Beyond the Big Four: More Rappers Who Conquered Hollywood
We have spoken about our Mount Rushmore of rappers turned actors: Will Smith, Queen Latifah, Tupac Shakur, and Ice Cube. Who is in the next tier? Listen and find out!
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Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie.
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Transcript
This is Hip Hop Movie Club, the show for serious hip hop fans who want to deepen their
cultural knowledge.
2
:We've watched over 75 hip hop themed films, and in this episode, we will talk about some
of the most notable rappers turned actors.
3
:We've spoken about our Mount Rushmore of actor turn rappers at live events and on previous
podcast episodes.
4
:And that's comprised of Will Smith, Queen Latifah, Tupac and Ice Cube.
5
:Today, let's dive into that next tier beneath that.
6
:And there are some powerhouses here as well.
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:Folks like Ice T, LL Cool J, Ludacris, Donald Glover slash Childish Gambino, who actually
did it in reverse.
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:He was an actor first.
9
:Common, Yasiin Bey, Method Man.
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:Do we include Mark Wahlberg?
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:Well, yes, yes we do.
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:Much better acting career than a rapping career, but Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch was a
thing for a bit.
13
:Two albums we uncovered, they actually had two albums somehow.
14
:God save the Queen.
15
:But some of these, rappers turned to actors, just massive careers.
16
:And I always think back how we talk about the origins of hip hop, how it was regionalized
in the South Bronx.
17
:And who would know that it would yield such megastars that would be box office sensations.
18
:are some your favorites out of the next tier?
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:tier?
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:I mean, definitely LL.
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:He's like on a cusp.
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:He could easily be in Mount Rushmore on any given day.
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:Who would you swap with him?
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:yeah, and Ice-T is a powerhouse.
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:I mean, he's been playing a lot of cops and detectives, but he's been pretty believable in
those roles.
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:mean, Common is one of my favorites.
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:mentioned Yasiin Bey He's got a comedic twist.
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:I've seen him do amazing things.
29
:And of course, you everybody knows Method Man.
30
:He's in movies and shows.
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:Luda mean, part of Vin Diesel's family.
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:So, he's got one more.
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:He's got one more that's got to come up.
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:I think it's coming out next year.
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:So we'll see what happens.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah, mean, LL Cool J's got that special charisma you knew from when he was first on the
scene in Krush Groove.
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:I mean, he's just so talented.
39
:He's hosted multiple award shows.
40
:We did a deep dive into LL Cool J.
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:He's just tremendous in all of his work as a TV star and movie star.
42
:The funny thing with Ice-T playing the cop is, know, Cop Killer.
43
:You know, was his big controversial song.
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:then, you know, now he's like one of the top cops of all time on TV.
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:Yes.
46
:but these ones some of more recognizable.
47
:You also see a lot of actors actresses that were rappers, like these smaller roles.
48
:have a crew that maybe just appeared in one movie and just totally knocked out of the
park, like the Fat Boys and Disorderlies.
49
:I'd be remiss if we didn't just mention them.
50
:I mean, they didn't have a long acting career, but they were like that Three Stooges type
comedy.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah.
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:And even, um, our guy, Daryl Chill from House Party.
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:He's a legit actor now too.
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:Like he's always doing roles, you know.
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:Yeah, mean, kid and play themselves, right?
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:Kid and play as well.
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:they had a decent run.
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:The house party franchise and class act.
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:Class Act, yes.
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:Yeah, so you got to have to mention Eminem just because of the biopic 8 Mile.
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:I mean, he did a tremendous job.
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:He didn't really have much acting experience in that role of B-Rabbit.
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:It's just off the charts.
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:He really didn't do that much.
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:At least acting wise in feature films.
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:think he was in Funny People.
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:was uncredited in The Interview.
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:And that's kind of it.
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:He didn't need to.
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:Yeah, the role in 8 Mile kind of knocked it out of the park.
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:Yeah, you wouldn't have to do anything else after that.
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:Yeah.
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:And, um, you know, we, we have a bit of an old school bias just because of our age, but
we've seen films with like Lil Yachty and, and I know Kendrick Lamar has been obviously,
75
:you know, he did the whole soundtrack for Black Panther
76
:But definitely, being a rapper these days would be a huge launching pad for your, acting
career and we didn't even mention Snoop Dogg, like Soul Plane and multiple others,
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:We mentioned Method Man, but Redman collabed with him, How High and other silly movies, buddy films.
78
:Yeah, I mean, just, I would just take it back to some of the versatility of the roles that
we've seen, personally, LL Cool J and like, we've seen them, you know, we've seen them in
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:horror movies, from the Halloween franchise and oh just that Deep Blue Sea with the
sharks.
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:And we've seen them in, you know, funny movies, know, Last Holiday, Deliver Us from Eva,
oh like.
81
:from Eva.
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:Yeah, he's pretty versatile, know, like you said, the kind of shines through when he's on
camera.
83
:So, you know, he's been pretty good in those roles.
84
:And the same, can say this, I actually can say the same for Common.
85
:Like, he's played different roles.
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:I've seen him play, you know, serious roles.
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:He's popped up in like the John Wick franchise.
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:He was in Wanted, Just Right, you know.
89
:Same with Yasiin Bey I've seen Yasiin Bey actually singing songs like Lackawanna Blues.
90
:He was actually singing.
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:He was like a Cab Calloway type character.
92
:Like singing and dancing and performing on stage.
93
:I'm like, wow, this guy's pretty good.
94
:And he plays one of my favorite characters in Brown Sugar.
95
:Cavvie I loved him in that movie.
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:He was absolutely great.
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:He was very realistic.
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:Just a struggling rapper that's trying to make it.
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:He doesn't want to sell out and go commercial.
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:He's got some humorous moments, humorous dialogue between him and Taye Diggs' character.
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:Very charismatic.
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:I actually see him play in another movie too.
103
:I'm trying to think of the name of the movie.
104
:I think it's something the Lord made.
105
:Yes, he played a assistant to a doctor who was working in the hospital and was doing
surgeries.
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:And he was actually...
107
:doing a lot of the work, but he was getting the credit because of the timeframe that it
was taking place.
108
:He wasn't really getting any credit for his work, but he was really good in that movie.
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:That was a straight, it was like a docu-drama type movie, he was good.
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:Mark Wahlberg.
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:Yeah.
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:acting career has definitely outshined rap career.
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:He's had a movie on Netflix that just came out last week or something like that.
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:He's these places, plays cops, bounty hunters, action movies, he's doing it all.
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:I feel like a lot of times when I see him playing a role, he's playing himself because it
comes to...
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:It's so hard, it comes across the same way.
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:I'm like, he's probably playing himself.
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:playing himself that's playing a cop.
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:Yeah.
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:But I enjoy them.
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:the comedy is like Ted, but then, yeah, a lot of times he's playing a cop or a fugitive or
something like that.
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:That fits his type cast.
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:But remember he played uh Vince Papale in Invincible and DynoWright and I are in Eagles
fans.
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:So that was a good role where he was a, yeah, that was a great movie.
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:That's right, Vince Papale yes.
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:Yeah, he's super versatile in acting.
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:But so it is easy.
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:I don't say the easy transition, it's, you know, especially when you're a rapper, you make
a lot of music videos and you have to have that stage presence and you gain popularity
129
:that way.
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:So it's sometimes easy transition.
131
:But on the flip side, just because you are rapper does not mean you should make movies.
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:We saw that with State Property.
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:Hahaha!
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:uh
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:Beanie Sigel And if you listen back to our episode, we're like, what did I just see?
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:It was just like a killing spree with not a lot of plot, no character development.
137
:It was just like, what is going on here?
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:We just want to watch a massacre of sorts.
139
:Yeah.
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:Yeah, I said that with I got the hookup too.
141
:Yeah.
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:At least I got the hookup is a comedy.
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:You it's a comedy.
144
:like, you'll get little glimpses of, you know, silliness and things like that.
145
:Right.
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:But
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah, yeah, state property was just, yeah, that was just raw.
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:What?
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:Definitely on the opposite spectrum of great cinema.
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:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
152
:Yeah, but there's no shortage of quality actors and actresses that started out as rappers.
153
:We haven't really talked about many women besides Queen Latifah, but MC Lyte, Eve, they've
had some work.
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:yeah, Eve has popped up in the Barbershop movies.
155
:She actually had the show.
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:Yeah.
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:Yep. Nicki Minaj.
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:eh Yeah, she's popped up with some stuff.
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:yet Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Rah Digga’s popped up in stuff.
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:More can be done to uplift the women rappers who turn actors, actresses.
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:Yeah, we need more of them.
162
:And I wouldn't call Lin-Manuel Miranda a rapper, but I have to mention Hamilton because it was just so revolutionary to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton entirely through hip hop
163
:and other songs, but mostly hip hop and some R&B.
164
:you know, he and Daveed Diggs and the rest of that crew.
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:Leslie Odom, Jr.
They were phenomenal.
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:I mean, just insanely talented, right?
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:And I know Daveed Diggs has his own rapping group.
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:And so he's done some solo work as well.
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:So yeah, you can see the parallels between the two.
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:I don't think, I think this trend is just going to keep continuing because again, similar,
talent skills, charisma is needed for both.
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:And, um, I almost feel like the sometimes actor wants to be rapper, rapper wants to be an
actor because back in the day when you your music video, right?
172
:It's kind of like you always think basketball players, like they want to be rappers,
rappers want to be basketball players, basketball players want to be rappers.
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:And so.
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:Why you don't have rings?
175
:Exactly.
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:We'll do the other thing.
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:add something to your tool belt and be more well-versed, right?
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:Man, I remember hearing a rumor years ago, and I wish it would have actually come to
fruition, oh revolving around Cardi B.
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:oh they wanted to reboot the nanny and have her play Fran Drescher's daughter.
180
:And I was like, my God, that would be so funny.
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:I would have watched the heck out of that.
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:I'm like, hey, y'all still thinking about that, y'all need to make that happen.
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:Make it happen.
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:ASAP set.
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:Oh man, I would crack up listening to her just rambling around.
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:And I know this is not meant to be an entirely comprehensive list.
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:This is just some of our other, you know, takes on some of these folks, but, know, like
the late DMX was in Belly because Belly was such a great film The cinematography there and
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:Nas was in it as well.
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:So Nas had had some roles in a few movies also.
190
:And they were both really good in Belly.
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:I think we even said this in our episode.
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:We should have seen more from them from an acting standpoint.
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:And we wish they had done more.
194
:DMX popped up in a few movies, but yeah, we didn't get enough of Nas.
195
:We probably wish we could have gotten more DMX before, you know, before he left us, but
yeah.
196
:Yeah, if you scroll through Nas's filmography, mostly most are the videos of course, but
really there wasn't that many movies.
197
:And I he wanted to, he probably could have gotten a lot more.
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:absolutely.
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:Was it John Q.?
200
:How 'bout that.
201
:I haven't seen John Q.
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:And John Q was actually on cable right now too.
203
:I haven't seen it in so long.
204
:almost forgot he was in it.
205
:Mm-hmm.
206
:Yeah.
207
:You know, we've seen Cam'Ron in some films that we covered as well.
208
:Like some of these guys, when they're like at the peak of their popularity, that's when
you want to cash in on making those films.
209
:It becomes part of your legacy.
210
:I'm almost remiss to mention good folks down from the ATL.
211
:know, TI, Andre Three Stacks, know, Big Boi, All three of them have popped up in multiple
films, television shows, appearances, et cetera.
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:Definitely.
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:I've liked TI in anything he's done.
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:ATL was really good.
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:Even that series with Kelsey Grammer called Boss, he was really good at that.
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:One of the few good things.
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:So yeah, TI.
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:Popped up in the Ant-Man franchise.
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:Got some of that Marvel money. Get that Marvel bag.
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:For real.
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:I like Andre 3000 in Four Brothers.
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:was a balance.
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:Coincidentally, Mark Wahlberg is in that movie as well.
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:As well as Tyrese.
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:Who's not necessarily a rapper, but he's
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:you his songs are hip hop adjacent, not just a crooner, but he can also puts out songs
that are hip hop heavy.
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:He just kind of sings over them.
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:But yeah, it was pretty good performance from all three of them in that movie.
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:So if you didn't know about some of these films or actors or actresses, look them up
because you might find a hidden gem.
230
:we'll keep our eyes out for future rappers in films because we know it's gonna, as we
said, this is not a trend that's gonna die.
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:As long as it's hip hop, there's gonna be rappers turning to actors.
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:It's a pipeline.
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:You know that's right, yep.
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:And we love our documentaries as well, so there's definitely going to be more and more of
those as well.
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:People telling the stories of these.
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:Especially with the OG era into the time where you'll see a lot more documentaries about
those folks.
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:And we already have, but there's going be more of them because it's about that time where
we have of them.
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:Yep, absolutely.
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:More to come.
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:Thanks for tuning into the Hip Hop Movie Club Show.
241
:I'm Dyno Wright, filmmaker, designer, longtime hip hop fan, and I was recently reminded of
how good a track, All the Places by Pete Rock and C.L.
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:Smooth is and was.
243
:I'm JB, 80s and 90s, nostalgia junkie, long time hip-hop fan.
244
:And I always love these bit little parts with rapping in movies such as Kevin G in Mean
Girls and the grandma singing Rappers Delight in the wedding singer.
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:Kevin Gnapoor.
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:That's MC.
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:Yes.
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:uh That was my man right there.
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:All right.
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:And I'm BooGie, a DJ, a long time hip hop fan.
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:I just want to take a quick second to shout out my brother, my fam, brother Hahz AKA Hahz the Ripper.
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:One of the illest lyricists I've ever heard in my life straight out of Newark, New Jersey
We went to high school together.
253
:can check him out right now if you want to learn about him.
254
:He's got an episode on Memphis Bleek's Rock Solid podcast, probably about a drink.
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:Champs Network is on right now.
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:And I'm rocking my shirt.
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:I'm supporting him.
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:Hahz the Ripper versus anybody?
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:Because literally, like I would put him toe toe with anybody.
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:Mm-hmm.
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:Next week we'll discuss the movie Idlewild featuring Andre 3000 and Big Boi. OutKast in the house.
262
:Join us on Thursday November 13th at the Frank Banko Alehouse cinemas in Steelstacks,
Bethlehem as the Hip Hop Movie Club hosts a special 10-year anniversary screening of
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:Straight Outta Compton.
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:Yeah.
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:Remember, don't hate, marinate.
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:Oh yeah.
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:Weather's dropping, you marinate that food, throw it in the crock pot, slow cooker.
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:Can you get that grub on?
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:Oh yeah.
