soft satire

Called the best Rap Mocukmentary ever, “CB4” also happens to be the only one that I know of, so there’s that. It came from Chris Rock, who I don’t think is aiming at Gangster Rap culture so much as the poseur culture it spawned but as spoofs go, it has less of the rapid fire wit required.
Rock plays a suburban kid who assumes the name of MC Gusto, after accidentally getting a real life gangster of the same name (Charlie Murphy) arrested on drug charges. This allows Gusto and his two friends (Allen Payne, Deezer D) to pose as convict rap group, Cell Block 4.

Chris Elliot plays the documentarian listening as Gusto recounts the story of how they became the most dangerous rap group, which doesn’t make sense because the film is afraid to portray them as anything other than misguided misfits. Rock and his director Tamra Davis only ever go skin deep- they make fun of the clothes, gold accessories, and the ingratiating politicians (a fine Phil Hartman) who go after rap culture. There’s also some cameos from both Ice’s (T and Cube), Flava Flav, and Easy E among others. But its soft satire at best. There are certain things here that call for bigger exaggeration (the music lyrics, the way the music’s presented, the group’s ability to keep up their street cred). When the film tries to take rappers to task over misogyny, violence, and crude behavior it does so with just gentle ribbing, and the film is so scattershot it actually forgets some of its plots. The last 20 minutes aren’t even really in the spoof genre anymore but an action comedy that brings Murphy back and lets the three off the hook entirely. I’m not sure what Rock had planned here, but unlike his stand-up, this is another film from him that pulls punches.