BBC & PBS explores ‘How Hip Hop Changed The World’ with Chuck D

UK pubcaster the BBC has ordered Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed The World, a new docuseries from Public Enemy co-founder Chuck D, featuring contributions from a long list of music artists.

Developed by Chuck D and his producing partner, Lorrie Boula, the four-part series will debut as a boxset on BBC iPlayer and on BBC Two on 21 January and has been co-produced by BBC Studios and PBS, with its US launch to follow on 31 January.

Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed The World will tell the story of the relationship between politics and the hip hop movement, recounting its origins through first-hand accounts and charting the journey of how hip hop music became a cultural phenomenon, against a backdrop of social and political American history.

Throughout the series, the way in which hip hop quickly created a provocative narrative of America is explored by weaving together interconnected moments via interviews with integral players in the movement and archival footage.

Chuck D will explore the lessons in Black history and consciousness that his music dispatched while striving to dismantle racial constructs.

Hip Hop stars featuring in the series include B-Real from Cypress Hill, DMC, Eminem, Ice-T, Fat Joe, KRS-One, LL COOL J, MC Lyte, Monie Love, Abiodun Oyewole, Roxanne Shanté and Will.I.Am.

The series will also include other culture figures such as Rev Al Sharpton, Sway Calloway, Walter “Hawk” Newsome, Nelson George and Dr Rosa Alicia Clemente.

“The hip hop community has, from the start, been doing what the rest of media is only now catching up to. Long before any conglomerate realized it was time to wake up, hip hop had been speaking out and telling truths,” said Chuck D.

“Working with PBS and the BBC is an opportunity to deliver these messages through new ways and help explain hip hop’s place in history and hopefully inspire us all to take it further.”