Hip-hop cinema is born with the release of Ernest Dickerson's Juice

Spike Lee's third film, Do the Right Thing, released in 1989, had brought the sensibilities of the hip-hop era to the multiplex and ushered in a new wave of black film-making. Hollywood began to give black directors decent budgets and started casting rappers as leads. After Ice Cube excelled in John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood and Ice-T impressed in New Jack City, Ernest Dickerson – Lee's long-time cinematographer – topped the lot with the superb Juice, starring Tupac Shakur in an eerily prophetic role.