Joe Coscarelli

Like that sort of has the best of both, I think, in that sense.

And then you have the really weird twists where the person plays themselves.

You know, I mentioned 8 Mile, Eminem playing a version of himself.

Purple Rain, which we've gone this far without talking about, in which Prince plays a version of himself.

Well, for starters, you have to purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

What?

You have to purify yourself in Lake Minnetonka.

And that can really work if it's done at the right moment.

Parodies.

Yeah.

And, you know, that's one where you get a little bit of Easter egg out of the son and obviously the resemblance, which is there, the voice.

helps also.

But that, I don't know that you can really get a ton of mileage out of that if the movie itself isn't working.

People liked Shaded at Compton.

It made a lot of money, I think, because there wasn't that much like it.

You don't often get these sort of

serious, recent-ish history rap biopics.

They come in clumps.

There was a Notorious B.I.G.

one that flopped in the late aughts, came out a little bit before Shade Outta Compton, which then became this big hit, and then immediately after you have something like the Tupac one, which again just came and went.