I wanted to give everyone a heads-up and a STRONG encouragement to watch Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes tonight.  The documentary is making its TV premiere on the PBS Independent Lens series.  You can find what time it's on in your area here.

For those who aren't familiar with the documentary, Byron Hurt, a self-professed hip-hop head, explores the themes of hyper-masculinity, homophobia, misogyny and materialism in hip-hop music and culture as it exists today.  In my opinion, Mr. Hurt challenges the viewer, the listener and the consumer to critically analyze the intersections of creativity with capitalism, manifesting in some of the destructive/oppressive overtones of commercialized hip-hop today.

I have had the opportunity to watch this film twice now, and in the way I believe it was meant to be seen--once during a free screening organized by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (where the director and Toni Blackman, one of the emcees featured in the film, appeared on a panel) in Bedstuy, and once during a meeting of a radical artists' collective I am a part of here in NYC.  I know that Campus Progress had a glitzy event in L.A. recently, with a screening and a star-studded panel discussion, which is wonderful--but I think Mr. Hurt's intention was to spark discussion in the community on a much more grounded level, beginning with people talking about these issues in their living rooms and in basements of community centers (if you want to hold a screening for your school or organization, go here).  But in the end, it's just important that people see it.  I hope you all will tonight.