Watching The Get down is a great way to get a visual on the history of  hip hop and how it began. The show illustrates how Hip-hop was represented and shaped as a subculture within the Bronx. The show covers a lot of what we’ve read and discussed in class so I found it very interesting to watch that history through the point of view of the character Zeke. One thing I can appreciate from the show is that it covers major events that took place in the early 60’s and 70’s and I found it interesting how I didn’t know some of these major events prior to the show and I was born and raised in the east/south Bronx. A common theme that I noticed in the episodes of 4&5 and the reading “(Re)building the cypher fulfilling the promise of Hip Hop liberation” was unity within the hip hop community and youths finding purpose within themselves. Something that stood out to me in the reading was when kuttner/Hammond said that Hip hop was being attacked and made to look like the “source rather than a “response” to poverty, violence and structural racism. This made me think of the mayor in The Get Down. During this part of the show we have an understanding that the living conditions are at it’s worse for those living in the Bronx. Landlords are paying gangsters to burn down their buildings to make money off of the insurance and more and more young people are turning to illegal hustles just to get by. The mayor says that he wants to create a better quality of life for the people living in these neighborhoods but instead of putting funds into fixing actual problems he encourages a system that criminalizes and blames minorities for their poor living conditions instead of putting a system in place where they are able to thrive economically and educationally. The mayor’s response to action is throwing graffiti writers in jail whereas Francisco (a real man of the people) suggests putting money into creating art schools and supplies so that these young people would have a space to be creative and apply their artistic abilities where they can be rewarded instead of criminalized. A common theme in episodes 4 & 5 and the reading was how young people in the hip hop culture can come together to create cultural and social awareness to make a political difference. The reading sheds light on how “Project Hip Hop” was all about connecting youths to their purpose, challenging them to think beyond themselves and understanding hip hop history in order to come together collectively and creatively to make a difference. In one of the episodes a character told zeke “our community is dying and it needs someone like you”. Hearing something like this at a young age helped him understand that he has a gift and he should be encouraged to use it to help the community. At the end of episode 5 when Ra was talking to shao about superheroes and made the analogy that superheroes make a difference together because there is greater power in unity, I found it beautiful how shao finally understood that his crew WERE his WINGS and together they can create something different and use it for good. “The kind of accountability embedded in love and acceptance rather than rejection is a form of love that is key to rebuilding the cypher” (Kuttner & Hammond, 52).