The past few years we’ve had a spate of biopics concerning the rock stars of yesteryear. Bohemian Rhapsody told the story of Queen; Rocketman told the story of Elton John. David Bowie gets the documentary treatment in Moonage Daydream, and there’s a Billy Joel project greenlit under the title Piano Man. And of course there’s Elvis.

(An aside on the topic of biopics: the pronunciation of biopic unsettles me. I so badly want it to rhyme with topic. Unfortunately the canonical pronunciation seems to be “bio” as a word, followed by “pic” as a word.)

I like to think these all coalesce into a sort of micro-trend—the rock stars of the 1970s have now aged to the point where all the interesting parts of their lives have already been written, and so their life stories are ripe for the biopic treatment, which to-day’s filmmakers are now mining en masse to capitalise on their lustre.

I also like to think that in 2060 they’ll be making biopics of to-day’s rappers.

I’m trying to imagine which of to-day’s rappers will get the biopic treatment. This is hard, because I don’t know much about the specific biographies of any rappers, much less which of them conduce well to a silver screen dramatisation.

But the formula’s there already. Archetypally they’re rags-to-riches stories, and they shouldn’t be much of a problem to research because rappers like to lay out their life stories in their lyrics. And there will be certain recurring patterns. Formative years, rap battles on the streets. Growing up in the projects, dealing in the traps, something about gang violence. A third of the way through the movie they’ll be in an ill-fitting suit, demonstrating their rapping to a bemused record label exec. Crippling self-doubt. Indie mixtapes being passed around the hood. A grassroots following. A mentor figure. More rap battles. A romance subplot. Concerts, a montage of cities. Gold chains. Creative differences with the managers, the producers. Drugs. Trippy bathroom scenes, sweat glands, heartbeats. Intense rage. Intense sex. Overdose. Ending with iconic concert, or death if applicable. And of course, the soundtracks will pretty much be Greatest Hits compilations.