All Grown Up: 'Boyz N The Hood' Turns 20-Years-Old

It's hard to believe that Boyz N the Hood was released this month 20 years ago (1991). While some of you reading this weren't even born yet, those who do remember this movie recall how big of a deal it was. It was the start of several movie careers including John Singleton, Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long and Cuba Gooding Jr. Nowadays, when you look at how far some of those people have come, it's amazing to see where they used to be.

NPR takes a look at the making of Boyz N the Hood, one of the most classic hood movies of all time:

In the original trailer for John Singleton's 1991 film Boyz N The Hood, violent images play over a thudding drum track, as voice over introduces viewers to the hard heart of South Central Los Angeles. "This is Los Angeles, gang capital of the nation." Then, "In South Central L.A., it's tough to beat the streets."

Even before the strain between police and the black community became symbolized by the videotaped beating of Rodney King at the hands of LAPD officers, the city was becoming synonymous with crack cocaine and gang violence. In particular, South Central was notorious for gang colors and drive-by shootings.

Into this environment, 20 years ago this month, Singleton's film exploded off the screen, challenging the tabloid stereotypes of urban life and chipping away at notions of who could and should be making movies in Hollywood.

Stephanie Allain, who worked at Columbia Pictures at the time, was one of the few female executives — and one of the few executives of color — at a major Hollywood studio. In May of 1990, Allain says, she was looking for an assistant who would read scripts for the studio.

"I heard about a kid who was still in school who was interested in the job," Allain says. "So I called him up. Little John shows up in my office and he starts telling me about the script he wrote. And he's telling me how he's gonna direct it, and he's not even out of school and he has an agent. And I'm thinking, 'Okay, this kid's not really a reader, he's a writer. Let me read the script.'"

The kid was 22-year-old John Singleton, and his script told the story of Tre, Ricky and Doughboy, three friends growing up with dreams of one day moving beyond their violent circumstances in South Central. The script focused on the relationship between Tre and his father, Furious Styles, a single parent trying to instill values in his troubled son contrary to the pressures and temptations of his environment.

"It's a story that a lot of those cats used to make in the '80s, in the suburbs, but made in the 'hood," Singleton says of the films that inspired Boyz N The Hood. "I loved the pictures, but none of those people looked like me. So me and my friends would catch the bus up to Hollywood, and we'd go see the movies, and we spent the whole time going down Vermont talking about the movie we would make. And the movie that we would make would always be something like what I did with Boyz N The Hood."

Singleton's script was written with power and immediacy. Allain says it absolutely floored her.

Read more at NPR.