Today In Hip Hop History: Cult Classic Film ‘New Jack City’ Premiered in Theaters 33 Years Ago

On this day, 33 years ago, the cult-classic crime thriller New Jack City arrived in theaters across America. The story of the rise and fall of Nino Brown and the Cash Money Brothers has continued inspired Hip Hop culture for a quarter-century and continues to permeate the culture that made it a success. New Jack City came about at a pivotal time. In 1991, Hip Hop was still a fledging music genre and culture, looking to legitimize itself in the eyes of mainstream America officially. In addition, the blaxploitation film genre had been defunct for over a decade, leaving a gaping hole in “Black Hollywood.” New Jack City was a harbinger of the resurgence of Black actors, writers, and filmmakers in Hollywood, as well as the crystallization of Hip Hop’s synergistic capabilities. The film also catapulted actors like Wesley Snipes, who played the lead role as the morally barren kingpin Nino Brown and Chris Rock stick-up-kid-turned-crackhead-informant “Pookie,” into stardom. The film’s director Mario Van Peebles also made his directorial debut with the film, which he also starred in. Ice T, who also played a major role in New Jack City as NYPD detective “Scotty Appleton,” spoke with Rock on his...