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First Look: 'Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes'[/size]
February 19th, 2007 // 7:12 PM



Here’s a PBS documentary that’s worth setting your DVRs for on Feb. 20: Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. It's part of the Independent Lens series that Terrence Howard is hosting. In Beats, Byron Hurt, a former college football star who used to listen to LL Cool J to get pumped up for a game, explores manhood in hip-hop culture — a culture that he always found himself defending. It wasn’t until after graduation when Hurt got a job lecturing about violence against women that he became very conflicted about the music he loved.

Eventually, he bought a camera, hired a sound crew and mustered up the courage to question the hip-hop community about violence, misogyny and homophobia. He interviewed people across the spectrum, from young unknown rappers to industry heavyweights such as Russell Simmons, Chuck D, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, Mos Def, De La Soul, Talib Kweli and Jadakiss.
BET SpringBling, a three-day affair in Daytona, Fla.
“The women were being sexually harassed and groped on the street,” he recently recalled in an interview with PopWatch. “I knew that stuff like that happened, but the level of the degradation that was going on down there was surprising, shocking and also very sad. Very sad.”

Homophobia.
You realize it’s a touchy subject when Hurst asks Busta Rhymes about the rapper walks out of the room saying, “I can’t even talk to you about that. With all do respect, I ain’t trying to offend nobody, what I represent culturally doesn’t condone it whatsoever.” Hurt believes this kind of thinking is deep-seeded in black history. “Black people who are close-minded about sexual orientation, it’s hard for them to make that connection because there’s this emotional attachment to like the civil rights movement, to slavery, to being oppressed,” he says. “There’s also something about gay people being seen as less-than and devalued. You don’t want to be put in that same category with gay people. And then you have to factor in the impact that religious institutions have had on the minds of black people when it comes to homosexuality. Also, if you’re sympathetic towards gay people it makes you seem less hard. And that’s something I had to consider. Just by me including homophobia and homoeroticism in my film, I knew that there were going to be people who were going to question whether I was straight or gay.”

Did he just say homoeroticism?
Yep. Ironic, dontcha think? He makes a good point here: ladies aren’t the only ones looking at the oiled-up muscular rappers featured on the cover of hip-hop magazines.

Some women aren’t helping the problem.
In Daytona, some women are asked about whether they are offended by being called bitches in some rap lyrics, but they say that’s the guy’s own personal problem and they‘re not really talk about them, per se. Hurt is flabbergasted, and adds in the doc that “It’s funny when I hear women say, ‘when these rappers are calling women bitches and hos, they’re not talking about me.’ It’s like, ‘Yo, they are talking about you. If George Bush was to get on national TV and make a speech and he started calling black people n----rs, would you be like ‘I don’t know who George Bush is talking about but he isn’t talking about me?’”

Young people are sick of being pigeonholed.
But they feel like they have no choice. Young rappers feel that the industry doesn’t want to hear them rapping about righteousness, that the only thing that sells are raps about bullet proof vests and the number of women at their beck and call. But Hurt thinks there’s hope. “I think a lot more young people are questioning and challenging what they’re receiving than most people think,” he says. “I’ve been going around the country showing this film, and I think you would be surprised by how many young people who are tired of what they’re seeing.”

We want to hear from you, PopWatchers.
Are you tired of seeing the same old images and stereotypes being presented in lyrics and music videos? Do you think a well-known rapper could come out of the closet and still be successful? Do you think rappers are conflicted: on the one hand they're rapping about the rough upbringing they might have had, which historically has been the way people vent about their lives, and then on the other are trying to be good citizens? (Nelly, for instance, is known for his misogynistic lyrics but at the same time he gives back to the community through various philanthropic efforts.) Why do hip-hop artists have to act like they're hard?

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Source: EW | PopWatch
[Edited 2/20/07 10:12am]
[Edited 3/5/07 17:47pm]

I already had plans to watch this tomorrow it looks really good...

Sounds interesting. I'll check it out.

It's true. The reason my name is not Cheery Cee

CinisterCee said:

Aw, you were so cute!

That wallpaper, however, is wrong on every level possible.

There's a song by an artist named Tori Fixx that plays like a soundtrack to this documentary.

Tori Fixx :: CODE RED (Hate Me) (2007) [FREE OFFICIAL MP3 DOWNLOAD]
http://www.myspace.com/torifixx

There's a song by an artist named Tori Fixx that plays like a soundtrack to this documentary.

Tori Fixx :: CODE RED (Hate Me) (2007) [FREE OFFICIAL MP3 DOWNLOAD]
http://www.myspace.com/torifixx

AlexdeParis said:

That haircut is very...disturbing!

Hi haters!

CinisterCee said:

Hey, I gave you a compliment! I doubt your parents made you put up that horrendous wallpaper. If so, I may be forced to call the Canadian Social Services.

As for Mike, isn't he in love with you or something?

It's mutual.

Bump for your DVRs, VCRs, BETAs & TiVOs!

AlexdeParis said:

My love for Colin cannot be explained by words,,,shame he's so far away from me!

But this was supposed to be a secret!
[Edited 2/20/07 10:02am]

CinisterCee said:

This section of the post is so powerful I have to quote it again:



For anyone who thinks my generation ONLY thinks about hoes and bling, GIVES YOU SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT! Who's Zoomin' Who?!

it's more than hip-hop, it's contemporary Black masculinity.

Mara said:

Also true about (a lot of) young rappers feeling that there is only certain content demanded from them.

Well to a certain degree i still cant agree with America wants rappers to almost all be ignornant and be all about hoes and bling. The thing is people are going into stores and buying it still and at the end of the day thats what matters to corporations. I do agree that a label will sign someone who is just the typical "stereotype" but that is true of all genres, but why give in to it? At the end of the day if you are being someone else for gain and for money than who is the fool? and who is spreading the stereotype? Is there positivity out there, of course, but its up to people to change it, but change doesnt really seem to matter to people. More people know about Britney Spears haircut and Tim Hardaways homophobia than know whats going on in Iraq. Is it media to blame, well they are the supplier, but like anything if you dont demand it than the supplier cant function. I saw some people talking yesterday on issues like this, One was Cornell West and Tavis Smiley, and then on another channel their was 50 CENT saying how he calls lots a people "faggots" it doesnt mean anything, and he also said "i always say nigger" the word doesnt mean anything, really ? Cornell West and Tavis Smiley were on another channel and their talk was more about empowering yourself, free of personal GAIN, and doing for others, so which do you think resonates with youth today? Its sad but all those words i heard from Cornell and Tavis probably didnt hit home with many youths.

lastdecember said:

I agree with you TOTALLY! Most but not all youths hear what Tavis and Cornell are saying but after a while you get tired of hearing about bling and hoes....Right NOW we need a group like Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince type music clean fun with friends and family.

lastdecember said:

I agree with this as well.

Mara said:

Had it already DVR'd but thanks.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

It may sound corny or preachy but the only way to have "change" is to make "change" which means sacrifice on our parts. But can we do it or do we talk a good game. I mean if we found out tomorrow that "global warming" could be reduced 50% if we all stopped using our remote controls how many would give it up and actually get up and press buttons? If we found out tomorrow that when we buy gas at pump that money goes directly to other countries who use it to make weapons to kill our soldiers, would people stop going to the pump? We need to all look within and see if we would sacrifice for change and until then there can be no change.

Mara said:

[Edited 2/20/07 17:47pm]

theAudience said:

x 100!

CinisterCee said:

I already got a spot set up downstairs so when my other roommate gets home I already got the TV all sold up!! *champion emoticon*

i got a question:

does anybody know the name of the song that was used in the begining of the documentary? or which hip-hop artist used that sample? i was interested in getting it.

it's a cool beat

(paging Cinister Cee)
[Edited 2/20/07 21:25pm]
[Edited 2/20/07 21:26pm]
[Edited 2/20/07 21:26pm]

DiamondStuddedMercedes said:

That drum loop throughout the entire Preview video? I don't think it's "from" anything, original score drum beat.

I think he was talking about the instrumenal track to Nas' Made You Look...

Watched the special last night and, wow, was Busta Rhymes closeted or what? C'mon. As soon as the filmmaker questioned him on the issue of male sexuality in hip hop you could see him starting to get intensely nervous to the point that he basically got up and exited the interview. Wow. And Mos Def and Talib were right there beside him, yet, miraculously had nothing to say...?

I was amazed at the amount of denial the women at BET's Spring Bling had when men were basically calling them bitches and molesting them while walking the street. Also, at the transgendered women in booty shorts who walked right by these bravado-filled men and got looked at like grotesque freaks, but it was wild how they didn't care and said that the guys were frontin' in front of their boys but would holla once they duck behind a bush. And it was interesting hearing what they had to say about homophobic rap lyrics: "shii... it turn me on."

The white guy from Columbus, OH who was bumpin' 50 Cent in his "dad's SUV" at Spring Bling, whose skin got redder and redder in the Florida heat, casually said he can come down and have a good time with the "colored" -- WOW. In 2006, WOW. WOW.

Who's Zoomin' Who?!

Even still, I felt that this split-shot portrayal of whites in relation to rap music and the group scene that followed was a bit sweeping and self-serving to the filmmaker, though, and it came off as too cut and dry.

LOL @ the aspiring emcee who stood outside of the Hip Hop Power Summit and told the filmmaker "they think we sell drugs and what not, but I sold water last summer -- HOLLA!" _____!

Nice to hear from Michael Eric Dyson (whom I met after a lecture a few years back), emcee Tim'm West from Oakland (who I chatted with in '04) and Kevin Powell (the only MTV reality star really WORTH A DAMN).

I think the homo-hop, gay hip hop movement could've been fleshed out more, though. And they could have spoke to more women in hip hop as opposed to just pedagogy.

A mini-discussion got sparked afterwards with my roommate and we had some stuff to say about what we saw in relation to our experiences, so that was cool.

...
[Edited 2/21/07 15:50pm]

Once it started I realized that I had seen this before somewhere.
(or at least parts of it. The Busta segment for sure)

I made some notes but left them at home.
Will post on it later.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431