BELLY (1998)

Between rap-fandom and mainstream film criticism, plenty of ink has been spilled attempting to explain what went right and wrong with Hype Williams' only feature length directorial effort.

We're not here to examine the film in a larger context of film criticism as a whole, nor are we here to simply analyze it as a rap delivery device. We're here to weigh it against other rap movies and other rap movies only.

Which is a tough place to start because every rap movie wants to be either BELLY or FRIDAY. So based on its influence alone, it's already a classic. As a movie though, it's a mess. It's a mess for some very boring reasons that should be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in film as an art form: It went over budget, the production ran long, the director was inexperienced, the actors had off-screen issues, and the original vision had trouble making the leap from the page to the screen.

But it's a mess like no other mess. It's incredible looking, it launched DMX as a star (he walks away with this entire movie) propelling him to an insanely prolific film career, the soundtrack knocks, and without that opening scene, Glen Big Baby Davis would have had to make other birthday plans.

But it's also a mess in some bad ways. After DMX' character Bunz gets pinched, the movie falls apart into an ambitious assasination/fall from grace subplot that is more boring than outright bad. And being boring is the cardinal sin of any rap movie. KILLA SEASON is too damn long, but it's never boring.

Speaking of boring, it's no wonder Nas never acted again after this. He drags the momentum of the film down whenever he's involved. Which is too bad because he's the main character. And the narrator. They should have swapped in AZ instead.

But messes aside, we don't want to live in a world where BELLY doesn't exist. Where one of the era's great black artists created a film with every other great black artist of the era, inspiring countless rappers to put up the cash to create hundreds of their own BELLYs, creating the fantastic and perplexing imitators that we cover on this stupid stupid podcast of ours.

To summarize, we will definitely talk shit about BELLY. But we never want to live in a world without it.

Also, it gave us the single greatest banana eating scene in history.