16 thoughts on “No Country for Old (Rap) Men: Why is it so hard to make good hip-hop TV?”

  1. i totally disagree with your five suggestions. i get tired of some older people being ashamed of reflecting on Hip Hop’s past.if people don’t show concern or be concerned then how do you expect these young kids to respect it most don’t anyway. some are just now starting to ask about the 70’s,80’s & 90’s Hip Hop so why not talk about it but this is my opion i know you are allowed to have one these days.

  2. i personally liked that show the breaks that came on vh1 early this year wish we had more like that the music was accurate for the time period presented on the show so were the mannerisms. so yes 40 year old need something to talk about i don’t want to talk about drake,future,or fedi wap.people think when you get older in hip hop you are supposed to just roll over and die.some of us still like and practice the culture. thats why i can appreciate shows like the breaks or the get down or love albums like Un or U out by The U.N.,Double Barrel by Marco Polo & Torae or Nineteen Ninety Now by Buckwild & Ceph titled great albums but most will say you living in the past,but when its any other genre of music they’ll say their caring on tradition. so i’ll salute those who are trying instead of complaining.i’ll rather have something that follows in the footsteps of something good,than have something new thats gets worse and worse as the years pass on and thas how i feel this music and culture has been going once again this is my opinion.you have to say that now a days cause somebody is always waiting bite your head off for expressing yourself!

  3. Robbie; good lord brah!? You call Almost Famous a ” shit sandwich ” ?!?! ……Who Hurt You? ……You only watched 25 min of 1 episode of The Get Down and then you write about it!? Recipe-Meet-Disaster. If you had watched the entire arc you would have seen that some of your suggestions were covered and I am sure will be covered in future seasons/episodes …#5; how about a story line involving Kool Herc and the rec room parties @ 1520 Sedgwick!? On the strength tho; you’re starting to sound Alex Jones level crazy trying to rewrite the history….WILD STYLE was an underground independent that connected the Culture 1st and was co-signed by EVERYONE from EVERY discipline ( Lee, Pink, Zephyr) ( Fab 5 Fred , Caz/Cold Crush, Grandmaster Flash ) ( Rocksteady Crew ) …..And that shit wasn’t brought to us by fucking McDonald’s ?!?! So for the last time stop it w/that revisionist bullshit. I don’t care what salty ass old head is out there taking it back now! …..brah The Wire….was HipHop’s The Wire; get over it. ……A little nostalgia won’t chip the crust off your shitty construction Tims my dude! I think you need to take it back to 92′; go cop a dime bag of bullshit; get a pack of Original Phillies, a razor and go through the process….then just zone out and let the little kid inside you (pause/no homo) enjoy a really good Homage to something that we breathe/live/die! ” Treat Yo Self! ” – Tom/Donna ( Parks & Recreation )

  4. Even though half an episode is a lil to lil to opinionate on I did see the whole series. Don’t ask why! This is way to many hours that I’ll never get back. There are actually park jams and breaks downs and they look like 1. Early 90’s techno parties or 2. Old Hollywood musical scenes! Crap! And the plot line that runs through is wack! The bad boy rapper looks like a sweet can of creme w a fro! His big love being a christian disco singer OMG! Don’t waste yar breath!

  5. The Get Down is Netflix most expensive series to this date, where did all the money go? Show looked like it cost half a soda and a cookie. I managed to watch one and half episode, it was going from bad to worse by the minute – just terrible. It was really worse than I thought. Plot, dialogue, scenery, music, ACTORS(school play anyone?) – trainwreck city production.

  8. I dont think its possible to have a full on hip hop tv . The shows that claim to be a hip hop tv show, just have the music playing in the background,filmed in the hood and all the crime associated.

    Look at the crap out there. The storyline will always be either like the cosby show, scripted by the wrong people.

    Wildstyle? A tv show like the movie will be depressing, but good.

    If the fresh prince came to belair , tagging up the neighborhood, chilling outside in his whip blasting the bass out of his trunk, giving the middle finger to gawkers, hanging out at the mixtape booth, after getting a fresh fade from ty at the barber shop,… the show is sounding better already.

    But most of the hiphop themed crap is corny as hell.

    No one is going to get it right.

  9. hopefully dame is reading this and taking your suggestions to heart w/ his plan of doing a series of the old days of rocafella. i wonder how large of a role Pain in da ass will play?

  10. Stop being a hater, Robbie. The Get Down was groundbreaking. Grand Master Flash and Rahiem were consultants on the show. It’s nice to have a throwback series like The Get Down. Now…I’m making it a point to stop checking this site. Your rants about whether Hip Hop culture was still a “thing” and criticism of De La Soul’s new project are completely wack. It’s cool to analyze hip hop related issues. I dug how you interviewed the truly unsung hereoes of hip hop. How you got Kool Kim to contribute some insight. What’s happened to you? You’ve become the biggest unqualified nit picker.

  11. New York Undercover was dope! Great music and good shots of New York City before it went hipster lol.

  12. “The Get Down was groundbreaking” LMFAO Please can you explain how?

    “Grand Master Flash and Rahiem were consultants on the show.” And?! What’s your point? Do you honestly think they had any sway on the overall project? They would have just been happy to take the cheque…

    “criticism of De La Soul’s new project are completely wack” Have you heard it?! Would love for you to name the bangers on it!

  13. Hater: one who got a different opinion from u self! Quite using that term, that’s soo… early 00’s man! Who cares if Flash were consultant on the show? Shit is wack!

  14. Style Wars remains my favorite documentary chronicling early hip hop. And Beat Street may have had it’s Hollywood campiness but the story of Spit and Ramo was one of my favorite growing up. I think where the Get Down went wrong was really presenting it in trailers as a story surrounding the beginnings of rap.. It’s really just a story following a couple of characters in that era. I enjoyed it enough for what it was. I didn’t expect to learn anything nor did I really want to once I recognized what the show was about within the first 10 seconds of watching. The shit is fluff entertainment. There are elements of the angst and desperation that spawned a cultural movement sprinkled throughout the show, but again, rap is moreso a setting on this show, not really the theme, regardless of how it’s marketed.. the shit is a love story. There are a lot of corny elements to it, but for what it was, it was watchable. I know we’re all purveyors of calling everything crap on this site and The Get Down in many ways is indeed crap, but what exactly is it you’re looking for when you tune into something that is heavily marketed in hopes to simultaneously grab and older and younger demographic? Cause that’s what we got.

  15. IMO The Get Down is genius in that it’s appealing to a wide audience. There are young kids asking older folk about the origins of hip hop based on this show alone. Hasn’t that always been the point? To educate the youth on hip hop’s origin? Well here it is. This show has gotten the conversation started between different generations of hip hop and y’all STILL complaining! And who cares if it’s fluffed. How else are they going to get today’s youth to watch it? Ain’t no kid today, especially no fucking millennial, going to sit through an entire season of a Style Wars or Wild Style type show! They need something to relate to. The Bronx is no longer burning. Everyone has an iphone and a pair of Jordans. The city’s economy is nowhere near bankrupt as it was in the 70’s. Today’s youth ain’t gonna give a fuck about our plight because we’re in the era of instant gratification and unlimited access to anything at anytime via your phone. Something from nothing? They can’t relate to none of that shit. It’s foreign to them. Unfathomable. Stop complaining and thank The Get Down for educating our youth.

  16. I agree with you that they have made something that appeals to young people. I disagree with you though that it’s educating them on Hip Hops origin. It’s miseducation in so many ways, but that’s the trend nowadays. Why read a book or watch a documentary when you can read a misinformed snippet on wiki or a laughable interpretation of the origins of hip hop. Hip Hop has in the main always been about reality. This is why the Get Down fails on so many levels. It’s the last “hurrah”, cultural revisionism & an opportunity for some old school cats to pick some meat of the Hip Hop bones. But let’s not pretend it is in anything profound…

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