The Get Down just keeps getting more and more raw.
In Kuttner and Hammond’s (Re)building the Cypher, the two take a look at the historical significance of the ‘cypher,’ “consisting of a circle of people who take turns performing, rapping, dancing, singing, etc,” in hip hop and the attempts of rebuilding hip hop communities that love hip hop analytically; they follow groups like Project Hip Hop who educate youth on the systems that led to the creation of hip: racism, classism, sexism, etc.
The Get Down continues to develop these systems as the real life structures faced by the characters within the show. In particular, Zeke, a.ka. Books, is caught between two worlds, defining himself as “not just Bronx, but Manhattan also.” Even though both the audience and Zeke himself are aware of his position as a minority pawn to Papa Fuerte, Ed Koch, and the company he’s interning for, he believes it to be a way out of the very real struggle that is his hometown. It’s incredibly interesting to watch as the creators of the show began to build a cultural cypher. When Zeke is brought to Yale, he is faced with the fact that he is not the only Afrolatinx “in the running” for a Yale acceptance; in fact, the Dean has created a pool of young students for diversity brownie points. He’s encouraged and expected to mingle with representatives from the school to show off his talents above the others in the room.
A second sort of “cypher” is created between him and another multi generational student. A well off, white boy, he challenges Zeke with racist “quips” and multiple rounds of shots to test his ability to “fit in” with the students of Yale, as his color and his background immediately presume him to be at a disadvantage,

Another cypher doesn’t have to do with Zeke, but Shaolin. When the Get Down brothers arrange for time in Les Inferno, a showdown is created between their new “get down sound” and Cadillac’s established disco club. After Cadillac cuts their music, Shaolin begins breaking in the middle of the disco floor. What soon begins is one of the first cyphers involving the characters of the show (with the assertion that the battle between the Get Down brothers and the Notorious Three was not filmed as such). As Shaolin begins to dance, a crowd forms around him to cheer him on as he very clearly presents himself as an opponent to Cadillac; we even see some of the same phallic inspired moves that have been discussed as disses in other materials from class.
I did want to mention as a continual theme of the show the lack of varied representation in the actual hip hop scene. In the Critical Intimacies editorial, Pabon and Smalls discuss the way in which hip hop feminism and pedagogy attempts to explore the way non normativity presents itself and demands space in hip hop communities, breaking the mold of the “Black and/or Latino cisgendered male.” The only presence of women in the hip hop scene thus far has been those in the audiences of the Get Down and the women objectified for and by men in the clubs. Outside of that, Mylene has had her own agency as an artist taken away from her as men constantly make decisions for her without any of her own say. Despite what her age or inexperience may be, Mylene should be an included part of the production process and she has become a pawn for money. I think it also important to quickly mention the fact that her success was only made relevant because of the popularity of her music in gay clubs, another non normative identity in hip hop.