Classic Rap Videos Revisited

As you may know, Adam Yauch (AKA MCA) has revisited the Beastie Boys’s “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)” music video and turned it into a short film, with the premise being—what happened to the boys after they left the party? I know, genius idea, and he’s recruited some unlikely guests to star as the seminal hip-hop group. Seth Rogen plays Mike D, Elijah Wood steps into Ad-Rock’s old shell toes and Danny McBride takes on the role of Yauch. That got me thinking about other rap videos I would love to see get the same treatment.

Blondie “Rapture”

The original video finds Debbie Harry strutting around a fake street scene that’s supposed to represent the mean streets of the South Bronx in the early 1980s. For the updated version, I would cast Nicki Minaj—donning one of her signature kooky blond wigs of course—as Debbie. Except this time around I would go for a realer depiction of the area at the time. We would see the pimps trying to pick up Minaj, the crack heads attempting to steal her purse and at the end, the police eventually arresting her and her hipster friends for buying drugs, which we find out is the real reason they traveled uptown in the first place.

Method Man ft. Mary J. Blige “All I Need”

In this classic clip, we see Mr. Meth narrowly escape arrest, as his boo’s building gets raided by the cops. For my remake, I would go the prequel route. What crimes did Johnny Blaze commit in the first place? And who will be taking on the task as the Wu-Tang Rapper? None other than Vanessa Williams’s brother, Chris. Why, you might ask? Cause as bugged out as Meth’s eyes were in the original video, it’s only right to get Krazee-Eyez Killa from Curb Your Enthusiasm to revisit the role.

Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Doog “Nuthin But A G Thang”

For my version of “Nuthin But A G Thang” I would pick up right where the video ends. First off I would cast Wiz Khalifa as a young Snoop (of course, right) and we’d see his mom, kick him out of her house for staying out all night for the very last time. We would watch as she throws all his stuff out on the front lawn, making a scene for the whole neighborhood to watch. But Wiz doesn’t care? He calls up his OG, played by the real Snoop, to swing back around and pick him up. We watch as the two get ready for another episode.

Now it’s your turn to play director. What classic rap videos would you like to see get revisited from a new angle? —Jesse Gissen