KYLE Shares His Favorite Hip-Hop Movies

To celebrate the release of his film debut, Netflix's 'The After Party,' KYLE took some time out to share his favorite hip-hop movies.

KYLE performs onstage during the Power 106 Powerhouse festival
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Image via Getty/Scott Dudelson

KYLE performs onstage during the Power 106 Powerhouse festival

Earlier this week, during our conversation surrounding KYLE's film debut, The After Party (which hit Netflix on Friday, August 24 and was produced by Live Nation Productions), we got into a spirited discussion on hip-hop films. Part of that was due to KYLE's own thoughts on how important a film like The After Party can be for today's rap fan. KYLE shared that, as a young rap fan himself, he grew up watching a number of hip-hop films.

"I remember watching Beat Street and stuff like that and being all into it," he said, before breaking down a trend that happened to hip-hop films in Hollywood: their diminishing presence. "It’s funny. It’s almost like hip-hop had that, and, randomly, we kind of lost it. After 2010 or something, it kind of, like, stopped happening. Hip-hop had that, and I loved that. It made me feel like my culture was larger than life growing up because nothing is more larger than life than a movie. We should be celebrating our hip-hop culture in film because it’s the biggest genre in the world. It has so much history; we’re just not taking enough time to explain it."

With that in mind, KYLE shared five of his favorite hip-hop films—highlighting titles from a genre that goes well beyond rappers portraying fictionalized versions of themselves.

'House Party' (1990)

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Director: Reginald Hudlin

Stars: Kid 'N Play, Full Force, Robin Harris, Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell

Not only did Kid 'N Play's film debut highlight how real the turn-up was before social media was a thing, it also had one truly iconic moment. "The battle scene is classic," KYLE remembers. "The battle scene was epic." If you haven't peeped Kid 'N Play decimating each other in front of their friends, do so TODAY.

'8 Mile' (2002)

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Director: Curtis Hanson

Stars: Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer 

KYLE plays a character very similar to himself during his days as an unsigned rapper in The After Party, so it's not a big surprise that he'd pick a film like 8 Mile, which genuinely feels like the past Eminem has rapped about for ages. Similar to House Party, though, KYLE digs the actual battling, both in the film and, more specifically, the DVD's extra features.

KYLE says that he and his homies "would literally spend hours crying laughing because they had outtakes where all the people that were extras in the scene where he’s battling were all rappers. All of them were rappers, and Eminem let everybody there battle him. He was at his peak, and he was really raw enough to just cook the extras."

'Bones' (2001)

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Director: Ernest Dickerson

Stars: Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier, Khalil Kain, Clifton Powell

Snoop's 2001 horror film where he plays a pimp out for revenge also makes KYLE's list. We didn't go into details about why he's so fond of this film, but he did call it "epic," which it definitely is, in its own way. It's not every day you get to see Pam Grier reflect on the days when Snoop was running a city block, leading to him murking anyone who had something to do with his death, to the sounds of Cypress Hill.

'Get Rich or Die Tryin'' (2005)

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Director: Jim Sheridan

Stars: 50 Cent, Terrence Howard, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

After 50 Cent shook the world with his 2003 debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin', he took the Eminem/8 Mile route and starred in a film that was loosely based on his own life, with the same title. It's been interesting to see him get deeper into acting than Eminem has. KYLE kept it a buck when discussing 50's film: "That was actually a really good movie. 50 Cent killed it playing himself."

'Krush Groove' (1985)

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Director: Michael Schultz

Stars: Sheila E., Run-DMC, The Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Blair Underwood, New Edition

"What's the one that had Blair Underwood in it?" KYLE asked. It was a solid question, considering Underwood played KYLE's father in The After Party. The film he was referring to was Krush Groove, which was based on the formation of seminal hip-hop label Def Jam. Underwood played Russell Walker, who was based on Russell Simmons. While this wasn't the first film to star rappers, it was one of the earlier films to feature popular rappers on-screen.

Bonus Films

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While I initially asked Kyle for his top five hip-hop films, our conversation veered off into some interesting lanes, especially when you think about what makes a movie a "hip-hop film."

"I'm putting The Wash in there, too," KYLE said. "Even though it has nothing to do with rapping, it involves rappers, so I'm putting The Wash in there." That might be a cheat code on the low, but the 2001 comedy does star Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, with a crazy cameo from Eminem.

The conversation is a slippery slope, though.

KYLE also admitted that he "was about to start dropping all Ice-T movies, but I can't do that. If I'mma do that, then I have to drop all Will Smith movies. I remember being in high school and not a single one of my friends knew Will Smith was a rapper, and how would they? He's such a huge movie star. "

After our interview was over and KYLE was on his way out, the conversation kept going, because the lines of what a hip-hop film is can differ for some viewers. After I mentioned my love of films like Juice, which was definitely a slice of the darker side of the New York hip-hop scene in the early '90s, KYLE made sure that Spike Lee's classic 1989 film Do the Right Thing be included, which makes sense. From the part Jordans played in it to Radio Raheem blasting "Fight the Power" through a huge boombox, that film is hip-hop to the core.

KYLE's The After Party is now available for streaming on Netflix. KYLE also released a new song from the film, "Moment," which features Wiz Khalifa. Check that out below.

 

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