Byron Hurt

An official selection of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes provides a riveting examination of representations of manhood in hip-hop culture. Director Byron Hurt, former college quarterback, gender violence prevention educator and long time hip-hop fan, pays tribute to hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for too often perpetuating destructive, deeply conservative styles of manhood that glamorize sexism, violence and homophobia. Taking his camera from the street to the recording studio to the corridors of industry power, Hurt elicits fascinating insights into hip-hop masculinity from ordinary kids, aspiring rappers, music mogul Russell Simmons, rap stars Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D, Jadakiss and Busta Rhymes, and prominent cultural critics such as Michael Eric Dyson, Kevin Powell and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. The film is at once gripping and educational in its fearless, unflinching and engagement with issues of race, gender violence and the corporate exploitation of youth culture.… (altro)

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes provides a riveting examination of manhood, sexism, and homophobia in hip-hop culture.

Director Byron Hurt, former star college quarterback, longtime hip-hop fan, and gender violence prevention educator, conceived the documentary as a "loving critique" of a number of disturbing trends in the world of rap music. He pays tribute to hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for glamorizing destructive, deeply conservative stereotypes of manhood.

The documentary features revealing interviews about masculinity and sexism with rappers such as Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D, Jadakiss, and Busta Rhymes, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and cultural commentators such as Michael Eric Dyson and Beverly Guy-Shetfall.

Critically acclaimed for its fearless engagement with issues of race, gender violence, and the corporate exploitation of youth culture.

Sections: Introduction | Everybody Wants to be Hard | Shut Up and Give Me Your Bone Marrow | Women and Bitches | Bitch Niggaz | Manhood in a Bottle… (altro)