Someday, someone is going to make a great movie about rappers. Maybe it's because the art form is so new, or maybe it's because the film industry is still dominated by stodgy white guys who reached maturity before hip-hop's 1990s golden age, but we have yet to see the rap version of, say, Walk the Line.
Straight out of Compton was an interesting movie with a decent cast but never truly sang in the way that it ought to have. Perhaps that's because the movie's principles were so closely involved, but there was seemingly a few films' worth of missed opportunities in that project alone. Notorious, the Biggie biopic, was bad in the way that really bad biopics are bad. It featured a scene in which Biggie literally said, "I love it when you call me Big Poppa." Like, we get it. It's the title of a song.
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Tupac, most of any rapper, has always had a background that outstripped the quality of his music. You may like it, that's your right, but when's the last time you heard it at a party? Hip-hop is essentially social music, and almost none of Tupac's songs pass that test.
All Eyez On Me is our best chance yet to get the genre right. Music video veteran Benny Boom directed a script that follows Tupac's life from its very beginning. Demetrius Shipp Jr. plays Tupac as he journeys from a background in Black Panther activism to musical superstardom. Jamal Woolard returns as The Notorious B.I.G., a role he played in the aforementioned Notorious. The trailer covers both their early bromance and later rivalry that may or may not have turned deadly. The film will be out June 16, which would have been 'Pac's birthday.
Watch below.