Public Enemy’s Chuck D leads a cast of hip-hop icons and leading African-American and Latino cultural commentators as they chart the factors that led to the birth of the revolutionary art form of hip-hop in 1970s New York, as well as the creation of the seminal hit The Message. They evoke a picture of how, after the turbulence of the 60s and the civil rights struggles, desperate social conditions and the experience of countless dispossessed people of colour living in a city mired in crisis helped give birth to a new art form.

A documentary on Brooklyn-born photographer Jamel Shabazz.

The gritty elements of urban crime and violence have always had an influence on hip hop culture and rap music. More and more, the trappings of street life have landed popular rap artists ...