Career Advice: Rappers Should Stick to Music
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Youth Radio's Quincy Mosby gives advice to some of the big names in hip-hop who've tried to make a leap into film. He says many of them are better off sticking to making music.
FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
Youth Radio's Quincy Mosby loves hip-hop and the stars who crossover to film and fashion with grace and style. But sometimes that crossover goes terribly wrong.
Mr. QUINCY MOSBY (Youth Radio): These days a lot of rappers are trying to use their popularity as recording artists as a way to develop business ventures outside their music. Be it clothing, cologne or liquor. Usually, I'm fine with these extracurricular endeavors, but I simply have to put my foot down when certain rappers try to bring their hip-hop swagger to the silver screen.
Now don't get me wrong. There are a select few MC's who have the skill to be decent at both art forms. For the most part, rappers like Queen Latifah, Mos Def and Andre 3000 seek out interesting projects and challenging film roles. Even Ice Cube on a good day can make a trip to the movies worthwhile. But there are way too many other rappers who leave me with no other choice than to turn off my DVD player and read a book.
This money-hungry rappers have subjected humanity to cinematic catastrophes such as The Wash, Soul Plane and, for God's sake, I Got the Hook Up. The list goes on and on. Most of these films have the same clichéd and regurgitated scenes of toilet humor and pointless sex that don't advance the plot in any way, and they create an image of African-Americans as overly promiscuous marijuana addicts and criminals.
The dialogue in these bombs is stereotypical and just plain offensive. Yo, dawg, what's up? It's like the screenwriters think those are the only words hip-hop artists know. Do they think that if a rapper utters words with more than one syllable his brain will implode? I can't promise that won't happen, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to.
What's really demoralizing about these films is that they're often either 'hood movies with the rapper co-starring as that jive-talking friend, or like Eminem's 8 Mile, music biographies about a struggling hip-hop artist trying to make it big but who's being pulled down by the streets. Honestly, how hard it is to pretend to be yourself?
Believe me, I do love hip-hop and my black brothers and sisters. And everyone has the right to express themselves artistically, but where's the personal pride? I'd like to think if I'd worked hard enough to become a successful musician I wouldn't risk my credibility doing the lousy B-movie with, say, Steven Seagal, no matter how much I might admire his undying loyalty to that greasy ponytail.
I'm not suggesting that all rappers shouldn't act. I guess I just want them to make their films the same way I've come to expect them to make their music. With originality, realism, intelligence and effort. I'm Quincy Mosby.
CHIDEYA: That piece was produced by Youth Radio.
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