Complex: The Best Hip-Hop Movies
by brodiebreward-48604 | created - 1 week ago | updated - 1 week ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Wild Style (1982)
R | 82 min | Drama, Music
South Bronx graffiti artist Zoro is commissioned to paint a backdrop for a hip-hop concert.
Director: Charlie Ahearn | Stars: Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, Fab 5 Freddy, Patti Astor
Votes: 2,950
2. Krush Groove (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The story of a man who has started a new hip-hop/rap label called Krush Groove.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Sheila E., Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, Jam Master Jay
Votes: 3,553 | Gross: $11.05M
3. Beat Street (1984)
PG | 105 min | Drama, Music
An aspiring DJ from the South Bronx and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and the local culture.
Director: Stan Lathan | Stars: Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, Jon Chardiet, Leon W. Grant
Votes: 4,330 | Gross: $16.60M
4. Paid in Full (2002)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A young man from Harlem, forced to cope with the 1980s drug scene, builds an illegal empire, only to have a crisis of conscience.
Director: Charles Stone III | Stars: Mekhi Phifer, Wood Harris, Chi McBride, Kevin Carroll
Votes: 14,238 | Gross: $3.04M
5. House Party (1990)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Kid decides to go to his friend Play's house party, but neither of them can predict what's in store for them on what could be the wildest night of their lives.
Director: Reginald Hudlin | Stars: Christopher Reid, Robin Harris, Christopher Martin, Martin Lawrence
Votes: 16,731 | Gross: $26.39M
6. 8 Mile (2002)
R | 110 min | Drama, Music
Follows a young rapper in the Detroit area, struggling with every aspect of his life; he wants to make it big but his friends and foes make this odyssey of rap harder than it may seem.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Eminem, Brittany Murphy, Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer
Votes: 321,054 | Gross: $116.72M
7. Friday (1995)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama
It's Friday, and Craig and Smokey must come up with $200 they owe a local bully or there won't be a Saturday.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Tom Lister Jr.
Votes: 124,629 | Gross: $27.47M
8. Juice (1992)
R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Four inner-city teenagers get caught up in the pursuit of power and happiness, which they refer to as "the juice".
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson | Stars: Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine Hopkins, Khalil Kain
Votes: 30,382 | Gross: $20.15M
9. CB4 (1993)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Music
A guy makes a documentary of the rap band CB4 by following them. CB4 got popular by stealing Gusto's name, background and image. He wants them dead.
Director: Tamra Davis | Stars: Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Deezer D, Chris Elliott
Votes: 10,428 | Gross: $17.95M
10. Breakin' (1984)
PG | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A struggling young jazz dancer meets up with two break-dancers. Together they become the sensation of the street crowds.
Director: Joel Silberg | Stars: Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones, Michael Chambers, Ben Lokey
Votes: 7,246 | Gross: $38.68M
11. New Jack City (1991)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police detective vows to stop him.
Director: Mario Van Peebles | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne, Chris Rock
Votes: 38,844 | Gross: $47.62M
12. Brown Sugar (2002)
PG-13 | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Friends since childhood, a magazine editor and a hip-hop record executive stumble into romantic territory.
Director: Rick Famuyiwa | Stars: Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Yasiin Bey, Nicole Ari Parker
Votes: 10,245 | Gross: $27.36M
13. Belly (1998)
R | 96 min | Crime, Drama
Two young friends involved in organized crime and drug dealing find that their priorities differ.
Director: Hype Williams | Stars: Nas, DMX, Taral Hicks, Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins
Votes: 12,635 | Gross: $9.63M
14. Above the Rim (1994)
R | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Sport
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Director: Jeff Pollack | Stars: Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Leon, David Bailey
Votes: 17,101 | Gross: $16.04M
15. Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
R | 117 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from a life of crime to pursue his passion of rap music.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: 50 Cent, Joy Bryant, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Omar Benson Miller
Votes: 50,184 | Gross: $30.98M
16. Fear of a Black Hat (1993)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Music
A mockumentary chronicling the rise and fall of NWH, a not particularly talented--or particularly bright but always controversial--hip-hop group.
Director: Rusty Cundieff | Stars: Larry B. Scott, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Rusty Cundieff, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 4,590 | Gross: $0.24M
17. Notorious (2009)
R | 122 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The life and death story of The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace), who came straight out of Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm.
Director: George Tillman Jr. | Stars: Jamal Woolard, Anthony Mackie, Derek Luke, Momo Dione
Votes: 46,074 | Gross: $36.84M
18. Paper Soldiers (2002)
R | 88 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Paper Soldiers follows an overeager rookie burglar named Shawn (Kevin Hart) through the ups and downs of his short, stressful career. Already on parole but faced with the power being turned... See full summary »
Directors: David Daniel, Damon Dash | Stars: Kevin Hart, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Jay-Z
Votes: 1,464
19. Who's the Man? (1993)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
The two worst barbers in Harlem become cops while a real estate developer forces people out of Harlem.
Director: Ted Demme | Stars: Ed Lover, Doctor Dré, Badja Djola, Cheryl 'Salt' James
Votes: 8,810 | Gross: $11.30M
20. How High (2001)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Fantasy
Two guys by the name of Silas and Jamal decided to one day smoke something magical, which eventually helps them to ace their college entrance exam.
Director: Jesse Dylan | Stars: Method Man, Redman, Obba Babatundé, Mike Epps
Votes: 61,798 | Gross: $31.16M
21. Hustle & Flow (2005)
R | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Music
With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.
Director: Craig Brewer | Stars: Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning
Votes: 43,233 | Gross: $22.20M
22. Brooklyn Babylon (2001)
R | 89 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A charismatic rapper falls in love with a young Jewish girl despite the confines of her religious background.
Director: Marc Levin | Stars: Tariq Trotter, Karen Starc, Bonz Malone, David Vadim
Votes: 343
23. State Property (2002)
R | 88 min | Drama, Crime, Action
Beans decides that the only way to grasp the American Dream is to take it. State Property follows Beans and his crew, as they take over the city creating mayhem as their empire builds.
Director: Abdul Malik Abbott | Stars: Beanie Sigel, Omillio Sparks, Memphis Bleek, Damon Dash
Votes: 2,245 | Gross: $2.10M
24. I Got the Hook Up (1998)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Crime
Two small-time scam artists, Black and Blue, sell boomboxes and broken TVs from their van in a parking lot. When a shipment of cellular phones comes to them by mistake, they soon find themselves targeted by the FBI and gangsters.
Director: Michael Martin | Stars: Master P, Anthony Johnson, Gretchen Palmer, Frantz Turner
Votes: 2,419 | Gross: $10.31M
25. Baller Blockin' (2000)
Not Rated | 54 min | Action, Crime
Showing the life(dramatization) of the hot boys or cash money millionaires and how it goes down in the magnolia,dirty cops,drug life and shoot outs with a twist of reality
Director: Steven Esteb | Stars: B.G., Lil' Wayne, Turk, Ronald Slim Williams
Votes: 350
26. Straight Outta Compton (2015)
R | 147 min | Biography, Drama, History
The rap group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr.
Votes: 218,556 | Gross: $161.20M
27. Roxanne Roxanne (2017)
TV-MA | 100 min | Biography, Drama, Music
In the late 80s/ early 1990s, the most feared battle MC in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenage girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. At the age of 14, Lolita "Roxanne ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Larnell | Stars: Chanté Adams, Nia Long, Mahershala Ali, Germar Terrell Gardner
Votes: 3,665
28. Malibu's Most Wanted (2003)
PG-13 | 86 min | Comedy, Crime
A senator arranges for his son, a rich white kid who fancies himself black, to be kidnapped by a couple of black actors pretending to be murderers to try and shock him out of his plans to become a rapper.
Director: John Whitesell | Stars: Jamie Kennedy, Ryan O'Neal, Blair Underwood, Taye Diggs
Votes: 20,887 | Gross: $34.31M
29. Dope (2015)
R | 103 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Life changes for Malcolm, a geek who's surviving life in a tough neighborhood, after a chance invitation to an underground party leads him and his friends into a Los Angeles adventure.
Director: Rick Famuyiwa | Stars: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Kimberly Elise
Votes: 89,332 | Gross: $17.51M
30. Menace II Society (1993)
R | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
Directors: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes | Stars: Tyrin Turner, Larenz Tate, June Kyoto Lu, Toshi Toda
Votes: 64,495 | Gross: $27.90M
31. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Crime
A parody of several U.S. films about being in the 'Hood', for instance Boyz n the Hood (1991), South Central (1992), Menace II Society (1993), Higher Learning (1995) and Juice (1992).
Director: Paris Barclay | Stars: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Tracey Cherelle Jones
Votes: 61,543 | Gross: $20.11M
32. Bulworth (1998)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters by affecting the rhythms and speech of hip-hop music and culture.
Director: Warren Beatty | Stars: Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Kimberly Deauna Adams, Vinny Argiro
Votes: 27,307 | Gross: $26.53M
33. Fresh (1994)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Death and violence anger a twelve-year-old drug courier, who sets his employers against each other.
Director: Boaz Yakin | Stars: Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, N'Bushe Wright
Votes: 14,593 | Gross: $8.09M
34. Do the Right Thing (1989)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson
Votes: 112,479 | Gross: $27.55M
35. Higher Learning (1995)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
People from all different walks of life, encounter racial tension, rape, responsibility, and the meaning of an education on a university campus.
Director: John Singleton | Stars: Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Connelly
Votes: 21,560 | Gross: $38.29M
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