Mapping the Hood: The Genealogy of City Space in "Boyz N the Hood" and "Menace II Society"

Abstract

Do the Right Thing, New Jack City, Boyz N the Hood, Straight Out of Brooklyn, Juice, Menace II Society, Just Another Girl on the IRT. These films share a number of similarities: all represent the artistic output of a group of young, filmliterate African American directors; all, with the exception of New Jack City and possibly Do the Right Thing, detail the hardships of coming of age for their young protagonists; and all place their narratives within the specific geographic boundaries of the hood. Within this context, the hood inhabits precise coordinates: South Central Los Angeles, Watts, Brooklyn, and Harlem. At the same time, it also encompasses a range of possible metaphorical meanings as an urbanscape, meanings which extend beyond the domain of the contemporary hood-film genre and are informed by a rich history of African American urban representation. It can be argued that the recent increase in the production of hood films, coupled with the growing popularity of gangsta' rap to crossover audiences, has resulted in a concurrent rise in mainstream media interest devoted to the problems of the inner city. But the practice and use of urban spaces such as the hood or the ghetto as a metaphor for African American experience is not a phenomenon in African American cultural production, nor does it point to the emergence of new problems existing in these areas. Rather, the hood's roots are deeply planted within a tradition of African American writing dating from the turn of the century and marking a shift from earlier writing in which the rural played a primary metaphorical role.1