By Odeisel

When the word surfaced that Soulja Boy and his SOD Money Gang brethren were considering remaking Juice, the response was cruel and swift, but that was to be expected. Every morning Soulja Boy Tellem hops up out the bed to turn his swag on, he’s met with the disdain of a rap culture that has branded him easy target. And Juice, in all its old school glory, has been romanticized into something iconic.

Can the prince of swag really play the role of Roland Bishop? He’s always so crisply coiffed and edged up with fresh kicks and the latest style. Bishop had the 40 Below Timbs that almost reached his knee caps; suitable for stomping out suckers, running from the cops, Rodimez, security guards and old man Quilez with his bullshit gun. Then we have…the hair. Bishop had a half-gumby, half-staircase “style” that would make Nino Brown jealous. Rodimez should have beaten him up just for that. I don’t know if Soulja Boy has the grime to pull that off.

The re-make is going to be a vehicle to introduce Soulja Boy’s new music to the fans and will be set in Atlanta instead of New York. It appears it was at one time just an in-house project, but once industry folks found out about his plans, interest evolved.

Soulja Boy said Cam’Ron is on board and that will give the project some validity, plus add a dash of Harlem. Say what you want, he was pretty awesome in Paid In Full. Maybe they can write in a scene just for him where he calls the cops to anonymously snitch on Bishop. Soulja Boy also said the chubby guy from the original [Tremaine Hoskins alias Steel – ed] was interested in a part too. (That’s what Soulja Boy called him, not me) He should play someone’s father or one of the washed up players in the arcade sending kites, collecting money in the arcade and checking for the young chickenheads a la Sam Jackson and Oran “Juice” Jones. Snappy nappy dugout? Snappy nappy dugout..

I wonder who will play the sexy nurse? Considering black actresses have damn near been excommunicated from the movie experience unless they know Tyler Perry, he’ll probably have a lot of interested candidates. How about Nia Long? Even though she suggested rappers shouldn’t be making movies, every time a rapper made a movie back in the day, she was in it.[Word, I never even realized that –ed].

Anyway, the “classic” East Coast story of how the hood can take you under was one of the first major productions to use Hip-Hop as its backdrop. It was a fledgling step into Hollywood for both Pac and Queen Latifah and it proved b-boys and girls were a legitimate audience to court at the box office for a rap movie with an actual storyline. If you look at it from that perspective, the movie is deserving of the reverence that makes it a candidate for updating, even if that update comes from Soulja Boy.

I hope he does make this movie. You know you will watch it, even if it’s out of morbid curiosity or to have fodder for your forthcoming whine fest. I see no point in squashing this young man’s ambition even if he plans on scoring the film (which is way more of a concern than him acting in it.) It could have been worse. He could have ended up, in real life, like Bishop. Then, in a dark alley somewhere, you would have been the easy target.

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