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The Wackness Is Dope Enough

When Ayo! Scott wants to revisit his youth, he watches Kids. Other than the raving and raping, Larry Clark’s 1995 classic about aimless NYC teens skating, boozing, drugging, fucking, fighting, and slurping juice with tampons is like a day in the life of young Ayo!

The Wackness, set in 1994, taps into some of the same nostalgia. High school outsider Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends the summer before college selling weed, getting put up on new hip-hop by his connect (Method Man), trading trees for psychiatric therapy, and crushing on his shrink’s stepdaughter (Ayo!’s boo-to-be, Olivia Thirlby). While Kids captured actual city teenagers doing how they once did, The Wackness attempts to transport young actors back in time, which proves tricky. The era references and slang spilling out of their mouths feel forced and untrue at times—though still infinitely more believable than a mesh-tank-top-rockin’ Meth’s embarrassing Jafakin’ accent.

If some details are off, the film still wins by focusing on the angst of first love, making it the coming-of-age story to Clark’s cumming-in-underage-girls story. After all, between skating, boozing, drugging, fucking, fighting, and slurping juice with tampons, we did occasionally fall in love with these hoes. See the trailer and watch scenes after the jump.

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The Wackness Drops A ’90s Rap Purple Tape

When your BBQs get rained out this weekend, you may want to consider going to see The Wackness, which hits theaters in NY and LA tomorrow. The movie—which follows a weed-dealing teenager in 1994 NYC—features a soundtrack filled with classic ’90s New York rap shit that will get you in that summertime mood.

Last night we hit up a screening of the movie, and they gave out a special mixtape with 35 classic joints that didn’t make the soundtrack. With a purple cassette (a nod to Raekwon’s Cuban Linx) and joints from folks like Biggie, Fu Schnickens, Black Moon and Mary J. Blige, it’s a nice little collector’s item for the rap nerd who has everything. We’re just a little confused by the fine print on the tape’s cover that says “Tunes Inspired By The Motion Picture.” Shouldn’t it be the other way around? View the full tracklist and download an MP3 version of the tape after the jump.

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Watch Scenes From The Wackness

The “stoner comedy” genre gets a lot of love, but what about the “stoner drama”? Director Jonathan Levine (who made a big stir at the 2006 film festivals with his horror movie All The Boys Love Mandy Lane) has a new movie called The Wackness coming out on July 3rd that seems to be one half nuanced, character-driven coming-of-age drama and half pot-smoking hijinks.

The flick, which takes place in 1994, follows a kid who spends his last summer in NYC before college selling weed out of his Italian Ice cart. After he starts exchanging trees for sessions with his shrink (played by Ben Kingsley), he develops a bond with the old man and a crush on his step daughter. Method Man (with a bad Jamaican accent) plays his weed dealer and Mary-Kate Olsen plays some other crazy chick. The soundtrack features a who’s who of 1994 NY rap, including Nas and Biggie. After the jump, watch the official trailer and 8 newly-released scenes from the movie.

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