FIGHT THE POWER: HOW HIP HOP CHANGED THE WORLD (2023)
"Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World" is an incredible narrative of struggle, triumph and resistance that will be brought to life through the lens of an art form that has chronicled the emotions, experiences and expressions of Black and Brown communities: Hip Hop. In the aftermath of America's racial and political reckoning in 2020, the perspectives and stories shared in Hip Hop are key to understanding injustice in the U.S. over the last half-century.
Authored by Public Enemy's Chuck D, who famously labeled Hip Hop as "the Black CNN" for bringing the stories of the street to the mainstream, this story will include personal testimonies of the MCs, DJs, graffiti artists, filmmakers, politicians and opinion formers who created and shaped its direction as it grew from an underground movement in the Bronx to the most popular music genre in the U.S. and the fastest growing genre in the world today.
Featuring interviews from A-list talent like Killer Mike, Will.i.am, Monie Love, Ice-T, Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte and many more, the series will paint a portrait of the unique relationship between Hip Hop and the political history of the U.S.
Episode 1 | The Foundation
Episode 2 | Under Siege
Chuck D, alongside a host of hip-hop luminaries and cultural commentators, explores the genre’s exponential growth in the 1980s as groups like Public Enemy and NWA were formed. It charts how the art form was able to speak truth to power during a period in US history that saw Reaganomics flourish, crack cocaine obliterate inner city communities and the black male body become a symbol of mass incarceration and rising homicide rates. (00:58:30)
Episode 3 | Culture Wars
Chuck D, fellow rap stars and cultural commentators explore the meteoric rise of hip-hop and gangster rap in the 90s during a tumultuous period in US history. In the years after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, hip-hop was accused of promoting violence and misogyny, all while reaching new commercial success and seeing the rise of a wave of confident female emcees. (00:58:30)
Episode 4 | Still Fighting
Chuck D, fellow hip-hop stars and cultural commentators tell the story of how the rap industry hits extraordinary heights going into the new millennium, using its power and influence to effect change in ways that were unthinkable when the culture was first born - culminating in the global protests for George Floyd. (00:58:44)
Authored by Public Enemy's Chuck D, who famously labeled Hip Hop as "the Black CNN" for bringing the stories of the street to the mainstream, this story will include personal testimonies of the MCs, DJs, graffiti artists, filmmakers, politicians and opinion formers who created and shaped its direction as it grew from an underground movement in the Bronx to the most popular music genre in the U.S. and the fastest growing genre in the world today.
Featuring interviews from A-list talent like Killer Mike, Will.i.am, Monie Love, Ice-T, Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte and many more, the series will paint a portrait of the unique relationship between Hip Hop and the political history of the U.S.
Episode 1 | The Foundation
Public Enemy’s Chuck D leads a cast of hip-hop icons and leading African-American and Latino cultural commentators as they chart the factors that led to the birth of the revolutionary art form of hip-hop in 1970s New York, as well as the creation of the seminal hit The Message.
They evoke a picture of how, after the turbulence of the 60s and the civil rights struggles, desperate social conditions and the experience of countless dispossessed people of colour living in a city mired in crisis helped give birth to a new art form.(00:58:52)
Episode 2 | Under Siege
Chuck D, alongside a host of hip-hop luminaries and cultural commentators, explores the genre’s exponential growth in the 1980s as groups like Public Enemy and NWA were formed. It charts how the art form was able to speak truth to power during a period in US history that saw Reaganomics flourish, crack cocaine obliterate inner city communities and the black male body become a symbol of mass incarceration and rising homicide rates. (00:58:30)
Episode 3 | Culture Wars
Chuck D, fellow rap stars and cultural commentators explore the meteoric rise of hip-hop and gangster rap in the 90s during a tumultuous period in US history. In the years after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, hip-hop was accused of promoting violence and misogyny, all while reaching new commercial success and seeing the rise of a wave of confident female emcees. (00:58:30)
Episode 4 | Still Fighting
Chuck D, fellow hip-hop stars and cultural commentators tell the story of how the rap industry hits extraordinary heights going into the new millennium, using its power and influence to effect change in ways that were unthinkable when the culture was first born - culminating in the global protests for George Floyd. (00:58:44)