Mario Van Peebles Directs First Rap Video With Rej3ctz' 'Cat Daddy 2.0'

Mario Van Peebles has directed his first-ever Hip-Hop video, with rappers The Rej3ctz and their new video "Cat Daddy 2.0," which they hope will be as successful as the original "Cat Daddy" video, which has over 20,000,000 YouTube views to date.

The video begins with Rej3ctz group members Mowii, Bounc3 and Pee W33 boasting about how they are going to master their first movie auditions.

They realize they are in for more than they realized when they meet their competition: rapper Quincy Brown (Sean 'Diddy Combs' son), rapper YG and Carlos Olivero (Menudo).

One by one, the group members are rejected by director Mario Van Peebles, until his teenaged sons (The MVP Boys), his daughter Maya and DJ Charisma (Power 106) come up with the idea of letting the rejects perform.

“Teenagers are listening to a lot of new music," said Mario Van Peebles, who directed movies like Rappin', New Jack City and most recently 50 Cent's movie Things Fall Apart."

"It’s not just about gangsta rap and hyper capitalism wish fulfillment anymore,” Mario Van Peebles reasoned. “I think the Rej3ctz represent some of the shift to a brighter, more self deprecating and implicitly socially conscious stance. “Cat Daddy 2.0” tells the story of how we met on the film audition. These guys clearly had the self-confidence to not take themselves or the rap game too seriously.  It’s as if, on some level, they get the joke of life.”

"Cat Daddy 2.0" is taken from the soundtrack to the upcoming movie "We The Party," which Van Peebles directed.

The "Dramedy," which tells the story of high schoolers coming of age during the Obama Administration, also stars Snoop Dogg, YG, The New Boyz, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Michael Jai White, Tiny Lister, Orlando Brown, Quincy Brown and Mario Van Peebles himself

"He understood our vision as Renaissance Artists, and saw this video as a creative opportunity to capture a different side of us individually and as a group," said Bounc3.