It has some good music video clips sprinkled throughout, most notably of Nelly's "Tip Drill" (which I didn't even know was a thing), and even DMX (even here, in 2006, Donald Trump makes a goddamn cameo for a few seconds, thanks DMX), and some insightful interviews with the likes of Chuck D, Eric Michael Dyson, one gay rapper (who's name escapes me now, sorry) and Talib Kweli. How much the internet has grown is a big part of that, but it's also that as a culture, as much as some people ranting and raving on Twitter (on both sides, both liberal and conservative in the black and white worlds), newer voices are being accepted like Frank Ocean and Kendrick and Kanye and even rawer ones on the female side like Nikki Minaj (who may be like the example of a rapper in the opposite direction, but it occurs to me typing this the director here doesn't get a single female rapper on camera as I can recall, and I'm pretty sure they were not like the great white elk of the genre). I say happily since, from even my limited perspective (I know somewhat about the current state of rap and hip-hop if for no other reason than that's what is now a major chunk of pop music today, still, after these decades), rap has changed in the decade since this came out.
guy certainly taking a cue from Michael Moore by putting a lot of himself into the film, often getting into testy interactions with some of the rappers - both big names, like Busta Rhymes, and no-names who are out on the street and more than happy to rap their misogynistic beats which may/may not get them a record deal - and, unfortunately (or happily?) the film is dated. The subject matter - looking at what manhood means in hip-hop and rap and, by extension, what it means if that manhood gets questioned or, worse yet (gasp) if there's femininity or homosexuality in that world of music - is important, and the filmmaker Bryan Hurt has the noblest of intentions. This is one of those documentaries that is much too short and only goes so much into one part of an issue to make an impact.
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