Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation (2011)
A look at the rise of crack cocaine in urban America in the 1980s and it's influence on popular culture, especially in hip-hop music.
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Reviews
Sorry, this movie sucks
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
This documentary focused on the cocaine generation to the crack generation. It seemed that young African Americans living in poverty had no choice but to get involved in illegal drugs, either as users and/or as dealers. At first it seemed to be a cool and sexy drug, but then people start to get burned out and problems start. This film took a surprising turn when they focused on the law enforcement and political side to the story. For many, hip hop was the only way out of the drug game. They do focus a lot on the hip hop side and they go in depth about what they are rapping about. Many hip hop artists were drug dealers and now they rap about their past experiences. Most are still stuck in the drug game and have no way out besides jail or death. You get interviews from Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, Pepa, Too $hort, Freeway Ricky Ross, Azie, B-Real, RZA, Raekwon, and more. This documentary makes me think back on my favorites songs and I can find some hidden messages from artists such as KRS-One, Rakim, Ice-T, Kurtis Blow, Kool Moe Deep, LL Cool J, and more. This film was interesting and fun and I recommend it to anyone who is interested or ignorant about hip hop and black culture.