Rappin' (1985)
Directed by Joel Silberg
Written by Adam Friedman & Robert Jay Litz

Problem is, a greedy land developer wants to evict all the people from Hood's 'hood, and calls in a rather Sha-Na-Na-like street gang for enforcement. Can Hood save the day?

Rappin' is possibly the most filler-filled movie I've ever seen, with long scenes featuring D-grade rappers and singers performing, quite independent of the actual storyline. It's also not nearly as screamingly bad as I wanted it to be—where I wanted to burst out laughing, I was merely met with stiflingly unfunny comedy and/or deathly contrived drama. Plus a whole lot of contrived "positivity" and dialogue that doesn't even make enough sense to be wrongheaded.

I suppose there is some cheese factor to seeing Eriq La Salle rapping like he's in the Sugarhill Gang … except that he's actually one of the best rappers in the film. That includes Ice-T, whose credibility was apparently questionable long before the "Law & Order" years, and a very unfortunate Force-MD's, whose best moment this is most certainly not.

Produced by Golan-Globus (who also brought us The Apple and many other bad movie delights), Rappin' is so fake that you can't even say it's a casualty of its time. Even so, I mostly enjoyed it, particularly the credits, wherein pretty much every cast member gets to rap a couplet or two, including a Chinese shopowner who raps: "Chinese proverb still ring true/The good you do will come back to you."

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Christopher Lambaste