''Def Jam's How to Be a Player'' is a 1997 American sex comedy film, starring

Bill Bellamy William Bellamy (born April 7, 1965) is an American actor and stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian. Bellamy first gained national notoriety on HBO's Russell Simmons' ''Def Comedy Jam'', where he is credited for creating or coining the phrase "bo ...

, Natalie Desselle and Bernie Mac. The film was

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

by Lionel C. Martin, and

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

by Mark Brown and Demetria Johnson. The '' How to Be a Player Soundtrack'', released by

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

on August 5, 1997, featured the hit single " Big Bad Mamma" by Foxy Brown featuring

Dru Hill Dru Hill is an American R&B boy band, whose repertoire included soul, hip hop soul and gospel music. The group was founded in Baltimore in 1992 by Tamir "Nokio the N-Tity" Ruffin, and as of 2023, is still active. Dru Hill recorded seven top 40 ...

Plot

Drayton "Dray" Jackson , who works as an A&R representative for

, is a playboy with only one goal in life: to have sex with as many women as possible. He dreams that he gets caught cheating on his girlfriend, Lisa, only to wake up from the dream to remind him not to get caught. The women he sleeps with are all a secret from Lisa, who comes over to his house for a bit to see him, before heading off for work. Dray's sister, Jenny, also comes by his house to remind him about the cookout. Dray becomes fascinated with Jenny's friend Katrina, and invites her to a party his friend is hosting; she tells him that she is busy. Jenny cannot stand Dray's way of treating women. As soon as Dray leaves, she and Katrina snoop around and find Dray's mobile black book of his women. Jenny plans to set Dray up at the party in a hostile environment, hoping that Dray, if he gets caught, will reform his ways. After Jenny and Katrina call the women and receive their numbers, they both leave. Dray makes his daily rounds of sex with his women, including his three main ones: Robin, a married woman, Amber, a sexy thespian, and Sherri, a freaky dominatrix. Afterwards, Dray goes to the cookout briefly before continuing on to the party. When he sees all of the women there, including Jenny and Katrina, he understands that he has been set up by them. He figures out a way get all of the women out of the party, without them noticing about each other and confrontation about Dray. He then heads to Jenny and Katrina to explain that when a player is put in a hostile environment, a player doesn't reform: he adapts to the situation. Dray leaves to go home and wait for Lisa to come see him after a long day at work. While Dray is waiting for Lisa, Katrina shows up at the last minute to apologize. However, she has become fascinated with Dray and has been fantasizing about him. Before leaving, she makes a move on Dray and they have sex, apparently fulfilling her fantasy. Lisa returns, but Katrina is able to leave without her noticing. However as Lisa changes into her nightwear, she sees a dress, bra, and heels with smears of lipstick spelling out: "Busted, Adapt." Realizing that Katrina has set him up, Dray knows that he finally got caught.

Cast

as Drayton "Dray" Jackson * Natalie Desselle as Jennifer "Jenny" Jackson * Bernie Mac as Buster * Pierre as David * Anthony Johnson as Spootie * J. Anthony Brown as Uncle Snook * Max Julien as Uncle Fred * Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins as Kilo *

Gilbert Gottfried Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, best-known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York dialect, his squint, and his edgy, often-controversial, sense of humor. Hi ...

as Tony the Doorman *

Jerod Mixon Jerod Mixon (born May 24, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotion ...

as Kid #1 *

Jamal Mixon Jamal Mixon (born June 17, 1983) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ernie Klump Jr. in the film ''The Nutty Professor (1996 film), The Nutty Professor'', and its sequel, ''Nutty Professor II: The Klumps''. He is the younger ...

as Kid #2 * Lark Voorhies as Lisa * Mari Morrow as Katrina * Bebe Drake as Mama Jackson *

Beverly Johnson Beverly Ann Johnson (born October 13, 1952) is an American model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. Johnson rose to fame when she became the first Black model to appear on the cover of American '' Vogue'' in August 1974, after Donyale Luna w ...

as Robin *

Natashia Williams Natashia Williams-Blach (born August 2, 1978) is an American actress known for appearing in TV shows like '' The Vampire Diaries'' and '' She Spies''. Biography Natashia Williams began her film and television career at the age of 16, appearing f ...

as Girl in Pink at Malibu party *Stacii Jae Johnson as Sherri * Elise Neal as Nadine * Amber Smith as Amber

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives the film a rating of 14% from 14 reviews.

Soundtrack

References

External links

* * * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, how_to_be_a_player 1997 films 1997 comedy films 1997 directorial debut films 1990s American films 1990s English-language films African-American comedy films American sex comedy films Def Jam Recordings Gramercy Pictures films PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films