• StatusEnded
  • Rating7
  • Created by:Chuck D
  • Production
    CompaniesBBC Studios, BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions
  • GenreDocumentary
  • Episode
    Runtime59mins
  • First Air
    Date2023-01-21
  • NetworksBBC Two

Overview

Public Enemy’s Chuck D leads a cast of hip-hop icons and leading African-American and Latino cultural commentators as they chart the factors that led to the birth of the revolutionary art form of hip-hop in 1970s New York, as well as the creation of the seminal hit The Message. They evoke a picture of how, after the turbulence of the 60s and the civil rights struggles, desperate social conditions and the experience of countless dispossessed people of colour living in a city mired in crisis helped give birth to a new art form.

Casts

Chuck D

KRS-One

Grandmaster Caz

Melle Mel

Abiodun Oyewole

Nelson George

Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels

Lee Quiñones

Michael Holman

LL Cool J

Fat Joe

Sway Calloway

John Forte

Al Sharpton

Killer Mike

Ice-T

Jody Armour

Monie Love

Ernest R. Dickerson

Eminem

B-Real

Warren G