Video #18: The Beatnuts featuring Big Pun and Cuban Link, "Off the Books"

the case for: rappin'

I was out on a date a few nights ago and the girl and I were talking about awful movies we held in high regard. This was sort of brought on by the fact that I own many of Freddie Prinze Jr.'s movies. I asked her if she had ever seen "Rappin'," which she had not, and I was sort of surprised. This movie needs to be seen by everybody. To paraphrase Mike Myers in "Wayne's World 2" (another shitty movie), it needs to be sent out in the mail along with samples of laundry detergent.

"Rappin'" is a categorically bad flick starring everybody's favorite S-curled Hollywood spawn, Mario Van Peebles. The plot is pretty simple: dude gets out of prison and tries to save his neighborhood from getting developed by winning a rap contest. This same plot was also used in "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo," which was released a year earlier.

What makes "Rappin'" so awful/awesome is that Mario New Jack actually raps himself, which puts him up there with other celebrities who have no business ever getting in front of a microphone (a list which includes Shaq, Karl Rove and various contestants of that stupid cable rapping contest show). In fact, Chris Rock once said that the reason why he got Kool Moe Dee to do Gusto's raps in "CB4" was because Mario Van Peebles was so shitty and that he had the foresight to see that he [Rock] was not a rapper.

So if you're feeling down, go out and rent "Rappin'" and you'll feel about a billion times better. Trust me.

Related Links:
Rappin' on Amazon
Rappin on IMDB