Hip-Hop Artists Finally Make the Leap to Films

A few years ago I found myself listening to a studio chief expounding about how important it was for Hollywood to tap into the latest youth culture trend, or as he put it, “catch a wave before it hits the beach.” If that’s so, I asked, why aren’t you making movies with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre or the Wu-Tang Clan? They’re the heroes worshipped by the kids who live on my block.

The executive frowned. “It’s probably the gunfire issue that bothers me,” he said. “I’m not sure I want to tell the people that run our corporation that we have to outfit everyone’s offices with bulletproof glass.”

Until very recently, that was the prevailing image of hip-hop in Hollywood. It might be the music of the moment, but as pop culture, it was too hot to handle, loaded with too much gangsta baggage. Throughout the 1990s, hip-hop became a staple on MTV, adorned innumerable soundtrack albums and advertising campaigns, and even infiltrated stodgy network TV via “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Living Single.” But most major studios treated it like a passing fad, except for maverick New Line Cinema, which had hits with its “House Party” series and a pair of “Friday” films co-written by and co-starring Ice Cube.

Times have changed. Whenever I saw Dr. Dre in the ‘90s, he was in a dark recording studio clouded with pot smoke. But when I caught up with him earlier this summer, he was kicking back in a trailer on a movie set, studying his script and sipping herbal juice, the only smoke coming from a burning stick of yellow rose incense. You could say Dre’s ready for his close-up.

“I’m learning that the movies are a better business than records,” he explains. “With one bangin’ movie, I could make more money than I’ve made in my entire career in the music business.”

Dre may be overly optimistic, but he’s definitely got the movie star bug. And he’s not alone. Nearly a decade after hip-hop first hit the mainstream, Hollywood has belatedly jumped on the bandwagon, assembling a series of films starring hip-hop personalities. A few examples:

* Snoop Dogg: He’s so hot that even though he only had a small role in John Singleton’s “Baby Boy,” Sony Pictures put him on the poster with star Tyrese Gibson. Snoop headlines two movies due in October: He and Dre are the leads in “The Wash,” written and directed by DJ Pooh (who co-wrote “Friday”), which stars the two rappers as mismatched buddies--think Oscar and Felix in South-Central. Snoop also stars in “Bones,” a horror movie due out in October.

* DMX: Warner Bros. insiders say it was DMX, not co-star Steven Seagal, who made “Exit Wounds” a surprise hit earlier this year. The popular rapper went straight from a week in jail to the movie’s press junket, but that hasn’t stopped Warner Bros. from grooming him as an action star: The studio recently signed him to a lucrative three-picture deal that pays DMX $5 million, $7 million and $9 million for his next three movies.

* Eminem: Several studios have been angling to get the controversial hip-hop icon in movies. First up is what is being called “The Untitled Detroit Project,” directed by Curtis Hanson, a “Saturday Night Fever”-type tale starring Eminem as an angry young man pursuing a hip-hop career. He has a cameo in “The Wash” and is also being wooed by Warner Bros. to co-star in a film with DMX.

* Method Man and Redman: They had a hit in 1995 with the song “How High,” which is now the title of a comedy about two potheads who go to Harvard; watch for the scene in which they dig up John Quincy Adams and smoke his bones. The movie tested so well recently that Universal is rushing it into the theaters Dec. 26 as holiday teen counter-programming.

* Dr. Dre: He’s co-starring with Snoop in “The Wash,” executive-producing the Eminem movie, and he also has a small role in the Denzel Washington film “Training Day,” in September.

* Ice Cube: Next to “Lord of the Rings,” he’s one of New Line’s biggest franchises. “Friday” is one of the studio’s all-time top video rentals, and “Friday 2” was a $10-million movie that took in $57 million at the box office. Cube is writing and producing “Friday 3” and starring in the action comedy “All About the Benjamins,” both scheduled for release next year.

I could go on, but you get the point: Hip-hop has arrived in Hollywood. Even classy producer Scott Rudin’s in the hip-hop business. He has a rap parody, “Marci X,” due out in 2002, which stars Lisa Kudrow as a Jewish princess who inherits her father’s gangsta-rap label, Felony Assault Records, and has to find a way to rein in Dr. S, a Puff Daddy-style star played by Damon Wayans.The real question isn’t why Hollywood is embracing hip-hop, but what took so long? “Rush Hour 2” director Brett Ratner, who began his career making hip-hop videos, has one explanation: “White kids all over America are listening to DMX and Jay Z and dressing like Snoop Dogg and Eminem. There’s no color lines in young America anymore. It just took studio executives a long time to see it. Let’s face it, they’re squares.”

In the past, Hollywood was quick to exploit the latest pop sensation, whether it was Elvis Presley and the Beatles or Diana Ross and Whitney Houston. Although Ice Cube and LL Cool J have carved out solid movie careers, other hip-hop stars found the transition more difficult, largely because Hollywood bigwigs were put off by rap’s gangsta image. Hip-hop only registered on the studio radar when executives stumbled upon a stack of Snoop Dogg CDs in their kids’ bedrooms. The audience was ahead of the decision makers.

WB production chief Lorenzo Di Bonaventura says he first discovered DMX’s appeal when the hip-hop star was killed off in “Romeo Must Die” last year. “We thought we’d ruined the movie because the audience didn’t want him to die,” he recalls. “He has the kind of charisma few actors have.”

Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, who’s producing the Eminem movie with Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine, says Hollywood was simply in denial about hip-hop’s popularity. “They didn’t think it had any longevity. They figured that if they cast a rap star in a film he might not be around by the time the movie came out.”

Part of the problem was that Hollywood, though a bastion of liberal politics, was way behind the curve in recognizing the youth culture’s colorblind attitudes. Three recent hits played a big role in changing people’s minds: “Bring It On,” “Save the Last Dance” and “The Fast and the Furious.” “It was like everybody got hit on the head with a brick at the same time,” says MTV Films’ David Gale, whose company released “Save the Last Dance.” “The movies were completely different genres, but what they all had in common was a multiethnic cast and lots of hip-hop music and attitude.”

By the time Eminem did a pay-per-view concert here in April, the backstage area was full of executives eager to meet the performer. “Fifteen months ago nobody had any interest in this guy,” Grazer recalls. “Now all of a sudden he’s the hot new ticket in town.”

Hip-hop movies are a perfect fit with today’s synergistic studio economics. They’re dirt-cheap to make, they come armed with a terrific marketing tool--a soundtrack from the star of the movie--and everything stays in the corporate family: The soundtracks for Eminem’s film and Redman and Method Man’s “How High” will be released by record labels owned by Universal, the studio bankrolling the movies.

Some executives remain skeptical. The films’ humor is so raunchy that studios will again be in the position of marketing R-rated films to teens. Hip-hop hasn’t totally shed its violent reputation either--Snoop Dogg had a battalion of bodyguards with him on the set of “Baby Boy” because of bad blood between him and an imprisoned rap chieftain. And pop stardom doesn’t necessarily translate to movie stardom. Just ask Madonna.

“People in Hollywood shouldn’t be worried,” says Lyor Cohen, head of Def Jam Records, home of DMX, Method Man and Redman. “We do screen tests that cost millions of dollars--they’re called music videos. If you’re a film director, all you have to do is turn on MTV and you can see in five minutes which performers have the charisma and personality that works on a movie screen.”

Making a film requires discipline. Musicians can hole up in the studio on their own dusk-to-dawn schedule. Movies are a 9-to-5 job. When Curtis Hanson first met with Eminem, his biggest concern was that the hip-hop star would bring the same amount of dedication to a film that he brought to his music. As for Eminem’s acting potential, Hanson says: “I approached him the way I’d approach any actor. We talked about emotions and character and I just feel that he’s got it. It’s a very intangible thing, so you just trust your instincts.”

It’s far too early to know whether hip-hop and Hollywood will make a good fit. But with the gross-out comedy genre played out, youth movies could use an influx of freshness and flavor. As Dr. Dre puts it: “Imagine if you could’ve seen a movie with the great characters and the attitude of ‘The Chronic’ or ‘The Slim Shady LP.’ You don’t think millions of people would pay money to see that?”

“The Big Picture” runs every Tuesday in Calendar. If you have questions, ideas or criticism, e-mail them to patrick.goldstein@latimes.com.