Ice-T Seriously Doubts “New Jack City” Remake Will Live Up To Original

Ice-T revolutionized hip-hop in the course of his career. These days, he’s more in the film and television industry than he is in music but he’s still found success. He might be the OG of gangsta rap but he also starred in some of the most celebrated gangster films in cinematic history. New Jack City was the first role he landed in a movie and to this day, it remains a cult classic.

Last month, a New Jack City reboot was announced to the dismay of many fans of the original. Snowfall’s Malcolm M. Mays is writing the film but even so, many are doubting the outcome of the remake. Ice-T recently spoke to HipHopDX about the possibility of the New Jack City remake. Long story short, he doesn’t know how they’ll be able to pull it off.

“Nobody contacted me or anything, so I very highly doubt that I’m involved in the new one. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to pull it off for a couple of reasons. One is Wesley’s performance. It’s going to be hard to match Nino Brown,” he said before pondering on the direction of the film. ” It was about the crack era during the crack era. All the music was current — from the New Jack Swing music and the stuff Teddy Riley was doing. It was based on an actual operation out of San Francisco Felix Mitchell had going, where people were getting high in a building and never leaving… So right now, you’re in a opioid epidemic, but I just don’t know how they could flip it.”

In an era where classics are constantly being remade, Ice-T added that they typically don’t come out good and pointed out to a recent film as an example. “I mean, they tried to remake Superfly and that sucked. I mean, it was a valid attempt, but you can’t make a movie that’s just a big music video,” he concluded. 

In related news, Wesley Snipes also said he didn’t want anything to do with the remake. So, there’s that.