Hip-Hop Artists in Film

We all know that rappers are good at rhyming, wearing bling, and getting shot at, but did you know that many have also carved out successful acting careers for themselves? This list of 37 movies with rappers is a testament to their business acumen, and the projects range from stoner comedies and gritty urban dramas to low-budget horror flicks. No matter what kind of film you like, there’s a good chance that it’s got a rapper in it.

• 8 Mile (2002) – Eminem channels white boy angst as Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith, Jr., an aspiring rapper living a trailer trash existence in Detroit. Co-starring Xzibit, Obie Trice, and Proof. Kim Basinger is a standout as his hoe mom.
• Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) – In a film loosely based on his life, 50 Cent stars as Marcus, a former drug dealer looking to achieve rap stardom despite numerous challenges and enemies. Co-starring Terrence Howard, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Viola Davis. Directed by frequent Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father).

• Boyz n the Hood (1991) – Writer-director John Singleton shot to stardom with his tale of troubled teens living in South Central Los Angeles. Ice Cube appears as gang member Darrin “Doughboy” Baker, while Cuba Gooding, Jr. headlines as the sympathetic Tre Styles.
• Training Day (2001) – Denzel Washington won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Alonzo Harris, a crooked narcotics officer taking a new recruit (Ethan Hawke) through an intense period of on-the-job training. Rapper/producer Dr. Dre has a supporting role as a member of Alonzo’s team, while Snoop Dogg gets to puke up bags of crack as a wheelchair-bound drug dealer.
• Trespass (1992) – Bill Paxton and William Sadler are a pair of firemen in search of hidden gold, while Ice-T and Ice Cube are gang members trying to steal the treasure for themselves and cap a couple of white boys. Directed by Walter Hill (48 Hrs. and The Warriors).
• Lottery Ticket (2010) – A good-natured black comedy about a young man (Bow Wow) who wins a $370 million lottery drawing but must hold onto the ticket for several days while being pursued by friends, family, and complete strangers. The supporting cast includes Ice Cube, T-Pain, Lil Twist, Keith David, Charlie Murphy, Brandon T. Jackson, and Naturi Naughton.
• Last Holiday (2006) – A romantic comedy about a department store employee who decides to take a dream holiday when she believes she’s dying of cancer. LL Cool J plays a co-worker and the object of her affection. A remake of a film from 1950, although that one didn’t feature any rappers.
• Posse (1993) – Mario Van Peebles tries his hand at the Western genre, assembling a cast of diverse actors for a tale of revenge and stolen gold. Members of the posse include Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, Big Daddy Kane, and Tone Loc. Billy Zane is the bad guy who (surprisingly) winds up being a racist.
• Hustle & Flow (2005) – Terrence Howard is DJay, a pimp and petty criminal who dreams of making it in the rap game. The film details his efforts to record songs, hustle money, and get a famous rapper (Ludacris) to listen to his demo. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
• How High (2001) – A pair of stoners (Method Man and Redman) ace their college entrance exams and wind up being accepted at Harvard. Cypress Hill appear as themselves.

• Cool as Ice (1991) – Vanilla Ice in his first (and last) major motion picture. He plays a rapper with a love for motorcycles who winds up falling for an honor student whose dad is in the witness protection program. Kristin Minter plays the love interest, but the role was originally offered to Gwyneth Paltrow (her father wouldn’t let her do it).
• New Jack City – Director Mario Van Peebles struck paydirt with this stylish look at the ongoing struggle between cops and drug dealers. Wesley Snipes plays charismatic and ill-tempered drug lord Nino Brown, while Ice-T is the streetwise cop dedicated to taking him down. The film would have a massive impact on the hip-hop scene.
• Just Wright (2010) – Rapper-actor Common stars as an injured NBA player, while Queen Latifah is the physical therapist who nurses him back to health and falls in love. NBA cameos include Dwyane Wade, Marv Albert, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Rashard Lewis.
• Friday (1995) – Ice Cube and Chris Tucker star in this urban comedy about two pals who only have a few hours to come up with $200 to pay off a violent drug dealer. Co-starring Nia Long, Faizon Love, DJ Pooh, Bernie Mac, Tiny Lister Jr., and Tony Cox.
• Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) – DMX is a thief and Jet Li is a special agent from Taiwan. They eventually team up to take on a ruthless martial arts master (Mark Dacascos) in search of stolen black diamonds. Gabrielle Union and Kelly Hu provide the sex appeal, and other members of the cast include Chi McBride, Tom Arnold, and Anthony Anderson.
• Who’s the Man? (1993) – Doctor Dre and Ed Lover star as a pair of barbers-turned-cops who investigate the murder of a close friend. Cameos abound, including Run-DMC, Ice-T, Busta Rhymes, Kriss Kross, House of Pain, Flavor Flav, Queen Latifah, Naughty By Nature, KRS-One, Humpty Hump, Bushwick Bill, Heavy D, and many more.
• Halloween H20 (1998) – Set 20 years after the events in the original John Carpenter film, this seventh movie in the franchise finds unstoppable psycho Michael Myers once again trying to kill off his sister, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). LL Cool J appears as a security guard who aspires to be a novelist, and other familiar faces include Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Adam Arkin, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
• Halloween: Resurrection (2002) – This horror movie marks the eighth film in the series, and Michael Myers once again battles a rapper. This time it’s Busta Rhymes, as he plays the host of an Internet reality show about a group of teens who unwisely journey to the killer’s family home on Halloween night. Guess what happens next.
• The Wash (2001) – Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog are roommates who work at a car wash while trying to scrape together enough money to pay their rent. Hijinks ensue. Also starring George Wallace, Eminem, Tommy Chong, Kurupt, Ludacris, Xzibit, Martin Lawrence, and Shaquille O’Neal.

• Big Money Hustlas (2000) – Shaggy 2 Dope of the Insane Clown Posse stars as Sugar Bear, a San Francisco cop who travels to New York City to take down a crime lord (ICP bandmate Violent J). Dolemite (aka Rudy Ray Moore) makes a cameo, and other supporting players include Harland Williams, Mick Foley, Jamie Madrox, Monoxide Child, and Kayla Kleevage. This straight-to-DVD hit frequently pays homage to the exploitation films of the 1970s, and it would be followed by the sequel, Big Money Rustlas.
• Roadside Prophets (1992) – A biker makes his way across the desert looking for a place to scatter his friend’s ashes. He’s joined in his journey by an oddball named Sam (Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys), and cameos include Arlo Guthrie and Timothy Leary. If you’re looking for a movie to watch while getting high, put this one on the list.
• Gang Related (1997) – A modern noir movie about two cops (James Belushi and Tupac Shakur) who inadvertently kill a DEA agent and then seek to frame someone else for the killing. This would be Tupac’s last feature film, and co-stars include Dennis Quaid, James Earl Jones, and Kool Moe Dee.
• Starsky & Hutch – Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson play it for laughs while adapting the 1970’s cop show to the big screen. Vince Vaughn is the bad guy, and Snoop Dogg radiates cool as the police informant known as Huggy Bear.
• Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) – Jim Jarmusch’s inventive indie feature includes 11 short stories linked by a common theme of coffee and cigarettes. The “movies with rappers” element turns up in the segment entitled “Delirium,” when RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan discuss the dangers of caffeine and nicotine with Bill Murray (who plays himself working as a waiter).
• Chicago (2002) – Winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this adaptation of the stage musical stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger as a pair of murderesses who sing and dance more than the average inmate. Queen Latifah co-stars as the corrupt, lesbian matron where the women are incarcerated.
• Dark Blue (2003) – Set just before the L.A. Riots, this cop drama stars Kurt Russell as a cop up to his neck in murder and corruption. Scott Speedman is the idealistic officer trying to bring him down, while Dash Mihok and Kurupt are a pair of murderous drug addicts in the employee of an LAPD officer (Brendan Gleeson). Also look for Master P in a small role.
• Barbershop (2002) – Tired of scrambling to keep his Chicago barbershop open, a scheming entrepreneur (Ice Cube) sells it off to a local loan shark (Keith David). But when he learns of the plan to turn the place into a strip club, he immediately begins looking for a way to buy it back.
• Judgment Day (1993) – House of Pain frontman Everlast has a supporting role in this film about a group of friends (Emilio Estevez, Jeremy Piven, Stephen Dorff, and Cuba Gooding. Jr.) who take a detour on the way to a Chicago boxing match and wind up being pursued by a violent gang (headed by Denis Leary). The soundtrack is also notable for teaming up rap and heavy metal acts.
• S.W.A.T. (2003) – When the crime rates begin to rise, a veteran S.W.A.T. officer (Samuel L. Jackson) is tasked with putting together a “young, kick-ass element.“ This group includes Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, and LL Cool J (plus his abs). Based on the TV series from the ‘70s.

• Bones (2001) – After getting himself murdered by a drug dealer and crooked cop in 1979, lovable neighborhood crook Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg) returns 22 years later to gain his revenge. Pam Grier co-stars as Jimmy’s lover from back in the day, and the film mixes elements of blaxploitation and horror.
• Juice (1992) – The story of four African-American youths growing up in Harlem. Tupac Shakur stars as the villainous Bishop, while Omar Epps is nice-guy Q. Featuring appearances from Fab Five Freddy, Doctor Dre, Ed Lover, Queen Latifah, Treach, and Special Ed.
• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) – Werner Herzog directs this over-the-top tale of a corrupt New Orleans cop (Nicolas Cage) looking to bring down a local drug kingpin named Big Fate (Xzibit). Val Kilmer co-stars as another crooked lawman, while Eva Mendes is smoking hot as our anti-hero’s prostitute girlfriend.
• Surviving the Game (1994) – Ice-T learns an important lesson about going hunting with white people: don’t do it. He winds up being hunted himself by a group consisting of Rutger Hauer, John C. McGinley, Charles S. Dutton, F. Murray Abraham, and the always-crazed Gary Busey. Based on the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.”
• Deep Blue Sea (1999) – A trio of genetically engineered sharks get loose and begin to chomp their way through a team of scientists (including Saffron Burrows and Thomas Jane). Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as a doomed corporate lackey, while rapper L.L. Cool J licks his lips a lot as a cook named Preacher.
• Exit Wounds (2001) – Steven Seagal is a cop who doesn’t play by the rules, while DMX is a drug dealer who can’t seem to talk without yelling. Together, they team up to expose corruption in the city of Detroit. Tom Arnold, Anthony Anderson, and Michael Jai White co-star in this action movie.
• Anaconda (1997) – Ice Cube gets second billing behind J-Lo’s ass in this horror flick about filmmakers who travel to the Amazon Rainforest and run afoul of a massive anaconda and a crazed hunter (Jon Voight). Co-starring Owen Wilson, Eric Stoltz, and Kari Wuhrer.
• Leprechaun: In the Hood (2000) – When a trio of wanna-be rappers accidentally free an imprisoned leprechaun (Warwick Davis) and find a magical flute with powers over the human mind, they wind up being pursued by the pint-sized Irish terror and a fearsome record producer (Ice-T). Coolio makes a guest appearance as himself, looking far scarier than a leprechaun ever could.

This list of 37 movies with rappers should keep you busy for a year or two. When you’ve finally watched them all, go buy a drum machine and turntable and have yourself a ball. Maybe you can be the next Vanilla Ice.