It's About Time! Library Of Congress Inducts 'House Party' Into The National Film Registry
Kid ‘n Play are finally taking their place in the Library of Congress – and they might just blow the roof off the joint.
Earlier this week, the library of the United States announced this year’s inductees to the National Film Registry. The annual honor is bestowed on 25 films for their “historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions” to the medium of film – 2022’s batch of honorees are an eclectic bunch headlined by Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Marvel’s Iron Man, and – at last – Reginald Hudlin’s breakout hit House Party, a high school comedy that captured 1990 in all of its high-topped glory.
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House Party centers around, well, a house party thrown by three teenage friends, played by hiphop duo Kid ‘n Play with Lawrence on the ones and twos. The trio navigates the obstacles and hardships of teenage life at the turn of the decade while they put together an unforgettable night for themselves and their classmates filled with rap battles, dance offs and the most outrageously ‘90s haircuts ever put to film.
The Library of Congress called House Party a “comedy landmark” as it posited that the film “put Black teenagers, hip-hop music and New Jack swing culture directly into the American cultural mainstream.” House Party acts as a perfect cultural time capsule as it captures the style and sound of the late ‘80s to early ‘90s in vivid, vivacious fashion.
Hudlin adapted the movie from his award-winning Harvard student film and originally wrote the script for The Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff before Kid ‘n Play stepped up to the plate for their breakout roles. In a 2020 interview with Decider, Hudlin said of the film’s applicability to the modern era, “If you make it in the modern day, you have to reflect where the culture is now. The issues are the same, but you would tell it differently.”
Well, hopefully LeBron James took Hudlin’s words to heart – the NBA legend has produced a remake written by Atlanta showrunner Stephen Glover which is set to premier in early 2023. They’ll have to update quite a bit of the signature style and sounds that made House Party a perfect pick for the National Film Registry, which could open the door for a new generation of haircuts to be marveled at by people in 2050.
