After watching the entertaining new rap biopic, 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’, I thought about how quickly mainstream rap stars are to capitalize on their stardom and spin their stories into multiple mediums. It’s a smart plan, as mainstream rap stardom doesn’t seem to get hurt by “selling underground credâ€� as much as rock culture—the more products a rapper hawks, the more ways kids buy into that fame. That said, I’m waiting for the first “young rock biopicâ€� to come out—I wonder if we’ll get to a place where a band will offer their story for the screen barely a decade out from being able to legally drive. Imagine what could be offered for filmgoers—the Libertines stumble from top UK act to suffer under a heroin-addicted lead singer (taking the Universe’s Top Model down with him). Or Green Day taking the Gillman Street aesthetic to the people and using that momentum for the major labels and to attack George Bush. I’m not being entirely flip here…Get Rich (and 8 Mile, which I really loved) have gotten me thinking about the real differences in music, ones that compel a music celebrity to go for broke on the big screen. Of course, gun violence and emotional hardship are laid out much more bare in rap music than with most rock acts, turning movies into a more visual form of story telling for the former genre then what’s on disc. Still, an interesting topic to consider.