Eddie Huang: We Got Two Legends On The Screen!

Boogie is the movie about Alfred "Boogie" Chin, a standout basketball star who dreamed to play for the NBA. It is directed by Eddie Huang and it feature the late rapper Pop Smoke in debut role

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Media mogul, hip-hop clothing designer, celebrity chef, actor and director Eddie Huang is directing a film about the life of Alfred "Boogie" Chin. He also pays homage to slain rapper and actor Pop Smoke (Bashar Jackson).

The movie Boogie is out in theaters.

Media mogul Eddie Huang with Taylor Takahashi and Pop Smoke.

Taylor Takahashi will play Boogie Chin in the movie and Pop Smoke has a role in the movie.

A basketball phenom in Queens struggles to balance the pressure from his parents to go to a good college over chasing his NBA dreams. The coming-of-age film about a teenage Asian American basketball player attempting to balance family and on-court pressures stars Takahashi, Huang’s former assistant turned first-time actor, as the titular character. 

This was supposed to be Pop Smoke's move to the mainstream. This was his first movie role. It was tragically cut short in February 2020 in Los Angeles in an ambush shooting during a music video filming.

Today reports that Huang stated that Pop Smoke was a blessing and he feels that Boogie Chin deserves a place in history. 

Pop Smoke was a replacement for Dave East. The Queens-based rapper was fired out the cannon and Huang had to reach out to Pop Smoke to see if he was interested in the role.

He recalled in an interview with Entertainment Weekly the moment when the rapper Despot, whose real name is Alec Reinstein, mentioned that Pop Smoke played basketball and was a top recruit when he was in high school.

Huang reached out to the young rapper's manager in order to get the script over to his team.

"Pop read the script, loved it, thought it was hilarious,” Huang said. “And he shows up at my crib with nine people. He'd just come from Connecticut, just done a show, rolled up to the crib and we all just played basketball. We played basketball, put them on tape.”

Pop Smoke's debut performance in Boogie shows the young talent was going big.

The "Fresh Off the Boat" author said he knew within the first five minutes of watching Pop Smoke play basketball that he embodied the role of Monk, adding, “This is a blessing. Like, Dave East, I love you, but it's Pop."

Huang revealed he felt he had a special connection with the late rapper and actor. “With Pop, I really felt a trust between us. Pop had scripted lines, and then he would just come off to the side and we'd talk and I'd throw him back in and he would improv and he would do things. He was a real joy to direct and we had a lot of chemistry. … It's like a quarterback and a receiver that had been playing together for 10 years."

Pop Smoke was fatally shot in February 2020 during a home invasion in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. Fans speculated that some of the 20 year old's social media posts may have made him a target. In July 2020, four people were charged with murder, including two juveniles. A fifth person involved in the incident was not charged in connection with the late rapper’s murder.

Pop Smoke's posthumous debut album, “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,” was released on July 3, 2020. The record made history this week after leading Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for the 17th week in a row, which has been the longest tenure since 1990. The young rapper’s memory will also live on through “Boogie" which was released in theaters Friday.

Huang dedicated his directorial debut to the rapper. "At first I made this film and I was like, 'Look, this is for my family and this is to represent for all of us overseas Chinese in America,' but this is Pop's film," Huang told Yahoo Entertainment in an interview earlier this week "It's absolutely dedicated to Pop. I really miss my brother. Once I met him, the film changed."

Fresh off The Boat was a autobiography from Eddie Huang turned into a hit television series on ABC that lasted six seasons.