Boyz n Tha Hood is a movie directed by John Singleton, released in 1991. It is the coming-of-age story of three black men: Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Darrin “Doughboy” Baker (rapper Ice Cube) and Ricky Baker (Morris Chestnut). This film is the cinematographically representation of what it means to be born black in the American ghetto. Hence, what rap music had been talking about for few years by then.
As Michael Eric Dyson points out: “Singleton filters his brilliant insights, critical comments, and compelling portraits of young black male culture through a film that reflects the sensibilities, styles and attitudes of rap culture. Singleton’s shrewd casting of rapper Ice Cube as a central character allows him to seize symbolic capitol from a real-life rap icon.”
Gangster movies and gangsta rap have often influenced one another, whether the rappers take their inspiration from major motion pictures or they leave the stage to perform as actors. Boyz n Tha Hood seems to be based on verses coming from Ice Cube’s lyrics, whether he simply wrote them or also sang them.
Boyz n Tha Hood
Beginning in 1984 in South Central, this movie shows how Tre, Doughboy and Ricky take different paths in their lives: Tre, intelligent and devoted student who is kept on the right path by his father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne); Doughboy, Ricky’s older brother, who drinks, steals, is a drug dealer and is sent to prison for several times; Ricky, his mother’s pride, who is desperately looking for a scholarship in football to enter college.
To the hip hop generation, the title of this film did not go unnoticed as it can be immediately connected to a gangsta rap song. In 1987, Macola Records released gangsta rap group N.W.A. first album entitled “N.W.A. and The Posse.” The first song, written by Ice Cube and sang by Eazy-E, was actually entitled “Boyz n Tha Hood.”
This song talks about what it seems to be an ordinary day in the life of a young black male in Compton, South Central Los Angeles. This life is made of alcohol, women, guns and gang violence. Eazy-E raps that in order to face the day and to deal with his mother, who always complains about his friends, he has to get drunk first:
Woke up quick, at about noon,
Just thought that I had to be in Compton soon.
I gotta get drunk, before the day begins.
Before my Mom starts bitchin' about my friends.
(N.W.A. “Boyz n Tha Hood” N.W.A. and The Posse, 1987)
Police Brutality and Black-on-Black Violence
But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cuz they slam ya down to the street top
Black police showin out for the white cop
(N.W.A. “Fuck tha Police” Straight Outta Compton, 1988)
These are the lyrics of one of the most controversial and most attacked songs in the history of gangsta rap music: “Fuck tha Police,” released in 1988 in the N.W.A. album “Straight Outta Compton.” These sentences seem to perfectly describe few scenes of the movie where black policemen become very violent towards young black men.
Soundtrack
The official movie soundtrack, released by Quincy Jones, is mostly made up of hip hop songs, thus underlining the influence and importance of hip hop culture in this movie. The first song of the CD, yet the last to be played in the movie (during the end titles), is from Ice Cube, entitled “How to Survive in South Central.”
So be alert and stay calm
as you enter, the concrete Vietnam
You say, the strong survive
Shit, the strong even die, in South Central
(Ice Cube “How to Survive in South Central” Death Certificate 1991)
Just like Ice Cube raps, in South Central also the strong ones die. Singleton seems to have based the end of his movie on this ending verse, when in the last scene we see Doughboy fading away as a sentence appears on the screen reporting his death.
Ice Cube and John Singleton: Two “Boyz n Tha Hood”
Gangster movies have been inspiring gangsta rappers since the birth of this hip hop sub-genre. However, what happens when the rappers leave the stage to perform as actors? Boyz n Tha Hood is an example of how music and motion pictures can work together to create a masterpiece considered to be extremely culturally significant to the point that it is preserved by the National Film Registry.
Works Cited:
- Michael Eric Dyson, “Between Apocalypse and Redemption: John Singleton’s ‘Boyz n Tha Hood.’” Cultural Critique 21 (Spring, 1992): 124.
Brunella Irma Costagliola - Brunella Irma Costagliola is a full-time writer and a published author. Her book is titled "Gangster Movies in Gangsta Rap"
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