Ranking Rappers By Their Acting Careers

LL Cool J once played a chef with a pet parrot.

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Rappers are somewhere between ‘former Saturday Night Live cast member’ and ‘pro-wrestler’ on the credible actor scale. Ever since Fab 5 Freddy, Rock Steady Crew and Grandmaster Flash were first immortalised onscreen in 1983’s Wild Style, sticking a current hip-hop artist in a film has been a go-to method for lazy studio execs to make sure their latest piece of schlock appeals to da kidz. Sometimes we get an 8 Mile or a 2pac in Juice. More often than not though, it’s just Will.i.am. standing at the back of an X-Men spin-off or Fiddy literally sucking all the life out of scene through all nine of his gunshot wounds.

Being a great MC is all about showmanship, charisma and verbal dexterity. Those skills should be transferable to reading out some pre-written words on screen and being vaguely entertaining, right? Well, sometimes. This week (Friday 5th) we see the release of another film starring a rapper, Life Of Crime, a pretty good 70s crime caper, which sees Mos Def—the best rapper-turned-actor—star alongside Tim Robbins, Isla Fisher, and Jennifer Aniston (go figure). So to give Mos Def the props he deserves, here is our top, erm, sixteen rappers-turned-actors ranked worst to best (and Mos Def is best in case you hadn't realised). 

16. 50 Cent

15. Vanilla Ice

14. Ja Rule

13. Kid Cudi

12. Busta Rhymes

11. LL Cool J

10. Plan B

9. Method Man

8. Run DMC

7. DMX

6. Ludacris

5. Ice-T

4. Ice Cube

3. 2Pac

2. Eminem

1. Mos Def

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