Table Of Content
It hasn't been all winning, as Lawrence has faced his share of off-camera drama, including arrests and a health scare during which he fell into a three-day coma. Still, he is far and away the biggest name to emerge from the House Party cast. Kid 'n Play came from the lighter side of hip-hop, providing a feel-good vibe that was all about having fun, which would serve as a stark contrast to the harder-edged gangsta style that would take over rap music in the '90s.
Jodie Sweetin channels ‘Full House’ dad Bob Saget with her ‘inappropriate and dark’ comedy
He still performs stand-up, with tour dates listed on his personal website. After the film, Kid pursued an acting career both in front of and behind the camera — and not just in the "House Party" sequels and in "Class Act," which also stars Play. For example, Kid appeared on the sitcom "Sister, Sister," voiced a few characters in two episodes of the Adult Swim animated series, "Black Dynamite," and has provided voices in video games. Everything from the clothes to the music speaks to its era in a way that honors that moment in time; and with its honest depictions of youthful Black exuberance, every generation of teenagers finds themselves relating to the antics onscreen. This was a movie unafraid to be as Black as it could possibly be, and it helped to announce the wave of Black cinema that would define the early 1990s.
Comedy
The looks on the faces of the partygoers when Kid took the mic and the DJ threw on some beats and started scratching was priceless as I’d seen that same look plenty of times on my own parents’ faces. The members of Groove B. Chill had minor roles, Darryl “Chill” Mitchell kept bumping the tables as Bilal was trying to mix and Groove got so drunk he had to be removed from the party. Full Force completely rewrote their characters’ dialogue (adding their catchphrases, of course) so they didn’t come across like the archetypal bullies Brian “B-Fine” George and Paul “Paul Anthony” George played in Krush Groove. “I said look, if [the Hudlin brothers] don’t like it, I’ll go back to the original script—as boring and bland as it may be,” George remembers, explaining how he improvised to make the trio feel three-dimensional. “And as soon as they saw us do it, they gave us the thumbs up.” Hudlin gave the rest of the cast similar latitude. It doesn’t matter how we get there, but I want to get there in your voice,’” Reid says.
Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff were supposed to star.
After a decade of classic 80s teen movies like Weird Science and Pretty In Pink, films that mined the angst of coming of age but from a decidedly white perspective, here was a film telling a story of Black teenage culture at the dawn of the 1990s. Critics raved, and took note of House Party’s uniquely African-American lens. Much like the film itself, the casting process for House Party all started with a song.
Remember That Time When DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince Almost Starred In 'House Party'? - Complex
Remember That Time When DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince Almost Starred In 'House Party'?.
Posted: Thu, 16 Jan 2020 08:00:00 GMT [source]
House Party is the last film Robin Harris (who plays Pops) worked on before his death.
Sadly, after surviving one internet death hoax, Witherspoon passed away in October of 2019 due to a heart attack. Johnson came to House Party having previously appeared in a Spike Lee joint — School Daze, in this case. In Kid 'n Play's opus, she played Sharane, a cool girl from the 'hood with the dance moves to take on the leads, the moxie to serve as the object of both their affections, and an absolutely phenomenal yellow spandex jumpsuit. After taking part in the dance-off and subsequently nearly coming between Kid and Sydney, she ends up as part of the group that raises the cash to bail the movie's protagonist out of jail. The history of hip-hop artists crossing over to the movies has its peaks and valleys. For every Ice Cube in Boyz n the Hood and Friday, Fat Boys in Disorderlies (shut up, it's amazing), and Eminem in 8 Mile, you've got a Vanilla Ice in Cold as Ice or 50 Cent in Get Rich or Die Tryin'.
In 1990, a little movie starring several hip-hop acts made a huge impression on the movie-going public. That movie, "House Party," spawned several sequels and a host of imitators. Plot-wise, it's like any other film where a teenager hosts a party full of whacky hijinks while parents are out of town. After meeting Reid in a New York City club and bumping into him a few more times, Hudlin eventually got him to read the script. “I remember reading the original script, and we had been approached before by people trying to do movies with us, but this was the best thing I’d read.” Kid ’n Play had booked a tour and stood to lose money if they opted to do the movie, fueling apprehension from an already uninterested Martin. “When you’ve got rap kingpins like Run-DMC doing a movie that a lot of people don’t remember or know like Tougher Than Leather, I was like, ‘If those guys can’t do a movie, then who are we to think we could achieve such a thing?
Robin Harris passed away shortly after “House Party” was released but awareness of his comedic genius was raised enough that Reginald Hudlin was able to produce an animated film called “Bébé’s Kids” in 1992 based on his comedy routines with Faizon Love substituting as his voice. Kid N’ Play’s lead single “Funhouse” actually became the #1 Rap single on the Billboard charts for three straight weeks from May 5th through May 19th, 1990. LL Cool J’s dancy diss track “To Da Break Of Dawn” never made it above #17 on the Billboard Rap charts but it was instrumental at helping him gain momentum towards his next single “The Boomin’ System” which led to the release of his monster 1990 LP “Mama Said Knock You Out” in August. ” was a popular track but it wasn’t reflected in the Billboard charts although many a rug was cut up to it that year. Melvin Gregg, Rotimi and Allen Maldonado are the latest stars to join New Line’s reimagining of the 1990 hit comedy “House Party,” produced by the SpringHill Company for HBO Max.
It's a tricky proposition, which means the successes should absolutely be celebrated, especially when they hold up as well as the much-beloved 1990 comedy House Party, starring rappers Kid 'n Play. The legacy that “House Party” leaves is it opened the door for the Black film boom of 1991 and Kid N’ Play are overlooked pioneers alongside MC Hammer in crossing Rap music over and making it widely accepted in mainstream circles. At the time “House Party” hit theaters MC Hammer’s sophomore LP “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” was flying up the charts as was Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison”. MTV Raps” and “The Arsenio Hall Show” were introducing Rap to middle America and Fox’s sketch comedy series “In Living Color” would debut the following month led by Black Pack members Kenan Ivory Wayans and his brother Damon Wayans who further helped to make Rap and urban culture go mainstream that year. George Clinton had another cameo in “House Party” playing a DJ at a party Kid stumbled upon which served to highlight how Rap was viewed by our parents.
People re-create the dance-off at weddings, while a torrent of GIFs have preserved the scene on hallowed social media ground. While white executives at the time may have brushed House Party off because it seemed too impractical to succeed, there’s now entire generations who grew up on the movie. “I was in Atlanta a few years ago and this little girl, like 6 years old, ran up on me,” he says. “She said, ‘You got a whoopin’ from your pops.’ I was like, ‘How’d you know I got a whoopin’ from my pops? ’ She said, ‘My auntie watches that movie all the time.’ They’re passing it down.” George still enjoys reciting his signature lines. “Thirty years later, I’m still saying, ‘I’m gonna kick your fuckin’ assss,’ because people are still asking me to say it all the time,” he says with proud laughter.
Director Reginald Hudlin expanded House Party into a feature film from a 20-minute short of the same name that he completed for his senior thesis project at Harvard University in 1983. Be the life of your viewing party by sharing these 15 behind-the-scenes tidbits about House Party. Actress Kelly Jo Minter plays LaDonna in "House Party," one of the many girls grabbing Play's interest. She has some of the best reactions to Bilal's halitosis and Groove and Chill's weak attempts to hit on her. In "House Party," Martin Lawrence's Bilal has to contend with the disrespect Play gives his DJ equipment even as he's being pressured to provide free DJ services for Play's party, and the disrespect he gets from almost everyone because of his vicious case of halitosis.
The two rappers met at a house party in NYC after Martin heard Reid from across the room. "That's when he began to be on my radar," he said during an interview on OWN'sWhere Are they Now. They say that good things come in threes but in House Party, quite the opposite is true, as Kid is tormented by a trio of ne'er-do-well classmates by the hilarious names of Stab ("Paul Anthony" George), Pee-Wee (Lucien "Bowlegged Lou" George, Jr..), and Zilla (Brian "B-Fine" George). They're up in his business from the beginning of the film, pestering him in school, out in the streets, and even at Play's house, and it's a final scrape with Stab that lands Kid in jail. Their comedic villainy was so memorable that they were brought back for the sequel, tormenting Kid into his college years.
