Huey doesn’t care, but does exploit gay panic to get his own room. That’s why he actually barely appears in “The Story Of Gangstalicious Part Two,” which focuses primarily on Granddad’s reaction to fearing that Riley is gay.
Mos Def’s vocal performance makes him kind of ridiculous, and he does try to sell the fashion world (and Regis and Kelly) on pink bulletproof vests that aren’t actually bulletproof, but he’s just close enough to the line of actually being out that everyone’s reaction to him says more about them than it does him. The secret of Gangstalicious is that he’s a rap Rorschach blot, reflecting everyone else’s attitude-not for nothing does Huey compare him to Oprah. But it’s also kind of sad, amid the humor. Riley is disgusted, sure, and there’s a lot of slobber. What’s important is probably your reaction to the kiss. (Gangstalicious’ favorite rapper is obviously Ice Cube.) The fact that he’s gay is almost tossed off as an aside-are we supposed to be grossed-out by Lincoln and Gangstalicious’ long, wet, slobbery kiss, before Lincoln and his crew miss Riley and ’licious at point-blank range? The real story is that Gangstalicious, like most of the rappers on The Boondocks, are posers, selling something they don’t own. At the end of “The Story Of Gangstalicious,” his homosexuality is close to a punchline, a twist that explains both why he’s being hunted and what thuggin’ love is. It’s not a serious rapper beef or problems from when ’licious was (or wasn’t) in the drug game it’s the plot of an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and that’s the one that doesn’t have Ice-T. (Also, considering where he’ll be at in his next spotlight episode, it’s important that he’s dressed in black this whole time.)įinally, Riley and Gangstalicious are trapped, and Lincoln, the guy who’s been chasing them reveals why he shot Gangstalicious-thuggin’ love. He’s a coward, if maybe a sensible coward (dudes are coming after him with guns, and the label won’t even pay for security?!).
While they’re on the run from his assailants, Riley learns that his hero Gangstalicious is really the type of dude who’s adamant about proper seatbelt safety in a car chase. When we first meet Gangstalicious in “The Story Of Gangstalicious,” he’s embroiled in a beef with Eat Dirt, a bit that goes through a few standard Boondocks rap spoof stuff (people throwing chairs at awards shows) before he gets shot again and winds up in the hospital near the Freemans’ home of Woodcrest, where wannabe Riley (Riley Escobar to you) visits him. More importantly, he’s a deeply closeted gay rapper in the mid-’00s-the spiritual ancestor of Young Thug a few years too soon, a dude who could maybe have been a transformational artist (and Lord Jamar’s worst nightmare) if he’d only had the courage to come out. Voiced by Mos Def, Gangstalicious is a savvy artist and businessman, ’licious is a gangster poser-turned fashion icon. But the best of these, and probably Aaron McGruder’s best non-Freeman, was always Ganstalicious.
BEST THE BOONDOCKS EPISODES FULL
The Boondocks had a full crew of great, memorable rapper characters who were also people, including an actual crew, the perfectly named Lethal Interjection.
BEST THE BOONDOCKS EPISODES TV
There are a ton of horrible fictional rappers, but maybe it’s better to start on a good note with one that worked, from one of the best TV shows in recent memory (if you forget the last season): The Boondocks’ Gangstalicious. Welcome to Phony Rappers, a look at rappers in pop culture. That shit’s important to how people think, and how people think is important to how they act. But whether they’re in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Malibu’s Most Wanted, or Bamboozled, hip-hop characters are often the way rap is packaged for digestion in pop culture narratives. Often, these fictional rappers are terrible collections of dumb stereotypes. Most of the people who write TV and movies are not and have not been rappers, and rarely succeed at depicting them as people. Depicting rappers in pop culture is tricky.