Hip-hop history: film traces genre’s track from roots to global appearance

New York may be the birthplace of hip-hop, but “The Furious Force of Rhymes,” a 2010 documentary being screened Monday, showcases just how far its influence has spread. In Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and director Joshua Litle take viewers all around the world in its exploration of how hip-hop has permeated other cultures.

Though different forms of hip-hop exist all over the world, Litle chose to focus on countries where hip-hop is used as a form of social expression. It was after watching the French film “La Haine” (translation: “Hate”), which he described as a “sort of French ‘Boyz n The-Hood,’” that Litle was turned on to the global spread of hip-hop’s influence.

After beginning his film by exploring hip-hop’s roots in New York during the 1970s, Litle had a specific criteria for choosing which countries and artists to highlight in the feature. “There had to be some real social issues at play. It wasn’t enough that artists were speaking politically, there had to be some social context to explore,” he explained.

These different social issues within specific communities were important for Curtis John, the curator of the ActNow New Voices in Black Cinema Festival. The four-day series at BAM, now in its second year, features the film in addition to 14 others in an effort to highlight up-and-coming filmmakers of color. For John, the most striking aspect of the film was how the experiences of communities in other countries were so similar to those of the artists who came out of the Black Diaspora. “It was shocking. I had no idea they had it so poorly and had to struggle to find who they are,” he said.

The universality was one of the main reasons John had for selecting the film to play at the festival. “It shows you all sides. It doesn’t really minimize the voice of these people. If anything, it enhances it greatly,” John added. Director Litle noted that “many films have focused on hip hop in specific places but this one of the few, if not the only, film to focus on a multinational, multicultural perspective of the movement.”

The film is focused on hip-hop as a social movement, though Litle was quick to clarify that “hip-hop is an art form that takes on many permutations and manifestations ... [the movie] is not a judgment of other kinds of hip-hop so much as it is a celebration of what I find most interesting.” “Furious Force” tells stories from all over the world, but both Litle and John think the appeal of the movie to many different social groups extends beyond just these locations. “Musicians and artists find a way to tell their story and connect to people,” said John of the universal allure of hip-hop. “It’s shocking, you see how people in Israel, and other parts of the world, are struggling to find their voice. It’s beautiful to see people using music as a way to find themselves.”

“The Furious Force of Rhymes” is being screened on Monday, Feb. 20 at BAM, with a Q&A with the director after. French Grammy-nominated R&B group Les Nubians, featured in the film, will also be at the event. Tickets are $12 for students.