The Get Down doesn’t have to get hip-hop history “right” (But it shouldn’t have pretended like it was going to)

Some (very) quick thoughts on debating I’ve seen from hip-hop folks regarding Netflix’s original series The Get Down. Slightly expanded on from my FB post.

I have to laugh sometimes at how purposefully polarizing people seem to feel the need to be. Like, with The Get Down and the criticism that it doesn’t totally and accurately depict all of the moving parts of the origins of hip-hop.

Many who support the show, or were involved, respond by (often quite emphatically) reminding people it’s not supposed to be a documentary. It is a stylized drama based on the era, with some historical points blended in.

Which is fine, the critic will reply, but that’s not how it was marketed, and it shouldn’t have been sold as such.

Which is a good point, and one that hip-hop heads should very much understand, knowing how hip-hop is so often overused to sell things.

Just because what is being sold here happens to be hip-hop-related, doesn’t make it automatically immune from critique.

To me though, the truth lies — as it often does — somewhere in the middle. The Get Down shouldn’t be held to the highest of historical standards (and considering the director, I never expected it to be).

Baz Luhrmann is no Ken Burns.

But, it also did feel like a bit of devious pandering to push the ‘hip-hop history’ angle. This is worrisome because those who are watching and DON’T have the deeper knowledge of hip-hop we have, have been led to believe that this DOES parallel real-life.

This is a mistake, because it is, again, merely a stylized drama based on the era with some historical points built in.

So to me, both sides have a point. Just like in many other discussions and issues, both in hip-hop and in life in general.

I think this kind of stubborn polarization is one of hip-hop’s biggest problems.

www.birthplacemag.com (New York hip-hop music and culture)

www.hiphopadvocacy.org (The Center for Hip-Hop Advocacy)