I should say right from the start, I love rap. I love hip hop, I love beatboxing and break dancing and the whole kit and caboodle. I was so excited about this documentary because it was made by Ice T, and this means that it is not an outside looking in, but someone who was there from early days and knows the craft looking at it all. What’s more, when interviewing the big names of the scene, he is known and trusted.
Many people think rap is just someone talking over some music, but there is so much more to it. In Something for Nothing, Ice T looks at where rap started and where it is going to, and how it is created. There is nothing like seeing one of these big, strong rap artists bent over a notepad and writing down their rhymes.
If you can’t respect rap as the art form that it has become, if you can’t respect the history, and respect what it has achieved, if you can only see the negative sides of the culture, well this may be the perfect documentary for you. Perhaps you may still walk away thinking that rap is a waste of time. But I think that this documentary breeds respect.
ireckonthat 