Episode 69

full
Published on:

5th Jun 2024

Set It Off (Rebroadcast)

Today on Hip Hop Movie Club: Set It Off, the 1996 heist movie starring Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Jada Pinkett, and Kimberly Elise that was groundbreaking – in more ways than one!

Topics discussed:

  • This is Queen Latifah's first lead role, and one of the best performances of a rapper turned actor 👑
  • This film is also an ode to Black women friendship and sisterhood, with strong performances from the four leads to match 👩🏾
  • We see an early instance of an LGBTQ relationship in a major motion picture, and it's handled well without making it a clumsy plot point 🏳️‍🌈
  • The soundtrack is hip hop heavy and important to the heist sequences 🎤
  • Some of the themes (police brutality, racism, sexism, systemic oppression) are sadly still relevant, which gives the film a poignant quality 😓

Also check out:

The Film Experience: Gay Best Friend: Cleo (Queen Latifah) in "Set It Off" (1996)

Nerdist: A Brief History of Black Queer Representation in Cinema

Autostraddle: “Set It Off” Is the Queer Tribute to Black Women’s Friendship We Need After a Summer of Black Mourning

Credits

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

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And remember:

Don't hate...create!

Mentioned in this episode:

Set It Off Rebroadcast

Hey listener, in honor of Pride Month, here is a rebroadcast of our episode on 1996's heist film Set It Off. This film has one of the first positive depictions of an LGTBQ relationship, featuring one of our favorites, Queen Latifah. She came out herself a few years ago. Enjoy the show.

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show

that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop with

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the magic of movies.

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Today, we're discussing Set It Off, a

heist crime action film from:

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We're three old heads who put their old

heads together to vibe on these films for

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you.

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I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker,

longtime hip hop fan, and the ladies will

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kick it.

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The rhyme that is wicked.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long

time hip hop fan, and well I'll be darned,

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shiver me timbers, yo head for the hills,

I picked a weeping willow and a daffodil.

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Das EFX

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classic.

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

and sometimes I rhyme slow, sometimes I

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rhyme quick.

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Nice.

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In this episode, we'll answer the

question.

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Is "Set It Off a groundbreaking film?

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And we'll give you five key takeaways to

make you a smarter hip hop movie fan.

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Set It Off is a 1996 crime drama featuring

a star-studded cast of Black females who

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are pushed to the brink with the

oppressive system.

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Being dead broke but also emboldened is

the formula that leads the ladies to rob

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banks.

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Once they taste success, all bets are off

in this roller coaster thriller.

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And here are five takeaways you need to

know about Set It Off.

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This is Queen Latifah's first lead role

and one of the best performances of a

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rapper turned actor.

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Number two, this film is an ode to Black

women friendship and sisterhood with

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strong performance from the four leads to

match.

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Number three, we see an early instance of

an LGBTQ relationship in a major motion

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picture and it's handled well without

making it a clumsy plot point.

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Number four.

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The soundtrack is hip-hop heavy and

important to the heist sequences.

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At number 5, some of the themes like

police brutality, racism, sexism, systemic

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oppression are sadly still relevant which

gives the film a poignant quality.

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Right, thanks for the intro.

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Let's kick it right off with the first

takeaway that you had mentioned,

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DynoWright.

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This is Queen Latifah's first lead role

and one of the best performances of a

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rapper turned actor.

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Boogie, I wanna kick us off with one of

your favorite females of all time, Queen

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Latifah, in her role here.

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Yeah, so like I've talked about this in

some of our live events.

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We mentioned our Mount Rushmore of rappers

turned actors, but this is arguably my

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favorite role from the Queen.

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And I think that it's because of the range

that she gives us.

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We see all the emotions from her, from

being a loving and loyal friend to the

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crew, to her being a loving, sexualized

relationship with her girlfriend.

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to being hardened and ruthless when it

comes down to robbing the banks and

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getting their point across.

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I mean, you literally get the full range.

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And for this to be her first lead role, I

think it carries so much weight.

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And even though you know the type of

person she is, you see the circumstances

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that kind of would cause her to be the way

she is.

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You almost want to root for her in a

certain sense.

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And you hope that, you know, something

turns around and gets better for her.

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But I think she really delivers and she

hammers it home in this one.

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Definitely.

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She plays the role of Cleo and she's like

the street smart, street wise, almost

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leader of the crew.

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And yeah, you see the wide range, you

covered it.

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I don't think I can even add much more.

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You nailed it there, Boogie.

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DynoWright, you have anything else to add

about Queen Latifah's performance?

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that I've asked people younger than me

that if they knew that Queen Latifah was a

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rapper, and they don't, it's kind of

funny.

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And this is the beginning of it.

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This demonstrates her range, like you

said, BooGie.

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And from this point, you can see the

progression that she gets bigger roles,

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she's the lead in more films, and she

makes this transition from being, you

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know,

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an actor more so than a rapper sometimes.

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So here's where it begins.

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Right.

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And I think another point too, which makes

this role such a dynamic role for her is

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that the character is nothing like her in

real life.

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Like she's one of like, I mean, granted

you don't play around with her, you don't

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mess with her, you don't do her wrong, but

on a normal, you know, if you bumped into

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her, she's the nicest person.

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Like extremely nice, extremely pleasant,

sweet person, but she plays such a

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heartened

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criminal in this movie.

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It's just like, wow.

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And I think that's probably what

gravitated me towards her role in this,

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because I could see her in other roles

after this, and you could see her

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personality in the role.

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This one, you really don't see too much of

it in the role.

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It's like she completely flipped the

switch on us.

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Like, oh.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah, the comment about people knowing her

only as an actor.

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That makes me feel kind of old because I

remember when she burst on the scene with

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All Hail the Queen.

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And yeah, we are old.

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Yeah, it's not big, you feel what you are.

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It's like a sports.

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You are what your record says you are,

right?

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It's say whatever the eight, that's what

you are, right?

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So U.N.I.T.Y.

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like she was this like sensational rapper,

part of the Native Tongues collective,

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which is one of our favorites, if not our

favorite.

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And

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so influential there but like even beyond

you know she crushes it as an actress and

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like her vocal talents and like again

she's like up there in that top tier of

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entertainers overall.

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She's almost at EGOT level.

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Like I think she's missing one, right?

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Or something like that.

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But like, wouldn't shock me if she, she's

on that level, exactly.

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Yeah.

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definitely has the ability to get all of

them.

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It's just the right roles gotta make it

happen.

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Exactly.

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Yep, she can do it.

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I would not bet against her at this point.

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So the second key takeaway is the film is

also an ode to Black women friendship and

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sisterhood with strong performances from

the four leads to match.

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I BooGie, you want to take us into the

four leads and how, you know, it ties

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together those themes.

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Yeah, sure, absolutely.

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So, you know, typically, you know, we talk

about crime dramas or those type, any type

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of movie in that realm, you usually see a

bond between male characters.

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This movie takes on a different twist in

that the leads are all women.

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You see the bond between them, you see how

they look out for one another.

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You know, we have Queen Latifah, you know,

Vivica A.

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Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, but-

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but she was just Jada Pinkett at the time.

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And Kimberly Elise, I mean, they all

deliver and they all add dynamic qualities

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to the group.

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You see the outspokenness and the hardness

and the deep loyalty of Queen Latifah.

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Vivica Fox is a force to reckon with as

well.

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And I mean, when it comes to toughness, I

mean, her character stands toe to toe with

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Cleo's character from Queen Latifah.

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Jada Pinkett Smith, who...

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is more of a, I guess she's more of a

focal point of the group because she's the

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one that probably has the most gain and

most to lose in this movie.

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You know, you get to see her, her

character struggling.

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You know, she's trying to figure out, you

know, which way, you know, which way is

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up, which, what to do and how to handle

the situation because she's all, she

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becomes extremely wrapped up in the whole

situation involving the bank robbery

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heist.

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And Kimberly Elise, she gives an

innocence, a sweetness to the movie, to

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the group.

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Unfortunately, she's dealing with the

system.

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Her son has been taken from her and she's

trying to do whatever she can to regain

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the custody of her son.

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And with the four of them, they don't

really know which way to turn and what to

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look at, which way to go.

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So they all, you know.

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decided to come up with the bank heist

scheme and then going down that route.

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But the idea was doomed from the start.

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We knew, there's no good that could come

out of that.

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I mean, and then, not to talk about too

much about what happens in there, but

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there are some deaths that occur

throughout the movie.

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And some of the most memorable that I've

come across, not giving away too many

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details.

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although the women are committing crime by

robbing banks, you do still want to root

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for them because you kind of see the

circumstances that have put them in the

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place to do what they're doing.

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And unfortunately, all of the deaths could

have been avoided, you know, which adds a

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little bit of sadness to it as well.

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But I mean, I do see that this was a

well-written and well-performed movie by

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their leads.

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Yeah, let's piggyback off of that.

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I think F.

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Gary Gray directed, he did a great job

with the character development.

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You could see the bond between the four

women, which was one of our points here.

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Frankie was Vivica A.

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Fox, that was her nickname.

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Francesca Frankie.

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It's like she was working at the bank and

she got fired because she knew the one

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robber in the initial scene, Darnell.

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And so like, you know.

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They all bonded because of the different

forms of oppression.

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So bonded and Stoney was the character

played by Jada Pinkett.

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You know, her, she was the caretaker for

her brother, Stevie, who had mistaken

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identity.

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We'll talk about that oppression types

things, but like all these things

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culminated in them galvanizing together to

fight the system.

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And Tisean, which was Kimberly Elise, you

know, you mentioned she had her child

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taken away.

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And then, you know, Cleo.

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you know, obviously it was in the midst of

all this as well, like seeing the

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oppression and kind of fighting for them.

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Masterful casting and character

development, like I said, I saw F.

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Gary Gray in an interview.

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I saw some, a special interview that he

had.

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Interestingly enough, Kimberly Elise was

the newcomer to Hollywood.

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These other stars were more established

and shh.

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Kimberly said that her character was the

most like, her real life persona was very

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similar to her character of Tisean.

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She said she was young and broke in real

life and that's kind of like the role that

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she portrayed.

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So it was interesting there.

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DynoWright, anything to add as well there?

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And it is a twist on the heist film.

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We reviewed Paid in Full, another kind of

heist type film or at least crime film and

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it's all male leads.

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But this was fun to watch, a different

spin on it.

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And it's good to see this kind of stuff.

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This stuff needs to be on film.

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And you really do root for them, even

though they're committing crimes.

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Getting away with it for the most part

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Yeah.

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In another interview that I saw, or a clip

from the interview with F.

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Gary Gray, Jada Pinkett actually wanted to

be the role of Cleo, which was given to

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Queen Latifah.

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Queen Latifah knocked that out of the

park, as we mentioned.

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And Vivica A.

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Fox was concerned that she wouldn't come

off as hood enough for the viewers because

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she had never played a role that hardened.

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but it worked out and she was so glad that

she had done the film.

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Ironically, she was filming Independence

Day at the same time and it was like a

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lunch break when she was called over and

just a quick lines, couple of quick lines

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to audition and she knocked it out of the

park as well.

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So it all came together like it was fate.

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This cast works so well together.

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Wow, from filming Independence Day to

robbing banks

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Exactly.

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Save the world and run out of the banks.

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Yeah.

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And ironically with Will Smith as the

co-star of Independence Day and then you

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get Jada Pinkett in this one.

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Yeah.

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So it's all tied small world exactly.

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But yeah, the casting amazing, you root

for them.

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So another takeaway.

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that we mentioned is that we see an early

instance of an LGBTQ relationship in a

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major motion picture.

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Remember this was 96.

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It's handled well without making it a

clumsy plot point.

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Boogie want to speak of that, speak of

that.

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Um, yeah, I mean, I think they said this

was the first time that it's one of the

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first times it's been on film and it

definitely didn't come across as, you

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know, something that was awkward or, you

know, even, you know, side-eyed about it.

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She actually, the girlfriend was around,

like when they were talking a lot of times

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and it wasn't like she was awkwardly

placed in there.

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It just kind of flowed.

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It wasn't the scenes with her.

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and Cleo didn't seem like outlandish or

over the top.

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Some of them were kind of funny, which was

playing with the money and everything, but

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I don't wanna get too much into that.

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But I think, yeah, I think it was well

done.

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And you see other movies where they try to

touch on a topic and it just doesn't work,

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but it definitely works here.

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And I think that...

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Queen Latifah played her role so well

that, I mean, rumors and questions about

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her actual sexuality started to come into

question.

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I mean, that's how well that dynamic

worked in the film that it kind of spilled

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over into her actual life where people

were like, wow, is she not?

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Is she not?

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Not that it mattered, but I think the film

was so well done that people couldn't

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differentiate the two.

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Yeah.

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DynoWright, anything else about the LGBTQ

aspect?

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Yeah, this is almost how many, 30 years

ago.

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And we weren't used to the seeing this

kind of thing.

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And the thing I like about it is that they

don't really try to make a big statement

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about it.

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They just have it exist in that universe.

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And so it doesn't draw any undue attention

to it.

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That's just how they live.

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And you know.

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That I think is why it's done well.

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It's not part of the, it's not really part

of the story.

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It's part of the character development.

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And, you know, we need, especially at that

time, we needed those sorts of portrayals

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of the LGBT community because they were,

they've been there all along.

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It's not like they just showed up then.

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And to just show them in a normal kind of

relationship without having to like put a

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spotlight on it and make a big fuss about

it, was really nice.

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Right, and if the listeners here have

heard a lot of our episodes, we've

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mentioned the term homophobia quite a bit

about other films in the same era, whether

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it be late 80s, early 90s.

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So this is the same timeframe.

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And yet, as you mentioned, it's almost

like an organically happening as an LGBTQ

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relationship without making a big fuss

about it.

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So it was like groundbreaking in that

sense.

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Yeah.

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Same-sex couples were much more taboo, not

really spoken about, or to the total

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opposite, where a great deal of homophobia

was out there.

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It still exists today, but people are much

more open-minded, yeah.

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Exactly.

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had to go to an art house film to see that

kind of stuff in cinema.

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And for this to be a major motion picture,

that was good.

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That was progress.

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so, groundbreaking in many, the film is

groundbreaking in a few aspects, having

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the all-female cast doing the heists and

this relationship, well done, exactly.

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Takeaway number four was the soundtrack

was hip hop heavy and important to the

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heist sequences.

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Who wants to kick us off on that?

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I can go.

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In the movie, Cleo can't get started until

she got some pump up music.

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I had to write this down.

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The first time it was, I Ain't No Joke by

Eric B.

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& Rakim.

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Great song, of course.

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Then the second one was Pistol Grip Pump

by Volume 10.

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That's good.

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Then the third time, and each time she

carjacks a car and then goes through the

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CDs and...

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throws them out the window and then puts

on another music.

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And the third one is From Yo' Blind Side

by X-Man, H-squared and Chocolate.

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It's just great.

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I mean, I do need pump up music too when

I'm doing important things.

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I'm not robbing banks, but it's helpful to

have a good soundtrack.

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And like they said, in I'm Gonna Git You

Sucka.

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Was it I'm Gonna Git You Sucka?

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Every hero needs a theme music.

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Absolutely.

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That was so much needed comic relief, yeah

exactly.

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She would throw them out and call it BS,

like this is BS, this is BS, this is BS.

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It was like, what are you doing?

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It's almost like delaying the getaway car

because she's like throwing the music out

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the window.

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That was hilarious, yeah.

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So yeah, definitely good stuff.

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Yeah, definitely the funniest hang up of

the movie.

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Oh, I still laugh every time I see that

those scenes.

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It's just like, are you kidding me?

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Like.

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Yeah.

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Gotta have priorities.

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Gotta have good music, of course.

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funny though, because I've never stolen a

car or robbed a bank, but I know sometimes

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when I get in my car and I'm ready to go

somewhere, I'll put a song, one of my

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mixes on or something.

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And if it starts in the middle of the

song, I take it right back to the

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beginning.

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So it's like, I gotta ride out to that

beat.

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Or as soon as I park, if I'm coming down

the block, I'm like, all right, you know

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what?

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I'm gonna get into the part I like.

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And then I come down, I'm like, yeah.

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Hehe

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So I understand the importance of the

music.

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Yeah, you get in the car and like, oh, I

don't like this station.

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I changed station.

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Oh, my song is on.

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Now I can go.

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Yeah.

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Just tossing CDs and consists of...

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my commute.

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I was like, I just recently got like

Spotify Premium I have my playlist and I'm

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like, yeah, I wanna hear this and like now

I can go, exactly.

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So I get it, but it was funny in that

scenario there, with the carjacking.

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But the soundtrack as a whole has a lot of

well-known artists.

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Obviously Queen Latifah has a song in

there, Brandy, Bone Thugs -N- Harmony, MC

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Lyte.

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En Vogue, Busta Rhymes, Seal, yeah, so

it's a solid soundtrack.

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Any other highlights for the soundtrack,

Boogie?

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You're a resident expert on.

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I mean, aside from the hip hop songs,

Don't Let Go by En Vogue was a powerful,

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powerful song.

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You know, so anytime I hear that song, you

know, it takes me back to this movie.

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But yeah, it was just a powerful song.

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It's about love, you know?

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And, you know, despite it being a crime

movie, at the root of it.

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is love.

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It's four friends who love one another and

will support one another and will do

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anything for one another.

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Literally.

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Do anything for one another.

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You know.

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Yeah.

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You know.

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Don't Let Go was during the intimate scene

between Blair Underwood and Jada Pinkett's

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character, right?

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I think, yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, Blair Underwood, by the way,

casting, I mean, he was F.

370

:

Gary Gray he said, this is the guy that I

wanted to play this role, like kind of an

371

:

upper crust type young man who's, you

know, on his way, professional and like

372

:

that's the guy he wanted and that's the

guy he got.

373

:

And it was perfect.

374

:

Perfect casting there as well.

375

:

Yeah, he's perfectly cast, yeah.

376

:

Yeah.

377

:

Yeah.

378

:

We just did an event with Krush Groove

where we screened it at a theater.

379

:

And Blair Underwood you know, in his

earlier days, I mean, he's had a storied

380

:

career too.

381

:

Young young Blair Underwood

382

:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

383

:

Yeah, excellent, so the soundtrack's

solid.

384

:

The final takeaway, number five, was that

some of the themes in the movie, such as

385

:

police brutality, racism, sexism, systemic

oppression, are sadly still relevant,

386

:

which gives the film a pregnant quality.

387

:

DynoWright, want to kick us off on that

one, that topic.

388

:

Yep.

389

:

In our early days of this podcast, we used

to ask ourselves what, which could we make

390

:

this movie again, or today, this movie,

like especially the older ones.

391

:

And this one was definitely like some you

can do today because it's the same kind of

392

:

thing.

393

:

Like people's, people are guilty by

association, you know, on racial lines.

394

:

And there is a police murder of a unarmed

395

:

Black man that literally sets it up in

this film.

396

:

So that exists.

397

:

There's other examples of things like

this, the isms in the movie.

398

:

This was made almost 30 years ago and

we're still talking about these things.

399

:

These things are still happening in these

communities.

400

:

Yeah, definitely.

401

:

Boogie, you wanna expand on that?

402

:

Yeah, I mean, you know, we see, like I

said, there's an unarmed Black man shot,

403

:

you know, we thought he had a gun.

404

:

You know, the isms are also like, as

DynoWright said, the isms are apparent

405

:

throughout the film.

406

:

There's all types of misogyny in the

treatment of the four women by their

407

:

manager boss.

408

:

It's just, you know, it's a bad situation.

409

:

I mentioned earlier with T.T.

410

:

and her son being in the system, you know,

that's, you know, because of circumstances

411

:

and, you know, the struggle she has to go

through to get him out.

412

:

They're all desperate for money for

various reasons.

413

:

You know, exploited at work, which I kind

of touched, but I mentioned earlier.

414

:

So it's, it's a big

415

:

perfect storm of a mess that just results

in these four feeling like they have no

416

:

way out, no way to turn to.

417

:

And it definitely can be made today

easily.

418

:

You can literally remake, shoot the movie

frame for frame today and it would still

419

:

work.

420

:

You know.

421

:

We could get the same actresses and do it

again.

422

:

Yeah.

423

:

Yeah.

424

:

And it's the systemic oppression that

galvanized the four women because they're

425

:

all struggling, facing all their

challenges that were not fair for many

426

:

reasons.

427

:

I mean, the young Black man, Stevie,

getting shot, a case of, and I'm air

428

:

quotes, you know, mistaken identity, you

know, because he had the same head

429

:

shaving, but he had no gun.

430

:

He had actually a bottle of champagne that

was gifted to him.

431

:

But they reacted, you know, by shooting.

432

:

unfairly fired because of her association.

433

:

She knew the guy's name.

434

:

She had recently been promoted.

435

:

She was a great associate.

436

:

She got fired from this great job at the

bank.

437

:

She ends up having to sleep with the guy

to get some money advance.

438

:

Like he was taking advantage of her, the

child protective services.

439

:

Luther was taking out more taxes than, you

know, not paying what was promised.

440

:

Like the oppression was palpable.

441

:

You could be like, you could cut it with a

knife.

442

:

And that literally...

443

:

led them to this life of crime, a bank

heist.

444

:

And once they taste that success, it's

like you kind of get greedy and like, oh,

445

:

I need more money for this.

446

:

And it worked.

447

:

They had that taste of success and they're

like, okay, let's figure it better.

448

:

Then, you know, there's some conflicts.

449

:

Like how far did they go with it?

450

:

Right?

451

:

And obviously there's repercussions.

452

:

If I go back one minute to the soundtrack,

we mentioned Settle Off, we discussed this

453

:

off air.

454

:

I almost wish that the song Set It Off by

Big Daddy Kane was in it because that's a

455

:

great song as well.

456

:

Kind of like when Paid in Full, Paid in

Full wasn't on that soundtrack.

457

:

So any number of reasons, if they can't

get the rights, but just wanted to mention

458

:

it.

459

:

rights or it's too obvious.

460

:

Yeah, maybe.

461

:

Yeah, yeah.

462

:

It's like if somebody doesn't know about

this film and they're like, oh, go to the

463

:

soundtrack, like where's Set It Off.

464

:

Yeah.

465

:

Yeah.

466

:

Other notes about the film?

467

:

I have a few, but if anybody wants to talk

about any other comments about the film

468

:

itself.

469

:

All right, I'll kick it off.

470

:

So I loved the 70s throwback party for

Stevie's graduation.

471

:

That was dope.

472

:

All the big afros, the fashion.

473

:

That was cool.

474

:

I liked that.

475

:

Other actors?

476

:

So Dr.

477

:

Dre has a small role as Black Sam.

478

:

You know, he's

479

:

He's a gun runner, works the gun range,

but he obviously helps with the weapons

480

:

and stuff.

481

:

As a young Dr.

482

:

Dre.

483

:

And John C.

484

:

McGinley as Strode, the police detective,

the head police detective guy, he gives a

485

:

solid performance.

486

:

I always liked him and whatever he's in,

he always cracked me up on the TV show,

487

:

Scrubs.

488

:

So yeah, it was good to see him.

489

:

He was...

490

:

He was actually empathetic about what

happened, but obviously, you know, can't

491

:

apologize.

492

:

Yeah.

493

:

There's some intense scenes with him as

well as, you know, he's on the chase and

494

:

then things escalate and escalate and

escalate as well.

495

:

So yeah, and just a couple of those things

like that.

496

:

The one scene with the girls talking

around the table with like the fake

497

:

Italian accents, I thought that was like a

little bit cheesy.

498

:

I go like the Godfather scene because

they're playing the Godfather music.

499

:

I was like, eh.

500

:

Yeah, I was like, eh.

501

:

I hope they did it again with me.

502

:

Yeah, yeah.

503

:

No, that was good.

504

:

We had our blood pumping, kept the blood

pumping.

505

:

So, all right, let's do something to calm

everybody down for a few seconds.

506

:

We're starting to match up again.

507

:

I'm starting to get goofy to laugh at.

508

:

And there was a conflict, you know, it's

not all like, hey, these girls like got

509

:

along all well.

510

:

There was a conflict where Cleo at one

point put the gun to Stoney's head because

511

:

they were arguing.

512

:

To me, that was like reminiscent of Juice

a little bit, like when Bishop, you know,

513

:

threatening the friends.

514

:

I was like, whoa, okay.

515

:

I see that now, you know.

516

:

And I see that TT's character.

517

:

Tisean, she became emboldened throughout

the film.

518

:

Like you could see her progression where

she was really shy.

519

:

She left the one heist, cause like she was

not into it, but she grew with her, she

520

:

became bolder.

521

:

She held the one customer at bay during

the one heist and she was the one that

522

:

ended up, you know, shooting Luther at the

hotel after he stole the money.

523

:

So like, she was all in.

524

:

She was pushed to that brink and she's

like, hey listen, I can't.

525

:

I can't have to ask, I gotta do it.

526

:

So, yeah.

527

:

Yeah, exactly.

528

:

Shout out to Annamarie Horsford to play

the worker.

529

:

I was like, wow, look at that.

530

:

Hahaha.

531

:

their mother in Friday.

532

:

Yeah, it's funny.

533

:

So Friday, F.

534

:

Gary Gray, for folks, you may remember, he

directed Friday, and this was after that.

535

:

And it's like, what a contrast, you know,

comedy.

536

:

He, he had always dreamed of doing like an

action film.

537

:

And he got his chance to get star studded

cast.

538

:

And yeah, did a great job.

539

:

The one thing too is like the budget

wasn't as large as you would think for an

540

:

action film they were talking about on

this interview.

541

:

So the scene where Queen Latifah, Cleo

drives the truck through the glass windows

542

:

of the bank, like right through, they had

to do that like in one take and it had to

543

:

work.

544

:

They didn't really have a big budget to

recreate that and it worked, they were

545

:

fortunate.

546

:

Yeah, that was intense.

547

:

That was intense.

548

:

I remember the first time I saw that

scene, I was like, holy crap.

549

:

Yeah.

550

:

Those were the other kind of notes that I

had.

551

:

on any other comments or notes.

552

:

There's a lot of good writing about this.

553

:

We'll put this in the show notes.

554

:

But people have talked about the LGBTQ

issues and just in general queer

555

:

representation in film and especially

Black queer representation.

556

:

So I'll throw that in there.

557

:

Recommended reading.

558

:

F.

559

:

Gary Gray has a really nice career.

560

:

He directed, Set It Off, the Italian Job,

Friday, I think Men in Black, Straight

561

:

Outta Compton, yeah, Be Cool.

562

:

Really incredible career, super talented.

563

:

Music videos as well, yeah.

564

:

Yep.

565

:

I think he did good, it was a good day.

566

:

Ice Cube, he did Waterfalls, TLC.

567

:

Miss Jackson by Outkast, like some of

these iconic videos.

568

:

He's behind those also, yeah.

569

:

Yeah, the man is talented.

570

:

All right, fellas, you wanna go around and

give our ratings here?

571

:

Whether for the film, Set It Off.

572

:

Boogie, would you say bring that funky

flick back or leave it in the vault?

573

:

We're gonna bring this funky flick back

574

:

DynoWright?

575

:

I'll also bring this funky flick back.

576

:

And that makes three.

577

:

I will bring this funky flick back.

578

:

Very well crafted.

579

:

Definitely groundbreaking.

580

:

Yes.

581

:

Go see it if you haven't.

582

:

the faint of heart, but it's still a great

movie nonetheless.

583

:

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your

HHMC's, JB, Boogie, and Dyno Wright.

584

:

Theme music by Boogie.

585

:

If you're the type to leave a rating or

review, please do.

586

:

That would be dope.

587

:

And whether you're listening to the

podcast or watching us on YouTube, please

588

:

hit that subscribe button.

589

:

It gives us a power up for real.

590

:

Thanks for tuning in.

591

:

Create

592

:

Remember, don't hate, create.

593

:

Create!

594

:

Yeah, make some art.

595

:

Something from nothing.

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About the Podcast

Hip Hop Movie Club
Harmonizing the rhythm of hip hop with the magic of movies
HHMC is brought to you by a trio of longtime hip hop fans: JB, an 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, Boogie, a veteran DJ and graffiti artist, and DynoWright, podcaster and filmmaker.

Upcoming Hip Hop Movie Club events:

Aug 16 - House Party screening and talkback, SteelStacks, Bethlehem PA. More information coming soon!

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