Britain gets ready for rapsploitation.

2009-11-05 12:30:01

Unlike the US -- where the ghetto issue movie has for years been its own subgenre -- the UK only recently got with the program. Friday sees the release of the UK's first hip-hop musical, "1 Day," which shows how quickly their film industry is adapting to the inner-city turf it previously ignored. In 2004, there was the pioneering "Bullet Boy," followed soon by "Kidulthood" and its follow-up "Adulthood." Watching the trailers in chronological order, the amount of moralizing and ominous music goes way down: the number of gunshots, hoodies being pulled over ominously and aggressive rap numbers goes way up. 1991's "Boyz N The Hood" was the protoypical American "increase the peace" film, when hip-hop soundtracks were the backdrop to stories detailing the need for an end to inner-city violence. This went on for a while ("Menace II Society," "New Jack City" et al.), until the soundtrack became the...

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