Hood Movies Soundtracks

Side A

1. Public Enemy - Fight The Power (from Do The Right Thing)
2. Ice-T - Colors (from Colors)
3. Compton's Most Wanted - Growin' Up In The Hood (from Boyz N The Hood)
4. 2Pac - Definition Of A Thug Nigga (from Poetic Justice)
5. 2 Live Crew - In The Dust (from New Jack City)
6. Crooklyn Dodgers - The Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers (from Clockers)
7. DMX, Sean Paul & Mr. Vegas - Top Shotter (from Belly)

Side B

1. MC Ehit - Strehit Up Menace (from Menace II Society)
2. Too $hort - So You Want To Be A Gangsta (from Juice)
3. Ice Cube - Friday (from Friday)
4. The Dogg Pound - Big Pimpin' (from Above The Rim)
5. Big Pun & Next - Sex, Money & Drugs (from Slam)
6. Gravediggaz - From The Dark Side (from Tales From The Hood)
7. MC Solaar - Comme Dans Un Film (from La Haine)

In the late 1980s - early 1990s, a new wave of Black filmmakers drew audiences from around the world with their bold exploration of Black rage and desire. These films, dubbed “new Black realism", featured portrayals of urban black youth grappling with the hierarchies of power and the living legacies of racism, gun violence, and the consequences of the war on drugs. These movies were popular and profitable – in part  due to their proximity with the rising popularity of hip-hop, and Gangsta Rap in particular. The music is not just plays a key role to immerse the viewer in the raw and gritty urban landscape where

Despite their mixed critical reception, these films reimagined genre filmmaking (from coming-of-age dramas to heist thrillers and buddy comedies) by exposing the failed promises of the alleged post-racial society.

The relationship between these movies and their soundtracks is deep. As some critics have noticed, hood film exists in the same "spatial logic" of hip-hop culture, with heavy emphasis on place-based identity. Just like the black experience commonly narrated by rappers in the 1990s, New Black Realism locates urban black youth within an environment of continual proximate danger.

These stories of Black life, love, and friendship navigated the complex and often contradictory representations of Black people portrayed in news media, reality television, sitcoms, music, and fashion. These representations often collapsed the distance between the image and the real, and Black filmmakers and rappers deliberately played in that space to deconstruct it.

New Jack Cinema gained massive popularity, and its close ties to the emerging hip-hop scene played a key role in its success. Hood films dive into the depths of Black rage and longing, and black youth navigate power hierarchies and confront the lingering effects of racism, gun violence, and the war on drugs.