Hollywood Rappers (Part 1)
No longer satisfied with having their own clothing and beverage lines, rappers have extended their reach to the big screen. Here's what happens when hip-hop meets Hollywood.
Successful rappers have it easy when it comes to breaking through into other avenues of entertainment, as they've already developed a fan base who will usually welcome anything these rappers do, even if it means plunking down $10 for a movie ticket. This year, we've seen rappers star in more movies than ever. Below are some of the rappers who've made recent visits to good ol' Hollywood, CA.
Will Smith
The first Hollywood rapper that comes to mind is Will Smith, because of his roles in blockbusters such as Bad Boys and Bad Boys II, Men in Black and Men in Black II, Independence Day, Ali, I, Robot, and just recently, Hitch. Some folks may not know that before Will Smith made a name for himself arresting drug dealers, killing aliens, and destroying robots, he played a gay con artist in a movie called Six Degrees of Separation. The movie was released in 1993, which was right around the time a more "family friendly" Will Smith was making The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, NBC's most successful Monday night show. It just goes to show how versatile Smith is in front of the camera, and how he deserves respect as a serious actor. He is currently working on Tonight, He Comes, a movie about a superhero (played by him) that falls to Earth and romances a local housewife in order to somehow rejuvenate his powers. Talk about versatility…
Nelly
In his first movie role, Nelly plays an inmate-turned-football player in the remake of Burt Reynolds' 1974 action comedy, The Longest Yard. The updated 2005 version puts Adam Sandler in Reynolds' old role as the star quarterback (Reynolds now plays a coach), with Chris Rock playing the role of the "caretaker" (because of his uncanny ability to acquire just about anything, legal or otherwise). This movie marks the first time Sandler and Rock have worked on a film together, even though both are Saturday Night Live alumni from more than 10 years ago. As for Nelly's impact on the movie, we'll just have to see what he's got when it hits the silver screen come Memorial Day. I'm sure it'll be a hoot one way or the other.
Mos Def
Mos Def has been acting for quite a while, and he has the potential to become the next Will Smith (as far as acting is concerned--certainly not as far as rapping goes). In fact, his career as an entertainer began in the late '80s as a teen television actor (in God Bless the Child). He also starred on Broadway in the Tony-nominated, Pulitzer prize-winning, Topdog/Underdog--a rare pair of credentials for a rapper. Since those days, Mos Def has found even bigger roles in successful flicks, such as Monster's Ball, Brown Sugar, The Italian Job, and his latest, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where he plays Ford Prefect, the best space friend of star space traveler Arthur Dent. He's currently filming a movie opposite Bruce Willis tentatively called 16 Blocks, as well as a sequel to The Italian Job. For his sake and ours, I hope the second Job turns out to be just as thrilling, if not more so, than the original.
LL Cool J
His initials should stand for "long lasting," as he's been both rapping and acting for quite some time now. He made his movie debut in a cameo appearance in Goldie Hawn's 1986 comedy Wildcats and played an NYPD detective in 1991's The Hard Way starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods. But his first starring role was in the 1995 movie Out of Sync, which impressed NBC execs enough to cast him in the TV comedy In the House. Since then, LL has landed countless roles in movies, such as Halloween H2O, Any Given Sunday, Charlie's Angels, S.W.A.T., and now in the action thriller, Mindhunters, costarring Val Kilmer and Christian Slater. On top of all that, he has even more roles in the hopper: Slow Burn with Ray Liotta and Taye Diggs, a remake of The Last Holiday with another rapper-turned-actor, Queen Latifah, and Edison, a crime drama starring Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, and--get this--Justin Timberlake!
Ice Cube
Like LL Cool J, Ice Cube is a veteran of many different areas of the entertainment world. Through the years, Cube has succeeded in being an accomplished all-around actor, tackling any and every role presented to him. He's done drama (Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning, Dangerous Ground), comedy (the Friday series, the Barbershop series, Are We There Yet?), thriller (Anaconda, Ghost of Mars), and action (Three Kings, Torque, xXx: State of the Union). As far as costarring with Sam "the rapper hater" Jackson in xXx, Cube stated in an interview with TheAge.com that the two of them didn't talk about the topic while on the set, but he did opine on the issue of being a force in two types of entertainment. "When Hollywood first started," Cube says, "you had to be able to sing and dance as well as act. So we ain't doing nothing no different than Nat King Cole or Elvis Presley or Frank Sinatra and all these others who came before us, all these musicians who made the transition. As rappers, why are we any different to those guys?" Word up.
Hollywood Rappers (Part 2)