Danny Hoch is Flip, a kid living in Iowa who believes that he is a white man trapped in a black man's body. He raps with constant yo yo yo motherf****** and the other common words used in the genre. Along with two other aspiring wiggers, the trio travel to the infamous Cabrini Green housing projects in Chicago with the intent of becoming big time drug dealers. The delusional Flip becomes entangled with some real life gangsters with interesting results. The fantasy sequences are an unnecessary distraction which interrupts the flow of the story. The acting is superb; most especially by the lead, Danny Hoch. He is Eminem with a better sense of humor. Eight Mile is a better movie, as is Gridlock'd with Tupac Shakur. Even so, White Boyz is worth the ride.
Whiteboyz
1999
Action / Comedy / Drama
Whiteboyz
1999
Action / Comedy / Drama
Plot summary
In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star, hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?
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White or Black
Beastie Boys they are not; they're "Whiteboyz".
OK, only half-joking about the one line summary (alluding to the B. Boys throughout this comment),I am a huge Beastie Boys fan (and most of hip-hop in general; Run-D.M.C. are the kings). Yes, Flip (Danny Hoch),Trevor (Marc Webber),and James (Dash Mihok) are respectable emcees (no where as good as the Beasties) and have good hearts, but they live in a fantasy land. They are so caught up in their dreams of living the "good life", that they don't recognize how bad things are in reality. Flip seems to be the one who has the most trouble accepting things the way they are. His father has been laid off and his mother uses food stamps to pay for groceries, and above all, he has gotten his girlfriend Sara (Piper Perabo) pregnant. He is so caught up in the "false" glamour of the ghetto lifestyle, that he thinks he's black and practices explaining his 'hood background in front of a mirror. Really, the biggest problem is he just can't accept that he's white and living in Iowa, and that his only black friend is Khalid (Eugene Byrd),who quickly becomes disgusted with the way Flip and his friends are acting.
Now, not that the "Whiteboyz" are splitting images of their New York counterparts (Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA),but they are going to experience the same harsh public criticisms that the Beastie Boys had gone through, and I suspect that if they hit it big (which they won't),they won't shape up their act (like the Beasties did) and become respectable rap artists. Even so, "Whiteboyz" doesn't aim to stand as a cautionary fable against whites in hip-hop, but more as a metaphor for the progressive movement of the music into non-African-American audiences. I mean, Flip lives in Iowa for crying out loud! The Beasties themselves, who before becoming involved with Def Jam, were three untalented punkers, who knew little if anything about hip-hop and eventually moved into rap and became the three great emcees they are today. Flip was the same way before, a slob I don't know, but he certainly acted differently from the way he acts in the beginning of the film.
Anyways, unlike their New York counterparts, these "'boys" live in a fictionalized world where it will take an act of total stupidity to wake them up from this fantasy. Yes, by the end, the walls are all going to come crashing down.
"Whiteboyz" is undoubtedly one of the best films about hip-hop I have ever seen, and it shouldn't be missed by anyone. True it's geared towards a black audience (I'm African-American myself),but you can tell by the films central themes and the subject matter, it's geared more towards a white audience. Even so, don't miss it, regardless of skin color.
9/10
Funny and eye opening flick
Whiteboys starts out as a funny comedy and then changes the script into a social conesicus flick. The plot about Iowa boys who want to be rappers is geunie. The acting by Danny Hooch is top notch and these film should have gotten a wider release. Look for a lot of hip hop cameos in this good flick.