Best movies like Knights of the City
It Was The Night Of Their Lives
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Knights of the City Starring Leon Isaac Kennedy, Nicholas Campbell, John Mengatti, Stoney Jackson, and more. If you liked Knights of the City then you may also like: 8 Mile, X500, You Got Served, The Warriors, New Jack City and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
A street Gang that is also a rap group tries to get a record contract.
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You Got Served
At Mr. Rad's Warehouse, the best hip-hop crews in Los Angeles compete for money and respect. But when a suburban crew crashes the party, stealing their dancers - and their moves - two warring friends have to pull together to represent the street. Starring hip-hop sensations Marques Houston, Omari Grandberry, Lil' Kim and comedian Steve Harvey.
The Warriors
Prominent gang leader Cyrus calls a meeting of New York's gangs to set aside their turf wars and take over the city. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus' death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors' trail.
New Jack City
A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.
New Jersey Drive
New Jersey Drive is a 1995 film about black youths in Newark, New Jersey, the unofficial "car theft capital of the world". Their favorite pastime is that of everybody in their neighborhood: stealing cars and joyriding. The trouble starts when they steal a police car and the cops launch a violent offensive that involves beating and even shooting suspects.
Notorious
"Notorious" is the story of Christopher Wallace. Through raw talent and sheer determination, Wallace transforms himself from Brooklyn street hustler (once selling crack to pregnant women) to one of the greatest rappers of all time: The Notorious B.I.G. Follow his meteoric rise to fame and his refusal to succumb to expectations - redefining our notion of "The American Dream."
Juice
Four Harlem friends -- Bishop, Q, Steel and Raheem -- dabble in petty crime, but they decide to go big by knocking off a convenience store. Bishop, the magnetic leader of the group, has the gun. But Q has different aspirations. He wants to be a DJ and happens to have a gig the night of the robbery. Unfortunately for him, Bishop isn't willing to take no for answer in a game where everything's for keeps.
Kickin' It Old Skool
In 1986, a young breakdancer falls into a coma after hitting his head in a talent show. 20 years later, he awakens and attempts to revive his dance team's short-lived career in order to support his parents' failing yogurt shop.
Krush Groove
Russell Walker is a young, successful manager of rap performers, handling acts for the Krush Groove label, including Run-DMC and The Fat Boys. When Run-D.M.C. has a hit record and Russell needs more money to press more copies, he borrows it from a street hustler and soon regrets his decision.
Above the Rim
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Boyz n the Hood
Boyz n the Hood is the popular and successful film and social criticism from John Singleton about the conditions in South Central Los Angeles where teenagers are involved in gun fights and drug dealing on a daily basis.
Brown Sugar
Friends since childhood, a magazine editor and a hip-hop record executive stumble into romantic territory.
Class of 1984
Andy is a new teacher at an inner city high school that is unlike any he has seen before. There are metal detectors at the front door and the place is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and Stegman become enemies and Stegman will stop at nothing to protect his turf and drug dealing business.
Menace II Society
A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
Death Wish II
Paul Kersey is again a vigilante trying to find five punks who murdered his housekeeper and daughter in Los Angeles.
Chains
On their way to a Chicago jazz club, two very white couples take their luxury sedan on a wrong turn into hostile gangland territory. They accidentally witness the assassination of the scrawny punk kingpin of local heavies The Chains. No sooner does his ventilated blond spiked noggin hit the concrete than The Chains are up in arms and looking for any possible suspects. As the yuppies try to peel out to safety, a frenzied youth spazzes his way into their unlocked back door with a resounding "Get me the fuck outta here!" It turns out the new passenger is indeed the hunted gunman, though he was only avenging the murder of his baby brother.
Deadbeat at Dawn
Goose leaves the gang life behind after pleas from his girlfriend. But it isn't long before he's pulled back into the world of violence.
Death Wish 3
Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police chief to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods.
Paid in Full
Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the Harlem drug world. Of course, unfaithful employees and/or rivals conspire to bring about Ace's fall.
Gang Related
Two corrupt cops have a successful, seemingly perfect money making scheme- they sell drugs that they seize from dealers, kill the dealers, and blame the crimes on street gangs. Their scheme is going along smoothly until they kill an undercover DEA agent posing as a dealer, and then try to cover-up their crime.
The Fighting Temptations
Darrin Hill, a slick-talking but down-on- his-luck NYC advertising exec, returns to his hometown in Georgia to claim the inheritance his aunt left him. But before Darrin can collect the money, he must fulfill his aunt's final wish -- to create a local choir.
Foolish
'Foolish' Waise is a talented comedian with a hard-edge trying to make it in the comedy clubs in LA while his brother is a hard-nosed gangster trying to make it on the streets. With all the competition they face in their chosen "professions," their biggest battle is with each other over the love of a pretty girl.
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.
That Was Then... This Is Now
A delinquent teenager's only link to society is the attachment he feels towards an older brother-figure. When the older boy starts spending time with a new girlfriend, the teenager begins to feel even more alienated, and gets involved with drugs and the police.
Thrashin'
Corey and his band of skater buddies sometimes make mischief, but they're more interested in girls and having fun on their boards than in getting into any real trouble. Notorious enemy crew the Daggers, led by Tommy Hook, get their kicks terrorizing the locals at Venice Beach. When Corey starts dating Tommy's kid sister Chrissy, the Daggers are furious. The boys then take their beef to the "L.A. Massacre," a deadly skate race down a canyon road.
Beat the World
Three dance crews – one Latin American, one European and one Canadian – prepare to battle at the International Beat the World competition in Detroit. Along the way, they struggle with gambling debt, bad break-ups and their own egos. In the final showdown to become world champions they find that their lifelong hopes, dreams and even lives, are at stake.
Hustle & Flow
With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.
State Property
Frustrated with being broke, Beans decides that the only way to grasp the American Dream is to take it.
Strapped
Ex-con attempting to go straight runs across serious problems. His girlfriend gets arrested for dealing crack to an undercover police officer. In a desperate attempt to get the charges dropped against his woman, he strikes a deal with a weapons cop to turn in local gun dealers. However, the D.A. is not satisfied with the results, resulting in some serious game playing and double crossing.
Caught on Tape
A young boy uses his video camera that he got for his birthday to spy on his mother's boyfriend, who's plotting a crime. Mix in a nosy neighbor, jealous fiancé, shady maintenance man, a UPS driver with a heist gone horribly wrong and you're bound to have some drama.
A Day in the Life
Onyx rapper Sticky Fingaz directs and stars in this hip-hop musical about a gangster who gets caught up in a bloody war between two feuding crime families while struggling to leave the streets behind. When Black's family raids one of Stick's drug houses and kills two of his men, Stick is forced to choose between leaving it all behind or seeking revenge and feeding the cycle of violence.
Snipes
Erik is a hip-hop-lovin' teen living in Philadelphia who'd rather spend time listening to his idol, the rapper Prolifik. One day, Erik finds himself more entangled in Prolifik's life than he ever imagined possible: Prolifik's been kidnapped, his master tapes are gone, and, through a series of twisted events, the same people who are after the musician go after Erik, too.
Turn It Up
Trying to bootstrap his way out of Brooklyn's mean streets is Diamond, a rap musician. With his long-time pal Gage acting as his manager, he's trying to lay down a demo tape with cut-rate studio time. To pay the bills, he and Gage run drugs for "Mr. B." Inside a week, Diamond's beloved mother dies suddenly, his father appears after an absence of 12 years and wants a relationship, and his girlfriend Kia tells him she's pregnant, asking him if he's ready to be a father. Gage steals $100,000 in a multiple-felony robbery so that Diamond can record a full album, not knowing it's Mr. B's money he's taken. B wants his money, Diamond wants his music, Tia wants an answer.
Beat Street
An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.
Dance Flick
Street dancer, Thomas Uncles is from the wrong side of the tracks, but his bond with the beautiful Megan White might help the duo realize their dreams as they enter in the mother of all dance battles.
Step Up 2: The Streets
When rebellious street dancer Andie lands at the elite Maryland School of the Arts, she finds herself fighting to fit in while also trying to hold onto her old life. When she joins forces with the schools hottest dancer, Chase, to form a crew of classmate outcasts to compete in Baltimore s underground dance battle The Streets.
Feel The Noise
After a run-in with local thugs, aspiring Harlem rapper Rob flees to a place and father he never knew, and finds his salvation in Reggaeton, a spicy blend of hip-hop, reggae and Latin beats. Puerto Rico, the spiritual home of Reggaeton, inspires Rob and his step-brother Javi to pursue their dream of becoming Reggaeton stars. Together with a dancer named C.C., they learn what it means to stay true to themselves and each other, while overcoming obstacles in love, greed and pride, all culminating in an explosive performance at New York’s Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary
The hardest group you've never heard of is back. Gangsta Rap is a mockumentary based on a group of over the hill gangster rappers (circa NWA), trying to make a comeback. Its a hilarious look at the soft underbelly of hard core hip hop.
Blank Generation
Nada, a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy. Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol.
Dead End City
The government's new urban renewal policy results in street gangs fighting for control of the inner cities. While most of the residents flee, one factory owner determines to fight the gangs for his property.
Rise of the Footsoldier: Part II
On the 6th December 1995, three Essex gang members were brutally murdered in cold blood. It’s now early 1997 and whoever killed the three men have yet to be brought to justice. An associate of the men, still mourning the loss of his friends, is convinced that it’s only a matter of time before he’s next. For him, the only way out is to go back in and work his way back up the criminal ladder. The higher he gets, the more violent the jobs become, his quest for power turning into an obsession. With life and family on the line can he hold his nerve together one last time in order to get out alive?
Boulevard Nights
A focus on life in a gang, Boulevard Nights portrays the dangers of street violence. Richard Yniguez plays a young Chicano who tries to get out of the gang, but he keeps finding himself drawn back into it.
Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming
Chance Harris looks to find a balance between his school, work, relationships and opportunity to perform at the nationally televised step competition during homecoming weekend at Truth University.
8 Mile
For Jimmy Smith, Jr., life is a daily fight just to keep hope alive. Feeding his dreams in Detroit's vibrant music scene, Jimmy wages an extraordinary personal struggle to find his own voice - and earn a place in a world where rhymes rule, legends are born and every moment… is another chance.