Acting Career
He got his first break when New Line Cinema Director Ted Witcher commissioned him to coach Larenz Tate in the romantic drama "Love Jones" which went on to garner a Sundance Film Festival Award and three NAACP Image Awards. While filming in Chicago, Yusef additionally made a cameo as a guest spoken word artist.
In 2007 he collaborated with Director Frey Hoffman (Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks,” Sa-Ra' featuring Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli "Feel the Bass") for the film adaptation of Yusef’s poem "Hollywood Jerome." The two contemporaries previously joined forces for Yusef’s 2005 music video “Wouldn’t You Like to Ride” featuring Kanye West and Common. Their film "The Untimely Demise of Hollywood Jerome" presents a gritty street drama, chronicling the tale of a 14-year-old South Side gang member who idolizes classic Hollywood gangsters like the archetypical Scarface and Godfather. Yusef and Hoffman’s film openly confronts pop culture’s misrepresentation and glorification of gang warfare. The film culminates in the protagonist caught up in a police stand-off on the opposite side of town. Cameos include Kanye West and Twista.
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