#BOYZ N THE HOOD PLOT FREE#

#BOYZ N THE HOOD PLOT FREE#

Rather predictably, many black filmmakers who didn't want to be lumped into the genre had to fight hard to break free of these often formula-based flicks about urban shoot-ups and drug-trafficking despair, with varying degrees of success. This quavering excitement at discoveringВ a new demographic translated into the kinds of films someoneВ thought white people wanted to see about black people being greenlit in the early 90s. This is a legitimate quote from the piece: вЂњWhile hip hop started out primarily as вЂa black thingвЂ™, marketers are realising they can use the culture to moвЂ™ better target youth of any color.вЂќ Eyebrow-raising word choice aside, the article goes on to describe how Coca-Cola became one of the first mainstream companies to useВ rappers like Heavy D, Curtis Blow and Run DMC for its ads, вЂsafelyвЂ™ bringing black culture into white suburban households and effectively capitalising on the cultural customs of an ethnic group. вЂњWith the exception of a few plot twists, New Jack City, Boyz N The Hood, Juice, Menace II Society, Straight out ofВ BrooklynВ and South Central are all basically the same movieвЂќ вЂ“ Sun SentinelВ columnist in 1993 Safe being the operative word, here meaning вЂwhiteвЂ™. A 1993 article in Marketing Week declared, вЂњMarketers Tap into Rap as Hip Hop Becomes вЂSafeвЂ™вЂќ. Save for a paltry handful, not even these kinds of films were being made prior to the late 80s: what broke down the door for this new genre of вЂplace-based identityвЂ™ films was the entrance ofВ hip hop into the mainstream. These gritty tales of urban dysfunction, while undoubtedly playing onВ stereotypes of how black people lived (and more often than not,В died) in the projects, offeredВ black filmmakers the opportunity to takeВ control of their own narratives, adding depth to the oftenВ lop-sidedВ representation of people of colour in film. They even sparked their own epoch-making genre: the hood film. AtВ the turnВ of the 90s,В films like Do the Right Thing, Boyz N the Hood and Menace II SocietyВ were everywhere you looked on the big screen.

Boyz n the hood plot