Jonah Hill grew up obsessed with hip-hop, and it soundtracked every step of his childhood. Unsurprisingly, his five favourite rappers of all time offer up a throwback to that era, as the Mid90s travels back to simpler times.
The actor has worn his love of the genre as a badge of honour throughout his career, and Hill famously interpolated it into his own work when he made his directorial debut in 2018 with Mid90s. The celebrated film followed a 13-year-old boy in Los Angeles whose life revolved around skateboarding and listening to music.
While on the promotional trail for the film, Hill opened up about his love of hip-hop. He even revealed that he dreamt of working in music rather than the film industry as a child. Although he had no ambitions to be a rapper, the Superbad star instead fancied himself as a producer. During an appearance on The Breakfast Club, he said: “This is an exclusive. I didn’t have an emcee name, but I made a lot of beats.”
He added: “This is very embarrassing – it was Spindrome. Like syndrome, but spin. It was wack, dude. I’m not a good emcee or a good producer – I mean, I kind of made fire beats – but I still had an MPC [drum machine] and was making beats for six years.”
Hill felt inspired to represent hip-hop fairly in film, which was one of the main inspirations behind the motion picture. He continued: “Hip-hop, like skateboarding, is always misrepresented in film. It’s always shown – people driving through the hood or popping champagne – as some exploitative dumb stereotype. And for me, it was very important to make an elegant, honest, emotional film that showed hip-hop as what it is for me, which is the emotional backbone of my childhood.”
Elsewhere on the promotional run, Hill also popped by Genius’ HQ and revealed his top five list of rappers of all time. The only act from the contemporary era who made his selection is Kendrick Lamar, who he called “one of the most singular important artists.”
He also added the names of A Tribe Called Quest, Big L, Gang Starr, and Mobb Deep alongside Kendrick. Although admittedly, this list isn’t set in stone, and later on in the conversation, when Kanye West’s name is brought up, Hill reveals that he’d also make his way into his top five, but he didn’t say who’d be chopped to accommodate Ye.
Watch the full conversation below.
Jonah Hill’s five favourite rappers:
- Kendrick Lamar
- A Tribe Called Quest
- Big L
- Gang Starr
- Mobb Deep
