The Cast of ‘Dope’ Name the First Hip-Hop Album They Bought

After first premiering at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in January, A$AP Rocky's feature film debut is finally here. And boasting an all-star hip-hop-heavy cast of newcomers, Dope is the essential summer movie for the underdog rap geek in all of us.

Executive produced by Pharrell Williams, Dope has been described as the hip-hop version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off: a quirky, coming of age story punctuated with "sign of the times" fashion, music and slang. Except instead of escaping getting caught skipping school like Bueller, the protagonist of Dope, a dweeby kid named Malcolm from Inglewood, Calif., is trying to avoid getting caught selling dope after accidentally sneaking it out of a drug dealer's party.

Casey Veggies, Kap G and 2015 XXL Freshman Vince Staples all have minor supporting roles, while A$AP Rocky serves as one of the flick's leads. While at the NYC premiere for Dope last week, XXL chatted with the cast and crew to hear about the film's hip-hop character in the movie and see where their personal musical allegiances lie.

"Hip-hop is the foundation of this film," says Amin Joseph, who plays one of the drug dealers chasing after Malcolm in Dope. "What I love is no matter what decade of hip-hop you love, you find your sensibilities in this film. Hip-hop can transcend and evolve."

"Hip-hop drives everything. Hip-hop took over the world," explains Shameik Moore, who plays the starring role of Malcolm and is a Notorious B.I.G fan himself. "The characters in this movie are in love with the '90s; it was the Golden Age of hip-hop and the music kind of controls the tone of the movie. That feeling made it into a whole different project."

As for personal taste, the cast shared their own introductions to hip-hop back in the day and some of their answers may surprise you. Check out the first rap album six members of the cast and crew bought growing up. And don't miss Dope, which arrives in theaters nationwide June 19. —Sidney Madden