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Hip-hop in Hollywood rocks

MC Common with his new Terminator role is the latest in a long line of rappers to leave the studio and take to the silver screen with acting talent that puts pop stars to shame

Ice-T New Jack City
Ice-T set the bar for rappers in the movies with his role in New Jack City Photograph: Kobal

Having spent much of his career as one of hip-hop's best kept secrets, Chicago MC Common's acting career got a boost last week with him signing up for the new Terminator movie. This sort of move used to raise eyebrows but barely registers these days because for some time rappers have been like pigs in muck in Hollywood, snatching up big parts, commercial success and critical acclaim as if they sprang from the loins of some urban acting dynasty. Ice-T was a trailblazer for the rap-cinema transition. The cop killer turned cop player for his role as Scotty Appleton in New Jack City, his sparky dynamic performance (along with Ice Cube's Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood) kicked open the gates of Hollywood and what was a novelty gradually became the norm.

Since then we've seen Tupac impress in Juice, LL Cool J put in a compelling turn as supporting shark bait in Deep Blue Sea and Queen Latifah's Oscar nomination for Chicago. It was only natural that the two great American cop dramas of the decade, The Shield and The Wire, should co-opt Sticky Fingaz and Method Man to bolster their squads.

Rappers handle the leap to the big screen better than rock artists. Apart from having the knack of choosing the right roles (none of the career blindness that prompted Mick Jagger to take the part of Ned Kelly) rappers just seem to have more star quality. It could be because the rap game is 90% bluff and bluster - the conventions of the form have them acting out a larger-than-life persona daily. Maybe if there were a few more big instantly identifiable characters in rock these days they'd begin to make the transition to cinema as smoothly as hip-hop artists do?

But for now, hip-hop's colonisation of popular culture continues apace. It's gone from burning it down to being honoured on the Walk of Fame. And it hasn't had to sell out, dumb down or do the Hollywood Shuffle to succeed. It's to be applauded, because if a star on the pavement keeps Diddy out of the recording studio then surely everyone wins?

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