‘Hip Hop Uncovered’ Rewrites the Rap Game

We like to pretend that music exists inside a vacuum. For example, saying Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” can’t be about society’s constant pressure to define women by their sexuality or the racially-charged cycle of poverty; but it can be about one woman feeling herself. It’s that close-minded myth that FX’s Hip Hop Uncovered seeks to dispel. As this six-part docuseries explains, the rise of hip hop may be one of the most revolutionary artistic acts of the modern age, both an unapologetic embrace of the American dream and a middle finger to the very system that created this ethos.

It’s a complicated duality to understand, especially since entertainment is typically written off as being frivolous. But in executive producer Malcolm Spellman’s hands, it’s a lesson that’s impossible to ignore. Hip Hop Uncovered sells itself as a behind-the-scenes look into the movers and shakers responsible for creating modern day rap. Those hip hop gods have names, by the way: Big U, Deb, Trick Trick, Bimmy, and Haitian Jack. Though you may have never heard of them before now, each of these kings and one queen are hip hop’s creators and its close-lipped fixers. If you have a favorite rapper there is no doubt they’ve kissed the rings of these secretive legends.

This dynamic is immediately interesting and ripe for a docuseries. Who doesn’t want to learn more about the gang-affiliated bigwigs who secretly made the rich and famous what they are today? But from its first episode Hip Hop Uncovered shrugs off its connections to fame to explore the why of hip hop. This isn’t a genre that was created because some kids were bored and creative. This is a complex society within itself that has emerged so communities that have been ignored and abused by America can take the power they’ve long deserved. As Dr. Dre puts it, “It’s the voice of the streets, and it will always be the voice of the streets no matter what the fuck happens.”

Framed in this way it’s impossible not to look as the institution of rap as deeply revolutionary. Much of the first episode revolves around introducing the big five. Yet in between their powerful introductions, snippets of why Big U, Deb, Trick Trick, Bimmy, or Haitian Jack were ever needed slip through the cracks. All five describe what it was like to grow up on the streets and live in a world where police couldn’t be trusted. This well-known branch of institutional racism could be the main explainer for the rise of gangs, but Hip Hop Uncovered takes its thorough explanation a step further. The series paints a picture of our country struggling to reintegrate drug-addicted Vietnam veterans into society. During a time when veteran care in general was abysmal, impoverished communities took the toll the hardest. Adding hurt, addicted men back into impoverished communities without any sort of support system only expedited the cycle of poverty and addiction, sucking their children in further into this void.

Ice T best sums up what happened next. “You got a lot of kids growing up in poverty that lack hope. And when you lack hope you take risks. Nobody who’s going to Harvard is going to rob a liquor store because they have hope, they see a future.” In a world where there are no visible ways to escape, joining a gang makes sense.

That’s the texture Hip Hop Uncovered adds to its subject matter time and time again. It argues that during a time when there was little hope for poor black kids, these communities took on the role themselves. They created their own sort of protective system in the form of gangs. Instead of appealing to typically white agents and music producers, they created their own systems of uplifting talent from the inside. When there was no hope, this community created it. It created its own heroes and aspirational professionals when America left it behind.

Because of this lens, successful rappers stop looking like just another cog in the music industry machine. They become heroes lifted up by a community that’s routinely been oppressed and abandoned by the land of the free. More than that they become tools of wealth for the black community, a way to enter the most guarded and closed off rooms in Los Angeles, New York, and D.C. and resculpt a corrupt system from the inside. That journey is immediately cooler and more badass than any one song.

No matter your understanding of this genre’s history, there’s something for you in Hip Hop Uncovered. Newbies will find a rich and complicated world filled with sagas about hate, corruption, betrayal, intense loyalty, and depressing violence. Longtime fans get a peek behind a curtain, a glimpse into the rise, lives, and motivations of rap’s king-making quintet. But no matter who’s watching, Hip Hop Uncovered will never let you forget its context. As Dr. Dre says, “Hip hop is the voice of the fucking streets.” And the streets have been using that unapologetic voice to carve out their power and get what’s theirs.

Watch Hip Hop Uncovered on Hulu