Monday, August 17, 2015

Back to the PG


What does the Marvel Universe have in common with hip-hop? Well, currently, nothing. And for that matter, probably not much in the future. But if it were up to me, there would be an entire inner weaving series of movies made about hip-hop, much like the Marvel Universe. It’s a thought I’ve played with in my minds’ eye for a few years, and after seeing how well the NWA story was told in Straight Outta Compton I’m pretty confident that it’s a solid idea.

Straight Outta Compton introduced the guys who made up, for my money, the second most influential group in the history of modern music. Along with brief introductions to some significant characters who remained on the peripheral of the story. There was Tupac, Snoop, Warren G, Suge, and if you paid close enough attention, you even saw Chuck D. Now, they don’t all deserve to have movies made about their lives and careers, but they could all have recurring roles throughout this universe of movies. And Suge would be a cross between Loki and Ultron. Or if you take the DC approach, he’s the “League of Shadows” all on his own.

The next movie would be a Dr. Dre biopic, with more time spent on the Death Row years. Where we would get more familiar with Snoop as well as Tupac, we’d see the introduction to the East Coast-West Coast war, where we would also see Diddy for the first time. The Dre movie takes us through his launching the careers of Eminem and 50 after he formed Aftermath. And next we could enter the world of Bad Boy, who crossed paths with Jay Z early on. So from the Bad Boy movie, the next movie could be about Jay Z, which would be an interesting story alone, and would introduce icons Russell Simmons, Kanye, Beyonce and Nas. A Diddy movie would also include Simmons, and hip-hop isn’t middle age right now, without Russell. His label, Def Jam, launched the careers of Run DMC, LL Cool J, and The Beastie Boys. And a Def Jam story can’t be told without Rick Rubin, who might be the most interesting character in this entire universe. Or any other universe.

I was never a comic book fan, so I’m not familiar with the Marvel Universe beyond the movies I’ve seen or heard are coming down the pipeline. But I know hip-hop well enough to know whose story necessitates its own movie and who would be better off as a Hawkeye or Nick Fury.


I have another idea for a universe of movies, but we’ll save La Cosa Nostra for another time. Oh and by the way, much like Iron Man I have to say that Straight Outta Compton was a lot better than I expected.