Best movies like Nas: Time Is Illmatic

The journey. The music. The legacy.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Nas: Time Is Illmatic Starring Nas, Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip, and more. If you liked Nas: Time Is Illmatic then you may also like: Yeah Right!, Very Good Girls, The Wackness, New Jersey Drive, Rappin' 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.

Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.

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Yeah Right!

Invisible skateboards, Eric Koston, super duper slo mo, Brandon Biebel, Marc Johnson, Owen Wilson, Rick McCrank, The Skatetrix, Gino Iannucci, Mike Carroll, The Magic Board, Brian Anderson, and the entire Girl and Chocolate Skateboard teams are all part of Girl Skateboard Films’ fourth video feature, Yeah Right!

Very Good Girls

Two New York City girls make a pact to lose their virginity during their first summer out of high school. When they both fall for the same street artist, the friends find their connection tested for the first time.

The Wackness

Set in New York City in the sweltering summer, The Wackness tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist. Things get more complicated when he falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor's daughter. This is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music and what it takes to be a man.

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.

Rappin'

An ex-con and break-dancer helps save a neighborhood from a greedy developer while trying to win a rap contest.

Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads

Zack Homer takes over managing the barbershop after Joe is killed for trying to rip off his "investor", Mr. Lovejoy. All Zack wants to do is run a traditional barbershop giving traditional haircuts, but modern styles have passed him by and business is slow. One evening, Mr. Lovejoy shows up to offer Zack the same deal he gave to Joe. It could turn his business around, but what will he have to give in return?

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.

Chantel Mitchell, a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT" (the IRT is one of NYC's subway lines). She dreams of medical school, a family, and an escape from the generational poverty and street-corner life her friends seem to have accepted as their lot. But personal and sexual challenges confront Chantel on her way to fulfilling these dreams.

The Addiction

A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.

Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That!

Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That! is a 2006 concert film of the Beastie Boys. It was created by giving camcorders to 50 audience members of a sold out concert at Madison Square Garden on October 9, 2004. The audience members were instructed to keep the cameras rolling at all times. The DVD of this concert movie was released on July 24, 2006 in the UK and July 25, 2006 in the US.

Basquiat

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

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.

Breakin'

A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.

Brown Sugar

Friends since childhood, a magazine editor and a hip-hop record executive stumble into romantic territory.

Menace II Society

A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.

G

A young Hip Hop star named Summer G falls for a middle to upper class sister while in college. After she rejects him for a fellow social climber, Summer G spends ten years building a Hip Hop empire, then moves to the Hamptons where he finds the object of his affections.

Get Rich or Die Tryin'

A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.

Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme

From neighborhood ciphers to the most notorious MC battles, "Freestyle: the Art of Rhyme" captures the electrifying energy of improvisational hip-hop--the rarely recorded art form of rhyming spontaneously. Like preachers and jazz solos, freestyles exist only in the moment, a modern-day incarnation of the African-American storytelling tradition. Shot over a period of more than seven years, it is already an underground cult film in the hip-hop world. The film systematically debunks the false image put out by record companies that hip-hop culture is violent or money-obsessed. Instead, it lets real hip-hop artists, known and unknown, weave their story out of a passionate mix of language, politics, and spirituality.

White Boy

“White Boy Rick”, as he was called, was a novelty: A white teenager seemingly running a major inner-city drug operation. In May of 1987, 17-year-old Richard Wershe Jr. was charged with a non-violent, juvenile drug offense. By the time of his arrest he was already a Detroit legend, frequently making front-page headlines and leading the local television news. In this film, gangsters, hit men, journalists and federal agents struggle to explain why he remains in prison at nearly 50 years old. The possible explanation is more stunning than the crimes Wershe was alleged to have committed.

The Last Dragon

A young man searches for the "master" to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the glow. Along the way he must fight an evil martial arts expert and rescue a beautiful singer from an obsessed music promoter.

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.

3 Strikes

Brian Hooks plays a character who is just released from jail. And the state adopts a "3 strikes" rule for felons that involves serious penalties. Hooks has 2 strikes, and wants to change his life for the better. When a friend picks him up, they are pulled over, and his friend shoots at police officers, and Hooks escapes. Now Hooks, a wanted man, must clear his name of having nothing to do with the shooting.

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.

Sparkle

Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.

Wild Style

Legendary New York graffiti artist Lee Quinones plays the part of Zoro, the city's hottest and most elusive graffiti writer. The actual story of the movie concerns the tension between Zoro's passion for his art and his personal life, particularly his strained relationship with fellow artist Rose.

Play'd: A Hip Hop Story

Jaxx is an aspiring rapper/singer who is signed to a west coast record label run by Domino Breed, a tyrant who rules almost every aspect of his artist's career - and life. Similar to the real events leading to the death of 2Pac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., a east coast/west coast battle goes on leading to death and deceit

Wonderstruck

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

A Thousand and One

Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.

All This Panic

Shot over a three-year period with unparalleled intimacy and access, ALL THIS PANIC is a feature length documentary that takes an intimate look at the interior lives of a group of teenage girls as they come of age in Brooklyn. A potent mix of vivid portraiture and vérité, we follow the girls as they navigate the ephemeral and fleeting transition between childhood and adulthood.

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Exploring the pre-fame years of the celebrated American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and how New York City, its people, and tectonically shifting arts culture of the late 1970s and '80s shaped his vision.

The Quiet One

A documentary account of the rehabilitation at the Wiltwyck School of an emotionally disturbed black boy who is unwanted, misunderstood, and inwardly tortured.

The Captains

The Captains is a feature length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors whom have portrayed Starship captains within the illustrious science-fiction franchise.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

When Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested in South Central Los Angeles in 2010 as the suspected murderer of a string of young black women, police hailed it as the culmination of 20 years of investigations. Four years later documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield took his camera to the alleged killer’s neighborhood for another view.

The Forty-Year-Old Version

Desperate for a breakthrough as she nears the big 4-0, struggling New York City playwright Radha finds inspiration by reinventing herself as a rapper.

Downtown '81

The film is a day in the life of a young artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who needs to raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. He wanders the downtown streets carrying a painting he hopes to sell, encountering friends, whose lives (and performances) we peek into.

Backfire

After a botched robbery escalates to homicide, a north Philly gun runner has to escape or outsmart the south Philly Italian mob as they close in for vengeance.

Style Wars

Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Making Of West Side Story

A documentary which shows, in great detail, the making of the 1985 Bernstein-conducted recording of the entire score of "West Side Story", featuring operatic stars.

J. Cole: 4 Your Eyez Only

This documentary follows rapper J. Cole's 2016 HBO concert film feature on the making of his fourth studio album 4 Your Eyez Only. The film Includes musical performances from Cole, as well as stories from low-income residents in cities around the country, such as Baton Rouge, Atlanta, and Cole's hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later

Documentary film exploring the lives of the people at the flashpoint of the LA riots, 25 years after the uprising made national headlines and highlighted the racial divide in America.

Blondie's New York and the Making of Parallel Lines

The story behind Blondie's album Parallel Lines, which sold 16 million copies and captured the spirit of 1970s New York at a time of poverty, crime and an exploding artistic life.

My Mic Sounds Nice: A Truth About Women and Hip Hop

Ava DuVernay focuses on the history of female MCs in the hip hop industry in this short documentary that features Missy Elliott, Salt-N-Pepa, Eve, Jean Grae, Roxanne Shante, Trina, The Lady of Rage, and many more.

Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool

A musical documentary accompaniment to the 1994 benefit compilation album concerning AIDS in the African-American community.

A Royal Queens Christmas

A prince finds his way to Queens during Christmas when a local woman enlists his help with a children's Christmas show.

Dreams Don't Die

Two young kids in love, one young graffiti artist and the other a foster-child, find trouble on the mean streets on the other side of the river in New York City. Officer Charles Banks finds young Danny tagging subway cars and then catches Teiresa selling drugs for another mislead teen, Kirk. The officer, instead of turning both of them in, gives both teens a chance to make more of their lives together. Changing their ways turns out to be more challenging than first thought.

Tony Bennett: Duets II - The Great Performances

Bennett again recorded his greatest hits with a celebrated list of artists and Duets II made music history by debuting top of the Billboard chart. Duets II: The Great Performances is a visually stunning accompaniment to the album, featuring full song performances as they were recorded live in the studio. Tony Bennett and his duet partners provide their insights along the way, offering an inside look into the making of a landmark album.

Harlem Is Heaven

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson made his movie acting debut in this 1932 film, featuring Putney Dandridge, James Baskett (Oscar winner for "Song of the South"), Cotton Club dancer Anita Boyer, Henri Wassell, Alma Smith, Bob Sawyer, and composer/bandleader Eubie Blake and his orchestra.

Capturing Avatar

Capturing Avatar is a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Avatar. It uses footage from the film's development, as well as stock footage from as far back as the production of Titanic in 1995. Also included are numerous interviews with cast, artists, and other crew members. The documentary was released as a bonus feature on the extended collector's edition of Avatar.

Piece by Piece

Piece by Piece is an unparalleled motion picture experience that captures the magic and brilliance of Pharrell Williams’ creative genius, one LEGO® brick at a time. Uninterested in making a traditional film about his life, Pharrell set out to tell his story in a way that would set audience’s imaginations free. Developed from his singular vision, Piece by Piece defies genres and expectations to transport audiences into a LEGO world where anything is possible.

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