Tag Archives: hiphop

NEW DOCUMENTARY FOCUSES ON THE HISTORY OF BAY AREA HIP-HOP

NBC Bay Area’s Emmy Award-winning series Bay Area Revelation returns with Culture of Hip Hoppremiering Saturday, April 27 at 10 p.m. The one-hour documentary will explore how Hip-Hop has influenced the Bay Area and tells the story of the entrepreneurial artists who created their own sound and set their own rules. Culture of Hip Hop gives […]

In the Cradle of Hip-Hop, a South Bronx Gallery Bridges a Gap

For the past 11 years, Free Richardson has run The Compound, his creative advertising business, from a compact space off Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx, where he works on campaigns for Timberland, ESPN and EA Sports. Part agency, part clubhouse, The Compound refers to the physical footprint, a bunkerlike space where Mr. Richardson hosts clients, professional athletes […]

Big Fun in the Big Town (1986)

n 1986, DJ and journalist, Bram van Splunteren pitched a series of music documentaries to Dutch public broadcaster VPRO. Inspired by hearing the Beastie Boys’ ‘Rock Hard’, he suggested one of the episodes should investigate rap music and the new sound coming from the next generation of hip-hop producers. His resulting documentary, Big Fun in […]

Uprising: Hip-Hop & the L.A. Riots (2012)

Twenty years ago Los Angeles was burning, a conflagration that began with a videotape. Four police officers who had been captured on camera beating Rodney King were acquitted on April 29, 1992, and for days the city seethed. More than 50 people died. Property damage was estimated at about $1 billion. All of it is […]

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

“In his debut as a documentarian, Ice – T creates a vibrant portrait of how and why rap came to be.” – New York Post The craft. The history. The power. All these elements of the hip-hop movement are discussed with director Ice-T and the legends he interviews like Afrika Bambaataa, Eminem, Nas, Mos Def, […]

The Show – what happens on the stage is only half the story

This spirited documentary from 1995 examines the world of rap music using both interviews and performance footage of many popular rappers at a Philadelphia concert. The singers address many aspects of their music and lifestyle including the apparent connection between rap performers and crime the differences between East Coast and West Coast rap the rampant […]

Novella based on Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video

The Beastie Boys’s video for “Sabotage” is one of the all-time greats. Not only is the song itself one of the best from the group’s stacked catalog, but Spike Jonze directing MCA, Ad-Rock, and Mike D as they run around in thick mustaches and aviators, playing pretend ‘70s cops, is an eternal delight. A quarter-century after “Sabotage” […]

Xzibit On Dr. Dre’s Perfectionism

While widely considered a Los Angeles artist, rapper/actor Xzibit spent some of his formative years in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Anyone who’s seen Cops knows how Burque gets down. It’s referred to as the “Wild Wild West” for a reason. Before X discovered Hip Hop, he was heading down a dark road, one littered with violence and drugs. But after […]

Biggie & Tupac – unsolved mysteries

Nick Broomfield explores one of the most pervasive conspiracy theories about the potentially-related deaths of two of hip-hop’s biggest stars and most compelling figures. While the results of Broomfield’s “investigation” into the theory that Suge Knight ultimately arranged the hits that took the lives of two of the genres brightest stars at the heights of their careers […]