By Malice Intended

Yesterday it was announced that 50 Cent’s film production company Cheetah Vision signed a ten movie $200,000,000 production deal, financed by healthcare executive Richard Jackson and real estate developers Gary Sakwa and Daniel Ret.  The films will be released by Grindstone Entertainment/Lionsgate.  Considering that 50 has yet to prove himself as an actor or a legitimate box office draw, this deal is impressive. 

Perhaps the dedication and persistence he has shown in other areas has instilled faith in his financial backers.  50 industriously used the mixtape circuit as a way to infiltrate the industry that washed its hands of him after his brush with death.  He is but the latest in a series of rappers that Hollywood has shown faith in.  Earlier this year, Universal pictures provided the RZA with a 20 million dollar production budget for his directorial debut The Man With the Iron Fist.

It is important to note that 20 million is a pittance in an era where the production budgets of most blockbusters routinely climb into the hundreds of millions.  Still, the fact that rappers are now able to find that kind of fiscal backing to make movies represents a milestone in the history of Hip-Hop culture.  Hollywood is always eager to pimp any new fad that comes down the pipe.  Rappers were once included in movies as a mere accessory, something to attract the much coveted youth demographic or add a bit of marketability to an otherwise indistinct film.  Now, the rapper turned actor has been around long enough to be considered an industry cliché.

The current acceptance of rappers in the film industry is anything but an overnight success story.  Hip-Hop’s relationship with cinema began with 1982’s Wild Style.  It blossomed in the mid-80’s with Hip-Hop musicals like Beat Street and Krush Groove.  Both were either maligned or dismissed by critics, but proved popular with fans.  The Black film renaissance of the early 1990’s saw rappers secure roles in films that weren’t directly related to Hip-Hop.

By the late 1990’s, Master P applied his “do-it-yourself” assembly line aesthetic, showing that rappers didn’t have to wait on Hollywood to come calling with the successful straight to video release I’m Bout It.  I’m Bout It ushered in a new era, inspiring artists as varied as Jay-Z (Streets is Watching) and Three-Six Mafia (Choices) to do the same.  Flash forward to the current era, where Will Smith is not only a two time Oscar nominee but also arguably the last truly viable box office star left.

50 Cent has yet to successfully translate his charisma and talent to the big screen.  His inability to select appropriate projects for himself speaks to the one obstacle that rappers have had considerable trouble with in their takeover of the dream factory:  too many poor roles.  While rappers aren’t alone in this, their often mercenary attitude towards that next check doesn’t help matters, particularly when such attitudes are often encouraged by fans.  As Richard Pryor once said, “Be happy for any n***a doing anything.”

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