"Most drug dealers had a Hell of a story to tell"

October 31, 2017 12:42 PM

In the late 80s and early 90s crack cocaine brings violence and tragedy to the streets of America. For the generation of kids coming up in The Struggle, it brings prison time, destruction or death. But for some of the survivors, there is a way out: Hip-hop. This is the story that's never been told; Planet Rock: The Story of Crack & the Hip-Hop Generation
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey (3 comments total)

The BBoy Spot has a short write-up on the docu:

Narrated and produced by Ice-T, Planet Rock: The story of Hiphop and the crack generation is the 1st documentary to focus on an era that connected the phenomenon of Hiphop Culture in the 80s and the birth of crack cocaine. The film demonstrates how both Hiphop Culture and crack changed America culturally, socially and politically while exploring how media lies, racism and politicians produced policies and laws that has left us with the largest prison population in the world.

Here's a longer story on Rolling Stone by Christopher R. Weingarten

Before last night's premiere of the VH1 documentary Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation, the film's narrator and executive producer Ice-T was sitting in a room full of Emmys at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. "I was approached by VH1 because they knew I was familiar," he told Rolling Stone. "They knew that I had access to all the rappers… and that they would all accept my phone call," he said, laughing.

See also: IMDb entry
posted by filthy light thief at 1:02 PM on October 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

Nobody said "Hip-hop" back then. It was Go-go.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 4:38 PM on October 31, 2017

I'm willing to be corrected, but Go-go I've always associated with the D.C. scene. I've never heard anyone who wasn't from D.C. Refer to Go-go music, certainly nobody in NYC in the 80s.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:52 PM on October 31, 2017 [6 favorites]