Cuting a smooth groove between smart-arsed satire and anarchic comedy, Tamra Davis' send-up of rap music's superstar fraternity doesn't always hit the beat, but there are enough in-your-face moments to keep the laughs coming, all served up with a thumpingly funny soundtrack and the sort of X-rated one-liners that would make Mary Whitehouse explode.
Albert Brown (Rock), Euripides Smalls (Payne) and Otis O. Otis (D.) are three black middle-class boys from L.A., desperate to acquire some street-cred and become rap masters. When the local gangster, Gusto, gets busted and ends up in Cell Block Four, the boys see their chance. Acquiring his hardcore identity and a few tons of gold jewellery, they become CB4, ready to cuss, grab their genitals and glorify violence. On their way to rap superstardom, however, Gusto breaks out of jail and comes after the trio for cashing in on his image, while a right-wing politician targets them for defiling the national game by wearing their baseball caps back-to-front.
As the titular trio Rock, Payne and, er, D. are spot on with their piss-take of rap's macho posturing, so too is Saturday Night Live's Chris Elliott as the wimpy white bro' making a "rapumentary" a la Spinal Tap on the band, while Eddie Murphy's older brother Charlie cuts the mustard as a swaggering villain. The film's half-parody, half-tribute approach takes the edge off the satire, however, and this occasionally gets carried away in its own silliness. But if the shift from comedy to social statement is about as subtle as Gusto's ten-gallon condom, the homeboys and girls in the house should love every minute of it.