The Great Hip Hop Hoax

2013

1h 32m

Documentary

Comedy

Music

List

89%

18 Reviews

Tomatometer

70%

50+ Ratings

Audience Score

Scottish friends Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain adopt fake accents and pass themselves off as a California rap group.

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Audience Member

Intriguing and almost unbelievable story. Interviews are great and give insight into these strange characters.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Thought provoking documentary about music industry, the pursuit for success, but also how innocent lies can destroy lives and friendship

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting documentary about two chancers from Scotland who fooled the record industry into thinking they were American so they could be signed to a record label. I do not care for this type of music much, but it was interesting to see how the story played out.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is like something out of an 80's comedy. A fascinating, funny, dark, insane documentary about two lads from Scotland who pretend to be a hip hop duo from L.A and in the process land a record deal. A must see.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The fooled them all - This gripping documentry was so so so good and the boys so likeable. How they managed to do it who knows. They did become a bit creepily to much like their make up alto agos but the never faltered.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An intriguing insight into the gullibility of the music industry.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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Jeanie Finlay

Director

Gavin Bain

Actor

Billy Boyd

Actor

Jeanie Finlay

Writer

Stewart Le Marechal

Executive Producer

Jonny Persey

Executive Producer

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Mike McCahill

Guardian

It's mostly a poppy, funny anecdote, if no advert for the music biz: Daniel Bedingfield emerges as one of its savvier souls.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 5, 2013

Full Review

Sophie Monks Kaufman

Little White Lies

Undoubtably, the best reason to watch The Great Hip Hop Hoax is the delirious schadenfreude of seeing high-level execs getting taken for a ride by a pair of chancers.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 5, 2013

Full Review

David Gritten

Daily Telegraph (UK)

A smart morality tale about the illusory nature of celebrity, and the pressures it exerts once attained.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 5, 2013

Full Review

Graeme Tuckett

Stuff.co.nz

A story so good, it can only be true.

Dec 28, 2020

Full Review

Jim Ross

TAKE ONE Magazine

THE GREAT HIP HOP HOAX is a mild indictment of the artifice of modern music, and a portrait of obsession and the malleability of identity. It may leave you questioning whether the hoax referred to is the audacious Gavin and Billy, or modern music itself.

Feb 13, 2020

Full Review

Ben Nicholson

CineVue

A strange and enthralling story, about the absurd lengths gone to in the name of fame, that Jeanie Finlay has presented with compassion and insight.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 2, 2019

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Synopsis

Scottish friends Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain adopt fake accents and pass themselves off as a California rap group.

Director: Jeanie Finlay
Producer: Stewart Le Marechal, Jonny Persey, Jerry Rothwell
Screenwriter: Jeanie Finlay
Genre: Documentary, Comedy, Music
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2017
Runtime: 1h 32m