This is the first time I’m hearing about this film; titled Hip Hop: The Furious Force of Rhymes, the feature-length documentary will air next month on the Smithsonian Channel. I didn’t even realize there was a Smithsonian Channel. Learn something new everyday!

The Banff World Television Festival nominated documentary, explores the international explosion of hip-hop culture, including rap music, and features in-depth interviews with and performances by Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers; Les Nubians; Busy Bee ; Amneh Jarushi, a 19 year-old Arab-Palestinian and Neta Weiner, an Israeli-Jew, both of whom are part of the Middle Eastern hip hop collective System Ali; Joe Rilla, a German skinhead who uses hip-hop to describe his experience of growing up under East German communism; Senegalese feminist rapper Myriam, who lyrics recount the trauma of being circumcised as a young woman; and many, many, many more.

The film traverses 4 continents and 5 countries, looking at hip-hop as “trans-national protest music.”

“Rap has found kindred souls in people as diverse as African Activists, Israeli Jews, French Arabs and even German skinhead punks, all of whom share a common musical language. Recognizing themselves in the oppression of American blacks, people everywhere have adapted the music of born on the streets of New York to their own causes,” the press release states.

A South By Southwest, and Locarno International Film Festival selection, Hip Hop: The Furious Force of Rhymes, directed by Joshua Atesh Litle, a self-proclaimed lifelong hip hop enthusiast, will premiere on the Smithsonian Channel on June 24th at 9PM ET/PT.

This interests me, and I’d love to have a sample look at it, via a trailer, but none was provided, and I couldn’t find a trailer online anywhere, which is odd. I requested one, so if I do receive it, I’ll post here.