Baby Boy opens with a shocking, surreal scene of a grown man in the womb. He is Jody, a twenty-year-old African-American man-child, who still lives with his mother (A.J. Johnson) in South Central Los Angeles, despite having fathered two children by two different women: Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) and Peanut (Tamara Bass). Jody is played by Tyrese Gibson, the model, musician and MTV VJ, who invests the role with humor, heat and a touching vulnerability. Jody is haunted by dreams of his own violent death. He rejects Yvette's loyalty by cheating on her. He resents his mother's openly sexual relationship with Melvin (the great Ving Rhames), an old-school gangster who wants Jody out of the house. The only person who isn't pushing Jody to grow up is his gang-banger friend Sweet Pea (Omar Gooding, Cuba's brother). Writer-director John Singleton (Shaft) revisits the South Central scene of his 1991 debut film, Boyz N the Hood. The new film lacks the cumulative impact of Boyz, since Singleton allows repetition and sermonizing to dull his theme about the infantilization of black males. But Baby Boy leaves you shaken. Gibson's scenes with an electric Snoop Dogg as an ex-con packing a grudge and a gun give the film the power and potency of rap.

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”