Before Dr. Dre, there was a Doctor Dre. And an Ed Lover. These two pioneering New York rap DJ’s starred in Who’s the Man? (See the trailer here.) This movie, in a feature directing debut by Ted Demme, is what I will claim as a cult comedy classic from the heyday of the intersection of New Jack Swing, hip hop soul, and Hollywood.
Dre and Lover star as two average guys who work, or should I say, try to work as barbers in a Harlem barbershop. They can’t quite make the cut at the barbershop, so their friend and father figure, Nick, who owns the barbershop, pushes them to join the police academy. Though they don’t seem to be qualified for anything much, the duo actually make it as rookie cops.
This plot line may seem totally unbelievable nowadays, but the innocence and good intentions of Dre and Lover joining the force make it seem totally believable. There’s a scene in which they confront a local drug pusher played by Ice-T and Lover takes the drugs from him and flushes it down the toilet. These guys love and respect their neighborhood and are doing their jobs right.
Every scene is stuffed with hip hop legends scenes filled with who’s who of comedy. Looking at the cast and cameo listing now on Wikipedia, I’m shocked at just how many legends are on the list. Everyone from Bernie Mac, Terrance Howard, Vinny Pastore, Kim Chan, Salt- N-Pepa, Colin Quinn, Busta Rhymes, Heavy D, House of Pain, Queen Latifah, Naughty By Nature, Tribe Called Quest, Scottie Pippen, and on and on and on.
Denis Leary is hilarious as the cruel Sergeant of Lover and Dre. Only Leary can mispronounce the names of Doctor Dre and Ed Lover in ways you didn’t think possible with just those letters.
Who’s the Man? isn’t just a funny movie about a skinny and chubby goofball playing cops like in Police Academy. The film takes a serious turn when Nick dies in an explosion at his barber shop which prompts Doctor Dre and Ed Lover to really be police officers and pursue who killed Nick. And because Dre and Lover are from the neighborhood, they know exactly who to talk to and where to look to find Nick’s killer. It turns out that it was a friend of Nick’s who had him killed because Nick refused to sell his shop to make way for a gentrification project.
Dre and Lover eventually leave the police force and return to the barber shop. The most unexpected ending but perhaps a statement about Harlem is when oil spills from the ground of the barbershop. In-between the laughs and the star cameos, there’s an actual story to Who’s the Man?
Part of the story is to tell the world that Harlem and many communities like it are being threatened by gentrification. Rich and usually white developers are swooping in and buying up the land and forcing the current residents, usually people of color, out of the neighborhoods. But despite the rough edges, places like Harlem should be nurtured and saved because there is gold, or in this case oil, to be found.
The irony is that even though this is a film, I believe I first came across it because of the soundtrack. The early 90’s was filled with the emergence of New Jack Swing and hip hop soul artists and like every other teenager, I was a huge fan of Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, and Notorious B.I.G. All three are featured on the soundtrack which was produced by Sean Combs, Andre Harrell and others from the Uptown/MCA roster. I think we rented the movie because of the soundtrack and I will always remember the ending credits with the upbeat love song, Loving You by Crystal Johnson.
Who’s the Man? is not currently available on any streaming services which is a shame. The movie encapsulates the spring of that whole new era of New Jack Swing and hip hop soul making its way into the mainstream. It’s like the first Avengers landing but of hip hop stars in Hollywood. And yes, the movie even has respect from critics like Roger Ebert. If you’re a true hip hop head and fan of the greats from back in the day, then you gotta check out Who’s the Man?
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