It's hard to properly judge CB4. Basically, it's a Chris Rock vehicle and its point is - I think - to satirize the gangsta rap genre that in the early 1990s dominated both rap and pop music until Nas, Wu-Tang, and other East Coast acts began to balance the early dominance by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. It's just too bad the film doesn't know whether to be serious or not.
CB4 (short for Cell Block 4) is a funny film but sometimes unintentionally. For the most part, the film gives a tour of a certain time in music history when artists had to have music videos, tour, and even have an obligatory run-in with the law to establish a media presence. The obvious target is NWA but Public Enemy, Run-DMC, a Tribe Called Quest, and others are also poked at for good measure. The only major handicap and it is a huge one is sheer amount of trivia that is neede to enjoy the humor. Granted, Rock and company curse and curse in order to enliven the fun. But the plot wears out extremely quickly. The biggest question is why.
Chris Elliott steals the show by being cast as the obligatory white. It's just too bad the best jokes come in early through a series of now legendary cameos. I myself am not sure what could've done to make the film better. Had Rock done a normal rise-and-fall story CB4 would be derivative. As it stands, the film is cute. But it's too tame to really offend the core rap crowd it's aiming at but it's also too vulgar and too juvenile. Rusty Cundieff's mockumentary, Fear of a Black Hat, treads the same material but is much more funny. If anything, CB4 comes off not so much a comedy as an interesting but R-rated music video.
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