This weekend, I had the good fortune to attend the Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. There were a number of good documentaries shown at this international festival, but one that stuck out to me was Byron Hurt's "Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Rap Music."This documentary really touched on some of the misogynistic and homophobic issues found in a lot of popular Hip-Hop music. The documentary does a good job of distinguishing between the conscious Hip-Hop artists and those who use exploitative lyrics and references to "sell more records."
I can't do justice to this film in this small space, but Mr. Hurt's focus on the portrayal of black manhood in Hip-Hop suggests that these images of "manhood" are actually over exaggerated and detrimental to many of the individuals who may follow these molds.
The film includes guests such as Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Russell Simmons, Chuck D, Micheal Eric Dyson and a number of other celebrity commentators. This is one of my favorite movies of this year and I recommend that everyone attempt to find a copy of this film.
Check out Byron Hurt's website.
No comments:
Post a Comment