Boyz N The Hood, 1991
Ice Cube said it best, “Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.”
When the West Coast rapper pondered that statement in John Singleton’s Academy Award-nominated film, Boyz N The Hood, it pushed Los Angeles’ urban life to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. It was a stark slap of reality about police-involved violence and harassment against Black youth, the vicious cycle of violence that stops young people from being their best selves and classic examples of dysfunctionality birthed out traditionally self-segregated communities boxed in by economic immobility and racial discrimination.
Starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Regina King, and more, this movie was a cult classic that still speaks to the systemic trauma and self-inflicted trauma in the hood.