Make it Stop: When Will Hollywood Stop Glorifying Hip-Hop Thugs?
by Debbie SchlusselNot sure why we’re supposed to worship the dead thug, hip-hopper Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace a/k/a “The Notorious B.I.G.” Is it because he’s a fat guy who was successful?
Either way, the best part of “Notorious “–the movie, out today, that whitewashes and glorifies this sleazebag–was when Wallace was shot and killed. “Just die already,” I thought in the critics’ screening I attended last week. I couldn’t believe people were actually crying at the end of this movie over this waste of a human vessel. I walked out thinking that I guess this is the new civil rights: If you’re gonna make a hero out of White (Larry Flynt) and Latino (Ernesto “Che” Guevara) scumbags, then I guess the new “equality” is to do the same for a Black scumbag . . . on the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Kids who get the day off can celebrate the new civil rights by seeing this two-hour celluloid ode to America’s worst. Lowlifes ‘R’ Us.
Here’s my full review and those of most of this weekend’s other new releases , including “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (loved it), “Defiance” (loved it, despite writer/director Ed Zwick’s reluctance to have an ounce of courage and denounce Islamic terrorism ), and “Last Chance Harvey” (not bad).
Oh, and don’t forget, one of Barack Obama’s most visible supporters, Sean “Diddy” Combs, was responsible for making “Biggie” a star. Welcome to Obama’s world of low expectations.
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41 Comments
I wondered about why Hollywood would make a film about this Thug as well. He wasn't very popular in the music world when he was alive so Hollywood is trying to make young people think he was the next Marvin Gaye. This guy had some talent but nothing like the movie portrayals him to have. I can only think of one or two hits from him. Why make a movie about a musician that had no true lasting talent. I guess so Hollywood can keep the Thug life going with their baggy pants, dope dealing and least not forget gang banging lifestyles. Hollywood needs to go down in flames and not return if they cannot produce better movies than this.
Anyone who LOVED the Mall Cop movie shouldn’t be allowed in press screenings. My god, you make Peter Travers look like Pauline Kael with opinions like that.
Debbie, I think you missed the point of the Larry Flynt movie by a country mile. The point WAS that Flynt was a scumbag, but he was also a scumbag that had Constitutional Protections under the First Amendment. Flynt should have won that case in front of the Supreme Court. The movie certainly didn’t pretend that he wasn’t a disgusting, ignorant human being, just that legally he was in the right against Jerry Falwell in that instance.
Equality and tolerance played out to their moronic end games WILL result in the glorification of evil doers. However, since most liberals have no Standards or Principles as such, they are left with out of context, emotionally charged reactions to any given event. There is no self revelation of “illogic” or “inconsistency”, let alone the notion a “consequence” to any given event. We are witnessing the death of intelligence and discernment, brought to you by the same agenda-driven folks who have hijacked the American educational system. Ergo, the foolish comments that will follow this one . . .
Once again, leave it to LodoG to put things in perspective.
Damn, his science is too tyte!
Ms. Schlussel @Notorious screening = pure comedy. Bless your heart. You get points for trying.
Based solely on your review, I’m cancelling dinner plans, firing up Bit Torrent and nuking some Kettle Corn. Momma is wearing the booty outfit tonight!!
“I like em cute, round tits and fat asses
Educated, so I can bust off on they glasses”
- Big Booty Hoes
RIP Biggie.
Wow. Nothing whiter than an angry white girl conservative. Sorry you had to sit thru the horrors of a hip-hop movie.
And yeah. You loved Mall Cop. Now there’s a surprise. And another review that reminds of nothing so much as Republican Senator Roman Hruska’s infamous comment about Supreme Court nominee Harold Carswell.
“Mediocre people deserve representation, too.”
Yep.
So in other words, this movie, like “Easy Rider” has a happy ending even though it wasn’t intended that way?
Bahahahah LOL this commentary. Thumbs Up Debbie
Some of you commenters are massive massive buzzkills.
But whatevs floats your boat.
Yep, just in time for M.L.K. Day.
You know, if they’re going to release a film about a black American hero, they keep failing to fill the obvious gap. Okay, we’ve had the big-budget biopic about Malcolm X… where’s the big-budget biopic about Martin Luther King Jr.?
Of course, the problem with this idea can be summed up in ten words: Who the hell could you possibly get to play him?
Hip Hop & Rap effectively destroyed the music business and songwriting as it had existed since the Brill Building.
Bad guys do bad things in more ways than one.
MB
Maybe this one will be another heartwarming, uplifting prizewinner like “Hustle & Flow,” eh?
GAWD, rap is so boring. Is the subject matter any different than any other song/movie/article about the same kind of people? Why do they even bother showing faces? Its all the same.
Wake me when there’s real music…*yawn*
I like lots of popular music: rock’n'roll, R&B, soul, blues, punk, funk, reggae, ska, country, and so forth. I even think that there are great songs/performances in genres that I otherwise don’t much like: heavy metal, disco, and, yes, rap/hip-hop.
That said, I am going to make a fingers-crossed, long-term cultural prediction: future polite society will view hip-hop “culture” the same way that current polite society views minstrelry.
“Welcome to Obama’s world of low expectations.”
You don’t like the subject of a movie you were occupationally required to endure. The subject was a friend of Sean Combs who happened to support Barack Obama. Therefore, by the transitive property of hack columnists/lower tier film critics Barack Obama harbors low expectations for our nation. Wonderful! Incidentally, don’t you think it could be argued that someone who does what Mr. Obama has done had decidedly higher expectations than the people who made say, Mall Cop–your effusive praise notwithstanding. Why don’t you leave the political hackery to the op-ed people.
Yeah Biggie was a fat, misogynist, mush mouthed retard, but he was OUR fat, misogynist, mush mouthed retard.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, Bill Cosby sexually harassed a supermodel. And those sweaters, yecch! We need more ‘blacks’ (quotes because they come in a wide variety of earth tones) like Alan Keyes. That man is an inspiration to all races, creeds, and colors. He’s practically the second incarnation of MLK jr.
‘Relugate’ is my new favorite made-up word. Thanks, LOLA!
Hollywood was created by thugs, pimps and players that make B.I.G. look like a choir boy. Listen, the movie business didn’t get to where it is by producing after school specials. It got there by offering up violence, sex and scandals. Oh, and comedy too. Thank God for that. At least we have learned to laugh at holier-than-thou freaks like you.
And one more thing, talking about the industry is one, thing but leave mention of great men out of it. There haven’t been many in it.
If they don’t celebrat the thugs, who would they celebrate?
They couldn’t possibly admit that Dr Dre lives in Canoga Hills next to a bunch of yuppie Boomers in million $$ homes or that Ice T lives in the Hollywood Hills surrounded by aging, over the hill actors.
At the point that ‘black’ America and its media starts making movies about somebody black who doesn’t have a criminal history, we’ll have achieved Dr. Kings dream. Until then, ‘the content of their character’ is enough to make the rest of us look like serial racists.
I bought a ticket and watched Pursuit of Happyness, how many people did in black neighborhoods? How about Something The Lord Made? Did it show at the Magic Johnson Theaters in Lynwood in 2006?
Obama hasn’t even taken the Oath of Office and he’s already being blamed for all of the character flaws we’ve had since the dawn of time.
I suppose “Dodgeball,” “Talledega Nights,” and “Blades of Glory” should be examples of George W. Bush’s high expectations since they came out under his watch.
What a hack.
We can stop this, when conservatives back conservatives filmmakers with their pocketbooks and not lip service. We conservatives must buy anything made by conservative filmmakers, good bad or whatever. We must support these filmmakers to get their product out into the marketplace. If now, we are where we are now. If we all wait for the next BEN HUR to pop up by some conservative filmmaker, don’t wait too long…
We have nothing out there, we have no industry, no studio, no real filmmakers that make film to be shown in theaters on film. Writing about it, talking about it and wishing about it, isn’t going to happen. You wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first.
Talking, whining and being depress isn’t going to do a thing only action is. I have the film and I can’t get any action by conservatives to buy this film and flood the market and get the word out there. I am the only game in town with a real 35 mm film and I get more thumbs up then down. In the big picture that isn’t what is important, what is important is to throw a pro American film out into the leftist control area, like throwing a molotov cocktail into a riot.
http://www.forgottenheroesthemovie.com mine is the start, we make enough noise with FORGOTTEN HEROES then maybe, just maybe young conservatives will come out of the woodwork like warrior poets and make a slew of films and then we can take back our culture from the benign nazis. Throw me into the battle… i will love it
Real violence in Hollywood is and always has been there. Some of the biggest ‘hits’ have immortalized LA’s homegrown murders. This isn’t the land of Schwab’s Drugstore. That’s for the rest of America to believe. If you’ve been here more than a month, you’d have a clue.
As for your ’suits’, most of them were/are being filled by real life gangsters. Check your history. ‘Women haters’ – are you seriously stating that Hollywood treats women as anything more than a piece of flesh?
Unlike the movies, those in the white hat aren’t always good. So, when you see more and more people riding into town wearing black hats, don’t assume they are here to do harm.
Hmnn let me see:
To live and Die in LA, The Godfather Trilogy, every violent western that has been made since the days of Randolph Scott. Goodfellas, Heat- and Scarface Natural Born killers; were some of the most violent movies to hit the big screen since Birth of a Nation.
Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Once Upon A Time in America- Pulp Fiction and The Sopranos also come to mind.
Biopics on Al Capone, Dillinger- Jesse James and Billy The Kid drew big box office receipts. Classic gangster flicks like Little Caesar- White Heat, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Untouchables and The Public Enemy; put the Thug on the map when the term G-man meant something totally different from what it means today.
Hollywood has been glorifying the white thug- the white gangster for years. Just remember that before there was the Crips or the Bloods- or Boys in the Hood. There was Dutch Schultz, Baby-Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde- Machine Gun Kelly, and Lucky” Luciano. You had the likes of Bugsy Siegel- and movies like King of New York; Casino- A Bronx tale, and Hollywood had a ball glorifying them all.
So what’s a few hip hop movies that glorify a few thugs?
Some whites have a hard time seeing their own sins and shortcomings for they are too busy protecting themselves from the sins and shortcoming of non-whites. You forget the history of this country, when the white thug- or gangster or Klansman ruled the day.
Right, you probably have The Godfather and the Goodfellas as your favorite movies, bet one of your anticipated movies of 2009, is Public Enemies, you really need to get over yourself.
Thank you for your observation.
The question that has to be asked is why do American blacks think it’s flattering to have pimps, drug dealers, gangsters, illiterate athletes portrayed as heros and role models?
Any other ethnic group would be insulted.
NaS is an excellent example about what Rap/Hip Hop should be. He writes about the realities of life in the modern day ghettos, and about rising above that. Biggie on the other hand, well, maybe it isn’t such a terrible thing that he no longer makes music…
This should and could be Michelle Obama’s focus as First Lady if she REALLY cares about changing the horrible state of our young people in this country. Re language, denigration of women and anger in this culture is sending THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of young people down a road to no future. Dressing like Hoochey mommas or Male Clowns with baggy clothes and hats the size of soup pots sideways on their heads and add in piercings and tattoos galore assures this group will NOT find jobs that get them out of their situation.
It’s a shame they all believe they will be the next “superstar” – when in reality the probability of that happening is a GREAT BIG ZERO. Which is what they will end up being as young adults.
Rap is an environmental disaster. The amplification for this gibberish is usually stored in the trunk of their “rides”, and strategically introduced infusion of water usually takes care of the problem. Good for the environment, good for the economy. You shouldn’t be forced to listen to this crap, and have a right to fight back.
You all sound like a bunch of idiots. IT IS A MOVIE! What Biggie was about is not why people in the black community…oh forget it. Explaining something to ignorant people is a waste of my time, get a life haters.
Lola,
Speaking of stalkers, thanks for the continued critique. As for suggesting that if you’re gonna hold up a thug for reverence at least find one with some ‘class’?
I think you misspelled “white.” But that’s okay. We all heard the dog whistle.
Ilonae: Re language, denigration of women and anger in this culture is sending THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of young people down a road to no future. Dressing like Hoochey mommas or Male Clowns with baggy clothes and hats the size of soup pots sideways on their heads and add in piercings and tattoos galore assures this group will NOT find jobs that get them out of their situation.
Could not agree more! It is this kind of movie that keeps much black community in the trenches in which it continually finds itself. Why would anyone even want to MAKE a film that glorified someone who was really just “kinda okay” when he was alive, and this is coming from someone who grew up in the 90s and listened to the incessant ramblings of the East Coast/West Coast drama.
I did not even know this movie was coming out until Thursday. I heard someone say, “I can’t wait to see NOTORIOUS.” and I said, “What’s it about?” This person actually gawked at me, even after I explained that I turn on the television once per week and it is not for a show that would cater to an audience that would watch something like NOTORIOUS. I suppose this person just could not imagine that another black person did not know about a lousy movie, but also was not calling local movie theatres to make certain of their showtimes.
Honestly, has Hollywood become so bereft of notable persons to tribute that they have to stoop to this?
It is refreshing to see a film critic speaking their thoughts without the politically-correct nonsense that’s so pervasive in our society. It’s alsoo refreshing to see an attractive film critic for once, but I digress…
I couldn’t agree more with Debbie about glorifying street thugs. Kudos to Debbie, and a big STFU to anyone who doesn’t agree with her.
It is fitting that gunfire erupted at a theater showing this disaster of a movie. That’s what rap culture is all about, after all. The local music scene in my city has been destroyed by rap, and everyone entering a rap club gets searched. There are no searches or metal detectors for entering rock and country music clubs, just the rap clubs. The natural consequence is that people don’t go to music clubs anymore for fear of being shot by patrons of the nearby rap clubs.
Rap is a scourge upon humanity and it should have died long ago but sadly, it remains. Movies like this only serve to keep it alive and kicking, ensuring that more people will aspire to become street thugs.
Lola,
I was actually commenting on your thinly camouflaged racism. Which is like misspelling. But different.
I wanted to comment on this earlier, but I work for a major music company in LA, and when the cronies would have seen my comments, I promptly would’ve be fired. I would like to add a few more people to the lists of rappers that are idiots.
T.I. – Why would a rapper, who recently was lucky enough to get home arrest for trying to purchase weapons from the ATF, endorse a democrat, the gun-banners of our country?
Rick Ross. – Why would this thug acting rapper deny that he once was a correctional officer? What a wussy!
Yung Jeezy – Why would he also endorse a democrat in Atlanta while making a career out of thug life filled with glorified references to those nasty things called handguns?
Jay-Z – This one is a hard one even for me. Why would a self-made millionaire dis on the republican party (associating his song 99 problems with McCain and Palin) while promoting a life of true capitalist principles?
I say they are a bunch of Demo-sellouts, as bad as the press, trying to coddle to their new “rulers” for favors.
A bunch of nonsense these fools are…
Kathy, I don’t know which is worse, you talking nonsense with nothing REALLY to say, or a young black youth that once went to a private catholic high school that actually wanted to live a gangster life (he insisted on going to a public school to hang out with other rappers, I’m sure his mother really appreciated that).
BTW, happy MLK day. If there is one thing I have learned is that MLK promoted a non-violent approach to progress. Why don’t you explain to us here how Biggie Small’s music really promoted non-violence?
Thugs will stop being glorified when parents start making the effort to police this trash from their childrens Ipods…SO the real question is when is that going to happen?
Great blog! Most blogs on this topic are not even close in detail as yours is. If you keep posting I’ll definatly be comming back.
Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog…
Schlussel hates everything. Unless Muslims hate something, like those seedy pedophile magnet ice cream trucks that troll my neighbourhood, then she miraculously likes said thing. What's the point of her reviews? I fail to see any constructive criticism or satirical wit a la Anne Coulter. Just someone hormonal who needs to vent and feel better about herself by tearing others down. Moreover she needs us sounding boards to maintain the delusion that anyone has any reason to care what she thinks. Yeah right she was invited to a special screening-that's why she's always complaining about obnoxious black welfare breeders wrecking the movies she loathes.
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