Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious is downright chubby with actors playing rappers. But what about when rappers attempt to play actor? We run down the top rap-tors' resumés. By Eric Alt

Common- Movies: Smokin' Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted
For a guy who positions himself as an urban poet, Common seems to get his thug posturing fix through movie roles. Next up: He'll be fighting on the side of the resistance in Terminator Salvation.
Acting Calibre: Surprisingly solid. Won't ruin your movie, won't upstage the stars. He seems pretty cool with having his cue forever be something like "will someone shoot this motherfucker?"

DMX- Movies: Belly, Romeo Must Die, Exit Wounds, Cradle 2 the Grave
Back before Ol' Dark Man decided to make a career out of getting arrested, he gave acting a try for a second. The results? Well… the guy barked his lines like he barked his lyrics.
Acting Calibre: Weak. He can glare his ass off, but nobody ask him to do anything else.

Snoop Dogg- Movies: Half Baked, Baby Boy, Training Day, Bones, The Wash, Starsky and Hutch, Soul Plane, Hood of Horror, Racing Stripes
Snoop deserves credit for A) never saying "no" to anything offered to him (the above is only a fraction of his filmography) and B) refusing to take himself too seriously. He may have limited range, but he's self-effacing enough to be welcome onscreen.
Acting Calibre: Decent sidekick, but don't expect him to carry your movie. Keeping his scenes short and funny is the way to go.

RZA- Movies: Coffee and Cigarettes, American Gangster
Deadpan and cool, RZA actually does the Wu proud in his limited acting work. The guy could probably do this full time, but that would mean less time knocking out badass film scores, so let's keep things where they are. Still, wouldn't you love to see this guy on the red carpet, if only to hear Nancy O'Dell call him "Ar-Zee-Ay"?
Acting Calibre: Good. But his music is better.

The Fat Boys- Movies: The Disorderlies
C'mon, seriously? These guys were the Three Stooges if they had no comic timing and had all eaten Shemp.
Acting Calibre: Embarrassing, even for fat people.

Mos Def- Movies: Bamboozled, Monster's Ball, Showtime, The Italian Job, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 16 Blocks, Be Kind Rewind,
More people probably know Mos Def the actor better than they know Mos Def the rapper, so that should tell you everything (like, you need to listen to better music, Hannah Montana). Def has soon remarkable flexibility, doing comedy, action—hell, even poncy British sci-fi.
Acting Calibre: Accomplished. Mos is in it for the long haul.

Ice T- Movies: Breakin', Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, New Jack City, Ricochet, Surviving the Game, Tank Girl, Johnny Mnemonic, Leprechaun in the Hood, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Law & Order (yeah, it's TV. Don't nitpick)
Ice T has been in more video store clearance bin movies than Randy fucking Quaid, but at least the man plays his thug-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder bit with everything he's got. And anyone who has been in Breakin' 2 and Leprechaun 5 and once played a mutant kangaroo is badass.
Acting Calibre: Decent, and his film work is head and shoulders about anything he's spit into a mic in the last 20 years.

Queen Latifah- Movies: Jungle Fever, Set it Off, The Bone Collector, Chicago, Bringing Down the House, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Beauty Shop, Taxi, Stranger Than Fiction, The Secret Life of Bees, The Perfect Holiday
Getting nominated for an Oscar pretty much solidifies your acting career, and the Queen is almost always likeable onscreen. Again, the only song of her's we can instantly recall is "U.N.I.T.Y." and that thing was written back when having Naughty By Nature guest-rap meant something—so it must be working out for her.
Movie Calibre: The Sandra Bullock of rappers turned actors (the Oscar nom doesn't mean shit since it was really for singing more than acting. Hear that, Jennifer Hudson?)

P. Diddy- Movies: Monster's Ball, Made, A Raisin in the Sun
Gape-jawed Puffy manages to do in movies what he can't do in the music world—that is, not be cringingly embarrassing at every turn. He might actually be able to make a go of it if he could actually muster a facial expression beyond "Fish that's just been slapped in the face."
Acting Calibre: Moderate. Just don't be surprised if he wants to remix your end credits song.

Vanilla Ice- Movies: Cool As Ice
Fun Fact: Back in the early 90s, everyone was allowed to do one movie. This was his.
Acting Calibre: Corey Haim after recent head trauma.

Andre 3000- Movies: Hollywood Homicide, Revolver, Four Brothers, Be Cool, Semi-Pro
Andre 3000 is a surprise because not only is he a good actor, he's really adept at comedy (something even a few established actors are afraid of). He's genuinely funny and never annoying. Who cares if OutKast never releases another 4-CD quadruple concept album? Besides, aren't Gnarls Barkley the new OutKast anyway?
Acting Calibre: Comedy gold.

50 Cent- Movies: Get Rich or Die Tryin', Home of the Brave, Righteous Kill
Even though Diddy has to struggle with one unfortunate facial expression, he's still got one up on Fitty, who apparently has no facial expressions. At all. For three weeks on the set of Get Rich or Die Tryin', Fitty was replaced by an egg crate and a knit cap and no one noticed.
Acting Calibre: Stiffer than Terrence Howard backstage at the Ms. Universe pageant.

Will Smith- Movies: Six Degrees of Separation, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, Enemy of the State, Wild Wild West, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Ali, Hancock, Hitch, I Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I am Legend, Seven Pounds
Smith has so taken over Hollywood, his days as an MC seem like a distant, bad dream. In fact, his stint as the Fresh Prince seems like one of those goof albums actors do after they've already become famous, not what they did to become famous. Of course, calling his nursery rhymes "raps" is probably given them too much credit to begin with. He was always an actor.
Acting Calibre: The only true A-list representative.

Ice Cube- Movies: Boyz in the Hood, The Glass Shield, Anaconda, Friday, Dangerous Ground, Three Kings, Ghosts of Mars, Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, XXX: State of the Union, First Sunday, Are We There Yet? Are We Done Yet? (those last two are movies and our actual questions)
O'Shea seemed well on his way to hitting Hollywood so deep, so deep, he'd put its ass to sleep. He crushed stand-out roles in good movies (Boyz in the Hood, Three Kings) but slowly started to exchange that cred for increasingly more insipid family-friendly fare. That's right, your kids think that guy from N.W.A. is cuddly and hilarious.
Acting Calibre: Could have been Denzel, now he's late-career Eddie Murphy.

Method Man- Movies: Cop Land, Belly, How High, Stung, Garden State, Soul Plane. The Wackness, The Wire
If you need someone to be slightly menacing, but also up for a good time, then Meth is your man. He's not going to be exchanging monologues with Philip Seymour Hoffman any time soon, but, hell, the guy was just the right side of creepy and shady in Garden State. Just don't ask him to do a Jamaican accent (ya heard, The Wackness?).
Acting Calibre: You won't see him on the red carpet, but he'll be in your Netflix queue.

Redman- Movies: How High, Stung
Doesn't get hired unless he's riding shotgun with Method Man. What does that tell you?
Acting Calibre: Rob Schneider

Q-Tip- Movies: Poetic Justice, Prison Song, She Hate Me
Q's acting work is similar to his post-Tribe career—inoffensive and absolutely forgettable. He's as soft and disposable as his namesake, and if he doesn't do another movie it's not likely anyone's going to care. Or notice.
Acting Calibre: He acts?

Heavy D- Movies: New Jersey Drive, Life, Big Trouble, Step Up
The big man is a smooth operator behind a mic or in front of a camera. Why he doesn't have more films than he does chins is a mystery. Did you see him in Big Trouble? Go and do yourself a favor. He's funny as hell. Heavy needs to be a chatty Tarantino hitman some time real soon.
Acting Calibre: Good, needs to work more.

Ludacris- Movies: The Wash, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Crash, Hustle & Flow, Fred Claus, RockNRolla, Max Payne
The dude allowed himself to be digitally midgeted into a DJ Elf in Fred Claus, how's that for fearless? Ludacris seems to be on the verge of pulling a Dwayne Johnson—dropping the cutsey nickname and going at this acting thing for real. Chris Bridges is a perfecly fine name, and it'll look better on the call sheet next to Robert Downey Jr.
Acting Calibre: The next Mos Def? Perhaps.