The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by singer Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, having served in the same role on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014. Current regular members of The Roots on The Tonight Show are Captain Kirk Douglas (guitar), Mark Kelley (bass), James Poyser (keyboards), Ian Hendrickson-Smith (saxophone), Damon "Tuba Gooding Jr." Bryson (sousaphone), Stro Elliot, Dave Guy (trumpet), Kamal Gray (keyboards), and Raymond Angry (keyboards).
Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help Stiles's character train for a Juilliard School dance audition.
Bomb the System is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Adam Bhala Lough. It stars Mark Webber, Gano Grills, Jaclyn DeSantis, Jade Yorker, Bönz Malone, Kumar Pallana and Joey SEMZ. The story revolves around a group of graffiti artists who decide to make a mark on New York City.
Brown Sugar is a 2002 American romantic comedy film written by Michael Elliott and Rick Famuyiwa, directed by Famuyiwa, and starring Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan. The film is a story of lifelong friends, A&R Andre and Editor-in-Chief Sidney. The two can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers to a single, seminal childhood moment – the day they discovered hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now some 15 years later, as they lay down the tracks toward their futures, hip-hop isn't the only thing that keeps them coming back to that moment on the corner.
Marc Levin is an American independent film producer and director. He is best known for his Brick City TV series, which won the 2010 Peabody award and was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking and his dramatic feature film, Slam, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 1998. He also has received three Emmy Awards and the 1997 DuPont-Columbia Award.
Slam is a 1998 American independent drama film directed, co-written and co-produced by Marc Levin and starring and co-written by Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. It tells the story of a young African-American man whose talent for poetry is hampered by his social background.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party, also known as Block Party, is a 2005 American documentary film hosted and written by comedian Dave Chappelle, and directed by Michel Gondry.
You're Nobody 'til Somebody Kills You is a 2011 film directed by Michael A. Pinckney. The film stars James McDaniel, Michael K. Williams, Michael Mosley and Nashawn Kearse.
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme is a 2000 American documentary film directed by Kevin Fitzgerald. The film depicts the art of freestyle rap.
Lovesong is a 2016 American drama film directed by So Yong Kim, who co-wrote the film with Bradley Rust Gray. It stars Jena Malone, Riley Keough, Brooklyn Decker, Amy Seimetz, Marshall Chapman, Ryan Eggold, and Rosanna Arquette.
Bönz Malone is an American writer and actor.
Wuthering Heights is a 2011 British Gothic romantic drama film directed by Andrea Arnold starring Kaya Scodelario as Catherine Earnshaw and James Howson as Heathcliff. The screenplay written by Arnold and Olivia Hetreed, is based on Emily Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name.
State Property is a 2002 American crime film starring Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Damon Dash and Jay-Z. It was produced by Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella and distributed by Lions Gate Films. Abdul Malik Abbott directed the film and co-wrote its screenplay with Ernest "Tron" Anderson. The film was loosely based on Aaron Jones and the Junior Black Mafia (JBM), who participated in Philadelphia's drug trade from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Film critic reviews were generally mixed to negative. It was followed by a sequel, State Property 2 which was released in 2005.
Whiteboyz is a 1999 American comedy film. The independent, limited release feature was written by Danny Hoch, Garth Belcon, Henri M. Kessler, Richard Stratton, and Marc Levin, and directed by Levin. The film opened to 37 theatres on the week of September 11, 1999. It marked the film debut of actress Piper Perabo, in a minor role. Several well-known rappers made cameo appearances in the film.
Make Your Move is a 2013 independent romance drama film starring K-pop singer BoA and ballroom dancer Derek Hough. The film was directed by Duane Adler, who wrote the script for Save the Last Dance (2001) and Step Up (2006). Hough took season twelve off of the show Dancing with the Stars to star in the film, which was shot in New York City and Toronto during the spring of 2011. Aside from the lead stars, singer Yunho from TVXQ has a cameo appearance. The film was choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo, Yako Miyamoto, and Nick Gonzalez.
The Rewrite is a 2014 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence. It stars Hugh Grant as a washed-up screenwriter who begins teaching at Binghamton University, and Marisa Tomei as a single mother with whom the screenwriter finds romance. It began development at Castle Rock Entertainment in October 2012, and filming began in New York in April 2013.
Demolition is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Bryan Sipe. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, and Judah Lewis. The film opened the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released on April 8, 2016, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Nas: Time Is Illmatic is a 2014 documentary film directed by One9 and produced by One9, Erik Parker and Anthony Saleh. The film recounts the circumstances leading up to Nas' 1994 debut album Illmatic. Released on the 20th anniversary of Illmatic, the film includes interviews with Nas, his brother and father, and figures from the East Coast hip hop scene. Nas: Time Is Illmatic premiered during the opening night of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, on April 16, 2014. The project received a grant from Tribeca All Access and additional funding from the Ford Foundation.
Notorious is a 2009 American biographical drama film directed by George Tillman Jr., and written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker. It is based on the life of Brooklyn-based hip-hop artist The Notorious B.I.G. Much of the film dramatizes key events in Biggie's life: his criminal lifestyle, arrest and release from prison, his relationships with Sean Combs, Tupac Shakur, Lil' Kim and Faith Evans, his involvement in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry and his drive-by-shooting murder on March 9, 1997. The film stars Jamal Woolard as Wallace, with Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, and Anthony Mackie in supporting roles. Biggie's mother, Voletta, served as a producer for the film, alongside his former managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts.
Morris from America is a 2016 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Chad Hartigan, produced by Martin Heisler, Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski, and Gabriele Simon, and starring Craig Robinson, Markees Christmas, Carla Juri, Lina Keller, and Jakub Gierszał. The film follows a 13-year-old American boy who dreams of becoming a rapper in an EDM-dominated Germany.
