Film: Has Vapors Evaporated?
This week "Notorious", the story of Biggie Smalls, is hitting theaters, but we're asking ourselves what the hell happened to the "Vapors" film – the Juice Crew/Cold Chillin’ story - that was due out in 2008?
If you remember Mr Magic's Rap Attack show circa mid-80s then you know his New York radio show on WBLS broke many rap artists and his DJ, Marley Marl, went on to produce some phenomenal rap acts. The most notable collaboration came in the establishment The Juice Crew, released on Cold Chillin' Records. The crew was made up of an amazing troupe of rappers including Roxanne Shante, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap and Biz Markie who all featured on the anthem posse cut, "The Symphony", released in 1988.
So imagine our excitement when we heard that a film project is going to capture the foundations of the Juice Crew/Cold Chillin' story 20 years after it captured our attention.
Earlier Marley Marl explained that "right now, it's in the casting stage. We're not reaching out — a lot of stars are reaching out to us because that's an important movie in hip-hop history. It's basically me, Big Daddy Kane and Biz's life story leading up to 1988. How we got there. How we made the golden era pop. ... A lot of ups and downs, a lot of personal shit. It is what it is."
A few names have been associated with the project. Will Talib Kweli make his character acting debut as Scott La Rock (one half of Boogie Down Productions)? The plum roles are going quickly: Idris Elba (The Wire) will play manager Fly Ty, Cuba Gooding Jr. confirmed to play DJ Marley Marl, Clifton Powell will be Mr. Magic, Jackie Long (from ATL) is Big Daddy Kane, Evan Ross is MC Shan and Keke Palmer is the foul-mouthed Roxanne Shante. But the cherry rumor is Nas playing Kool G. Rap. Lyrical legend playing legend.
Let's leave the last word to the diabolical: "There will never be another Juice Crew. Ever. But I'd say that the closest thing to Juice Crew would have to be Wu-Tang. I mean, like us, they had different rhyme styles, personalities and they all rhymed about different things."
Vapors, named after the classic Biz Markie track, is produced by Big Daddy Kane, directed by Furqaan Clover and we hope it sees the light of day soon.
