Rhyme & Reason

Who of the icons Jay-Z, Diddy, 50 Cent and Dr. Dre becomes the first dollar billionaire?

A documentary film that highlights two street derived dance styles, Clowning and Krumping, that came out of the low income neighborhoods of L.A.. Director David LaChapelle interviews each dance crew about how their unique dances evolved. A new and positive activity away from the drugs, guns, and gangs that ruled their neighborhood. A raw film about a growing sub-culture movements in America.

CARO Vapor II is an exercise in imagination and a redefinition of what Brazilian popular music can be nowadays. From Rio’s samba jazz transported to the streets of Conjunto São Pedro in Fortaleza to Baião meeting the productions of the Neptunes, the artist understands old musical proposals as dreams of possible futures, pillars in the construction of a country whose work remains unfinished. Digging through these ruins and working their echoes in the present, he dares to envision another future. The exercises of imagining the past that haunt us have been exhumed and rebuilt. While this unfolds sonically, Don L’s pen reinforces: the Global South is what matters. Don scrutinizes the aspirations of what it means to be Latin American nowadays, in a world where virtually all experiences are heavily filtered by the internet and those in power. Territorial construction is also mental, provoking the listener by repeating, in new terms, the question: how much of your dreams was advertising?

In the late 1990s, DJ Set Free, had the idea to set some streetball highlights to a soundtrack of emerging rap music. The results culminated in the And1 Mixtape, a series of VHS tapes that forever transformed the game of basketball.

To do this documentary, the director Pedro Henrique Fávero featured 42 characters - among MCs, DJs and producers - to make a detailed map of its kind in the country. Without mincing words, they speak openly here about 8 topics proposed by the film and try to understand Hip Hop in Brazil. The result is a collection of stories from a lot of fighting, where there are many eternal start-end-start, overcoming the difficulties of being understood and feeling of belonging to a group and many clichés.

An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.

In this pandemic-era concert film, clipping. (aka Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes) perform a collection of their greatest hits, as well as numerous tracks off their acclaimed 2020 album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned. Due to the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus, this concert was performed for no audience at Coaxial Arts in Los Angeles, California.

BIG PUN LIVE chronicles the life and times of the multi-talented rapper/actor Christopher "Big Pun" Rios. His short but substantial career is studied through live performance clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with friends and family.

This documentary follows rapper J. Cole's 2016 HBO concert film feature on the making of his fourth studio album 4 Your Eyez Only. The film Includes musical performances from Cole, as well as stories from low-income residents in cities around the country, such as Baton Rouge, Atlanta, and Cole's hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.

A "rockumentary", covering the rise to fame of MC Gusto, Stab Master Arson, and Dead Mike: members of the rap group "CB4". We soon learn that these three are not what they seem and don't appear to know as much about rap music as they claim... but a lack of musical ability in an artist never hurts sales, does it? You've just got to play the part of a rap star...

G-Funk is the untold story of three childhood friends from East Long Beach who helped commercialize hip hop by developing a sophisticated and melodic new approach – merging Gangsta Rap with elements of Motown, Funk, and R&B.

A young female breakdancer, Angel, moves to Los Angeles after an attack by an ex-boyfriend nearly ends her dance career forever. B-Girl follows Angel through recovery and acceptance of a new life as she busts a move into the male-centric world of underground hip hop.

Xiara Trujillo is a precocious seven-year-old who moved from the Bronx to Maryland with her mom, Aracelli Guzman, four years ago. Though she seems happy hanging out and playing with her pal Melissa, Xiara becomes defensive and emotional when talking about her father, Harold Linares. As we see and learn, Harold is in jail serving a ten-year sentence for weapons possession; Xiara seems to blame his incarceration on her mother, whom she says "kept calling the police." Xiara, who has always been extremely close to her father, acts out with her mother.

Home movies, photographs, and recited poetry illustrate the life of Tupac Shakur, one of the most beloved, revolutionary, and volatile hip-hop MCs of all time.

Street dancer Thomas Uncles is from the wrong side of the tracks, but his bond with the beautiful Megan White might help the duo realize their dreams as they enter in the mother of all dance battles.

Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Bay Area rapper Mac Dre began his career at 18 and quickly became an influential force in early west coast hip-hop. In 1992 he was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank robbery when his lyrics were used against him in court. He left prison with a new lease on life, founded an independent record company, and then was murdered just when he began to emerge as a star. For the first time ever, his mother Wanda reveals the true experiences of a hip-hop legend.

In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Taking us back to where it all began, Straight Outta Compton tells the true story of how these cultural rebels—armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—stood up to the authorities that meant to keep them down and formed the world’s most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.

Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and (of course) money. This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” The film showcases many of hip-hop music’s founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground—while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux, Rhymesayers, Ninja Tune, and more.