Maurquis Boone & Rich Harris Talks Hilarious Role In ‘The Bid’ Movie & Prison Reform

If you’re in need of some laughter, look no further than The Bid. The new comedy stars the dynamic duo of Maurquis Boone and Richard Harris, who personally created, casted, funded, and shot the film in just over 30 days. 

The movie recruits all-star guest appearances from Haha Davis, Mr. Commodore, Southside Ju, Ghee Funny and Shawn, and A-Town, bringing you that feel-good joy and laughter we’ve been missing all 2020.

Boone and Rich both hail from Philadelphia, serving as hilarious partners both on-screen and off-screen. With Philly Filthy Rich notably directing, producing, writing, and starring in the movie, The Bid tells the story of two rappers who get framed by an overzealous Philadelphia police officer, and things get crazy when the two are sent to prison and forced to fight the unjust Philadelphia prison system from the inside.

With Harris having experienced prison time in the past and Boone totally out of his comfort zone, violating all prison rules and ethics, audiences are left either fearing for their lives or bursting out in laughter. Released via B&R Films, GVN Releasing, and BPG Media, the movie is available for streaming now on GooglePlay, iTunes , AmazonPrimeVideo, and all other digital streaming platforms.

AllHipHop: What was it like growing up in Philly?

Maurquis: I’m from West Philadelphia. You got me having flashbacks girl, we just started doing good. [laughs] I’m talking about how we love it, I love Philadelphia.  

Rich: I’m from Germantown, uptown. It’s like every other basic hood. Every city, everywhere you go got a ghetto. Philly is the ghetto of Pennsylvania man, but you’ve got more than Philly. You got Pittsburgh.

Maurquis: You make it seem like we’re ghetto man, we were good people. 

Rich: No, I’m saying it’s a high-crime, bad area.

Maurquis: But there’s a lot of good areas: Center city, Manayunk, Roxborough, Wynnefield, Northern Liberties. There’s a lot of good places to live, what you talking about?

Rich: You right, you right, you right.

Maurquis: It’s a good city where you can come mind your business and do you. If you want to get into crime, it’s at a very high level. If you want to go straight, they’ll leave you alone. That’s why I love it, they leave me alone. I’m straight as can be.

AllHipHop: Did y’all always want to be in film and all that?

Maurquis: I did. 

Rich: I did, but I didn’t never think I would. I thought about it. Of course I always wanted to do it, but I never thought I’d do it so I didn’t expect it. I didn’t think it was feasible, I didn’t think it was possible coming from where I’m from.

Maurquis: That’s why we had to do it ourselves because you can’t wait for nobody to hire you. Where we’re from, you got to get it done yourself man. Waiting on somebody, you’re going to mess around here and die. You gon’ wait on people, you gon’ wait and die. If you’re waiting on them, you’re going to keep on waiting. That’s the drive me and Rich got, we get stuff done. We’re very independent. If you don’t want to do it, we’ll get it done ourselves.  

Rich: We’re very, very aggressive to get it done. [laughs]

AllHipHop: You guys play two Philly rappers framed in a police raid in The Bid, why were you the perfect actors for the role?

Maurquis: Because it’s our life for real, we’re both rappers from the city. I hate to relive the Percs story but in Philadelphia, I’m known as the Perc Godfather. Jesus Christ. In 2015, I made a song called “Popped a Perc.” It did pretty good so I already had the Percocet buzz. When we wrote the movie and you see little dog and the Percocets in there, that was an underlying joke for the Philadelphians.

Rich: It was easy because I play my character and he plays his real character. I’m Rich in the movie, he’s Boone. We really play our characters so it was pretty simple.

AllHipHop: Rich, I know you’ve been incarcerated. How did your first-person experiences influence your role in the movie?

Rich: We were able to emphasize and make a lot of the scenes realistic based upon my stay in prison. “No it wouldn’t go like this in prison, it’d go like this.” Or “this wouldn’t be here, this would be over here.” The cadence and the basic elements of prison, all that was in place. That’s how we utilized my prison experience, the dialogue and the talk.

Maurquis: The whole setup, this boy had everything.

Rich: The props, all that.

Marquis: Now you could tell he went to prison, I’m not playing. We were in an empty warehouse, it looked like a prison. The way we had it, any actors on the set will tell you it really looked real the way we hooked the set up. It was from his vision being in.

AllHipHop: How was it shooting with Haha Davis, Mr. Commodore, A-Town?

Rich: It was awesome man.

Maurquis: It was dope because nobody was nervous. Being that it’s a social media movie, we were comfortable in front of the camera all day long. We go viral on a daily basis. When we wrote the script, Haha Davis used to do guard, prison skits. Whatever you do on social media, we going to play to your strengths. When we got there, everybody was super comfortable so it was dope working with them man.

Rich: Everybody in Hollywood looks at this as a film with no-name actors. We never had acting jobs before but the acting is so dope in it because everybody in this film can out-act anybody in Hollywood. They’re in front of that camera everyday.

Maurquis: Let me rephrase that, they can out-act them doing our s###. They can run circles around them. I can’t go and do no Denzel, settle down man. 

Rich: No, we can do Denzel. You can do it too. I’ve seen you do hard [acting?] on the computer. Listen, my cast will run circles around a lot of the industry. They’re very, very comfortable in front of the camera. All of them, I speak for the majority of them. 90% of them.

AllHipHop: How hard was it to not laugh during the film?

Rich: Well, that’d probably be a better question for me because Boone’s a comedian. Most of them are comedian. I’m not a comedian, but now people calling me a comedian. [laughs] See how hard it is for you not to laugh doing this interview? That’s how difficult it is for me.

Maurquis: This is game-face here man. [straight face] I’m for hours. 

AllHipHop: How do we get you to smile?

Maurquis: I’m from Philadelphia man. This ain’t no game, this is a permanent face. Look at my nose. I sigh too much, there ain’t nothing funny for real.  

Rich: Yeah, it’s difficult not to laugh. When we’re shooting the film, we didn’t really have the budget to afford to be f###### up. I had to not laugh thinking about budgets and getting into character. Once you really lock in and take it serious, it’s not a joke, all the laughter s### goes out the window and you do what you got to do. After the cameras go off, there’s so many comedians running around here doing their thing, you can’t help but to laugh. 

AllHipHop: What were your favorite scenes and why?

Maurquis: My favorite scene was the table scene and the lunchroom scene. See, I got too many.

Rich: My favorite scene was when we was in medical after I got beat up. 

Maurquis: One of my favorite scenes that I liked to watch, that was good to me, was Southside Ju and Danny Diamonds when they’re crying over the cat. When his cat died and he’s like “mama!” They thought his girl died but when the guy found out he was crying over a cat, he lost it and said “you crying over a cat, get the f### up man. You supposed to be hard, you in jail n*gga!” I thought that was cool man.

AllHipHop: Someone said “you had me rolling when you had to take a smash and he told you to use a leaf.”

Maurquis: Oh yeah, that’s when I tried to break out. The guard caught me, I had to come up with something quick.

AllHipHop: What was the process of making songs for the movie scenes?

Maurquis: After we shot the movie, we sat back and watched it for months and months and months. Then we had got with Blueprint Group and Jean Nelson had told me and Rich to come up with 10 songs. He took us up there to see him. It gave us a real inspiration to make music again. We’re in that process of making it anyway but when he told us that, we started looking at the movie again and we saw the scenes different. We start laying songs to the scenes, that’s why it really looked like all the music fit every scene from the intro to the outro.

Rich: It made sense for us to do it ourselves budget-wise, it was a lot easier that way so we knocked it out. The soundtrack is out right now on all platforms, it’s titled “Active” Boone and Rich. Tap in and check that joint out, a lot of y’all that have seen the movie will recognize the songs from the scenes. We’re going to do some visuals for it too.

AllHipHop: What’s your favorite song on the soundtrack?

Maurquis: “I don’t trust you b####, but I love you b####, but I can’t leave you alone.” [sings]

Rich: [laughs] I like “Active.” The soundtrack’s real dope, it’s hard to pick a single. Check it out when you get a chance.

AllHipHop: What comedians or directors are you guys inspired by?

Rich: I’m inspired by Ice Cube. I’m a big fan of Ice Cube, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, dudes that really get it in. I pay attention to them and try to do what they do, do it on a bigger level and try to do it better. 

Maurquis: Follow their blueprint and put it in our own way. I’m Paul Mooney, I’m old school. I watch more Paul Mooney, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Martin, Kevin Hart.

Rich: Katt Williams too, you always talk about Katt Williams. 

Maurquis: Alright, Katt Williams is one of my favorite comedians. Dave Chapelle, all of ‘em. I’m heavy on Red Foxx. If you watch my cadence, you see a lot of old s###. You see a lot of JJ, a lot of s### man. I give a lot of respect to the core of comedy.

AllHipHop: What does prison reform mean to you guys?

Rich: I did 11 years in federal prison. I went in in ‘04 and came out in ‘15. I was sentenced to 22 years, but my sentence was sliced in half based on the Fair Sentencing Act that President Obama signed into law. It enabled me to come home and be here. The guys and ladies in there, they have too much time. Give them an opportunity to come back out here and be a part of their family and their children’s lives, make a difference in the community. When they gave me that 22 years, I can honestly say I was ready for society after 5.5 to 6 years. Where I can honestly say to myself “alright, I get it. I f##### up, I’m really ready to go out here and do what I need to do with my kids and be productive.” 22 years was ridiculous, so that’s what prison reform is to me.

Maurquis: That’s a long f###### time. I did 18 hours and that killed me. He did 20, I salute him. I knew he was a good person. Anytime you get 22 years and you ain’t thinking about telling on and bringing anybody else down, you took your ownership and said “okay I did wrong, let me do it,” that’s dope. I’m not a prison guy. I know they need to let people out, period. Give people second shots. If they gave me a second shot, look at me. I swear I told my judge named Frank Brady: “yo listen, put me in a program. Something.” I did a whole year at outpatient for opiates. They caught me coming out of the pharmacy, I said “listen, I would never.” He said “okay Mr. Boone, I believe you, but make me a believer.” I had to come up every month in front of the judge, they p### test once a week. He told me “I have never met a human-being that said what you said and did it.” I never missed a day, I got out of there and I was serious. I don’t think jail is for human beings, that was crazy to me. It made me stop everything. [snaps] I play all day, it made me stop, get busy and get to work. I know a lot of people if they give them second chances, they’ll do right. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BOONE (@boone39)

AllHipHop: How was it having freeway Rick Ross shout you guys out?

Rich: Oh man, it was incredible. Rick’s down here right now, we supposed to be catching up with him tonight. It’s his birthday today.

Maurquis: Rick Ross is the cause of all of this. He did a lot of stuff for us, man. He’s a good guy, that’s why I had to take off my hat. When we’re grinding and we couldn’t get no help, we’re showing people the movie and they said “nah, it’s too raw. It has no stars, social media knows them, but they ain’t…” You know these social media comedians is selling out when they doing shows right? We got these people in a movie. We trying to explain this to them. 

When we’re down on our last leg, our manager Jamil called us: “yo man, you want to ride up to New York and see Rick Ross?” Hell yeah! It’s 2am or 3am, we packed up and put the movie in the trunk. I’m being serious, we put the movie in a trunk. We met him in a club, he’s doing a book signing. I was ready to attack, Rich said “nah man, chill.” This Rick Ross, he maybe could do something for us! He finally came up to the two of us and said “yo man, how are you young brothers doing?” I said “I’ve got the movie in the trunk,” he said “go get it”. 

Rich: He watched it for about 30 minutes, told us he got us. He said “I got y’all.” When he said it, he meant it. Next thing you know, we’re in Hollywood in the meeting. He tapped in with our manager Jamil, he took us straight to the man. We figured we’d owe him something or he’s going to want something, he said “I don’t want anything. I want to see y’all win.” Coming from Philadelphia, that’s very humbling to me because I never had nobody do nothing like that for me. I’ve never seen nobody do that coming from Philadelphia with my own two eyes. That dude the GOAT man, cool dude. 

AllHipHop: What can we expect from The Bid sequel?

Rich: Right now, we’re casting for The Bid sequel. We’re going to get people to reenact one of the scenes from Part 1, do it better or put it in their own little twist. They can reenact however they want it do it. That’s how we want to start the casting and see who can really act, see who’s engaged. 

Maurquis: We doing Boone and Rich, and the Feds. 

Rich: Last time, we’re in the state jail. Now we going to the federal jail and in the federal jail, there’s people from all over the world. We’re going to have different comedians from all over the country, versus predominantly this section. Now we’re going to a federal jail because of him.

Maurquis: The prison’s going to be in Philadelphia

Rich: It’s going to be crazy. We’re casting right now. Anybody watching this that’s interested in trying to get into The Bid 2, get a partner or 2 or 3, or however many you need, reenact one of the scenes form Part 1 and DM it to me and Boone. We gon’ sit there and look at a few of them, start picking out our cast like that. 

Maurquis: We got a lot of people for the Bid 2 already on our list

Rich: Freeway Rick Ross gonna be in it, it’s going to be crazy. We’ve got a lot of people in this one.

Maurquis: We about 90% on Kountry Wayne. We looking for Desi Banks and Pretty Vee. Pretty Vee probably one of the funniest ones out there. 

Rich: We trying to get Katt Williams in there too, so him and Boone can squash this little situation. We gon’ squash it in prison.