Hip Hop Hope

Shortly after the devastating attacks of 11 September 2001, filmmaker Darrell Wilks took his digital video camera and visited a number of New York hip-hop artists. They lived far from the World Trade Centre, but nearly everybody knew someone who had worked in one of the Twin Towers as a cleaner, courier or waitress. ‘For the first time in my life, I’m glad I live in a bad neighbourhood’, one of them says. ‘At least I can be sure that my building will never be the target of terrorist attacks.’ Hip-hop originated in the seventies in the South Bronx. Originally a politically charged art form, in the succeeding decades hip-hop primarily rapped in tough lingo about gorgeous willing women, expensive cars and the use of drugs and firearms. But according to Wilks, the tide has now turned: the underground artists he portrays are all seriously concerned with the world around them and put forward a straightforward political message. Certainly after 11 September, hip-hop seems to have regained some of its former eloquence. Artists such as Tanya ‘Flow’ Fields, Jacquelyn ‘Duchess’ McClain and Caridad ‘La Bruja’ De la Luz ardently rap about how racism, corruption and poverty can be fought. ‘Respect’ and ‘hope’ are the key words. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)