Planet Rock’ Documentary

The american network VH1 and legendary rapper Ice T have teamed up to make “Planet Rock: The Story of Crack and the Hip-Hop”. The film, which premiered yesterday takes in-depth at how crack cocaine affected the hip hop recording industry, or to be more precise: the first documentary to focus specifically on the connections between crack and hip-hop. This means prostitutes detailing how they got caught up in the trade, dead bodies found in crackhouses, and according to the press release “Ricky Ross talking about discovering crack production like Grandmaster Flash talks about discovering crossfading”.

Narrated and executive produced by Ice-T, it’s primarily based on the first-person accounts of four famous dealers-turned-rapper. The film also widens its lens to show how crack changed America culturally, socially and politically.

Using rare footage, photos, and animation, all set to the beats and rhymes of the iconic hip hop tracks of the day, the documentary explores how media hysteria, racism and political reaction produced policies and laws that have left us with the largest and most disproportionately African-American prison population in the world. We’ll keep you informed when the full documentary appears online.

Published September 19, 2011.