My 10 Favorite Gangsta Movies

published September 10, 2009

That's right "Gangsta" not "Gangster." We're not talking about the Italian mafia flicks, we're talking about the hard knock life of the inner city, something I am exceptionally familiar with. Gangs, guns, violence, illegitimate pregnancies, 40 oz, murder, homeys, and a whole lot of tragedy is what you get from these movies. Here are my 10 favorite movies from da hood. I recommend having some MC Eiht playing in the background.

#10 - Gang Related - Tupac Shakur may have made his big bucks with his music, but he definitely had some decent acting talent. This being his last film, Tupac played a bad cop fantastically. It's too bad Tupac got his cap pilled.

#9 - New Jack City - This movie is essentially about the rise of crack and has a damn good preformance by Blade. This movie also fills my daily allowance for drug use, tragedy, and murder in a movie. Also look for a young Chris Rock has a large part as a recovering crackhead. Also look for Eek-aa-mouse, and a couple cameo's by Flava Flav.

#8 - Juice - Already Tupac makes to the list a second time in this tragic movie where a group of 4 friends are torn apart by Tupac's ambition to get some "Juice." A great hood movie with cameos from Samuel Jackson and Queen Latifah. I definitely like-ah da Juice!

#7 - Belly - This flick doesn't get the recognition it deserves. It's a highly stylized gangsta flick directed by Hype Williams. This movie also features quite possibly the most bad ass Jamaican drug dealer of all time. It's a good thing they didn't go with the original title of "Pregnant Belly."

#6 - Dead Presidents - From the makers of Menace II Society comes another great iconic movie that takes place before, during, and after the Vietnam war. It's takes a good look at what war can do to people and the desperation that ensues. It's too bad more brutha's didn't wear white face while committed crimes, to shift the blame where it belongs. On whitey.

#5 - Colors - This is one of the first movies to bring attention to the Bloods vs. Crips violence. The interesting thing is that they used actualy gang members in the film, including two guys that were shot and killed during production. I consider this the pioneer of the gangsta movie, even though it focuses on two white cops.

#4 - Friday - This is the only comedy to make it on the list, and it shows a lot can go down between Thursday and Saturday. I went in expecting a Tyler Perryesque crappy dud, but was surprisingly entertained. This movie is actually kinda funny, especially if you can relate to their situation like I can.

#3 - Boyz in the Hood - This is the launchpad to the supposed promising career of Cuba Gooding Jr. With help from an excellent supporting cast of Ice Cube and Morpheus, we get a damn good hood movie. The only reason this movie isn't higher is that Tre is kind of a pussy.

#2 - Training Day - This will go down as the most bad ass Denzel Washington has ever been. Hidden behind his excellent preformance is an intriguing subplot about his grip on his neighborhood and how he finally gets his. Often times, after defeating an opponent I will still declare that King Kong indeed does not have any excrement on me.

#1 - Menace II Society - This movie transcends the best gangsta movie and moves into one of the best movies ever category. Everyone in the movie is a bad ass, except maybe Shareef. Tupac was originally slated to play the #1 badass O-Dogg, but he punched out one of the directors and Larenz Tate took his place and did a fine job. Tragic and hilarious, that's how all movies should be!


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