The Get Down, loaded with accurate references and very historically correct, cancelled by Netflix. I watched this show when it originally came out and was devastated when Netflix decided to cancel it. I was excited to see it on the syllabus and I was able to watch it from a very different (and more understanding) perspective this time. Now let’s get to relating episodes 4 and 5 to the reading “(Re)building the Cypher.”
Episode 4 starts out showing scenes of Koch talking smack about how the city “has become dangerous, dirty and a lawless place” and blames it on “teenage graffiti vandals” which was all too common for outsiders to think, especially according to the reading. Hip hop was constantly attacked and outsiders would “dismiss the art form entirely, blaming it for the destruction of American values while using it as evidence of the defects of black youth culture.” Koch for mayor was literally a campaign of him just using these “vandals” as a platform to promise the rest of the community (you know, the average Joes and those types of people) change from the destruction they’ve brought.
PHH is essentially a more institutionalized version of what was going on in these two episodes. Papa Fuerte and Jackie both doing things to make it happen for Mylene. Shao working in his own way to help his ‘youth’ (referring mostly to Zeke) better understand hip hop culture. I’d like to focus on one specific scene that started around 37 minutes into episode 5 because it was like a very small version of a cypher without actually being a cypher. The Get Down Brothers came together and showed off their individual talents in order to practice and prepare for their DJ rumble with the Notorious Three. It’s the first time we really see them all together creating something out of nothing.
The reading refers a lot to hip hop of today, but The Get Down is a good example of what hip hop was and what it needs to get back to. Bringing youth together in a room to create, collaborate, and just exist together without social media or any of that in the way.
