hip-hop Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well, you know what they say: If you want something done right, you're going to have to do it yourself. The Yahoo! Business section is now reporting that rapper Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson has purchased his very own production company (with the unappealing name of Cheetah Vision) and that he already has his first project picked out. Jackson announced that he's selected the script The Dance as his first film under his Cheetah banner, and that he'll star alongside Nicolas Cage in the action-drama.

Jackson will play a boxer who is sent to state prison (well, what else could we expect? 50 Cent as a sensitive tax attorney?) and Cage will play the founder of a boxing program within the prison. According to Jackson, The Dance "was previously passed around a little bit but both me and Nicolas Cage had an interest in the film so it will still happen."

Now that Jackson has his very own shingle, he has plans for all kinds of films in the near future. He says, "They are all different types of movies that I bought the rights to, and we're developing projects. You will see different things from me in the future." Jackson has slowly been working his way onto the big screen over the last couple of years, but as we all know, it didn't work out as planned. That said, he still has a few more chances to make a name for himself as an actor when he stars in Streets of Blood with Val Kilmer and 13 with Mickey Rourke.

Sound off below on whether you think Jackson has what it takes to make it to the Oscar podium, or is he better off staying in the recording studio?

For fans of old-school hip-hop, Marley Marl's Juice Crew is the stuff of legends. So it really is about time that they got their very own musical biopic. In an interview with VH1 blog, Marl sat down to talk about the upcoming film titled Vapors (presumably taken from the Biz Markie song of the same name) that is set to start shooting this month in Queens, NY. For the uninitiated, Juice Crew were a hip-collective formed by Marl and its members included Roxanne Shante, MC Shan, Biz Markie, and Big Daddy Kane. The group was a way for Marl to highlight his skills as a producer and the group gained notoriety for their high-profile feuds with Boogie Down Productions and UTFO. Marl says that the film is going to be, "--basically me, Big Daddy Kane and Biz's life story leading up to 1988. How we got there. How we made the golden era pop. ... A lot of ups and downs, a lot of personal sh--. It is what it is." Marl, Roxanne Shante and Big Daddy Kane will all serve as executive producers on the film which is being made with Indiefilmx.com

According to Marl, Furqaan Clover has already signed to direct, but it turns out that some of the casting news released back in December might have been a little premature. BlackFilm.com had reported that Cuba Gooding Jr. had already been cast as Marley Marl, rapper-actor David Banner would play the part of Biz Markie, Evan Ross was playing MC Shan, and Jackie Long would appear as Big Daddy Kane. Now Marl tells VH1 that no decisions have been reached yet, and that they will choose, "The best actor possible, --- We gonna tally it up at the end and see who it could be. We need the movie 'Vapors' to make its point, and a lot of the young kids to know what birthed the golden era" -- Amen to that. Vapors is aiming for a 2008 release so start dusting off your Cazals and door-knocker earrings now.

Rock the Bells, a cinema verite-style ride through the production, promotion, and potential implosion of the 2004 hip hop concert of the same name, is starting to gather buzz at Tribeca as "the doc that spends 40 minutes trying to get a cracked-out Ol' Dirty Bastard out of his hotel." It is that film, for sure, but it's also at least three other things. It's a crash course in the dirty business of concert promotion; it's a primer on the storied history of Wu Tang Clan, who are not only one of the most significant hip hop acts, in creative terms, of all time, but are also responsible for taking the art of branding to a whole new level; and it's a love letter to fans and fandom that is so heartfelt, it bleeds through the boundaries of musical taste. Still, it would be hard to overstate the suspense that the Dirty situation lends to the film (which, at two hours, is slightly overlong but not fatally so). Directors Denis Henry Hennelly and Casey Suchan have themselves a poster-ready tagline in the film's first 15 minutes, when Chang, the concert promoter at the film's center, tells his assistant, "Anything with Dirty makes me nervous."

I've been wondering for some time exactly how the Hustle & Flow Oscar-nominated rap song, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," will be performed during the awards ceremony on March 5. I mean, "Blame Canada" had to be edited, and that was in 2000, back before the FCC became so touchy. The rap song "Lose Yourself" was nominated for an Oscar for the 2002 film 8 Mile, but it was not performed during the ceremony ... and won the award. However, that had nothing to do with censorship, but other issues such as musician/star Eminem's refusal to attend.

I hadn't thought about who might stand up there and rap on Oscar night, though, and the news is that it won't be actor Terrence Howard. Howard says he just can't get into the headspace of portraying DJay again, and I can imagine he'll be nervous enough about the odds that he'll win Best Actor. Instead, we'll hear the group Three 6 Mafia, which wrote the song for Hustle & Flow. Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, Cedric Coleman, and Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard will be the first hip-hop musicians to perform their own song during an Oscar ceremony. No word yet on exactly which lyrics they will or will not be singing.