Byron Hurt

Last semester I saw a film in the union theatre, called "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes." I found this film very interesting and thought-provoking. It was about the issues of rap and hip hop and how they deal with so much violence in their songs. Hurt was a quarterback at the Northeastern University. He made this film because he wanted to discuss the gender roles and violence in hip hop culture. In this film he interviewed numerous people including celebrities like Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe. He also interviews people at some kind of hip hop festival. Hurt interviews Busta Rhymes about homosexuality and hip hop, in which Busta responds by saying he doesn't want to offend anybody but "what I represent culturally, doesnt condone homosexuality whatsoever." When Hurt went on to ask Busta if a homosexual rapper would ever be accepted in the culture, Busta exited the interview. It was very interesting to think about it, because I have never considered what it would be like for a gay rapper to try and enter the community. Hurt had mentioned that there are gay rappers, although they are too afraid to come out. I would think that a lot of their fans would be lost. It seems that most of the people that listen to rap act all tough and hard and if they found out their favorite rapper was gay, they probably not listen to them anymore, in fact i think they would probably be very angered as well about it. Although, I think a gay rapper would attract a lot of other fans just for the fact that they had the courage to come out and do that. At the part of the film where they were at a hip hop festival, there were so many girls being grabbed and touched as they walked down the street. Most of them just dealt with it, but there were a few who tried to fight back at the men. The guys just laughed, of course. This part of the film really angered me because of the disrespect. Part of the hip hop culture, as explained in the film, is all about trying to be the most violent, have the most money, and have lots of women and sexual attention. i think the men were acting this way at the festival because they feel it's justified at this kind of place. The girls were dressed very sexual and the men even said that they were "allowed" to do that because they were dressed so slutty. I think this film was extremely powerful and I would love to see it again. It is powerful for anyone, let alone an african american man to make a film that brings these kinds of issues to attention.