-bottom solutions, but still giving a colorful voice and ideas to one where there wasn't before. Netflix Viewers Say : "Eclectic Method are posers... just had to get that out there; this movie makes them look like fools too! Entertaining movie."

32. Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Rock (1992)

Genre : Comedy Director : N/A Starring : Chris Rock Worth Watching, Because : When rap references finally made it onto Saturday Night Live in a meaningful (i.e. funny) way, it was a crucial, breakthrough moment in both comedy and for hip-hop, and Chris Rock was the first person to truly take it to the places it needed to go on NBC's weekly marquee comedy show. But, mostly: for Nat-X and the "Russell Simmons Presents: Def Magic Show Jam" skit with Tim Meadows. Netflix Viewers Say : "omg this was so funny its waz hilarious best part w/commetary wen u he wears red jacket and in a jamaican accent says leave me alone charlie brown hahahahaahaa"

31. Gridlock'd (1997)

Genre : Drama/Comedy Director : Vondie Curtis-Hall Starring : Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth Worth Watching, Because : Tupac had acting chops and charisma, of course, but comic chops? Along with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction actor Tim Roth, 'Pac's final (and most unlikely) movie role as a junkie illustrates the extent of his talents beyond rapping. Netflix Viewers Say : "This movie is good for some laffs but still has some serious under tones but I say let your hair down and enjoy a run thru the city !!! (fsuuncle)"

30. Snow on Tha Bluff (2011)

Genre : Indie/Drama Director : Damon Russell Starring : Curtis Snow, Cat Erikson Worth Watching, Because : It's the Blair Witch Project of what life in Atlanta's toughest neighborhood is like. A found-footage style drama that tore up the film festival circuit in 2011, causing riots and prompting the Atlanta police to contact the filmmakers about its seeming veracity, Snow on Tha Bluff might be fake, it might be real, but whatever it actually is, it's one hell of a ride through modern-day Atlanta's crack dealing scene. Of course, if you're a T.I. fan, you already know that the film's "star," Curtis Snow, was put in the video for "Trap Back Jumpin" after the Atlanta rapper saw the film. Netflix Viewers Say : "THIS MOVIE WILL BE THE #1 GANGSTA MOVIE OF ALL TIME IN A COUPLE YEARS."

29. Rhyme & Reason (1997)

Genre : Documentaries Director : Peter Spirer Starring : Diddy, Too $hort, B-Real, Kurtis Blow, Da Brat, Grandmaster Caz, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs Worth Watching, Because : This film about the popularity of rap and the direction it was headed in 1997 — when it was reaching new peaks of pop culture crossover — might be the best of hip-hop documentarian Peter Spirer's work, and it's easily the best cast of talking heads (Diddy, Too Short, Chuck D, Dr. Dre, Erick Sermon, Busta Rhymes, et al) he'd ever assemble. Netflix Viewers Say : "There is basically at least one scene to be enjoyed by any hip-hop fan."

28. American Pimp (2000)

Genre : Documentary Director : Various pimps, literally. Starring : Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes Worth Watching, Because : It's worth knowing how card-carrying pimps differentiate from rappers who claim to be pimps. There's a reason the old rap adage isn't "Pimping: Easy as hell." Want to know why? And what it actually entails? Well, enjoy this landmark documentary, which may as well be the last word and ultimate reference point on the matter. One watch, and you'll never want to call yourself a pimp again. Netflix Viewers Say : "CHURCH! this documentary was pretty awesome, shows first hand accounts of real pimps, if your a square you probably wont appreciate this level of game. Also, great soundtrack."

27. Bad Boys (1995)

Genre : Action Director : Michael Bay Starring : Will Smith, Martin Lawrence Worth Watching, Because : It's Will Smith, at some of his most R-rated greatness, a rare part of the Fresh Prince's legacy that people forget. Teamed with Martin Lawrence — also a creator of a revolutionary, hip-hop culture driven sitcom — the duo as misbehaving cops with filthy mouths and stunting tendencies aren't just the center of a '90s action classic, or a buddy cop movie classic, but what would essentially be the mirror version of every rap song about smuggling blow. Netflix Viewers Say : "martin and will is funny i like bad boys movie they need to get together and make another one." [Ed. They did, and it's called Bad Boys 2.]

26. Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982)

Genre : Stand-Up Director : Joe Layton Starring : Richard Pryor Worth Watching, Because : It's one of the greatest comedians of all time — whose influence on hip-hop (and hip-hop humor) is nearly ubiquitous — performing some of his finest and most legendary standup routines. Netflix Viewers Say : "Well there's not much to say. If you don't watch this and understand why he's a comic genius then you don't know comedy."

25. Paris is Burning (1990)

Genre : Documentary Director : Jennie Livingston Starring : A bunch of drag queens. Worth Watching, Because : As rappers like Mykki Blanco, Big Freedia, Katy Red, and Zebra Katz begin to get their due time in the spotlight, it's important to keep in mind the minority drag scene in New York in the early '90s (and the rise of "vogueing") that would help shape their identities, captured nowhere better than this award-sweeping documentary. Netflix Viewers Say : "L.E.G.E.N.D.A.R.Y"

24. Paid In Full (2002)

Genre : Drama/Action Director : Charles Stone III Starring : Mekhi Phifer, Wood Harris, Chi McBride, and Cam'ron. Yes, Cam'ron. Worth Watching, Because : You want to see Cam'ron act in a movie with Wood Harris and Mekhi Phifer about —what else? — the Harlem crack game. Who doesn't ? Dipset for all the Oscars. Netflix Viewers Say : "Phenomenal movie! F*** the haters, get outa here with that sh*t."

23. The Up in Smoke Tour (2000)

Genre : Concert/Documentary Director : Phillip Atwell Starring : Eminem, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg Worth Watching, Because : Most people don't know what a Dr. Dre comeback was really like—and how incredible it was—unless you bought 2001 the day it came out, or, alternately, went to one of these shows.  Netflix Viewers Say : "Yo this dvd behind the scenes is hott!All the stuff you didnt see at the concert and more Dre and Snoop deffinetly held nothin back in here!"

22. Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life (2007)

Genre : Documentary Director : Peter Spirer Starring : B.I.G. (Footage), Diddy Worth Watching, Because : It's a brilliant documentary about B.I.G., filled with archival footage you've probably never seen, that manages to be great even without getting any music actually licensed for it. Netflix Viewers Say : "Who cares if there wasn't any of his music in the documentary. I already know every biggie song by heart."

21. The Warriors (1979)

Genre : Action Director : Walter Hill Starring : Michael Beck, James Remar Worth Watching, Because : The pop culture template for New York City hoodlum trouble, at its grittiest and most hood. Also, getting to know the inspiration for the infamous Diddy "Baaaaad Booooyyyyy, come out and playyyyyy" intro on the "Flava In Ya Ear" remix . Netflix Viewers Say : "I'm 20 now and can safely say that I have seen this masterpiece more times than I have masterbaited. An absolutely incredible film."

20. Juice (1992)

Genre : Drama Director : Ernest R. Dickerson Starring : Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur Worth Watching, Because : Even ignoring the incredible soundtrack ("Know the Ledge"!) this was a landmark film, the original Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City . Tupac's portrayal of Bishop was brutal, and convincing in his character's mercilessness long before The Wire ever came around. Juice wasn't just hip-hop because of its setting and soundtrack, but because it tackled one of the central moral conflicts brewing in hip-hop culture. Netflix Viewers Say : "yo man this movie be good as heck, I was all surprised at the end tho how that ni**a didnt just let him go for shooting all his homies."

19. Jay-Z: Reasonable Doubt (Classic Albums) (2007)

Genre : Documentary Director : Jeremy Marre Starring : Everyone who made Reasonable Doubt , basically. Worth Watching, Because : It's a step-by-step look at the creation of one of the greatest rap albums (let alone debuts) in the history of the genre, with almost all of the behind-the-scenes players at the forefront. If you like Reasonable Doubt , or just great rap albums, you absolutely need to see this. Netflix Viewers Say : "After 2006 I stopped really listening to much Jay-Z but I always appreciated his flow from 1996 (when I started listening to rap I actually started with Bad Boy LOL so I got to Roc-a-Fella really quick bc they collab'd a lot in the 90s) through Black Album (2004)."

18. Pootie Tang (2001)

Genre : Comedy Director : Louis C.K. Starring : Lance Crouther, J.B. Smoove, Jennifer Coolidge, Reg E. Cathey, Robert Vaughn, and Wanda Sykes Worth Watching, Because : Initially built on a skit from the "Chris Rock Show,"  Pootie Tang was written by a then still-obscure Louis C.K. While it may not have turned out exactly how he desired — the comedian was fired during the editing process, and Roger Ebert once famously said it should never have been released — the film is still a hysterical and somewhat absurd satire of blaxsploitation films of the '70s. The primary conceit — that main character Pootie Tang spoke in a pidgen-esque dialect understood by all characters but none of the audience members — manages to sustain the running time, even if the loose ends of a "plot" do not. Netflix Viewers Say : "Sign my pitty on the runny kine. My hamey din da jizzle bootay. My hiney potamey happy time furshizzle kabobs. Amen."

17. Beef (2003)

Genre : Documentary Director : Peter Spirer Starring : Ving Rhames (Narrator), 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Nas Worth Watching, Because : It's a master class in hip-hop feuding history. For such a defining component of contemporary hip-hop, beefs have only gotten one perfectly definitive documentary (or three, if you count Beef 's two sequels), and this is that movie.   Netflix Viewers Say : "This movie is one hell of an emotional, triumphant as well as desperate journey towards greed and pride."

16. Cocaine Cowboys (2006)

Genre : Documentary Director : Billy Corben Starring : A bunch of 80s Miami coke smugglers. Worth Watching, Because : You think you know gangsters, but you don't know gangsters . This film breaks down how Miami went from a sleepy town to the cocaine capital of America in the '70s and '80s, spelled out through interviews with law enforcement agents, the dealers, the enforcers, and the smugglers about how it all went down, via harrowing firsthand tales about reckless shootouts in malls, the ruthless murdering of dozens of people (including a heartbreaking story about a murdered baby), and just how cocaine was smuggled back in the those days. We'll never look at tow trucks the same again.  Netflix Viewers Say : "born and raised just off bird road since 1942 this movie is right on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

15. Marley (2012)

Genre : Documentary Director : Bob Marley (footage), Everyone who's anyone in reggae. Starring : Kevin MacDonald Worth Watching, Because : Bob Marley's music brought about the rise of an entire genre, which is to say nothing of its effect on modern day hip-hop (and the musical legacy he left behind with his children, Damien and Ziggy among them). This is the ultimate documentary on the man; you need not watch any other. Netflix Viewers Say : "I've seen quite a few movies about Bob, but this one is, by far, exceptional. May he live in the hearts of all of us forever. ONE LOVE!"

14. Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012)

Genre : Documentary Director : Ice-T Starring : Ice-T, Eminem, Common, Big Daddy Kane, Common, and Dr. Dre. Worth Watching, Because : Ice-T's narration and connections in rap remind you that he was always a better rapper than he is a cop on Law and Order . Also, there's never been a better documentary about the creative process behind rapping, and the work and ingenuity that it actually involves.   Netflix Viewers Say : "If you like rap, this is a 5 star documentary. It's funny to see Ice get pi$$ed off at random people on the street."

13. "American Gangster" (2006-2008)

Genre : Crime TV Documentary Director : N/A Starring : Ving Rhames (Narrator) Worth Watching, Because : Hip-hop and American gangs have had a mutually beneficial — and, often, mutually self-destructive — relationship throughout the genre's existence. So while not explicitly hip-hop per se, certain episodes are particularly relevant to the average rap fan. Check out, in particular, Season Three, Episode Nine, which covers the Romper Room Gang, a group of hooligans who robbed pizza parlors in order to finance the recording artist of Mac Dre, whose storyline is featured prominently. Netflix Viewers Say : "The one on J Edgar Hoover was a character assassination piece!"

12. Colors (1988)

Genre : Action/Drama Director : Dennis Hopper Starring : Sean Penn, Robert Duvall, Don Cheadle, Damon Wayans Worth Watching, Because : Before there was Boyz N Tha Hood , before there was any number of L.A. '90s gangland movies, there was this one: The first great dramatization about cops getting involved in the wars between Bloods and Crips, with an all-star cast and a director who knows a thing or two about movies involving gang violence (see: Easy Rider ). Doubt the reality of the film, though? Know this: Two gang members hired to protect the set were shot during the movie's filming in L.A. Netflix Viewers Say : "What the hell crapflix this was on Watch Now and now its gone? WHAT THE HELL YOU BLOW NiTFLIX im goning to stop paying. and start Googling my shows to watch LIVE FOR FREE hahaha." [Ed. Since this review, Colors has resurfaced on Netflix .]

11. Hoop Dreams (1994)

Genre : Documentaries Director : Steve James Starring : William Gates, Arthur Agee Worth Watching, Because : You wouldn't believe it if you saw it, but this wasn't even meant to be a feature film. PBS documentarians wanted to make a 30-minute show about basketball in the inner-city but what they found was so much more. If the drama in Hoop Dreams were made in any fictional story, it would have been considered overly dramatic but life is so much stranger than fiction, offering ironies and changes of fates for the two young boys in this story. Hoop Dreams isn't just one of the best sports films ever made, it's one of the best documentaries ever, period.   Netflix Viewers Say : "Epic, poignant, insightful, uplifting, heartbreaking, maddening and still as pertinent and vital as it was when it was created."

RELATED: The 25 Greatest Sports Documentaries of All Time

10. Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987)

Genre : Stand-Up Director : Robert Townsend Starring : Eddie Murphy Worth Watching, Because : Of all the insta-classic brilliant comic moments, like when Eddie Murphy impersonates Richard Pryor telling him that Bill Cosby is a "Jell-O-puddin' eatin' mutherfucka." Murphy's been a comic inspiration to many a rapper, and Raw — two nights of Murphy, at the Garden, in the '80s — is the man doing stand-up at his finest.   Netflix Viewers Say : "Eddie Murphy back when he was actually funny...not the terrible cleaned up version of himself that he is now...what a shame."

9. Fresh (1994)

Genre : Drama Director : Samuel L. Jackson, Giancarlo Esposito, Sean Nelson Starring : Boaz Yakin Worth Watching, Because : Gus from Breaking Bad , playing another drug lord, except in 1992, he was having a 12-year-old kid (whose dad is Samuel L. Jackson as an alcoholic chessmaster) run drugs for him. It's an old-school crime flick about the early '90s crack trade   with a Shakespearean twist, and was the first movie Quentin Tarantino's go-to producer Lawrence Bender turned out after Reservoir Dogs . And the soundtrack (Wu-Tang, Cold Crush Brothers, Grandmaster Flash) is sick. Netflix Viewers Say : "This movie had the sensibilities of 'Finding Forrester', with plot twists and turns like 'The Usual Suspects' with tongue-in-cheek violence like 'Pulp Fiction'."

8. Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008)

Genre : Documentary Director : Stacey Peralta Starring : Forest Whitaker (Narrator). Worth Watching, Because : There's a lot of rap about gang violence, and a lot of fictionalized accounts of it, but there's never been a real-deal look into the gangland wars that continue to this day quite like this one. And Stacy Peralta, who also directed two of the greatest documentaries about skateboarding and surfing ( Dogtown and Z-Boys and Riding Giants ) ain't no slouch, either.   Netflix Viewers Say : "As a psychologist who worked in the Calif juvenile justice prison system from 1979-2008, almost 30 years, I want to say this movie spells it all out."

7. Coming To America (1988)

Genre : Comedy Director : John Landis Starring : Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones Worth Watching, Because : Rap is strewn with references bound to fly over your head unless you haven't seen this. Is this the funniest film of the last 25 years? Or the single greatest New York City comedy ever? You can debate those questions, but you can't argue that this was Eddie Murphy at his finest, playing several characters along with Arsenio Hall. Unlike Murphy's later films, the characters are subtle (relatively speaking) compared to the outlandish and decidedly unfunny characters he'd play in later in his career, donning fat suit after fat suit. The film has everything you can ask for in a classic comedy: Memorable characters like Cleo McDowell, an innovative, brilliantly fun  storyline, and most crucial to its legacy,  endless quotables ("When you think of garbage, think of Akeem!"). Netflix Viewers Say : "This is my favorite movie after Goonies."

6. Beat Street (1984)

Genre : Drama Director : Stan Lathan Starring : Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis Worth Watching, Because : Not only was one of the very first wide-release films to accurately portray hip-hop's cultural elements beyond rap — breakdancing, graffiti, DJing — and to actually feature rap music; not only does it offer cameos by some of rap's greatest legends and hall-of-famers (Rock Steady Crew, Melle Mel and The Furious Five, DJ Kool Herc, Doug E. Fresh, et al); it's a movie with a plot that revolves around a DJ who wants to perform at The Roxy. Netflix Viewers Say : "I will not even TRY to review this movie. There is not enough room to even start. Ill just say, I know every line, every move, every inch of this work of art. It is my favorite movie of all time. I've watched it since I was 6 years old."

5. Boyz N the Hood (1991)

Genre : Drama Director : John Singleton Starring : Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, and Angela Bassett Worth Watching, Because : It's the ultimate '90s gangland movie — South Central gangsta rap, manifest — that scared the shit out of an entire nation and gave America's moral majority serious cause for concern, and one of the few that continues to age so, so well to this day.   Netflix Viewers Say : "This is one of the most amazing films made in 1990s."

4. Style Wars (1983)

Genre : Documentary Director : Tony Silver Starring : A bunch of graffiti writers and Ed Koch. Worth Watching, Because : As a document of early hip-hop culture — not just graf writing, but the breakdancing, rapping, and the entire sense of place and time — nothing compares to Style Wars . Although it lets all sides of the story get a voice (from one teenage bomber's mother to the late Ed Koch himself ) the film was notable for putting a human face to what many New Yorkers had seen as a chaotic plague. Netflix Viewers Say : "Growing up in Brooklyn in the 70's/early 80's and seeing these masterpeices 30 years later and yelling "Dondi" or "Seen" is magical. Brought back so many memories and reminds me of the days when I'd tag myself. I just wish I had the talent to do what these guys did."

3. Hustle & Flow (2005)

Genre : Drama Director : Craig Brewer Starring : Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Anthony Anderson, and DJ Qualls Worth Watching, Because : Of the way it documents a southern rapper's rise, and never lets viewers' attention wander. Most notably, the scene where the Terrence Howard, DJ Qualls, and Anthony Anderson put the beat, the lyrics, and the hook together to create (and hear, for the first time) one of the most memorable songs to ever win an Oscar: Three 6 Mafia's "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp."   Netflix Viewers Say : "This movies is dhe shittt ii love whoop datt trick and ihtt hard outt hea for a pimp Hott as hell songs Terrence Howard is a great actor keep makein movies :)"

2. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 (2011)

Genre : Documentary Director : Göran Olsson Starring : Questlove, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu Worth Watching, Because : The film, compiled of unearthed archival footage of the black power movement, is one of the greatest collections of reference points towards understanding anything even remotely related to quote-unquote "conscious rap" (and not-so "conscious rap") that you're ever going to find, as told by some of the most essential names in hip-hop. It's stunning, touching, and brilliant.  Netflix Viewers Say : "This documentary was worth my monthly fee"

1. "Chappelle's Show" (2003-2005)

Genre : Comedy Director : Dave Chappelle/Neal Brennan Starring : Dave Chappelle, Charlie Murphy Worth Watching, Because : Chappelle made some of the greatest jokes about hip-hop and rap culture ever put on television, which goes without mentioning the musical acts (Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Snoop Dogg with a bunch of hood-ass muppets) he aired with them. Netflix Viewers Say : "Probably the most intelligent comedy series about the racism and the have and have-nots ever written. With fart jokes. And titties."

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It’s a rap: what are the greatest hip-hop movies?

The genre, which turns 50 this month, has led to surprisingly few movies but the best include a black-and-white comedy and a starry documentary

F ifty years ago, on 11 August 1973, a young woman named Cindy Campbell hosted a small party in the Bronx. Her brother DJ Kool Herc was spinning some records, using two turntables to loop a breakbeat. That moment is said to have given birth to hip-hop. No one made a movie about it.

The landscape for hip-hop movies is starved, all things considered. We’re talking about a musical genre, currently celebrating its golden anniversary, where the aspirational stories of overcoming struggle and systemic oppression, building community and, eventually, dominating pop culture, are rarely told on the big screen.

There are no biopics about pioneering artists like Grandmaster Flash, KRS-One, Slick Rick or Rakim. Up until a decade ago, the only based on true story accounts we got in hip-hop movies were about Black men who had been shot – 50 Cent (Get Rich Or Die Tryin’) and Notorious BIG (Notorious) – and Eminem (8 Mile). The media’s obsession with narratives about violence committed against Black people and, alternatively, white success, continued unchecked.

Straight Outta Compton felt downright revolutionary for breaking that pattern in 2015. The former music video director and South Los Angeles resident F Gary Gray revisits a time he witnessed first-hand, when Dr Dre’s beats joined forces with Ice Cube’s growl, to create an expansive portrait of hip-hop: what it was; where it would go; how it entertained the people hanging out in lowriders on Crenshaw Boulevard and responded to the Reagan-era war on drugs that would come crashing through South LA’s living rooms.

Straight Outta Compton’s flaw is that it tried to cover too much, as if F Gary Gray and the writers Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff had to get it all in because they couldn’t count on having another chance at telling stories like these. The narrative gets away from them, but Gray brings incredible intimacy and understanding to this inflection point in hip-hop when the sharp rhymes and record scratches would harden into angry anthems like Fuck the Police. The movie arrived like an electrifying jolt for an audience still reeling from the police killings of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray.

Two of the finest hip-hop movies to come out since Straight Outta Compton pair well together. Bodied and The Forty-Year-Old Version are both scathing and comical takes on Black spaces coping with interlopers. The former is Joseph Kahn’s caustically funny provocation about a white Berkeley student named Adam (Calum Worthy) stepping into the battle rap world as a sort-of anthropologist (he’s writing his thesis on linguistics) before entering the game himself. The hard-hitting bars come swinging at the identity politics game while testing our tolerance for jokes about race and oppressive histories. Eminem, the unquestionably great rapper, who knows very well how much his whiteness played into his blockbuster success, is a producer. His involvement makes Bodied feel like a response to the wonderful rap battle scene from 8 Mile’s climax, blowing up its feel-good earnestness.

I need to see the movie pitting Bodied’s Adam with Radha Blank, the writer and star from The Forty-Year-Old Version, who also raps under the moniker RadhaMUSPrime. The first great hip-hop movie I’m tempted to call quirky – think Spike Lee meets Greta Gerwig – has Blank playing a version of herself, a Harlem artist who finds a salve in rapping while dealing with frustrations from the stage world. She’s putting on a play about gentrification. But she’s forced to make economically motivated compromises to her story about Harlem in order to appeal to a theatrical audience. A couple white saviour figures later and her play about gentrification has been gentrified. You have to wonder how much Blank was thinking about hip-hop with that punchline.

Gentrification immediately comes to mind when revisiting the Brooklyn of 2004 in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, the one great hip-hop concert film. So many of the people and places simply aren’t there anymore.

Chappelle has also become a controversial figure of late for his transphobic comedy. So have the Block Party performers Talib Kweli and Kanye West, both who have been called out for harassing women online. But Block Party, directed with joyful whimsy by Michel Gondry, is from a time when they were all good; when the guys joined forces with John Legend, Lauryn Hill, Common, Dead Prez, Questlove and so many more soulful hip-hop artists of that to time to put on the most joyous show for the community in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill. The simple beauty of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party – weaving everyday happy moments from Black life in Brooklyn together with the concert’s uplift – cannot be overstated. The event took place after a tumultuous decade in hip-hop: think about the beefs in hip-hop, most famously claiming the lives of 2Pac and Brooklyn’s own BIG. And consider the event’s proximity to 9/11. Brooklyn needed something to look forward to. Dave Chappelle brought it.

The OG hip-hop movie is also arguably the greatest. Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style arrived just a year after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s hard-hitting classic The Message dropped. As with that video, the movie captures the burned-out rubble the Bronx had become after landlords set their buildings ablaze for insurance money while celebrating the art forms that would emerge from it. Like a DJ learning to scratch records, Ahearn mixes a loose fictional narrative about a graffiti artist making a name for himself with raw footage of contemporary break dancers and hip-hop crews (everyone from Cold Crush Brothers to Grandmaster Flash are here representing).

Wild Style is an original document from the time that hip-hop was still taking shape. The movie wasn’t capturing hip-hop so much as becoming an extension of it, as if the culture could have incorporated cinema in the same way that it included music, dance, fashion and graffiti art. Celluloid could have been just another canvas for hip-hop to make its mark like vinyl, cotton and concrete.

• Straight Outta Compton

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Rap Movies: The 10 Best Hip-Hop Films of all Time

Written by: Bobby McNeill

Table of Contents

New school, old school, gangsta, east coast or west coast – hip-hop and rap have been an indispensable expression of African-American urban life since the 1970s and, at the latest, since the 80s.

And even beyond that, hip-hop and rap have now entered the mainstream. Hardly a contemporary film in which some hip-hop track is not on the soundtrack.

On the other hand, hip-hop films that deal explicitly with the musical style or have a designated hip-hop soundtrack are fewer. Yet, Rap films aren’t as rare as you might think: they’ve enjoyed steady popularity since the late 1980s and early 1990s, and filmmakers like F. Gary Gray or Spike Lee would be unimaginable without hip-hop.

The following list introduces you to some of these films from the last thirty years. Among them are hip-hop films like “All Eyez on Me” from 2017, which have rap itself as a theme, as well as so-called hood films like the 1989 classic “Do the Right Thing” by Spike Lee, which deals with the urban lifestyle and racist attitudes of the 1980s and has a very hip-hip soundtrack.

1. Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of the hip-hop legends Eazy-E, Dr. The, and Ice Cube and how they got together in the 1980s in Compton, California, with the group N.W.A (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) and the Ruthless label Records wrote music history. Straight Outta Compton was also the title of the group’s first album.

The hip-hop film was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 in the Best Original Screenplay category.

2. Do the Right Thing (1989)

“Do the Right Thing” was nominated for a Palme d’Or in the Best Picture category at Cannes, four Golden Globes, and an Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category, among others.

3. 8 Mile (2002)

The film won an Oscar in 2003 for Eminem’s autobiographical title track, Lose Yourself – one of the most successful hip-hop tracks in history. 8 Mile grossed over $240 million worldwide.

4. All Eyez on Me (2017)

Both as an actor and as a subject, he has appeared in many rap films – he himself has appeared as an actor in films such as “Poetic Justice” (1993) and the 1997 comedy “Gridlock,” while documentaries such as 2003’s “Tupac Resurrection” follow the life of the young rapper.

Benny Boom’s “All Eyez on Me” is thus just the latest in a slew of hip-hop films dealing with the life, work, and death of Tupac Shakur. “All Eyez on Me” explores Tupac’s childhood in the 1970s, his early musical successes, his big break, his legal troubles, and the East Coast versus West Coast conflict that may have cost him his life.

The film grossed over $55 million worldwide.

5. Boyz N the Hood (1991)

This, coupled with the phenomenal ensemble cast of Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, and Angela Bassett, made this film a highly acclaimed event. “Boyz N the Hood” was nominated in the Best Screenplay and Best Director categories at the Oscars. The soundtrack features tracks like “How To Survive In South Central” by Ice Cube.

6. Notorious B.I.G. (2009)

George Tillman’s film begins shortly before Biggie’s murder in March 1997 and shows important stages of his life in flashbacks. This follows Notorious B.I.G. Biggie’s beginnings as a hardworking student and drug dealer through his early success as a rapper to his breakthrough, friendship, and enmity with rapper Tupac.

The actor from Notorious B.I.G., Jamal Woolard, reprised the role in 2017 in the hip-hop film “All Eyes on Me” about Tupac Shakur. The soundtrack is mainly composed of tracks by Biggie himself; in addition, there are guest contributions from rappers Jay Z and Mary J. Blige to listen to.

7. Friday (1995)

Craig Jones, who has just been fired, and his buddy Smokey, a small-time dealer who prefers to smoke his own weed rather than sell it, hang out at Jones’ place on Friday night – but problems with Smokey’s dealer Big Worm and various girl trouble complicate the relaxed weekend. The energetic performances of rapper Ice Cube and a young Chris Tucker are at the heart of this rap film, which incidentally is the origin of the Internet meme “Bye Felicia.”

8. Office Space (1999)

It features Michael Bolton (a hip-hop-loving character who sings along to Gangsta Rap on his morning commute but closes the door when an African American flower vendor passes by). Also, the soundtrack to one of the greatest hip-hop tracks, whose passion and fire beautifully comment on the mundane office scenes.

9. Menace II Society (1993)

This rap film shows a few days in the life of teenager Caine Lawson, who is stuck with his friends in a hopeless cycle of violence, drugs, and poverty.

The movie, with Jada Pinkett Smith and Samuel L. Jackson in supporting roles, was nominated for a Golden Camera at Cannes in 1993. By the way, Tupac Shakur was supposed to be in “Menace II Society,” but he was canceled after a dispute with one of the directors.

10. Brown Sugar (2002)

Not only does the saccharine rap film star Queen Latifah, but the comedy is bursting with cameos from bigger and smaller names in the hip-hop scene.

Whether you’re a die-hard hip-hop fan, want to learn more about this very specific U.S. lifestyle, or are simply looking for new movies to watch, you’ll definitely find what you’re looking for among these ten hip-hop films.

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Rap Movies: The Best Hip Hop Movies of All Time

New school, old school, gangsta, east coast or west coast – hip-hop and rap have been an indispensable expression of African-American urban life since the 1970s, but at the latest since the 1980s.

And even beyond that, hip-hop and rap have now arrived in the mainstream. There’s hardly a contemporary film that doesn’t have some hip-hop track on the soundtrack.

Hip-hop films that explicitly deal with the musical style or have a designated hip-hop soundtrack, on the other hand, are fewer in number, yet rap films are not as rare as one might think: they have enjoyed steady popularity since the late 1980s and early 1990s, and filmmakers such as F. Gary Gray or Spike Lee would not even be imaginable without hip-hop.

The following list introduces you to some of these films from the last thirty years. Among them are hip-hop films like “All Eyez on Me” from 2017, which are about rap itself, as well as so-called hood films like the classic “Do the Right Thing” by Spike Lee from 1989, which deals with the urban lifestyle and racist attitudes of the 1980s and has a very hip-hip soundtrack.

Table of Contents

1. straight outta compton (2015), 2. do the right thing (1989), 3. 8 mile (2002), 4. all eyez on me (2017), 5. boyz n the hood (1991), 6. notorious b.i.g. (2009), 7. friday (1995), 8. office space (1999), 9. menace ii society (1993), 10. brown sugar (2002), the 10 best hip hop movies of all time:.

Gary Gray’s 2015 film about the origins of hip-hop group N.W.A. is definitely worth watching – and not just for rap fans.

Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of hip-hop legends Eazy-E, Dr. Der and Ice Cube and how they made music history in the 1980s in Compton, California with the group N.W.A (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) and the label Ruthless Records. Straight Outta Compton was also the title of the group’s first album.

The hip-hip film was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 in the Best Original Screenplay category.

On a hot summer day, underlying racial tensions in a New York City neighborhood lead to disaster: Spike Lee’s now nearly iconic film about life in Brooklyn in the late 1980s may not belong to the repertoire of classic rap films, but the soundtrack, with tracks like Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” alone justifies its entry on this list. Spike Lee, who was just 32 years old when he made Do the Right Thing, was not only responsible for the screenplay and direction, but also plays one of the main roles in the film.

“Do the Right Thing” was nominated for a Palme d’Or in the Best Film category at Cannes, four Golden Globes and an Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category, among others.

For many, 8 Mile is the hip-hop movie of all time: director Curtis Hanson’s drama about the life of a young white rapper in the automobile city of Detroit, starring Eminem, Kim Basinger and Brittany Murphy, remains one of the most successful rap films of all time. The rap film follows the fate of young white Jimmy as he tries to carve out a place for himself as a rapper in the predominantly African-American subculture.

The film won an Oscar in 2003 for Eminem’s autobiographical theme song Lose Yourself – one of the most successful hip-hop tracks in history. 8 Mile grossed over $240 million worldwide.

He was one of the greats of American hip-hip: Tupac Shakur, who was shot dead in the street in 1996 at the age of just 25.

Both as an actor and as a subject, he has appeared in many rap films – he himself has appeared as an actor in films such as “Poetic Justice” (1993) and the 1997 comedy “Gridlock,” while documentaries such as 2003’s “Tupac Resurrection” follow the life of the young rapper.

Benny Boom’s “All Eyez on Me” is thus only the latest in a whole series of hip-hip films dealing with the life, work and death of Tupac Shakur. “All Eyez on Me” deals with Tupac’s childhood in the 1970s, his first musical successes and his big breakthrough, as well as his legal problems and the East Coast versus West Coast conflict, which probably cost him his life.

The film grossed over $55 million worldwide.

John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood” is now a classic among rap films. The hip-hop film follows the story of three young friends, Tré, Ricky and Doughboy, who grow up in an urban ghetto of Los Angeles and end up going very different ways. In the process, Boyz N the Hood paints an unusually realistic picture of gang violence and life in the hood much sung about in hip-hop – director John Singleton insisted on shooting exclusively on original locations.

This, coupled with the phenomenal ensemble cast of Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr, Ice Cube and Angela Bassett made this film a highly acclaimed cinematic event. “Boyz N the Hood” was nominated in the Best Screenplay and Best Director categories at the Oscars. The soundtrack features tracks like “How To Survive in South Central” by Ice Cube.

The rap film deals with the biography of the rapper Notorious Big, also known as Biggie, who was murdered in Los Angeles in 1997.

George Tillman’s film begins shortly before Biggie’s murder in March 1997 and shows important stages of his life in flashbacks. Notorious B.I.G. follows Biggie’s beginnings as a hard-working student and drug dealer through his early success as a rapper to his breakthrough and friendship and enmity with rapper Tupac.

The actor from Notorious B.I.G., Jamal Woolard, took on the role again in 2017 in the hip-hop film “All Eyes on Me” about Tupac Shakur. The soundtrack is mainly composed of tracks by Biggie himself, but also features guest contributions from rappers Jay Z and Mary J. Blige.

F. Gary Gray’s 1995 comedy now has cult status among fans of rap films.

Craig Jones, who just got fired, and his buddy Smokey, a small-time dealer who prefers to smoke his own weed rather than sell it, hang out at Jones’ place on Friday night – but problems with Smokey’s dealer Big Worm and various girl trouble complicate the relaxed weekend. The energetic performances of rapper Ice Cube and a young Chris Tucker are the centerpiece of this rap film, which incidentally is the origin of the Internet meme “Bye Felicia.”

A movie about office workers and programmers starring Jennifer Aniston on a list about hip-hop movies, is that supposed to be a joke? Not at all – because Mike Judge’s iconic and likeable comedy about the everyday madness of the office not only features the hip-hip loving character of Michael Bolton, who loves to sing along to gangsta rap on his morning commute to work but shuts the door when an African-American flower vendor walks by, but also one of the best hip-hop soundtracks ever, whose passion and fire brilliantly comment on and set the scene for the boring office routine of the film’s action.

Allen and Albert Hughes’ directorial debut, “Menace II Society,” is one of the grittiest hip-hop films ever made, garnering much praise for its unforgiving depiction of everyday gang life and urban violence in 1990s metropolitan America.

The rap film shows a few days in the life of teenager Caine Lawson, who is stuck with his friends in a hopeless cycle of violence, drugs and poverty.

The film, with Jada Pinkett Smith and Samuel L. Jackson in supporting roles, was nominated for a Golden Camera at Cannes in 1993. Incidentally, Tupac Shakur was supposed to star in “Menace II Society,” but after a dispute with one of the directors, he was dropped.

Director Rick Famuyiwa’s “Brown Sugar” combines two of the most popular film genres of the turn of the millennium, rap films and romantic comedy, in this warm-hearted hip-hop film. A young woman, Sidney is the editor of a hip-hop magazine and has been friends since childhood with Dre, who works for a record label. While the two are united by their shared love of hip-hop, their love and personal lives are initially neatly complicated by some misunderstandings. In the end, however, their love for each other and for rap wins out!

Not only does Queen Latifah star in this saccharine rap film, but the comedy is bursting with cameos from bigger and smaller names in the hip-hop scene.

Whether you’re a die-hard hip-hop fan, want to learn more about this very specific U.S. lifestyle, or are simply looking for new movies, you’ll definitely find what you’re looking for among these ten hip-hop movies.

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The Best Hip Hop Movies of All Time

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Hip hop and movies go together like beats and rhymes. From the jump, back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, cinema was the perfect place to show the world what hip hop was really about, to capture the raw energy of the streets. Films like “Paid in Full,” with its story of Harlem hustlers, or “Krush Groove,” focused on the rise of Def Jam, show the realness and the ambition of the culture.

More recently, “Straight Outta Compton” dropped the truth bomb about N.W.A. and gangsta rap on the whole world. Meanwhile, “Beat Street” put the spotlight on the dancers, DJs, and graffiti artists who made hip hop what it is. And we can’t forget classics like “Friday,” with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, or Hype Williams’ ill flick, “Belly,” with Nas and DMX. These films ain’t just entertainment – they document hip hop history, its triumphs, and its struggles, all while keeping it fresh and exciting.

So let’s get into it. From Straight Outta Compton , Friday and Menace II Society , to Belly , Paid in Full and Krush Groove , here are the greatest hip hop movies of all time ranked by hip hop heads.

1 Paid in Full

Released: October 25, 2002

Director: Charles Stone III

Starring: Wood Harris, Mekhi Phifer, Cam’ron.

Directed by Charles Stone III, Paid in Full takes us back to 1980s Harlem, where the lives of real-life drug dealers Azie “AZ” Faison, Rich Porter, and Alpo Martinez unfold on the big screen. With its title borrowed from the 1987 Eric B. & Rakim album and with back from Roc-A-Fella Films, this movie is as hip hop as it gets. Wood Harris, Mekhi Phifer, and Cam’ron bring the notorious trio to life, showing us the gritty reality of hustling in the streets. Ace, played by Harris, starts off with a clean slate, working a dead-end job at a dry cleaner. But when he stumbles upon some coke, the game pulls him in. Ace, Mitch, and Rico soon form a drug empire, raking in stacks of cash and living the high life. But as the money rolls in, greed, jealousy, and violence bubble to the surface. Loyalty is tested, and the grim truth of the hustle is laid bare. Paid in Full is more than just a gangster flick – it’s a raw and unfiltered look at the consequences of chasing fast money in the drug game. For hip hop heads, it’s a cautionary tale that keeps it real, showing the price of ambition and the allure of the streets.

2 Do the Right Thing

Released: May 19, 1989

Director: Spike Lee

Starring: Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, and Samuel L. Jackson.

One of the greatest Spike Lee movies of all time, Do the Right Thing masterfully captures the essence of a Brooklyn neighborhood’s racial tension, making it a critical and influential piece for the hip hop community. Set on a sweltering summer day, the film follows a diverse group of characters in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, with the escalating conflict between the residents and the Italian-American owners of Sal’s Famous Pizzeria serving as the central storyline. With an ensemble cast including Spike Lee himself, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, and the film debuts of Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez, Do the Right Thing offers a raw and unfiltered look at racial relations. The movie’s impact on the hip hop community is undeniable. The vibrant visuals, dynamic dialogue, and the iconic Public Enemy track “Fight the Power” come together to create a powerful statement on race, injustice, and the moral complexities we all face. The film’s boldness and relevance continue to resonate with audiences today, and its influence is felt in the work of many contemporary hip hop artists and filmmakers.

Released: April 26, 1995

Director: F. Gary Gray

Starring: Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Bernie Mac, Tiny “Zeus” Lister Jr., John Witherspoon, Regina King, and Anna Maria Horsford.

This 1995 classic, directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, diverged from the typical hood movie narrative by injecting humor into the mix, creating a fresh perspective on life in South Central LA. While other films like Boyz n the Hood and Colors focused on the tragedy and violence, Friday aimed to showcase the lighter, more day-to-day side of the hood. Cube and Pooh tapped into their own experiences, crafting a story that resonated with hip hop heads and worldwide audiences alike. A key component of the film’s success was Chris Tucker’s portrayal of Smokey. His comedic talent and on-screen chemistry with Ice Cube turned Friday into a cult classic that transcended its time. Complementing the movie was its outstanding soundtrack, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Featuring heavyweights like Dr. Dre, Cypress Hill, Scarface, and The Isley Brothers, the album delivered hit after hit.

Released: November 8, 2002

Director: Curtis Hanson

Starring: Eminem, Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, Michael Shannon, Anthony Mackie, and Kim Basinger.

8 Mile , the gritty 2002 drama, penned by Scott Silver and directed by Curtis Hanson, catapulted Eminem’s acting career, blending his real-life struggles with the fictional tale of Jimmy Smith Jr., aka B-Rabbit. Set against the backdrop of Detroit’s 8 Mile Road , the film delves into the life of a European-American MC trying to make it in the predominantly African-American hip-hop scene. Boasting a heavyweight cast featuring Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, Michael Shannon, Anthony Mackie, and Kim Basinger, 8 Mile became a critical and box office sensation. From B-Rabbit’s initial choke in a rap battle to his triumphant and iconic final freestyle battle, 8 Mile captures the essence of the struggle and determination that fuels hip-hop. Eminem’s Academy Award-winning anthem “Lose Yourself” punctuates the film’s impact, making it an unforgettable entry in the hip-hop movie hall of fame.

Released: January 17, 1992

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson

Starring: Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins and Khalil Kain.

Juice is the film that put Tupac Shakur on the map as an actor, and for good reason. Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, the crime thriller takes us into the lives of four Harlem teens, their struggles with police harassment, neighborhood gangs, and family issues. The quartet regularly skips school to hang out at Steel’s apartment, play video games at the arcade, and steal LPs for Q’s DJ aspirations. But when Bishop decides they need to take their street cred to the next level, they rob a convenience store, which ultimately leads to tragedy. Bishop becomes addicted to the thrill of violence, which leads to the death of Raheem, and Q and Steel’s fear of Bishop. The tension escalates as Bishop plans to frame Q for the murders, forcing Q to buy a gun for his own protection. The final showdown between Q and Bishop takes place on a high-rise rooftop, culminating in a gripping scene that solidifies Q’s place as a force to be reckoned with. Pac’s portrayal of the charismatic yet troubled Bishop is chillingly convincing, and the supporting cast of Omar Epps, Jermaine Hopkins, and Khalil Kain is equally impressive. The film’s soundtrack, featuring Eric B. & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Naughty by Nature, is also the quintessential hip hop playlist.

6 Krush Groove

Released: October 25, 1985

Director: Michael Schultz

Starring: Sheila E., Run-D.M.C., The Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Blair Underwood, New Edition, LL Cool J.

Krush Groove is a 1985 gem that tells the story of record producer Russell Walker (Blair Underwood in his feature film debut) and his Krush Groove record label, which boasts some of the hottest acts in hip hop including Run-D.M.C., Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, and Kurtis Blow. With Rick Rubin producing their records, everything seems to be going smoothly until the label faces a financial crisis. To make matters worse, Russell and his brother Run compete for the affection of R&B singer-percussionist Sheila E. But that’s not all – the film also features appearances from LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, New Edition, The Fat Boys, and Chaka Khan, along with some of their hit songs. And let’s not forget the iconic Disco Fever club, which was prominently featured in the film and played a significant role in the early days of hip hop.

Released: March 12, 1993

Director: Tamra Davis

Starring: Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Deezer D, Charlie Murphy.

Directed by Tamra Davis and starring Chris Rock, CB4 follows a fictional rap group named “CB4”, named after the prison block in which the group was allegedly formed (Cell Block 4). With Chris Rock playing the lead, the movie primarily parodies the rap group N.W.A among other gangsta rap aspects and takes inspiration from the rock music classic, This Is Spinal Tap. The film is a pure parody and satire of the hip hop scene of the time. It contains hilarious segments featuring celebrities and musicians such as Halle Berry, Eazy-E, Butthole Surfers, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Flavor Flav, and Shaquille O’Neal. The film’s soundtrack, featuring parodies of hit hip-hop songs from the early 1990s, was a gimmick necessitated by the accompanying film. The album also included non-satirical songs contributed by acts such as Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions.

8 New Jack City

Released: January 17, 1991

Director: Mario Van Peebles

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Chris Rock, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, Bill Cobbs.

New Jack City is one of the most iconic hip hop movies of all time, featuring the legendary Wesley Snipes as the ruthless drug lord, Nino Brown. Released in 1991, it chronicles the rise of Nino and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), during the height of the crack epidemic in New York City. Ice-T plays Detective Scotty Appleton, who goes undercover to bring Nino’s criminal empire down. The film’s action-packed storyline features shootouts, car chases, and intense confrontations, making it a must-watch for any hip hop head, especially lovers of action movies. New Jack City also has an incredible soundtrack that helped define the sound of the era. The film’s title is even credited with inspiring the name of the music genre, new jack swing, by Barry Michael Cooper, one of the movie’s screenwriters. Cash Money Records, the iconic hip hop record label, also took their name from the CMB gang in the film.

9 Wild Style

Released: March 18, 1983

Director: Charlie Ahearn

Starring: Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash and ZEPHYR.

Wild Style is a classic hip hop film that is often regarded as the first hip hop motion picture and features appearances from several legendary figures in the early days of hip hop culture. The plot of the movie is fairly loose, but it features scenes depicting activities common in the early days of hip hop, such as MCing, turntablism, graffiti, and b-boying. The film is notable for its depiction of the interconnections between music, dance, and art in the development of hip hop culture. It has received a large cult following over the years and has been highly influential in the hip hop community. The soundtrack to the film, produced by Charlie Ahearn and Chris Stein with Fab 5 Freddy serving as the musical director, is considered one of the key records of early-’80s hip-hop and features appearances from Busy Bee, Cold Crush Brothers, DJ Charlie Chase, Grandmaster Caz, Grand Mixer DXT, Grand Wizzard Theodore & the Fantastic Five, Double Trouble, Prince Whipper Whip, Rammellzee, AJ Scratch, D.J. Stieve Steve, and Shockdell.

10 Straight Outta Compton

Released: August 11, 2015

Starring: O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Paul Giamatti.

Straight Outta Compton is a legendary biopic that takes you on a wild ride through the tumultuous history of the infamous hip hop group, N.W.A. Directed by F. Gary Gray, this film is an impressive portrayal of the rise and fall of the gangsta rap pioneers. Featuring an all-star cast including O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., and Aldis Hodge, Straight Outta Compton perfectly captures the unique personalities and struggles of each member of N.W.A. The film’s storyline starts in Compton, California, in 1986, where street gangs, drug dealers, and police brutality have turned the city into a chaotic dystopia. The movie follows Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube as they rise to fame in the rap industry, forming N.W.A and releasing their debut album, Straight Outta Compton . The film is not only a tribute to N.W.A’s legacy, but also to the late Eazy-E, who tragically died from HIV in 1995.

11 Menace II Society

Released: May 26, 1993

Director: The Hughes Brothers

Starring: Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, Jada Pinkett, Bill Duke, Charles S. Dutton.

Menace II Society is a must-watch for any hip hop head who wants to get a glimpse of the gritty reality of life in LA’s Watts and Crenshaw neighborhoods. Directed by the Hughes Brothers, the film’s depiction of the consequences of the drug game and the allure of street life is both harrowing and riveting. The film’s protagonist, Caine Lawson, is played brilliantly by Tyrin Turner, who portrays a young man navigating the difficult terrain of growing up in the Jordan Downs housing projects. Caine and his friends find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, drugs, and violence, and their stories are told in a way that is raw and unapologetic. But it’s not just the film that’s a must-watch; the soundtrack is also a classic. The Menace II Society soundtrack features an impressive line-up of hip hop artists, including Boogie Down Productions, Brand Nubian, and UGK, among others. The standout tracks are “Trigga Gots No Heart” by Spice 1 and “Streiht Up Menace” by MC Eiht, which perfectly capture the film’s gritty and uncompromising vibe.

12 Above the Rim

Released: March 22, 1994

Director: Jeff Pollack

Starring: Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Leon and Marlon Wayans.

Released in 1994, Above the Rim stars Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Leon and Marlon Wayans, and was directed by Jeff Pollack in his debut. The film revolves around a high school basketball star named Kyle-Lee Watson, played by Martin, who must choose between playing for his beloved coach and a drug dealer named Birdie, while also grappling with his mother’s love for a former basketball star turned security guard, Shep. Set in Harlem, Above the Rim perfectly captures the essence of the iconic New York City neighborhood, and features some of the city’s most notable landmarks. The basketball scenes, in particular, are incredibly well-done and bring the intensity of the game to life on the screen. The film is also notable for being the final theatrical film to be released during Tupac Shakur’s lifetime before his untimely death in 1996. Shakur’s performance as Birdie is particularly memorable, and further cemented his acting chops in addition to his undeniable talent as a rapper.

13 How High

Released: December 21, 2001

Director: Jesse Dylan

Starring: Method Man and Redman.

How High is a classic stoner comedy film starring two of hip hop’s biggest stoner rappers: Method Man and Redman. The movie follows the misadventures of two underachieving potheads who receive scholarships to Harvard University after smoking their friend’s ashes. While at Harvard, they prank, steal, and smoke their way through the semester with the help of their ghostly friend. However, things take a turn when their supply of ghostly help runs out, and they have to rely on their wits to pass their exams. Despite negative reviews from critics, How High is a cult classic among stoner and hip hop fans for its hilarious and irreverent take on college life.

14 Hustle and Flow

Released: July 22, 2005

Director: Craig Brewer

Starring: Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, Paula Jai Parker, Elise Neal, DJ Qualls and Ludacris.

Written and directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, Hustle and Flow offers an authentic look into the southern hip hop scene in Memphis . Terrence Howard delivers a powerful performance as DJay, an aging hustler and pimp who dares to chase his dream of becoming a rapper. With an eclectic crew (Anthony Anderson and DJ Qualls), DJay crafts a mixtape that embodies the raw energy of southern hip-hop. Ludacris shines in his role as Skinny Black, the industry heavyweight DJay hopes will change his fate. Hustle & Flow is a musical triumph, featuring unforgettable tracks like “Whoop That Trick” and the Oscar-winning “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” by Three 6 Mafia, performed with Taraji P. Henson at the 2006 Academy Awards. Terrence Howard’s compelling portrayal of the conflicted DJay earned him a well-deserved Best Actor nomination at the 78th Academy Awards.

15 Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Released: January 12, 1996

Director: Paris Barclay

Starring: Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans.

This Wayans brothers’ comedic romp, directed by Paris Barclay, parodies iconic ’90s hood films like Menace II Society and Boyz n the Hood , while cleverly weaving in cameos from the original actors. Navigating South Central LA’s absurdity, Shawn and Marlon Wayans deliver laughter and a dash of social commentary. The film’s unforgettable moments include Keenan Ivory Wayans’ Mailman character yelling “message” during heavy-handed moral lessons and Marlon Wayans’ O-Dog-inspired character wielding a missile.

Released: November 4, 1998

Director: Hype Williams

Starring: Nas, DMX, Taral Hicks, T-Boz, Method Man.

Hype Williams’ directorial debut, Belly , is a hyperkinetic crime drama that stars rappers Nas and DMX in their first film roles. Set in 1999 Queens, the film follows Tommy “Bunds” Brown and Sincere, two young street criminals who become embroiled in a dangerous heroin operation. As their empire expands, they attract the attention of the police and rival dealers, leading to deadly consequences. Belly boasts a star-studded cast that includes Method Man and R&B singer T-Boz, and features stunning visuals that mimic Hype’s signature music video style. Iconic and over-the-top, Belly is one of the most beloved hip hop movies of all time.

17 Beat Street

Released: June 8, 1984

Director: Stan Lathan

Starring: Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, Jon Chardiet, Leon W. Grant, Saundra Santiago, Robert Taylor.

One of the most important hip hop movies ever released, Beat Street follows the lives of a crew of friends in the South Bronx who are all about the elements of hip hop: breakdancing, DJing, and graffiti. The film is full of memorable scenes, including a breakdance battle between the Beat Street Breakers and the Bronx Rockers, and performances by hip hop legends like Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five, Doug E. Fresh, and Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force. The movie also features a rare appearance by Kool Moe Dee without his trademark shades. And let’s not forget the heartbreaking story of Ramon, a graffiti artist played by Ramon Franco, and the tragic end to his life.

18 Brooklyn Babylon

Released: August 17, 2001

Director: Marc Levin

Starring: Tariq Trotter, Sara Goberman, David Vadim.

Brooklyn Babylon is a powerful 2001 film that explores the complex issues of race, religion, and culture that exist in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. Written and directed by Marc Levin, the film is a modern retelling of the Song of Solomon, set against the backdrop of the Crown Heights riot, and stars legendary Philly MC Black Thought of The Roots . The film’s plot centers around the headstrong Judah and other Jewish men who patrol the neighborhood as vigilantes and their confrontations with Scratch, a mouthy hustler, after a minor car crash. In the midst of the escalating violence, Sol, a hip-hop musician, songwriter, and artist, and Sara, who is betrothed to Judah but dreams of going to college and being independent, form a connection that echoes the story of Sheba and Solomon. The soundtrack features contributions from The Roots, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, and other prominent hip hop artists, and the film’s use of rap and spoken word poetry adds a layer of emotional depth to the already powerful narrative.

19 The Wackness

Released: January 18, 2008

Director: Jonathan Levine

Starring: Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Mary-Kate Olsen, Famke Janssen, and Olivia Thirlby.

The Wackness is a 2008 coming-of-age movie set in 1994 New York City, with an iconic hip hop soundtrack that’s a must-listen for any fan of the genre. The film follows Luke Shapiro, who trades weed for therapy with his psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffery Squires, and spends his summer hanging out with his stepdaughter, Stephanie “Steph” Squires. The soundtrack features classic tracks like “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest and “The What” featuring Method Man (who also features in the movie). Levine, the film’s director, carefully selected each track to complement the movie’s themes and characters. Raekwon’s “Heaven & Hell” sets the tone for a pivotal moment in the film, asking the question, “Is high school heaven or is it hell?” The final soundtrack is a perfect fit for the timeless story of growing up and finding oneself.

20 Brown Sugar

Released: October 11, 2002

Director: Rick Famuyiwa

Starring: Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Mos Def, Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe, Queen Latifah.

This 2002 romantic comedy, directed by Rick Famuyiwa, stars Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan as two childhood friends who bond over their love of hip hop and go on to have successful careers in the music industry. As they navigate the cutthroat world of the music business, Dre and Sidney’s friendship is put to the test when Dre falls for entertainment attorney Reese (Nicole Ari Parker). Meanwhile, Sidney grapples with her own feelings for Dre and the possibility of losing him to someone else. But at its core, Brown Sugar is a celebration of hip hop culture. Mos Def’s portrayal of up-and-coming rapper Cavi is a standout, and his journey from struggling artist to signee of Dre’s own label is a testament to the power of authentic hip hop. And let’s not forget the film’s killer soundtrack, featuring classic tracks from hip hop legends like A Tribe Called Quest and Common. Brown Sugar is a love letter to hip hop that will speak to anyone who’s ever been moved by the genre’s beats and lyrics. With its heartfelt love story, incredible soundtrack, and powerful message about the importance of staying true to yourself, this film is absolutely one of the best hip hop movies ever.

Released: September 2, 1994

Director: Boaz Yakin

Starring: Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, N’Bushe Wright.

When it comes to hip hop movies, Fresh is the real deal. This 1994 crime drama, directed by Boaz Yakin, is a raw and unfiltered look at life in the projects during the height of the crack epidemic. The film centers around a young drug runner named Michael, better known as Fresh, who uses his street smarts and strategic thinking to survive in a dangerous and unforgiving world. Fresh draws inspiration from his father, a speed-chess master played by Samuel L. Jackson, who teaches him the game of chess and a strategic mindset that becomes his greatest asset. The film’s uncompromising realism has garnered critical acclaim for its honest portrayal of life in the projects.

22 State Property

Released: January 18, 2002

Director: Abdul Malik Abbott

Starring: Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Damon Dash and Jay-Z.

A gritty, street-level crime drama set in the unforgiving world of the Philadelphia drug game, State Property is a Roc-A-Fella production that puts Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Damon Dash, and Jay-Z front and center. Directed by Abdul Malik Abbott and co-penned with Ernest “Tron” Anderson, State Property draws inspiration from the real-life JBM drug empire that held sway in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The flick dives deep into the story of Beans (Sigel), a hustler fed up with being broke and ready to seize the American Dream by any means necessary. As the mastermind behind his crew, the ABM, they unleash chaos on the Philly streets while building a drug empire. However, Beans gets caught up in a dangerous crossfire between his family, rival gangsters, and the relentless drug game, struggling to keep everything in check.

23 Get Rich or Die Tryin’

Released: November 9, 2005

Director: Jim Sheridan

Starring: Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Terrence Howard, Joy Bryant, Bill Duke, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Omar Benson Miller, Ashley Walters and Viola Davis.

Between 2002 to 2006, 50 Cent had one of the greatest rapper 5-year runs of all time . In addition to dropping two of the biggest rap albums ever – Get Rich or Die Tryin’ , The Massacre – the Queens rapper-turned-mogul also launched G-Unit Records, dropped Beg for Mercy with his crew and signed a deal with Reebok to distribute a G-Unit Sneakers line. It was safe to say 50 was the hottest rapper in the world at that time. It was now time for his Hollywood debut. Directed by Jim Sheridan, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ stars 50 as Marcus Greer, a drug dealer who ultimately chooses to leave the criminal life behind to chase his dream of becoming a rap artist. Drawing inspiration from 50 Cent’s own experiences as a drug dealer and taking cues from Eminem’s 8 Mile , Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is an unflinching portrayal of Marcus’ journey. From losing his mother to the drug game to nearly losing his life in a hail of bullets, the film is both violent and clichéd but remains an intriguing look into the world that shaped 50 Cent.

24 Fear of a Black Hat

Released: January 24, 1993

Director: Rusty Cundieff

Starring: Rusty Cundieff, Larry B. Scott, Mark Christopher Lawrence

Drawing inspiration from Public Enemy’s groundbreaking third album , Fear of a Black Hat is a straight-up hilarious satire of hip-hop culture, penned, produced, directed, and starring Rusty Cundieff in his directorial debut. Paying homage to This Is Spinal Tap , the movie zeroes in on the fictional rap group N.W.H. (Ni**az With Hats), a slick mash-up of iconic acts like N.W.A. and Public Enemy. Fear of a Black Hat masterfully pokes fun at the quirks and eccentricities of hip-hop, capturing the genre’s often over-the-top aspects with razor-sharp wit. What sets this film apart is its authenticity. Unlike most hip-hop critiques of its time, which came from those outside the culture, Fear of a Black Hat delivers a knowledgeable, insider’s perspective that clearly stems from a deep love for the game.

25 Notorious

Released: January 16, 2009

Director: George Tillman Jr.

Starring: Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, and Anthony Mackie.

Directed by George Tillman Jr. and written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker, Notorious offers an intimate portrayal of the iconic Notorious B.I.G.’s rise to fame, relationships, and untimely death. With the film produced by Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, and his former managers, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, the story captures the rapper’s essence and highlights his impact on hip-hop culture. As Notorious unfolds, viewers are taken on a journey through the key moments in Biggie’s life, including his criminal past, friendships with Sean Combs and Tupac Shakur, romances with Lil’ Kim and Faith Evans, and his involvement in the infamous East Coast-West Coast rivalry .

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The Best Rap Documentary Films And Series

What is the best rap documentary film or series? When it comes to the history of rap music, there's nothing like a good hip hop documentary filled with amusing anecdotes, tales from the tour, and fun trivia about rappers and hip hop musicians. This list of the best rap documentaries for hip hop lovers includes documentary films and shows about all the best rappers and freestylers to ever grace the microphone. If you love rap music, but also want the scoop on your favorite hip hop stars, these  great documentary films and docuseries about rap music are what you need. What are the best rap music documentaries of all time? What hip hop musicians do you love?

Whether you're interested in Tupac, Biggie, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Ice Cube, or especially A Tribe Called Called Quest, there's a great rap documentary movie out there for you. This list ranks the best documentaries about rap music. The hip hop documentaries featured on this list includes  Beats, Rhymes & Life, Style Wars, Adult Rappers, Nas: Time is Illimatic, Rhyme & Reason, Something from Nothing , and even the Netflix rap documentary  Biggie: I've Got a Story to Tell.

Vote up your favorite hip hop documentaries, and check back for new rap documentary releases.

Rhyme & Reason

Nas: Time Is Illmatic

Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men

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Biggie & Tupac

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

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And You Don't Stop: 30 Years of Hip-Hop

Tupac: Resurrection

Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan

Rhyme & Punishment

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives

Crips & Bloods: Made in America

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation - The First London Invasion Tour 1987

J Dilla: Still Shining

Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme

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The Art Of Organized Noize

• Hip-Hop / Rap
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The 30 Best Movie Performances by Rappers

By Alphonse Pierre and Clover Hope

In the 1996 hood-flick parody Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood , Shawn Wayans as Ashtray tells a Black child that they both belong to an “endangered species.” The kid asks, “Why, because we’re Black males?” and Ashtray snaps back, “No, because rappers are taking all the good acting jobs.” That joke was probably from a place of bitterness but it was partially true: By the mid 1990s, plenty of rappers had parlayed the charisma that their music careers demanded into big-screen stardom.

If one role signaled the arrival of the rapper-as-movie-star, it was Ice Cube in John Singleton’s 1991 classic Boyz N the Hood. The few films that featured rappers previously tended to use them as musical cameos or easy signifiers of street authenticity. And while Singleton’s decision to cast one of the gangsta rappers as his protagonist Doughboy could be seen as a shortcut to establishing the character’s bona fides, the movie fiddles with your expectations for Doughboy by giving him vulnerability and emotional stakes—making him more than just a tough-guy prop.

Over the next 30-plus years, many of the greatest rapper performances have been similarly rooted in an awareness of the audience’s perceptions of their work, either playing them up or actively subverting them. Think of 2Pac’s unexpected softness in Poetic Justice , or Diddy doubling down on his livewire Making the Band persona in Get Him to the Greek . Maybe that’s why rappers haven’t always gotten the respect they deserve as actors. It’s easy to argue that they’re usually playing variations of themselves, as if other actors don’t do that all the time.

Of course, certain performances fall flat, and others seem designed only to boost attention for a movie. But the best roles involve the same qualities that make a great rapper: Magnetism, explosive energy, the ability to be funny and serious at the same time, and the fact that words just sound better coming out of their mouths. The following performances by rappers, ranked from 30 to one, are the best of the bunch.

30. A$AP Rocky in Dope (2015)

In director Rick Famuyiwa’s Dope , A$AP Rocky plays a drug dealer named Dom who bullies a bunch of nerds into selling Molly for him. The geek at the center is Malcolm, a Harvard-bound high schooler from Inglewood who freaks out after Dom plants drugs in his backpack at a party, setting off a chain of events that culminates in Bitcoin somehow coming to the rescue. Rocky’s pretty-boy-on-the-block persona and Cheshire-cat smile translate effortlessly onscreen: He’s supposed to be the bad guy here, but he’s primarily around as a foil who gets a kick out of clowning Malcolm and his friends. You get the sense that Rocky is smack-talking with his boys, and there just happens to be a camera around. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV+

29. Dru Down in Original Gangstas (1996)

Every now and then in the ’90s, a movie would just clear out and let a rapper wreak havoc for a while. Larry Cohen’s Original Gangstas gives that honor to Dru Down, the Bay Area MC with a few pimp-rap all-timers in his bag. Dru plays “Kayo with the yayo,” a drug lord’s henchman who is terrorizing the hardworking folks of Gary, Indiana. Kayo and the gang’s exploits include robbing a Colt 45 delivery man and pulling up to a mom-and-pop clothing store and burning their suits for no real reason other than that they can. Then there’s Dru’s standout scene in a local restaurant, where he barges in and orders his crew to whoop the patrons’ asses. He shifts his focus to a couple of guys at the jukebox—played by Yukmouth and Numskull of the rap duo Luniz—pointing a gun in their faces and making them shit their pants. Dru’s performance is so damn funny it has made an otherwise forgettable movie live on. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Apple TV+, Pluto TV, and Tubi

28. Big Daddy Kane in Posse (1993)

In Mario Van Peebles’ revisionist western Posse , Big Daddy Kane (as the gambler Father Time) joins a crew of calvarymen-turned-outlaws who are being hunted through the American South and West by a racist colonel (a hokey Billy Zane). As the unit undergoes various hardships, Father Time is smooth and composed, his suit hardly ever ruffled. When face-to-face with the armed colonel for the first time, he jumps out of a second-story window and lands in a perfect combat roll. While the other men are scared shitless, hiding out in the prairie, Father Time just puffs on his cigar. Hoop earring in, hat always impossibly neat, you almost forget that fate is on his heels. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Amazon, Apple TV+, and Pluto TV

27. Fredro Starr in Sunset Park (1996)

Sunset Park is a highlight in the canon of films about wayward kids finding salvation in a caring mentor. P.E. teacher Phyllis is hired as Sunset Park High School’s new head basketball coach, despite being clueless about the sport, and Fredro Starr is the team’s star baller on probation; naturally, he becomes her confidante. Though Starr’s stint as a movie lead was short-lived—he also appeared in Spike Lee’s Clockers and as Brandy’s hardcore crush who struggled to crack a smile on Moesha —he has a hardened yet sensitive aura that makes Sunset Park work. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Amazon, Apple TV+, and Vudu

26. Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Canibus, Charli Baltimore, MC Serch, and more in Bamboozled (2000)

Spike Lee’s 2000 satire stars Damon Wayans as a television executive who rises in the company by organizing a hit minstrel show. During the hilarious audition scene, we meet a so-called pro-Black rap group called the Mau Maus, consisting of characters played by Mos Def, Charli Baltimore, Canibus, MC Serch, and others. Their frontman is Big Blak Africa (Mos Def), who is aware that the show is going to make a joke of Black people, but auditions anyway. In the performance of a song called “Blak Iz Blak,” their militancy is obviously performative, and made especially ridiculous when a white rapper who calls himself Mr. 1/16th (MC Serch) lays down punchlines about blue eyes and colonialism. All of the characters butcher slang throughout the movie, and all but Mr. 1/16th eventually die in a shootout with the police. “Why didn’t you kill me?” he screams as they take him away. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Amazon, Apple TV+, and Redbox

25. Eve in Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016)

Some of the most iconic movie performances by rappers are when they’re just being themselves in a low-stakes comedy. Enter Eve as Terri in the Barbershop franchise. After anchoring a short-lived eponymous sitcom , Eve starred in Barbershop alongside Ice Cube, who managed to eke out several successful sequels and spinoffs that touch on important issues like family burdens, gentrification, and who stole Eve’s apple juice. Eve’s character is a bit of a trope: the around-the-way girl who’s surrounded by knuckleheads. She plays the fed-up everywoman to a tee, wearing the pissed-off-ness on her face. Her performance in the third film deserves mention for the apple juice scene alone: Everyone has had that moment where all you want is one thing, and that thing isn’t where it was supposed to be, and it puts you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Amazon, Apple TV+, and YouTube

24. Cardi B in Hustlers (2019)

Most of the release-time praise for the scammer drama Hustlers went to Jennifer Lopez, but Cardi B steals the spotlight in her limited screen time. Two scenes in particular capture the overpowering force of the Bronx rapper’s charisma. One is in the strip club dressing room, where Cardi announces that she has a boyfriend before pulling a pink vibrator out of her bag. “He don’t bother me, he don’t get jealous,” she says, sticking out her tongue like she does and swinging the device in the air. The next is when she’s teaching Constance Wu’s Dorothy the art of the lap dance. “Drain the clock not the cock” is the message as she grinds faster and slower on J.Lo’s lap as an example. You can see why all the stockbroker bros keep coming back. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Amazon, Apple TV+, YouTube, and Google Play

23. Diddy in Get Him to the Greek (2010)

It’s not a stretch for a drama king like Diddy to portray a stony record executive, but it is fun to see the producer-mogul act out his schadenfreude at various underlings with the same deadpan seriousness we’ve seen on TV . In this music-business satire from the Forgetting Sarah Marshall universe, Diddy plays a version of himself—label head Sergio—alongside Russell Brand’s unhinged rock star Aldous Snow and Jonah Hill as the poor lackey tasked with catching Snow. Diddy’s performance hinges on a certain disarming self-awareness: He could have ad-libbed his entire script from personal experience. (It’s possible he really does “own 21 Koo Koo Roos .”) –Clover Hope

Watch it on Hulu, Amazon, and Apple TV+

22. André 3000 in Four Brothers (2005)

In John Singleton’s Detroit-set action-drama, André 3000 plays Jeremiah, one of the titular adopted siblings, who are out to avenge their mother’s murder. André finds the right balance between being cool and fiery, particularly in an explosive moment when the brothers confront Jeremiah over a life insurance payout that they believe could link him to the killing. Whether André is grinning or dead serious onscreen, he always exudes a certain warmth. –Clover Hope

21. Busta Rhymes in Higher Learning (1995)

Busta Rhymes’ livewire energy perfectly complements John Singleton’s Higher Learning , a film about a college campus where racial tensions rise to the boiling point. Playing the student Dreads, Busta is an extremely physical actor, a quality that the film uses both for comic relief and to escalate the plot’s fast-rising anxiety. The close-up of his scream before a slo-mo brawl with a gang of skinheads is the mark of the school reaching a point of no return. –Alphonse Pierre

20. Ice-T in Surviving the Game (1994)

Ernest Dickerson is a treasure: The director and cinematographer grabbed a script for a modern adaptation of the classic short story The Most Dangerous Game and decided that Ice-T needed to be the star. Thank God! A troop of middle-aged rich men, played by a who’s who of character actors (Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey, Charles S. Dutton, etc.), gather in a remote cabin in the woods to play a violent game. Ice-T, in a frightening dread wig, is a suicidal Seattle homeless man who belives that he’s been given a financial lifeline when he’s hired as their tour guide. Turns out they just want to set him free in the woods and hunt him down as part of their friendly competition. Once Ice-T realizes their intentions, he has to fend off these rich dudes Die Hard -style. It’s so much cooler than it has any right to be, with Ice-T coming off like a real-deal action star. It’s a shame that Hollywood didn’t give him a shot at some B versions of Wesley Snipes movies. –Alphonse Pierre

19. Bow Wow in Roll Bounce (2005)

Bow Wow is naturally charismatic and funny when he reins in his tryhard Disney Channel side, like he does in Roll Bounce , a 1970s-set coming-of-age tale about grief under the guise of roller skating. Sporting a mini-fro and an array of bell bottoms, Bow Wow plays the 16-year-old protagonist Xavier. All he wants is to win a skating contest and woo a crush (Meagan Good), but he’s also coping with the loss of his mother. He particularly shines in a scene where Xavier has a spat with his dad (Curtis Smith), who’s been lying to cover up his own despair over his wife’s death. “You hang out with that car more than you hang out with your own son,” Xavier tells his dad, then storms off and takes a bat to the car. Bow Wow captures the resentment of a grieving teen without coming across as excessively cheesy, and rare moments like this highlight his restraint as a performer. –Clover Hope

18. 50 Cent in Den of Thieves (2018)

Even among the outlandish characters and scenarios of Den of Thieves —Gerard Butler as a crooked cop who gets into an altercation at a Benihana, Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. getting the Keyser Soze treatment—50 Cent still manages to shine. But is he even really acting? All he has to do is be jacked and mumble menacing one-liners, which is what he’s been doing in the real world since the days of 50 Cent is the Future . One scene in particular becomes something more: 50 Cent and his crew of ex-marine bank robbers are chilling in his garage lifting weights—as ex-marine bank robbers do—when his teenage daughter’s prom date arrives to pick her up. 50 brings the kid into the garage, where he and his boys proceed to scare him shitless. The scene has no purpose other than to be both mean and funny as hell. That might sound like a slight, but it’s not; that’s also the energy behind my favorite 50 Cent songs. –Alphonse Pierre

17. Jamal “Gravy” Woodard in Notorious (2009)

Jamal Woolard, aka Gravy, had primarily attracted notice as a rapper for being shot outside of New York’s Hot 97 radio station before he was cast as the lead in this Notorious B.I.G. biopic. As the story goes, Gravy was in a casting call for the role when Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace (played by Angela Bassett in the movie), walked into the room, heard him flirting with an intern, and said, “That’s my son.” Gravy landed the biggest project of his career and took it seriously, gaining 120 pounds and working with acting coaches to nail specific Biggie-isms, from the late rap legend’s molasses cadence to his bearish walk. Biggie’s milestones get the motion picture treatment, including his Bad Boy signing, 2Pac beef, and affair with Lil’ Kim. And as a rapper with no previous acting experience, Gravy performs the part with surprising charisma and faithfulness to a legendary subject. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Hulu, Apple TV+, YouTube, and Google Play

16. Queen Latifah in Last Holiday (2006)

Every single person Queen Latifah runs into in Last Holiday eventually falls for her. She’s just extremely likable as she stumbles through her journey to find herself—so much so that when LL Cool J flies from New Orleans to the Czech Republic to declare his love for her, what should be inexplicable is completely understood. The material isn‘t even that good: Queen Latifah’s presence alone elevates a barebones script fit for a Lifetime flick into something more like an Ernst Lubitsch film. Like Miriam Hopkins in Design for Living or Greta Garbo in Ninotchka , Latifah draws the viewer so thoroughly into her charms that all of the hijinks—from ledgeside confessions to Emeril Lagasse cameos—just make sense. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Amazon, Paramount+, Apple TV+, and YouTube

15. Method Man and Redman in How High (2001)

Method Man and Redman’s How High , like many stoner-bro classics before and since, is low on story and high on antics. Directed by Bob Dylan’s son Jesse Dylan, Meth and Red smoke a magic batch of weed that gives them all the answers to a college admissions test and gets them scholarships to Harvard. From there, the premise is basically, “What if Meth and Red had to hang out with a bunch of stuffy, rich academics?” The stars are two of the most charismatic rappers of all time, and they sell all of the ridiculous bits. Red goes full Winklevoss and joins the crew team. And when their magic weed runs out, they come up with a scheme to smoke the remains of John Quincy Adams to pass their midterms. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Netflix , Amazon, Apple TV+ , and YouTube

14. Big Boi in ATL (2006)

Big Boi first appears on screen in ATL like the villain in an Anthony Mann western—but instead of riding into town on horseback, he’s driving a pickup with 28-inch rims. As the neighborhood drug kingpin Marcus, he attempts to recruit the young Ant (Evan Ross) into his web, much to the chagrin of Ant’s older brother Rashad (T.I.). When Marcus first meets Ant, he has a cocky smile and an oversized polo more colorful than a pack of Jolly Ranchers, switching between menace and Southern charm. The role is supposed to be darker than it really is, with Marcus and Rashad fighting over Ant’s path into adulthood. But Big Boi just gets funnier the eviler he becomes: from his comically timed sips of cognac to his delivery of the line “I know that ain’t who I think it is,” later immortalized in meme form . –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on YouTube, Google Play, and Apple TV+

13. Ludacris in Fast Five (2011)

Every ensemble action franchise needs a character like Ludacris’s Tej, whose ingenuity and wit save the Fast & Furious saga from being a straight-up speed racer competition. Luda got his first acting break in the second installment, 2 Fast, 2 Furious , and appears in six of the nine as the droll hacker whose technical prowess gets Brian (Paul Walker), Dominic (Vin Diesel), and their extended family out of dangerous pickles. In the Rio de Janeiro-set Fast Five , the crew’s mission hinges on a complicated heist, in which Luda isn’t just a utility character but a critical sixth man. And he looks like he’s savoring every second of it. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Amazon, YouTube, and Apple TV+

12. Will Smith in I Am Legend (2007)

It is said that great actors shine when you put them in a room alone. In this case, it’s Will Smith in I Am Legend , a post-apocalyptic flick with subject matter that has since become the stuff of real-life paranoia. The film casts Smith as Robert Neville, seemingly the lone survivor of a deadly infection, stuck wandering a desolate New York City with only his dog and a lifetime of soliloquies. With few co-stars in his way, Smith has free rein to project every emotion imaginable on screen: He’s seething, hopeful, naive, calm, strange, and hilarious, fighting off lions and talking to mannequins to maintain a sense of normalcy. He’s one of the few big-screen actors, let alone rappers, with the chops to pull it off. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Amazon, YouTube, Apple TV+, and Google Play

11. Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) in Brown Sugar (2002)

Crafting a love story with hip-hop as the main character could be the greatest or corniest concept ever. Director Rick Famuyiwa does it stylishly in Brown Sugar . Sanaa Lathan (Sidney) and Taye Diggs (Andre) are childhood friends who spend their lives in denial that they’re obvious soulmates, drawn together by their love of hip-hop. Yasiin Bey is Dre’s sidekick Chris, aka Cav, a rapper and cab driver whom Dre, an A&R exec, wants to recruit to his fledgling label. Cav is a proxy for every ’90s rap purist, rhapsodizing about real lyricism over gimmicks. The role is fitting for an industry-averse rapper like Bey, who plays the character more matter-of-factly than over the top, delivering lines with subtlety, dryness, and his trademark sly smirk. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Hulu, Apple TV+, and YouTube

10. 2Pac in Poetic Justice (1993)

Tupac is a master of lusty gazes in John Singleton’s tender follow-up to Boyz N the Hood . Janet Jackson, in her breakout lead movie role , plays the film’s quiet storm: Justice, a poet and hair stylist who’s turned cold in the aftermath of seeing her boyfriend (played by Q-Tip) shot to death next to her at a drive-in theater. Paired with Jackson, Tupac gets to soften a little as blue-collar heartthrob Lucky, a postal worker with flashes of misogyny, raising a daughter whose mother is addicted to crack. Ice Cube has said he initially turned down the role, but it’s almost absurd to imagine him playing it now because Pac and Jackson have such easy chemistry: bantering like high-school sweethearts, matching each other’s stubbornness and sensuality. It’s a touching depiction of a pair of traumatized twentysomethings who are trying to avoid becoming products of their pasts. The role brings Pac’s constantly warring personas—lover and hothead—into full view. – Clover Hope

9. Ms. Lauryn Hill in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)

A year before the Fugees released their debut album , Ms. Lauryn Hill starred with Whoopi Goldberg in this comedy about misbehaving nuns and choir kids. Hill is the glue of the group as Rita, a talented vocalist whose mom is only there to crush her daughter’s music dreams. The sequel is duller than the original by yards, but if you view it as a showcase for Hill’s exceptional vocal skills from before most people knew her name, it’s great. Seeing her freestyle and bust through gospel classics like “Joyful, Joyful” and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” is like watching a prequel of Lauryn Hill becoming Lauryn Hill. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Disney+, Amazon, and YouTube

8. Ice-T in New Jack City (1991)

Within the first five minutes of New Jack City , Ice-T’s cop character, Scotty Appleton, is sprinting and hopping over fences, chasing crack addict Pookie (Chris Rock) through the New York streets. This chaotic opening sets up the movie’s main conceit: the crack era’s ricocheting effects on the corner boys, cops, families, and abusers whose storylines converge under the reign of merciless drug lord Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes). Ice-T is so slick and stone-cold in his portrayal of Scotty that it’s hard to believe this was his first major acting gig. There’s a mix of empathy and malice in his eyes, from his initial recruitment by the NYPD to infiltrate Nino’s operation, to the moment he finally has Nino in his grasp. Ice-T achieved the feat of creating a sympathetic cop character, and also secured his place in history as one of the first to prove that a gangsta rap star could successfully go Hollywood. –Clover Hope

Watch it on Hulu, Amazon, Paramount+, and Apple TV+

7. Cam’ron in Paid in Full (2002)

Much like Giancarlo Esposito as the villainous Gus in Breaking Bad , Cam’ron’s performance as Rico in Paid In Full is built on a friendly outward mien that barely conceals an inner burning rage. Rico is a conniving crook who meets Mekhi Phifer’s Mitch in jail and soon joins the drug enterprise run by his friend Ace (Wood Harris). To Mitch and Ace, Rico seems loyal, though he’s a bit of a loudmouth: He’s the most entertaining part of the movie, doing stuff that Cam would probably do in real life, like showing his homemade sex tape in the club. But the personality is a facade to hide the malice under the surface. As the movie goes on, it’s clear that Rico had no genuine bond with the others, and his movements turn from hilarious to chilling without changing all that much. –Alphonse Pierre

6. LL Cool J in In Too Deep (1999)

LL Cool J’s turn as a crime boss named God in the 1999 flick In Too Deep deserves a spot in the gangster-villain pantheon. He’s as evil as The Wire ’s Marlo Stanfield and as darkly funny as Joe Pesci in Goodfellas . I’m not sure LL has ever looked cooler: At all times, he rocks a gold hoop earring, a medallion big enough to be a coaster, knee-length leather dusters, and patterned button-downs that would sell today for hundreds on SSENSE. Black ’90s everyman Omar Epps plays J. Reid, an undercover cop hoping to build God’s trust so he can bring down his criminal drug enterprise. But even as J. Reid witnesses God commit acts that might make him the devil incarnate, he falls into the gangster’s orbit and becomes conflicted about what side he’s on. LL manages to be both monstrous and charming, so that not only J. Reid is going through a moral dilemma, but you are, too. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Amazon, Paramount+, YouTube, and Google Play

5. Eminem in 8 Mile (2002)

Eminem’s an easy target these days, but don’t lie to yourself: He’s absolutely electric in the final battle of 8 Mile . Across the film, his performance is best when he’s freestyling rather than brooding under the gray skies of Detroit. It comes to a head in those final few minutes, as he tears down his opponents with a combination of childish barbs and self-deprecating jokes. You can feel his desperation and hunger, qualities his music would lose soon after in favor of increasingly blatant self-caricature. –Alphonse Pierre

4. Queen Latifah in Set It Off (1996)

Director F. Gary Gray’s Los Angeles-set heist drama builds chaos and tension around a group of friends who plan an ill-conceived bank robbery as a means to escape violence and living check-to-check. In a film with three other powerhouses—Jada Pinkett Smith (Stony), Vivica A. Fox (Francesca), and Kimberly Elise (T.T.)—Latifah excels as Cleopatra Sims, an unhinged, horny lesbian who embodies much of the crew’s desperation. At one point, she threatens Stony with a gun; at another, she consoles Stony after her brother’s death. You see their plan deteriorating the whole way through; there’s simply no way they’ll get away with it. It ends in tragedy when Cleo, on the run from cops, drives through a blaze of gunshots in sacrifice for her friends. Latifah goes above and beyond to sell the heartbreak, convulsing her body as she’s struck with bullets. It’s a sleeper pick for one of cinema’s most emotional death scenes. –Clover Hope

3. DMX in Belly (1998)

Belly is the type of visually gaudy presentation you’d expect from a director whose signature music-video aesthetic is a fish-eye lens. By all accounts, Hype Williams’ 1998 magnum opus—the first and only feature he’s ever made—was a beautiful disaster. Nearly everyone involved came ill-prepared for a production that was rife with budget issues. But it was also the perfect proving ground for DMX, a former Yonkers stickup kid who’d recently rose to fame off a pair of disruptively good back-to-back albums that year. In Belly , DMX inhabits the role of spiritual drug dealer Tommy opposite Nas, who recites lines as if he’s still in a table read. Comparatively, DMX looks like a Training Day Denzel—dripping with aggression, and, apparently, lots of baby oil . Tommy is dangerous and blunt, the sort of criminal who’ll blast off errant gunshots while making an underling strip naked. When Tommy gets prophetic and says things like, “When it rains, niggas get wet,” it’s hard to tell where the actor ends and the character begins. –Clover Hope

2. Ice Cube in Boyz N the Hood (1991)

There were rappers in movies before Boyz N the Hood , but none as three-dimensional as Ice Cube’s turn as Doughboy. Writer-director John Singleton lays out Doughboy’s hopelessness without wallowing in the misery: His mother views him as a lost cause, and he has few dreams of his own. Instead, he lives vicariously through his college-bound football star brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut), whose killing seems to deflate Doughboy’s own will to live. Cube’s final conversation with Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Tre—a realization that the outside world doesn’t give a shit what happens to them—is as moving as any scene featuring a rapper to date. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Amazon, YouTube, and Google Play

1. 2Pac in Juice (1992)

It takes just once glance into Tupac’s eyes to know that Ernest Dickerson’s Harlem-set opus Juice isn’t your typical coming-of-age story. As Tupac’s character stares at his zoned-out father in the opening minutes, his background immediately becomes clear: He comes from a broken home, and his situation has grown from sadness to anger and hopelessness. After Bishop gets his hands on a gun and begins to turn on his friends, the movie takes on the beats of a slasher flick. But his loneliness is the engine of it all. The locker-room scene captures Pac at his best: When Omar Epps’ Q closes the door and Bishop is there waiting with the coldest “What’s up?” you’ll ever hear, the moment is chilling—not just because he’s lost it, but because you can see how far his pain has pushed him. –Alphonse Pierre

Watch it on Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV+, and YouTube

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By Madison Bloom

By Jazz Monroe

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By Nina Corcoran

Screen Rant

10 best movie rappers, ranked.

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Ever since the days of Krush Groove, Wild Style, Beat Street , and Breakin' in the 1980s, movies about the subculture of rap and hip-hop have continued to proliferate. In recent years, biopics about such iconic rappers as Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, N.W.A. , and more have also been produced as the musical subgenre continues to grow in popularity. Whether a rapper plays themself on screen or is portrayed by another actor often differentiates the quality of the rhymes.

RELATED: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Hip-Hop Movies, According To IMDB

However, one determining factor for the best movie rappers of all time excludes the recitation of a real-life rappers' preexisting songs as seen in most hip-hop biopics.

Patti - Patti Cake$ (2017)

Although she employs a much less-poetic style of trap-rap, Australian actress Danielle Macdonald acquits herself well as the titular rapper Patti Cake$ .

Macdonald plays Patricia Dombrowski, aka Killa P aka Patti Cake$, a swagged-out aspiring rapper out to make a name for herself in her dumpy hometown in New Jersey. The brand of rap Patti spits may not be appreciated by golden-age purists, but her ability to ride a beat and bend syllables are impressive for an untrained amateur.

MC Gusto - CB4 (1993)

Although this list excludes outright imitations as seen in such biopics as All Eyez On Me , Notorious, Straight Outta Compton , etc., Chris Rock's lampoon as MC Gusto in CB4 is good enough to make the grade.

RELATED: 10 Things You Never Knew About Chris Rock

Much like the movie Fear of a Black Hat , the film is a parody of N.W.A, in which Rock plays the Eazy-E caricature MC Gusto. Along with his rap partners Dead Mike and Stab Master Arson, Gusto raps hardcore gangster-rap bars redolent of early 90s Los Angeles.

Jay Bulworth - Bulworth - (1996)

While Warren Beatty employs an A-B-C nursery rhyme pattern in Bulworth , the fact that he raps roughly 90% of his dialogue as a socially-conscious politician out to incite change deserves a ton of credit. It's the message, not the method.

RELATED: 10 Best Warren Beatty Movies (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

With substance over style, Bulworth uses the bully pulpit of a state senator to spout trenchant rhymes that speak directly to his African-American constituency. As he speaks truth to power, Bulworth begins falling for political activist Nina (Halle Berry).

Radha Blank - The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)

Written, directed by, and starring Radha Blank, The 40-Year-Old Version may feature a rudimentary throwback rhyming style, but the content of the lyrics are as poetic as any in recent memory.

Blank plays Radha, an aspiring New York playwright teaching drama to inner-city kids to earn a living. Stuck at a crossroads, Radha redirects course in a midlife meltdown and decides to become a rapper at age 40 . Radha's stream of consciousness style of rhyming is honest, expressive, and heartfelt as she begins to express herself in ways her stage writing could never afford.

DJay - Hustle & Flow (2005)

Terrence Howard landed the lone Oscar nomination of his career for his portrayal of DJay , a Memphis pimp turned DYI street rapper in Hustle & Flow . The film also earned Three 6 Mafia an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

RELATED: 5 Hip Hop Movies That Worked (& 5 That Didn't)

What makes Howard's rhyming so exquisite is the long takes, lack of cutaways, and overall verisimilitude. One can tell Howard put the time and effort in to learn how to keep the beat, flow naturally, and express his lyrics with the requisite emotion to hit hard.

Kid 'N Play - House Party (1990)

In the 80s and 90s, rap duo Kid 'n Play was often mocked for having clean, positive lyrics in a time when explicit gangster rap was prevalent. However, take a look at their performances in the House Party movies or Class Act to witness their lyrical skills.

In House Party , Kid (Christopher Reid) 'n Play (Christopher Martin) portray fictionalized versions of themselves. During an epic bash, Play throws when his parents are out of town, Kid and Play face off in a house-party rap battle in which they clown on each other with piercing precision.

LL Cool J - Wildcats (1986)

While LL Cool J has become an accomplished actor in his own right, the Hall-of-Fame rapper first showcased his rhyming superiority on the big screen by playing himself in the 1985 film Krush Groove (pictured). One year later, he played a "Rapper" in the Goldie Hawn football movie Wildcats .

RELATED: 10 Dope Movies About Hip Hop

As one of the all-time greatest rappers who ever lived, LL helped bring hip-hop into the mainstream during the 1980s. LL's track "Football Song" is featured in the closing credits and on the soundtrack for the film.

Collin - Blindspotting (2018)

In a character he wrote, the poetic expression Daveed Digs showed as Collin in Blindspotting ranks among the top cinematic rappers of all time. Although he doesn't rhyme over a beat, his heartfelt Accapella raps eclipse the best of the spoken word.

Collin and his best friend Miles (Raphael Casal) are furniture-movers working in gentrified Oakland. With three days remaining on his probation sentence, Collin intends to lay low and stay out of trouble, but Miles' loud mouth and hot tempers lead to anything but. The film ends with a powerful rap verse recited by Collin that articulates everything he's been feeling throughout the film.

Big Blak Afrika - Bamboozled (2000)

Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, played a rapper named Cav in Brown Sugar in 2002. However, the rhymes he spits as Big Blak Afrika in Spike Lee's Bamboozled are far superior.

RELATED: 10 Most Underrated Spike Lee Joints

Julius Hopkins, aka Big Blak Afrika, is a militant pro-black nationalist out to incite change through his controversial, politically-charged rap lyrics in the film. The greedy corporate executive Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) faces pushback from Afrika and his rap crew the Mau Maus (The Roots) over the racially insensitive minstrel show he produces in the film.

B-Rabbit - 8 Mile (2002)

In a heightened version of himself in the 2002 biopic 8 Mile , Eminem proves he is the best fictional and nonfictional rapper alive. The underdog story tells of B-Rabbit , an impoverished single father working in a Detroit auto factory who has dreams of becoming a well-respected rapper.

With the help of his boy Future (Mekhi Phifer), Rabbit climbs the ranks of the local battle rap scene in Detroit, defeating the likes of Lotto, Lickety Split, and Poppa Doc to earn ultimate emcee respect.

NEXT: 8 Mile: Every Freestyle Rap In The Movie, Ranked

Movies biographies about rappers

In the top there are new films of 2023, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

A coming-of-age story based on the lives of street rappers in Mumbai.

In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.

A coming of age drama following the life of Matt Hamill, the first deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate Wrestling Championship.

Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the sport is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes.

American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.

The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.

The story of how Richard Williams served as a coach to his daughters Venus and Serena, who will soon become two of the most legendary tennis players in history.

A detainee at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center is held without charges for over a decade and seeks help from a defense attorney for his release.

Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a successful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game.

Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.

WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.

The true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.

The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.

Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.

The life story of Brazilian football legend, Pele.

Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.

The story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's attempt to cross the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

An award-winning cynical journalist, Lloyd Vogel, begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write an Esquire profile piece on the beloved television icon Fred Rogers. After his encounter with Rogers, Vogel's perspective on life is transformed.

When Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel the family legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately…murder.

In this biographical drama, Selena Quintanilla is born into a musical Mexican-American family in Texas. Her father, Abraham, realizes that his young daughter is talented and begins performing with her at small venues. She finds success and falls for her guitarist, Chris Perez, who draws the ire of her father. Seeking mainstream stardom, Selena begins recording an English-language album which, tragically, she would never complete.

England, early 20th century. The future writer and philologist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) and three of his schoolmates create a strong bond between them as they share the same passion for literature and art, a true fellowship that strengthens as they grow up, but the outbreak of World War I threatens to shatter it.

Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams, a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams' rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, "Dirk Diggler". Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams' dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.

Outlaw Jesse James is rumored to be the 'fastest gun in the West'. An eager recruit into James' notorious gang, Robert Ford eventually grows jealous of the famed outlaw and, when Robert and his brother sense an opportunity to kill James, their murderous action elevates their target to near mythical status.

Inspired by true events, Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good story about Michael "Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton), an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself - even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach (played by Hugh Jackman), Eddie takes on the establishment and wins the hearts of sports fans around the world by making an improbable and historic showing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed his personal life, and only his bottles of pills keep him going.

The life story of Elvis Presley as seen through the complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

A film about the life and career of the early rock and roll star.

In the 1960s, two entrepreneurs hatch an ingenious business plan to fight for housing integration—and equal access to the American Dream.

Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict. Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.

In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.

The story of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball team on a budget, by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused.

The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.

Saxophone player Charlie Parker comes to New York in 1940. He is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.

Concerned about his wife Gayatri's menstrual hygiene, Lakshmikant Chauhan urges her to ditch the cloth and opt for sanitary napkins. Gayatri is reluctant to go for disposable pads as they are expensive. Lakshmi obsessing over a 'ladies problem' makes her cringe but he insists on bringing upon a change by addressing the taboo topic. Subjected to hostility for ruffling the religious and age-old beliefs of people around, can the man brave the resistance and get his point across?

Control is the biography of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, taking his story from schoolboy days of 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980.

Biopic of Russian ice hockey legend Valeri Kharlamov from early childhood, rising to the pinnacle of the sport and his untimely death

Combined with Music and Story, this is the remarkable history by Ukranian vocalist Tina Karol herself about the horrible circumstances that turned into incredible successes. From deceit and death to Beauty, Power and Soul.

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LP’s by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoï. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.

The film tells about the passionate love of the son of Shamil Jamalutdin and Lisa Olenina against the backdrop of the dramatic events of the military history of Russia in the first half of the XIX century. Jamalutdin went down in history as a “great hostage,” and the film is an attempt to answer the question: hostage to big politics or big love. The historical context of the sunset of the Nikolaev era, against which the story of love and betrayal, honor and duty, serving the homeland and fidelity to this word unfolds, will be the key to the film.

In 1429 a teenage girl from a remote French village stood before her King with a message she claimed came from God; that she would defeat the world's greatest army and liberate her country from its political and religious turmoil. Following her mission to reclaim god's dimished kingdom - through her amazing victories until her violent and untimely death.

Accompanied only by her faithful dog and four camels, an Australian satisfies her craving for solitude by embarking on a solo trip across the desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean.

Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.

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When the drake vs. kendrick lamar rap beef burns out “this can’t end well”.

Rap beefs are an essential part of hip-hop culture, but the recent battle between two of the genre's top performers has turned dark and ugly: "How far are we willing to go to win a rap battle?"

By Mesfin Fekadu

Mesfin Fekadu

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When USC professor and hip-hop scholar Todd Boyd remembers hearing Tupac Shakur ’s scathing diss track “Hit ‘Em Up,” he knew one thing: “This is not going to end well.”

The West Coast anthem was released in June 1996 and Shakur viciously took aim at his East Coast rivals, including the Notorious B.I.G. with claims — through strikingly chosen words — that he slept with Biggie’s wife, R&B singer Faith Evans.

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Drake and Kendrick Lamar ’s current rap beef has Boyd reflecting on the past. 

“This can’t end well. It can’t. The possibility of it going wrong is very high,” the author of Rapper’s Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World tells The Hollywood Reporter . “To accuse someone of being guilty of domestic violence [or] accuse someone of being a pedophile — the culture we live in now, this is not a good look. If you’re just saying it for a rhyme? That’s reckless. You can easily get off track in the interest of trying to spit a cool bar.”

“At a certain point, somebody’s going to say something and it’s not going to be treated as a line of battle rap — it’s going to be taken personally,” Boyd continues. “We’ve already seen it: Even though we don’t know what the circumstances were, [there’s] Drake’s security guard being shot at Drake’s house. It’s hard not to think that this doesn’t have something to do with it.”

Rap beefs are an essential part of hip-hop culture, friendly competition if you will. But the recent battle between two of the genre’s top performers has turned dark and ugly, and Boyd wonders: “How far are we willing to go to win a rap battle?”

The feud resurfaced this March when Lamar targeted Drake and J. Cole on “Like That,” a response to Cole after he said on last October’s “First Person Shooter” that the rappers were the “big three” in hip-hop. Cole replied but later deleted his diss track and issued a public apology to Lamar. But Drake didn’t hold back, releasing “Push Ups” — where he mentioned Lamar’s longtime partner and fiancée Whitney Alford — as well as “Taylor Made Freestyle” in April. Lamar quickly replied with “Euphoria” on and “6:16 in LA.” 

But Drake rebutted with “Family Matters” and made things extremely personal. He accused Lamar of abusing Alford and claimed the father of one of their children was in fact Dave Free, Lamar’s close friend and creative partner. Less than an hour later, Lamar hit back with “Meet the Grahams” and accused Drake of being a sexual predator, sex trafficking and fathering a secret child. Lamar didn’t end there: the next day he dropped “Not Like Us” and called Drake a pedophile and accused him of appropriating Black culture. The upbeat DJ Mustard-produced track set streaming records and spectators crowned Lamar the winner of the battle as a result.

“It’s like watching a train wreck,” Tigger continues. “The evolution of this is more akin to reality TV. Everyone lives to bring up the receipts. They want to expose someone. That’s exactly what this is all about.” Questlove shared Tigger’s sentiment in an Instagram post : “Nobody won the war. This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned. Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop Is Truly Dead.” 

Joycelyn Wilson, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech who teaches a course on Lamar’s music , explained that the beef “went too far because Drake took it too far. He brought up the mother of [Kendrick’s] children and then questioned whether or not those were his children — from a person who keeps his children and the mothers of them in the dark.”

The hurled accusations have split fans and the accusations are heavy. But Aaron Smith, an assistant professor of Africology and African American studies at Temple University, notes that Lamar got ahead of his own story, unlike Drake.

Smith adds: “The only person accusing Kendrick Lamar is Drake. The whole world’s been accusing Drake for years.”

Despite being one of the top-charting artists since releasing mixtapes in the late 2010s, Drake’s behavior with young women has been questioned over the years, and Lamar’s lyrical assessment has brought more attention to the Canadian performer’s conduct. 

In 2010, a 23-year-old Drake danced and kissed the neck of a female fan onstage. After he asks her age — she reveals she’s 17 — he says, “I can’t go to jail yet, man. Seventeen, why do you look like that? You thick. Look at this.” The rapper’s friendships with Billie Eilish and Millie Bobby Brown, before they were both 18, have also been scrutinized. And Drake, who is biracial, has been called out as a performer who wears his Blackness as a costume and steals styles and sounds from his peers. As Wilson puts in: “Drake gave Kendrick Lamar the hammer to hit him over the head with and Kendrick clobbered him with it.”

“We don’t really know who Drake is, besides the son of a Jewish mother and an African-American father that lives in Memphis. We don’t know much about how he came up. We don’t know what traumas he’s experienced, and not at the level that Kendrick does. We don’t know how authentic his stories are because of how he’s always critiqued for having ghostwriters,” she says.

Wilson calls it the “Vanilla Ice-ing of Drake along cultural politics.”

Rap beefs have ended on good terms in the past: just look at Nas and Jay-Z . But when those titans traded words through song form, social media didn’t exist. Jay-Z released “Takeover” in Sept. 2001 and Nas responded three months later with “Ether,” one of the most regarded diss tracks of all-time.

That couldn’t happen today, and social media has severely influenced this current hip-hop war. 

“We live in an era of viral moments. I think with this situation, the quality of some of the music being dropped probably wasn’t as thorough as it could have been had more time been taken. I don’t know that having to come out so quickly is good,” Boyd says. When he thinks of past tracks like “Ether,” he explains: “In some ways they’re great because you had to wait and take your time and compose it in such a way it wasn’t immediate.”

It’s why Boyd says “when I talk about the great rap battles of the past, I don’t include ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ in that, and the reason is the way that ended.”

“I can’t look at that as just a song. I can’t look at that song as just a cool song because it had real life implications,” he says. “There are rules to the game. Talking shit, that’s part of the culture. By no means am I dismissing that. It doesn’t have to be something that ends in violence, but it can.”

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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• Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

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