Thursday, June 05, 2008

Life ain't Nuthin' but B*tches and H**s and Guns and Money...

Preview of Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes (Director: Byron Hurt)



This looks interesting (thanks to PopMatters' Nishimotot for the column that made me aware its existance). And just so it's clear: I love hip-hop too.

Watching just the preview, it does seem to have some interesting observations, e.g. that hyper masculinity is not only a prevalent feature in much of hip-hop culture, but in American culture as a whole. The film draws a parallel to Hollywood movies, which is a point I've made when before (albeit maybe not on this blog, so I can't give you any proof of that) when discussing masochism and violence in rap, i.e. that is that many rap lyrics can be understood as filmic or as fiction. But the problem is that unlike movies, rap is almost universally understood as being 100% authentic and realistic. This is partly hip-hop's own fault, as many rap artists insist that what they have to tell you is real.

Still, I'll have to see the whole film to comment any further on that. Haven't found it on Amazon or anywhere else yet, but I guess it's just a question of time.

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