8. Ice Cube in Boyz 'n the Hood (1990)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z39E6D3ac2g Unless you were asleep for the late 80s and early 90s, or have somehow avoided any VH1 special about those time periods, you should know that NWA kind of broke the ice with hip hop and the world. Sure, there were other groups before, they certainly did not invent the genre, but the group took the world by storm with the most blunt, straightforward and hardcore approach. Attention from the FBI only enhances the worlds interest in NWAs debut, Straight Outta Compton, and the United States started to wonder about what really did go on in South Central LA. John Singleton describes his debut film as an illustration of albums like Straight Outta Compton, putting places, names and faces to a part of America people did not really bother to acknowledge. When the film came out, the reality hit hard with both American and International audiences, and Boyz 'n the Hood became one of the most important American films of the century. While much of the cast and crew came from the films actual setting, none had already been telling the story like Ice Cube, whose Doughboy plays out as a wrong-path counter to Cuba Gooding Jr. Boyz 'n the Hood was in many ways biographical for him, but in more than just mere experience. He strove to show to the lives of kids in that part of the country, and just how easy it can be to succumb to an addictive lifestyle. Ice Cube does not enhance the part by simply being from NWA and knowing the world, but his inexperience in the methods of acting really allows him to give a brutally honest performance. A performance that can hold up very strong, 23 years and one too many Are There Yet? films later.