Above the Rim (1994)

In Above the Rim Tupac Shakur plays Birdie, a Harlem gangster who runs a streetball tournament and wants a young talent on his team. The film was shot in the fall of 1993, during exactly the weeks when Tupac’s life began to come apart.

Credits

The story

Kyle-Lee Watson is a gifted high school player hoping for a scholarship to Georgetown. Between him and success stand two brothers: Shep, a former playground star haunted by a friend’s death who now works as a school security guard, and Birdie, the neighborhood drug dealer. Birdie lures Kyle with money, women and nights at his club to play on his team in a streetball tournament he’s betting heavily on. Kyle has to decide whose lead he follows.

Filming in the fall of 1993

While the cameras rolled, events piled up. On October 31, 1993, Tupac was arrested in Atlanta, accused of shooting two off-duty police officers; the charges were later dropped. On November 18, 1993, the incident in a Manhattan hotel occurred that led to his sexual abuse trial. More on the court cases page.

A year later, on November 30, 1994, Tupac was shot in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in New York. The next day the jury convicted him of sexual abuse but acquitted him of the more serious charges and of the weapons charge. In February 1995 he was sentenced to 18 months to four and a half years in prison. See also Shootings.

Reviews

Critics found the film formulaic and Tupac strong. Peter Travers wrote in Rolling Stone that “it’s Shakur who steals the show”his legal problems were well known, but there was no denying his power as an actor. Brian Lowry of Variety complained about clichés and technical flaws but called Tupac “an effectively menacing heavy.” Roger Ebert gave three stars out of four, praising the cast and the street locations while noting that the plot goes on automatic pilot in creating Birdie. Germany’s film-dienst saw a heavily contrived social drama that works mainly as a portrait of its milieu.

The soundtrack

The Death Row Records soundtrack became far bigger than the film. It features Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg, a major hit, and Pour Out a Little Liquor by Tupac’s group Thug Life. Two more Tupac songs, Pain and Loyal to the Game with Treach, only made the cassette edition. Details in the discography.

In context

Above the Rim was the last Tupac film released while he was alive; every later film opened after his death. With Birdie he again played a man of the streets, as in Juice, but this time controlled and seductive rather than unhinged. In Germany the film came out on video in April 1995 as Above the Rim, Nahe dem Abgrund.