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Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club,

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Dope is a 2015 coming -of -age comedy-drama which depicts the self-proclaimed

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geek Malcolm and his high school friends in Cali getting into a jam and embarking

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on a wild adventure after a bag of illegal drugs gets placed in his backpack.

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Dotted with a 90s Hip Hop soundtrack, the beats and the action will have you jumping

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from jump street.

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The main characters, Malcolm, Diggy and Jib, they're so socially awkward in

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comparison to the other kids in their high

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school. Like they have this really deep affinity for the 90s Hip Hop

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culture. Like they dress like they're from the

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90s. I mean, Malcolm even sports a flat top.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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They listen to 90s Hip Hop all day, that they watch old reruns of Yo!

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MTV Raps, et cetera.

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And they just don't fit in.

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But they have a deep rooted friendship and they very much support one

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another. But they get caught in this weird circle of events after they receive a

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And it just sets them on a wild goose chase.

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And I thought it was just going to be like a fun ride, but it ends up being something

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crazy.

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Like, like Stand By Me meets Pulp Fiction or something like that.

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It's just like, whoa.

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Very serious, very serious topics were touched upon, but they make it so

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lighthearted in how it's portrayed in a film that it's just like laughable.

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The soundtrack is a goldmine of 90s

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Hip Hop jams. If

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What we believe is like the golden age of Hip Hop.

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So it starts, we start off with Hip Hop Hooray by Naughty by Nature.

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And it's coming in, it's in the beginning of the film as we first get a glance at

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Malcolm's room and how he's got Hip Hop posters and things all over the

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"Buggin' Out" by Tribe Called Quest.

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No.

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favorite needle drop of all of them.

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That was the perfect realization when he realizes what's in his backpack.

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That's the perfect song to describe that situation.

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Not just so much that they have the songs, but the placement of them really fit the action.

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"Know the Ledge", the Juice theme by Eric B.

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and Rakim As Malcolm and the crew, they're getting chased by the guys in the red El

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Camino.

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The end credits scene was perfect, "The Humpty Dance" by Digital

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Underground. And then we have, you know, classic Shameik Moore, being Shameik

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doing all their old school dances, another perfect placement.

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There's a lot of detail in these selections and the Humpty Dance, he does

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it, Famuyiwa does it to a Pop Up Video homage.

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So you remember that show from the 90s on MTV.

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So if you rewatch that scene, the little pop-ups with the

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credits. Really nice, really well done.

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Shameik Moore was charismatic as a

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leading man.

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You get the perfect dichotomy of kid that wants to fit in, kid

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that wants to be cool, kid is unaccepted, but super brilliant.

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You could tell he was because of the formulation of his essay, you know, for

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his final admissions essay and how he put that

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together. But yeah, you want to root for

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the kid.

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He's charismatic, but he has this sort of innocence about him as well.

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This is how good the character's

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written. His favorite band is the

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Thermals. The Thermals is an indie rock band from

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Portland. They're on the Sub Pop label and like that in the

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aughts. You really had to know your like indie rock to know that his

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favorite band was

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the Thermals. And he liked TV on

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the Radio. Another like happened to

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almost all Black members, but like a white indie rock band.

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So he got a lot to work with and he really took it and really brought it to life.

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I found him very relatable.

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Yeah.

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I mean, he grew up in Inglewood, I grew up in Newark.

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I wanted to go to college and he wanted to go to college.

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He had to walk and navigate through the neighborhood to get to school.

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I had to navigate through the neighborhood to get to home from school.

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You know, I saw some things and he's seen some things.

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So yeah, it's, yeah, very relatable.

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Really interweaves the power of Hip Hop culture and coming of age into the plot

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First thing obviously was the soundtrack, it's

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all there. The layout of Malcolm's room, the appreciation for the culture,

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the way they dressed and spoke and everything like that.

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So Rick Famuyiwa, the director of this film, but he's

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like a producer, a song producer.

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Like he weaved in a lot of different little tidbits.

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Malcolm's room was, there was a lot of detail in his room.

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There was a lot of things happening, like in

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in the plot of the story moving along.

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It all fit together really nicely.

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It's hard to do.

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It felt like he had the beat, he had the melody and he had the

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harmony. He made a film that was like very musical, that was not

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just the music itself, but like it had a flow to it.

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And I really enjoyed it.

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Picked up on the dialogue about the golden age of Hip Hop

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with Malcolm and Dom.

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That was awesome.

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Malcolm was saying how he loved all these artists.

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And I think he mentioned like, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

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And I think Dom was arguing, that's from the 80s.

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That's actually from the late 80s.

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He's like, you know, you get the point, it's 90s.

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It’s ‘88.

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And then I think Dom brings up like Vanilla

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Ice. He's like, all right, well, not all of the 90s was legit, but it was the

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golden

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age.

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There's a powerful social message in this movie

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about stereotyping based on socioeconomic status.

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Malcolm

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pivots from doing analysis of Ice Cube's "Good

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Day". But I liked it in that he really put it out

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there, challenging the Harvard admissions committee about who are

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you taking, who are you admitting to

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this institution.

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He was as complicated as any other people in the film, but these complications

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served to have him as a worthy person to go to Harvard.

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So that was a really cool way they ended the film.

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Yeah, I think it was perfect.

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It was powerful.

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It left you thinking, wow.

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It was brilliant.

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All right.

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Boogie, would you say bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault?

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Bring this funky flick back.

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Such a fun ride.

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I'm pretty sure if I watch it again, I'm going to find some other things that I

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didn't notice.

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DynoWright?

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I'm also going to bring this funky flick back.

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It's so well crafted, I think I would find more things the second time around.

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Like any good song has these little things that you just don't notice right away and then

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repeated listens will give you the goods.

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Yeah, I'm with you guys.

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Definitely bring this funky flick back.

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Soundtrack is

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amazing. Lots of action, lots of

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good dialogue. There's nothing to dislike

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about this. I've already told some friends

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about it. Like, have you

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seen this? You have to

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see this. I'm continuing to

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promote it. I told my son he's going to

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watch it. He's like, yeah, I'll watch

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it soon. I don't think he's got it round to it

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just yet. But bring it back.

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Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's: JB, Boogie and DynoWright.

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Theme music by BooGie.

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We're three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for

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you.

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I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime Hip Hop fan.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time Hip Hop fan.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, a long time Hip Hop fan.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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And remember, don't hate, graduate.