In Dope, actor Shameik Moore and his nerdy friends adorn themselves in Cross Colours hats and Run-D.M.C. tees, dig through crates for classic rap vinyl and write college admission essays on the importance of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day.” But while shooting the buzzed-about movie (in theaters June 19), the 20-year-old actor was bedeviled by an archaic piece of audio equipment. Over and over, he struggled to pop a tape into a vintage Sony WM-F10 Walkman. “It made me feel really young because I didn’t know how to work a…,” says Moore, trailing off. “What do you call it? A tape player?”
The ‘Dope’ Soundtrack Is Awesome, Starting With This Hilarious Pharrell-Produced Song
Such is the generational schism in a film that is both a contemporary teen comedy and a love paean to ’90s hip-hop. Dope tells the story of Malcolm (played by Moore), a retro-rap-obsessed straight-A student/musician from a rough neighborhood in present-day Los Angeles who gets pulled into a criminal life when he’s inadvertently saddled with several kilos of a drug dealer’s molly. The film was executive-produced by Pharrell Williams and Sean “Diddy” Combs, and music is inescapable in it. Along with Moore, a singer-rapper who put out the mixtape I Am Da Beat in 2012 and danced in several Soulja Boy videos, Dope features starring roles from A$AP Rocky and Zoe Kravitz (of the rock band Lolawolf). A legion of young rappers, including Vince Staples, Tyga, Kap G and Casey Veggies, make cameos. The score and soundtrack, assembled by Williams and available June 16 on Columbia, is heavy on classic records like Nas’ 1994 “The World Is Yours” and A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 “Scenario.”
