Fight the Power: how Hip-Hop Changed the World

[PaulinKendal]

I've watched two episodes of this BBC four-parter, and it's great. The music's great, the social commentary is remarkable and the talking-heads are brilliantly clear, forthright and articulate. Well worth a watch/listen. If you like that sort of thing.

 

[Jakko]

I saw about three quarters of the episode last Saturday night, and I agree: definitely worth watching. Hiphop isn’t really my kind of music (though I do listen to it), but I find the whole story behind it very interesting. Especially once you get people like Chuck D talking about why things matter.

 

[The Smythe Meister]

......... Hmmmm...
... now I DO feel old!!

 

[Tim Marlow]

Might have to look this out. My exposure to this type of music is really limited to Muhammad Ali’s impromptu poetry and Gil Scott-Heron, particularly Whitey on the moon. Apparently Straight outta Compton is worth a watch, but I’ve never got around to that either…..

 

[PaulinKendal]

I think the furore whipped up around what the media called 'gangsta rap' means we've all been exposed to (some of) this music, and probably had it presented to us in a highly negative light.

This series contextualises, in detail and post BLM, the production of records like 'Fight the Power' and 'F*ck Tha Police' and that's what makes it so interesting. And Chuck D is superb.

 

[Tim Marlow]

I think the furore whipped up around what the media called 'gangsta rap' means we've all been exposed to (some of) this music, and probably had it presented to us in a highly negative light.

This series contextualises, in detail and post BLM, the production of records like 'Fight the Power' and 'F*ck Tha Police' and that's what makes it so interesting. And Chuck D is superb.

Bad choice of words…..I meant sat down and actually listened when I said exposed to….. It’s quite common to come across it in film scores and dramas. I know it has its roots in blues, and I’ve listed to a great deal of that over the years…..quite aside from the political angle there is a lot of joy in it as well.
I remember years ago being on the boat going to Disneys magic island with my wife and daughter. There were a group of black youths behind us sat around a table rapping for the sheer joy of it. They were beating out the rhythm on the table, and taking turns at rapping over the beat. It was fantastic! Really fun to listen to.

 

[Gern]

Didn't change my world Paul. It went straight past without stopping to say 'Hallo'!

 

[Dave Ward]

You find a lot of these documentaries claim the subject 'changed the world' - mostly they mean for the cognoscenti or those directly involved, for Joe Public usually unknown & irrelevant! Very few subjects have actually changed the world, like the discovery of penicillin & COVID, so a particular style of western music is really a non-starter - even though the Black Eyed Peas did introduce me to a real headcase of a girlfriend that did change my world - but that's a different story!
Dave

 

[minitnkr]

I remember the black berets & turtlenecks that went w/the poetry, cigarettes & coffee houses of the fifties & early 60s. Poetry then was sometimes similar to rap in subject matter & acceptance. BTW a great way to meet wild'wimin.

 

[PaulinKendal]

This series starts in 1960, so the roots of hip-hop in the upwelling of '60s black consciousness and the Panthers, and Gill-Scott Heron, and Marvin Gaye, (What's Going On), James Brown (Say it Loud), Aretha (Young, Gifted and Black) is all there.

 

[Jakko]

Joe Public

Unknowingly topical

OK, so it’s not actually hiphop

 

[Gern]

You find a lot of these documentaries claim the subject 'changed the world' - mostly they mean for the cognoscenti or those directly involved, for Joe Public usually unknown & irrelevant! Very few subjects have actually changed the world, like the discovery of penicillin & COVID, so a particular style of western music is really a non-starter - even though the Black Eyed Peas did introduce me to a real headcase of a girlfriend that did change my world - but that's a different story!
Dave

Yeah. Groups like Runrig, Altan, Capercaillie and Omnia certainly changed my life but no-one's claiming they changed the world ....

PS. I also had a 'Maggie May' in my life - and that too is a different story!