REVIEW | A WAY OF LIFE – A GLOBAL HIP-HOP FILM

By Jay St Paul • On Reviews ,

A Way of Life – A Glob­al Hip-Hop Film

Star­ing

KRS One/Jeru The Damaja/Marcelo D2/Emicida/Skinnuman/Rodney P/Big Narstie/Steffe La Cheffe/Reggie Rockstone/Brainpower/M.anifest/Homeboy Sandman/Delix De Luca/Tommy Tee/Hilltop Hoods/Maikal X (Shy Rock)/Tuy Sobil aka KK/Joe Flizzow/The Narcicyst/Omar Offendum/

Feat.

VNM/M1 (Dead Prez)/ONYX/Ladi 6/Black Milk/C‑Real/Reverie/Don Martin/

Music by Diger Rock­well | Music Com­posed by Pink Liz­ard | Nar­rated by Nor­man L Robinson

“Once upon a rhyme there was hip-hop…”

Open­ing with a power­ful mes­sage from KRS at a show, A Way of Life — A Glob­al Hip-Hop Film is a doc­u­ment­ary that explores just how much Hip-Hop has affected so many lives, cul­tures, polit­ics, & so much more from around the Globe. It is safe to say that whenev­er Hip-Hop entered your spec­trum of music it has made some sort of impact. Wheth­er if that impact was a good or bad thing, you can­not deny the power and influ­ence Hip-Hop has. Proof? In cur­rent soci­ety Hip-Hop is now offi­cially the most pop­u­lar genre of music in Pop Cul­ture. Need I say more?

A Way of Life – A Glob­al Hip-Hop Film starts with a light recap of the roots of it all and I mean it all. Tra­cing back to cave­men, then to when our ancest­ors inven­ted the drum. Briefly explain­ing how the drum has influ­enced our roots, and by dan­cing to the beat of the drum has enabled us to be where we are today. This includes the inven­tion of Hip-Hop through the Jamaic­an Soundsystem’s. But as Nor­man L Robin­son explains, “this is not a doc­u­ment­ary on where it came from”. It is a doc­u­ment­ary that explores the Glob­al impact Hip-Hop has and how deeply it courses through the world. It starts by explor­ing how Hip-Hop has spread far and wide by tour­ing. Without tour­ing we would nev­er have been intro­duced to Deejay’s, Emcees, Beat­box­ers, B‑Boys, B‑Girls, & Graf­fiti. Intro­du­cing a brand new but some­how famil­i­ar sound. Elab­or­at­ing a little more on what I mean by “famil­i­ar”, Hip-Hop was made from cut­ting and scratch­ing breaks on oth­er artists records. It wasn’t until the intro­duc­tion of the drum machine the game known as Hip-Hop was revolu­tion­ised to what we hear today.

What I really enjoyed about this doc­u­ment­ary is, how they com­bine both old and new video foot­age, images and util­ise the use of Typo­graphy so the mes­sage gets delivered. Strong nar­ra­tion which helps guide you through the amount of his­tory packed into it. For instance, how Cov­ent Garden was essen­tial for the growth of Hip-Hop in the UK through break­dan­cing. This is some­thing I am ashamed to say I didn’t know how­ever this is one of the many points of the doc­u­ment­ary. It is here to explore and edu­cate on the Glob­al Cul­ture and influ­ence of Hip-Hop. They truly delivered a fant­ast­ic and innov­at­ive look into how Hip-Hop plays a power­ful part in soci­ety. Wheth­er it is the use of Graf­fiti to deliv­er polit­ic­al state­ments in places like Greece, or ex-gang­banger Tuy ‘KK’ Sobil who now teaches young kids how to break­dance in Cam­bod­ia. Includ­ing how we in the UK carved out our corner in  Hip-Hop Cul­ture and cre­at­ing our own sound/styles with­in the genre.

This doc­u­ment­ary stands out to me as it a more grass­roots pro­duc­tion, that steers away from what we are usu­ally used too. It dives as deep as it can with­in the run­ning time, and I per­son­ally would have loved this to be a doc­user­ies so they could explore/­dive-in even more. Either way it is a great watch that will intro­duce you the view­er to artists influ­enced by the Cul­ture from places like, Africa, India, Brazil, Cam­bod­ia, Japan, Nor­way, Aus­tralia and more. It really expands and cements why we [I mean “we” as in 30+] keep banging on why Hip-Hop cul­ture is so import­ant and impact­ful. Hip-Hop changes lives, it gives the voice­less a plat­form, a mic, decks, spray can, or some card­board and Adi­das [that is that age show­ing again] to express them­selves. Finally, what took me a little off guard is just how deep in the cre­vasses in the world Hip-Hop cul­ture has touched…and you know what…I love it!

Go watch it now I highly doubt you will be disappointed.

A Way of Life – A Glob­al Hip-Hop Film

Peace,

Love,

And All That Good Stuff.

Jay “JuJu Man” St Paul

Social: @jaystpaul

Founder & CEO of Hi…Creativity LTD

 

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Jay St Paul

Jay St Paul AKA Uncle JuJu is Founder & CEO of Hi…Creativity LTD | Dee­jay | Graph­ic Design­er | Illus­trat­or | Journ­al­ist | Writer | Pod­cast Host | Radio Presenter. Born and raised in West Lon­don Jay has always found love and solace in being cre­at­ive and express­ing him­self. Always look­ing to improve where he can and look­ing to learn new things as that is the jour­ney of being a creative.

About Jay St Paul

Jay St Paul AKA Uncle JuJu is Founder & CEO of Hi...Creativity LTD | Deejay | Graphic Designer | Illustrator | Journalist | Writer | Podcast Host | Radio Presenter. Born and raised in West London Jay has always found love and solace in being creative and expressing himself. Always looking to improve where he can and looking to learn new things as that is the journey of being a creative.