Many of the characters in The Get Down have a talent or a skill that they are trying to perfect, Mylene with her singing, Ezekiel with his writing and internships, and Shaolin with his music. Each one of them are working hard on getting out of the hood and try to make it in the world. In Kuttner and White-Hammond’s chapter, “(Re)building the cypher: Fulfilling the promise of hip hop for liberation,” the author’s speak about how hip hopcould be used to teach youth about the issues that hip hop raises. These issues include racism, sexism, misogyny and poverty, all issues that the youth partaking in Project HIP-HOP. All of these issues are all in The Get Down and all of the characters facing the issues.

Kuttner and White-Hammond speak about the liberation that hip-hop provides for the youth. It “served as a form of protest, voice, and counterstory-telling for marginalized and oppressed communities,” which is needed in impoverished and discouraged communities. In order to get out of the hood, Ezekiel, Mylene and Shaolin have their hearts set on different parts of hip hop. Yet, to even get close to liberation, the youth have to learn more about the history and the strides hip hop made in order to be as mainstream as it is today.

The chapter ends with hip hop not having to be explicitly political in any shape or form. But both the political and the personal will be forever linked. This is explicitly exemplified throughout the fourth and fifth episodes of The Get Down. However, I wonder if there would ever be a point where hip hop and personal politics will be unlinked and just be made purely for enjoyment?