Rap, Race & Equality

Overview

Rap and hip-hop were musical genres that developed within the African-American subcultures of America’s largest cities. Fusing funk, disco and a do-it-yourself punk aesthetic, rap music quickly became the defining voice of a generation of young, angry and disenfranchised black youth. In this incisive documentary, the history of rap and hip-hop is explored as well as the larger social context of American race and class relations. Interviews with Ice-T, Queen latifah, KRS-One, Chuck D and Rakim explore the context of rap’s evolution and offer necessary defences of the music’s relevance and importance to African-American youth; especially in the context of a popular media that has often dismissed rap as misogynist or “inauthentic”. Made by two Australian brothers who fell in love with the music, this documentary gives a voice to the power, impact, originality and importance of rap and hip-hop.