Rappin'

Rappin' (1985)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Joel Silberg

Starring: Mario Van Peebles, Charles Grant, Tasia Valenza, Eriq La Salle, Kadeem Hardison

From: Cannon

Here is what I referenced last night, something that is rather obscure today, and this is quite the time capsule, representing those good old days where rap was still in its youth, and look at what it's at today. Sure, I think that most rap music in recent years is total garbage and that's due in part to everyone rapping about being rich, having “bitches &ho's”, and all this SWAG and YOLO garbage... but there's other reasons why it just sucks now and is awfully lame but of course that garbage is wildly popular with Troglodytes who don't know any better. But back in this era things were more innocent, where you could have raps about several different colors and also rap about food, both of which are actually present in this film.

I found out about the movie earlier in this year on a messageboard, where an article from the usually awful Ain't It Cool News was linked and they talked about this film. I found this glorious trailer. What inspired me to watch this was that the Bad Movie Fiends podcast reviewed it and they loved laughing at the film.

Let me give you the correct plot synopsis, as the one on IMDb is actually inaccurate: John “Rappin'” Hood (Van Peebles) is let out of the clink for an unnamed crime. He returns to his ghetto neighborhood in Pittsburgh and he has to deal with such troubles as an unscrupulous land developer wanting the neighborhood to himself in order to level it and build something new over it, a rival gang led by the total D-bag Duane (Grant), who happens to be going out with his ex-lady Dixie (Valenza), and more; thankfully he has his own crew, including Ice (La Salle) and Moon (Hardison)

This is a movie about the urban culture which was produced, directed, and written by a bunch of older white Jewish men, with the director having done the two Breakin' breakdancing movies. Enough said there. You can just imagine how good this is... but it is hilarious as it's not only great to laugh at (and laugh I did) but it's also quite the time capsule of that time period, from all the innocenous rapping (although you do get a short rap about murdering and shooting from a crew, led by... Ice-T! No kidding) to the soundtrack, the music to the slang. You get a lot of rappin', of course, and some of the lines were bitten from the likes of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. If you love laughing at bad movies, this is worth tracking down; nevermind how I found it.

I unfortunately am unable to directly link to the next two videos I am going to post, so you'll have to click on the link to view it on the YouTube page itself.

This video is a nice example of what the movie is like. It shows two scenes: two guys having a beef with each other and they settle it by... doing fancy dancing with each other! The second part is the good guys rapping about food; as one of the gang is named FATS, of course he loves eating, so the song Snack Attack is about him.

And this is the end credits. They are tremendous. Most of the main cast raps! Honest. It is pretty glorious. I won't spoil the ending but it is cheesy... and fantastic. After all, they made it obvious Rappin' Hood is supposed to be like Robin Hood.

I'll be back Saturday afternoon.