Straight outta Saturday Night Live

CB4
Directed by Tamra Davis
Written by Chris Rock and Nelson George
Starring Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Deezer D and Charlie Murphy

CB4 soundtrack
Various artists
MCA Records
Reviewed by Ignatius Kim

While rap music offers genuine expression to the sentiments of many African American youth who feel uninspired by Billy Ray Cyrus, its control by the multi-billion-dollar music industry means that rap is not free of the hype surrounding any marketable commodity.

CB4 is by no means a serious study of the economics of the music industry or the evolution of contemporary youth culture, but it does have a few things to say about "gangsta" rap, the kind of rap music that you buy in gun shops.

After trying to make it big in rap using various images, three friends from fictitious Locash discover that the misogyny and violence of gangsta rap sell. The central character of the three, Albert Brown (played by Chris Rock of Saturday Night Live), is — refreshingly — far from the deep-voiced, "ex-peeer-i-enced" stereotype of the African American male. He is rather wimpy and sexually immature and lives with his Mom and Dad in a tame middle-class neighbourhood complete with elm trees.

Nevertheless, Albert strikes on the idea of modelling himself after Gusto, a local gangster whom he accidentally sends to prison. All three characters then trade their check shirts for jailhouse denims, call themselves CB4 (named after Cell Block 4 where Gusto is held) and take on the "I'm meaner than mean" gangsta image.

They soon top the charts and are pictured on magazine covers half-submerged in dark shadows, with furrowed brows and pouting lips. In the midst of this success, Gusto is released from jail and seeks revenge.

Having directed video clips for various rap artists,

Tamra Davis, the film's director, is familiar with the whole inflated rap scene. Her credits include work for that archetype of gangsta rappers, NWA.

Indeed, the song with which CB4 make it big, "Straight Outta Locash", is an undisguised parody of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton", with all the latter's rhetoric and hype.

NWA don't seem to mind, however, as Easy E and Ice Cube make tongue-in-cheek cameo appearances while MC Ren contributes to the soundtrack. The entire satire may have struck a chord with rap artists: other cameo appearances include Ice T and Public Enemy's Flavor Flab, while the rap voice-overs for CB4 are provided by Daddy-O, Hi-C and Kool Moe Dee.

The soundtrack consists of a varied mixture of artists, from the machine gunning rap of Fu-Schnickens to the very soulful Tracie Spencer. MC Ren's "May Day on the Frontline" is more mature in style than the NWA that is parodied in the film. While it's no longer about AK-47s and drive-bys (shooting down rival gang members while driving past), it still attacks police racism and violence which was always the sticking point with anti-rap authorities (e.g. the controversy over NWA's "Fuck the Police").

As the title suggests, "Black Cops" by Boogie Down Productions deals with the Uncle Tom role of black cops, ranging from the way they're used by the apartheid regime in South Africa to their collusion with racist white cops in the US.

While the Uzi-toting image of gangsta rap is generally contrived and aptly satirised by CB4, the anti-police side of (what is now known as) hard core rap survives as a genuine sentiment reflecting the anger of many African American youth — including rap artists. This is worth bearing in mind when thinking about the satirical content of CB4.

The style of satire is very much the overstated type seen on Saturday Night Live. With minimal direction from Davis, this is to be expected in Rock's writing. It elicits the odd laugh, but don't expect to be creased over.