A friend sent me your article because she knew how I had been ranting. I’ve ranted on FB and the IMDB message board. Unlike you, I don’t have an intimate understanding of the “history” of hip hop nor was I a hip hop head. I was way more interested in Disco and the segue into House music. However, I knew what was going on, I saw the images, I heard the music, and by the mid ’80s was living in NYC myself. My complaints about this series comes more from the artistic/visual side, specifically the costuming and wardrobe end of it. A designer friend of mine always says, if you are doing a period piece, AT LEAST THE HAIR AND SHOES better be right! I’ve only been able to stomach watching the first episode so far and the hair was just hideous. When non-blacks try to do hair design for a black piece, the wigs almost always end up looking clownish. It’s like — “they wore afros back then, right? Ok, slap these on!” Did they not look in magazines of the period and see what real afros looked like? What black hair looks like after being braided all night, then picked out in the morning? What different textures of hair looks like in an afro style? Evidently not, since the wigs look like the back of a sheep.
Perhaps they got the sneakers right, I don’t know since I never was into wearing them. But I noticed a few ill placed clothing items in the crowd scenes (like styles of backpacks that didn’t exist then) and the choices of the club wear were just a little too contrived. I’d like to know how Ezekiel pulled a suit and shoes out the closet that fit a taller man and everything fit like a glove. I’ve seen pictures of Herizen Guardiola and if she is Cuban…why didn’t her natural hair suffice? Instead, she is given what looked like an awful lace front wig that didn’t even look like natural hair (because Latinas are supposed to have long straight hair?) That is, until she supposedly glammed up for the club. And sorry, there is no way you can convince me a girl like Mylene, with a father like hers, can all of a sudden become a club vixen, including partnering in a sizzling disco duet, with expertise. Don’t get me started on that school teacher’s hair….
What was the price tag again….$120 million? Whatever the actual budget, they spent way too much money to have small things like hair and continuity be a problem. And just because a couple of “famous” hip hop legends actually consulted on the project or were named executive producers, don’t think that really influenced choices made about the imagery. Even the dialogue coming from their mouths is totally influenced by Caucasian vision and most times is not believable. I pray that we begin to see more television and film being written, produced, and directed by the people the stories are supposedly about.