B-Real

It's Yours: A Film on Hip-Hop and the Internet

Marguerite de Bourgoing

Wiz Khalifa, Lil B

By the dawn of the 21st century, hip-hop sales had reached an all-time high, but one thing has remained the same. The doors were still locked, and the music industry held the keys. Young artists began to self-market on the Internet, ultimately helping to collapse the music industry as we knew it. It’s Yours explores how it became possible to become a rap star through a Twitter account, YouTube site or Myspace page. It tells this story through the unique perspectives of numerous artists, producers, record industry insiders, and music and cultural critics.

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives

Bobbito Garcia

Stretch Armstrong, Lauryn Hill

Exploring the social impact of what The Source Magazine in 1998 voted, "The Best Hip Hop Radio Show Of All-Time." The documentary film is the story of quirky friends who became unlikely legends by engaging their listeners and breaking the biggest rap artists ever.

Cypress Hill: Smoke Out

Eagle Rock

B-Real, Cypress Hill

Celebrating music and marijuana, the all-day Smoke Out Festival features blazing performances from a wide range of bands and musicians -- from punk rock to hip-hop -- as captured in this 2002 fifth annual concert. Circle Jerks, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Everlast and concert organizers Cypress Hill are just some of the eclectic artists included in this event's lineup. Snoop Dogg performs several of his hits, including "Murder Was the Case."

Straight from the Projects: Rappers That Live the Lyrics - Brownsville, Brooklyn

Lil' Fame, Billy Danze

Rap group M.O.P. gives a tour through Brownsville in Brooklyn to show where they grew up, and what inspires their music.

Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation

Martin Torgoff, Richard Lowe

Too $hort, B-Real

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.

Rhyme & Reason

Peter Spirer

Dr. Dre, Nas

A study in the world of hip-hop, done mostly with interviews, in order to see why it is as popular as it is today and what the future holds.

Beef

Peter Spirer

Ving Rhames, 50 Cent

A documentary on the evolution of MC battles from verbal one-upmanship to street warfare.

Big Pun: The Legacy

Vlad Yudin

Big Pun, B-Real

His rhymes caught the attention of millions. His flow is un-matched by any. His story is captivating and triumphant. "Big Pun: The Legacy" chronicles the life of the Grammy Nominated artist "Big Pun" aka Christopher Rios, a Puerto Rican from the Bronx who made history by becoming the first Latino rapper to sell over a million records.

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

Ice-T, Andy Baybutt

KRS-One, B-Real

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: THE ART OF RAP is a feature length performance documentary about the runaway juggernaut that is Rap music. At the wheel of this unstoppable beast is the film's director and interviewer Ice-T. Taking us on a deeply personal journey Ice-T uncovers how this music of the street has grown to dominate the world. Along the way Ice-T meets a whole spectrum of Hip-Hop talent, from founders, to new faces, to the global superstars like Eminem, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. He exposes the roots and history of Rap and then, through meeting many of its most famous protagonists, studies the living mechanism of the music to reveal 'The Art Of Rap'. This extraordinary film features unique performances from the entire cast, without resorting to archive material, to build a fresh and surprising take on the phenomenon that is Rap.

Survivor's Guide to Prison

Matthew Cooke

Susan Sarandon, Danny Trejo

Today, you're more likely to go to prison in the United States than anywhere else in the world. So in the unfortunate case it should happen to you - this is the Survivors Guide to Prison.

Grass Is Greener

Fab 5 Freddy

Снуп Догг, B-Real

Weed. Marijuana. Grass. Pot. Whatever you prefer to call it, America’s relationship with cannabis is a complicated one. In his directorial debut, hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy presents an unparalleled look at the racially biased history of the war on marijuana. A range of celebrities and experts discuss the plant’s influence on music and popular culture, and the devastating impact its criminalization has had on Black and Latino communities. As more and more states join the push to legalize marijuana, this documentary dives deep into the glaring racial disparities in the growing cannabis market.

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

Ice-T, Andy Baybutt

Ice-T, Dr. Dre

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: THE ART OF RAP is a feature length performance documentary about the runaway juggernaut that is Rap music. At the wheel of this unstoppable beast is the film's director and interviewer Ice-T. Taking us on a deeply personal journey Ice-T uncovers how this music of the street has grown to dominate the world. Along the way Ice-T meets a whole spectrum of Hip-Hop talent, from founders, to new faces, to the global superstars like Eminem, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. He exposes the roots and history of Rap and then, through meeting many of its most famous protagonists, studies the living mechanism of the music to reveal 'The Art Of Rap'. This extraordinary film features unique performances from the entire cast, without resorting to archive material, to build a fresh and surprising take on the phenomenon that is Rap.

Burn Motherfucker, Burn!

Sacha Jenkins

Danny Bakewell Sr., Karen Bass

An in-depth and provocative look at the 1992 Los Angeles riots exploring the roots of civil unrest in California and the relationship between African Americans and LAPD.

Beef II

Peter Spirer

Keith David, 50 Cent

Beef II (released on DVD in August 2004) is a sequel to the 2003 documentary Beef, which continued to document the history of rivalries in hip-hop and rap music. Like its prequel, the film was executive produced by Quincy Jones III (QD3), written by Peter Alton and Peter Spirer (who also directed), and was this time narrated by actor Keith David.

Shade

Damian Nieman

Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne

Tiffany, Charlie and Vernon are con artists looking to up the ante from their typical scams. They figure a good way of doing this is taking down Dean "The Dean" Stevens, a well-known cardsharp, in a rigged game. However, they first need enough money to enter a game with Stevens, so they decide to strike a deal with fellow crook Larry Jennings to scam a local gangster -- which turns out to be a bad idea.

MacArthur Park

Billy Wirth

Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Brandon Quintin Adams

A portrait of a homeless park community bonded by crack cocaine addiction. In the park's drug-fixated shantytown, Cody is a kind of crackhead father figure who helps his friends when they are in trouble or in desperate need of a "blast." His girlfriend, Alicia, is a romantic who's losing her soul to the drug, and E-Max is a street hustling pimp who is trying to scoop young Linda into his motley legion of harlots. Hoover Blue, earth mother to all the addicts, attempts to pound some knowledge into the starry-eyed Linda while Cody tries to help young P-Air get his hustle on to record a hip hop track and make it big. But when Cody's real son, Terry, tracks him down to tell him his wife has passed away, Cody doesn't even recognize him at first and then can't help him with postmortem affairs. After five years of crack addiction, Cody wants to get straight and do right by Terry, but the harder he struggles to escape the park, the more it closes in on him.