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Monday, September 28, 2009
Opinion / Mike McCray / News Kid 'N Play movies are STILL awesome!
Posted By Mike McCray on Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 10:56 AM
All it takes is a brief tweet and a hectic scramble to dig the remote out of the couch and the entire course of my day can change.
After a friend of mine recently tweeted, "Class Act is on BET," there went my afternoon.
Although BET is a network that I've literally put a time limit on for my daily viewing, if at all, any excuse to see a Kid 'N Play movie, pre-House Party 3 is still must see in 2009.
And why not? I mean lots of rappers have done movies, from the Fat Boys to Master P, to artists taking serious roles with Ice T, Ice Cube and Ludacris all trying to be all around entertainers but there is something about the perfect storm of time that allowed "Oh La Oh La Eh" and teal suits to be cool. It was something about wanting to watch people just have fun that's still strangely appealing.
The thing that was surprising about House Party, Class Act and House Party 2 is that they were actually good and culturally relevant. Other than after school special vibe of their anti-drug undertones, they had elementary plots, super simple, most times silly plots, but plots none the less. I'm no Matt Brunson but I don't know if movies like these could ever be made again. Who else could update the Charleston and make it cool now? Could any no name group be as funny as Full Force wanting to "kick their funky ass" and have the most memorable song in the movie?
Things started changing once the sequels started to get stale and rappers took their tough guy personas from the booth to the screen. The success of movies like State Property, Paid In Full and Shottas, all black cult classics and entertaining, may have just killed the days of rappers having a good time and kicking out a crappy but funny popcorn movie.
What happened to the rap comedy? I don't know if anyone has tracked the genre but it's been a long time since the success of movies like House Party & the Friday series. I Got The Hook Up wasn't very good and in later years you've pretty much seen all films attempting to be in this genre go straight to DVD or straight to Dollar stores nationwide.
Their music, which was front and center in all the movies, aside, Kid N Play left a cultural mark. People had those haircuts (look are a yearbook from the early 90's). Could Soulja Boy & Arab be Kid N Play circa 2009? They got the dance craze part down but probably not. But until the next duo with enough charisma and some acting chops come along, I'll settle for HBO2West viewings of Kid 'N Play movies at 2 in the morning and cranking the Funky Charleston with friends at old school parties.
Oh well, here's to the memories. (Hottest dance scene ever. Well after the era of big budget, precisely choreographed scenes in movies ended).
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