The Get Down portrays Puerto Rican kids in the Brox fighting to have their voices heard.
In episodes 4 and 5 of the Get Down we watch Ezekial take Mylene’s funky disco gospel beat to spit his sick rhymes on. Just like New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone says, funk is the foundation of hip hop. The article speaks to how hip hop was created by Puerto Ricans, African Americans and people of the Caribean. Because of this it was seen as ghetto, no one wanted to hear the voices of the poor minorities from the South Bronx. The song “It’s Just Begun” by The Jimmy Castor Bunch was one of many starting points for hip hop that spoke volumes and the messages of that song can be heard throughout hip hop today. “Peace will come, this world will rest once we have togetherness.” Although hip hop has the chance to be global, I think it speaks more truthfully when it is made for the artists local territory. While Mylene is fighting for her voice to be globalized but the Furious 4 plus 1 is fighting for street cred in their hood, not for world wide fame.
Paul Kuttner and Mariama White-Hammond stated that “….single minded attacks serve as vehicles for blaming poor communities of color for the very oppressive conditions with which they struggle”. The attacks that the authors are talking about are those from people (usually white) who claim the artform of graffiti is purely destructive and that rap music spreads problematic viewpoints. While these stances may be true in some instances, they are not a correct general assessment to make about all of hip hop. Hip hop is a fight for freedom and expression and it cannot be minimized to its weaknesses.
Hip hop builds a community. In the Get Down we get to watch the creation of a brotherhood. I guess with this blog post what I am trying to say is that hip hop is much more than the quick judgements anyone can have for it. And the Bronx isn’t the wasteland it has often been portrayed as, it’s the center of a cultural movement that overtook our earbuds, our radios and our world.