Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is a documentary film which was produced, created and directed by B. Hurt and which explores topics such as violence, masculinity, sexism and homophobia in pop music, with a special focus on Hip Hop music. Several important figures appear in the film, providing their insight in racial issues, apart from others.
According to Professor Cobb, the popularity of Hip Hop cultures is on a high level and also related to racial issues due to the fact that generations of black men had to deny their frailty and these suppressed emotions now come in the form of aggressive verbal expression so often used in Hip Hop songs. He also states that it is the symbol of hyper masculinity needed for survival in the jungle or urban America which is successfully used by Hip Hop singers and which is one of the reasons for its popularity.
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"Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes".
In the sphere of academic view of the topic there is a predominant concept viewing race as a social construct, which is related to the fact that this idea was actually produced by humans and it is a human idea and behavior rather than a phenomenon that is available in other spheres of nature or being a fact of life on Earth. While social imperatives lead to a change of categories of race as well as to change of meanings of race over time, due to political, scientific, cultural evolution, it seems to be rather undoubtable that race is a social construction related to the distribution of resources and rights as well as social and material inequalities.
This view can be confirmed by the document. As Fat Joe mentions in the film, one of the reason for the propulsion of Hip Hop with racial context may have a construction of Cross Bronx Expressway, which divided New York into several neighborhoods and led to increased isolation, resentment and social anger that is today being expressed by many rappers in the city.
