The film, which first aired on Independent Lens in 2007, takes an in-depth look at masculinity in rap music and hip-hop culture — where creative genius, poetic beauty, and mad beats collide with misogyny, violence, and homophobia.

Hurt, a life-long hip-hop fan, made the film after discovering how stereotypical rap videos has become. As he puts it, “The more I learned about sexism and violence and homophobia, the more those lyrics became unacceptable to be.”

Be sure to watch Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, starting Thursday July 28 and join the chat live with filmmaker Byron Hurt at 11AM PT / 2PM ET.

What did you want to be when you grew up? Nine-year-old Priscilla wants to become the youngest female rap star ever. With her single father turned manager, Priscilla travels from Harlem street corners to sold out shows around the world — eventually landing a record deal and starring role on PBS’s The Electric Company. But the road to stardom means figuring out whom to trust while hanging around people twice her size and four times her age. For Priscilla, otherwise known as P-Star, the ride has just begun.

This is the final film of Independent Lens‘s Music Month celebration.

Learn more and get local broadcast listings >>

We also recently caught up with P-Star to talk about tonight’s Independent Lens broadcast and what it was like being the subject of a documentary.  Check out this exclusive interview with her below.

Check out P-Star’s latest music video where she performs Daddy’s Little Girl with Tony Sunshine and features footage from tonight’s broadcast on Independent Lens.

P-Star (aka Priscilla Diaz) and her father Jesse Diaz visited Chicago to participate in the 2nd Annual Winter Block Party for Chicago Hip-Hop Arts, presented by Chicago Public Radio and hosted by hip-hop poet Kevin Coval.

The morning began with a screening of  P-Star Rising followed by a Q&A with Priscilla and Jesse. The audience at the Victory Gardens Theatre was full of families eager to hear about the struggles of navigating the often cut-throat music industry. After the Q&A, Jesse and Priscilla were treated to a performance by the Half Pint Poetics team, made up of 5th to 8th graders from Kuumba Lynx. Priscilla was deeply moved by the young talent and asked for some beat-box assistance from one of the young performers and showed her own skills with the mike.

The director of P-Star Rising –– Gabriel Noble –– joined Jesse and Priscilla during their week in Chicago for two screenings of the film for Chicago public high school and middle school students, courtesy of Cinema/Chicago’s Education Program.  Schools participating included Curie High School, Dumas Technical Academy, Lincoln Park High School, Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Austin Career Academy, and King College Prep.

After the film, host Kevin Coval introduced the guests while the students greeted them with an enthusiastic reception. Several students in the audience spoke about their own ambitions for careers in the entertainment industry. Priscilla and Jesse gave sage advice on learning the business, honing your craft and not giving up despite the many setbacks that aspiring performers always encounter. And Jesse added that you should ALWAYS have a demo on you because you never know what opportunities might come along. For instance, Jesse is starting a label and looking for talent and said that if anyone had a CD they wanted to pass along, he’d be happy to check it out.

Check out these clips from the Chicago screening:

The students asked all kinds of questions that adults usually don’t often ask at film festival screenings. They wanted to know how hard it is to have a father as your manager, to which Priscilla replied that there is nobody in this business she can trust better than her father to look after her interests. They wanted to know if director Gabriel’s presence got annoying. Jesse and Priscilla said that it was weird at first, but they came to trust him pretty quickly and got used to having him around all the time. Gabriel said that it was important to him to have their trust and that he let them know early on that if ever they wanted him to turn off the camera, he would. Jesse said that if it was up to him perhaps there were some things he would have wanted to cut out of the film, but both Jesse and Priscilla love the movie and feel strongly that Gabe did a great job.

When the students asked P-Star to spit a rhyme, she asked for volunteers to come up and perform for her, too. It took some coaxing from the other students, but two talented young people got up the nerve to join Priscilla on stage.  Gabriel gave the two students major kudos for getting up there. And Jesse reiterated that’s what it takes to make it: jumping on every opportunity presented to you.

- Naomi Walker
National Community Cinema Coordinator

Nine-year-old Priscilla wants to become the youngest female rap star ever. With her single father turned manager, Priscilla travels from Harlem street corners to sold out shows around the world –– eventually landing a record deal and starring role on PBS’s The Electric Company. But the road to stardom means figuring out who to trust while hanging around people twice her size and four times her age.

In the video below, P-Star gives some advice on what she learned about the music industry and what it takes to make it in this highly competitive field.

Also, check out this video where P-Star raps freestyle about her rise to fame.

Learn more about P-Star Rising and other Music Month programming >>

Nine-year-old Pricilla from P-Star Rising, airing Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

Mine, premiering Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

ITVS and PBS offers viewers the opportunity to explore the rich and vibrant history and cultural contributions of African Americans throughout the year, but this month offers a special slate of new and encore programs in honor of Black History Month.

Independent Lens brings race to the forefront with four new films in February. Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, debuting Feb. 2, explores the often-overlooked legacy of Jewish anthropologist Melville Herskovits, whose ideas in the 40s and 50s challenged the accepted assumptions about race and culture. Then, tune in on Feb. 9 for P-Star Rising, which looks at nine-year-old Pricilla who wants to be the youngest female rap star ever and her single father who is determined to help her make it big. This film also closes out the special line-up of compelling films as part of Independent Lens’s Music Month.

A third film, Mine, premiering Feb. 16, tells the poignant and powerful story of animals left behind during Katrina, and of the struggles of hurricane victims to reunite with their beloved pets. Finally, Behind the Rainbow, airing Feb. 23, unearths once-hidden realities of South Africa’s political obstacles on the path to democracy.

Other ITVS films airing this month on PBS include: February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which looks at the pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement when four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, and Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy of 1968 on the campus of South Carolina State University and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Get local broadcast information >>

Thousands of hours of PBS programming are available on the PBS Video Portal, including a special collection for Black History Month.

Visit PBS Video >>

Watch these video clips of upcoming new Independent Lens programs (check local listings):

Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, Feb. 2 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

P-Star Rising, Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

Mine, Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

Behind the Rainbow, Feb. 23 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes takes an in-depth look at machismo in rap music and hip-hop culture — where creative genius, poetic beauty, and mad beats collide with misogyny, violence, and homophobia.

Get broadcast listings and discover other films featured now during Independent Lens’s Music Month. Learn more >>

Hip-Hop premieres tonight, January 26, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

C-Note of Too White Crew performs at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Ind.

In the years leading up to this film’s release, I’ve wondered, like any filmmaker, how people were going to react to it. Thanks to Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl show, fines from the FCC was a top concern for many at PBS, and the topic of my film lent itself to some objectionable language. So for years while my film waited for an audience, I fielded people’s questions and comments.

“When am I going to see it?”
“White kids and hip-hop? You’re doing a film about wiggers?”
“Don’t you think we’re past this already?”
“Is that what my kid is doing?”
“It’s going to be on PBS?”
“Did you really interview Vanilla Ice?”

First, yes, I did really interview Vanilla Ice, and yes, he really did consent to the interview. To be honest, I found his cooperation surprising. Getting white people to talk about race was perhaps the most difficult part of making this film, and that difficulty doubled when it came to white rappers. I would have loved to interview Eminem, for example, but I had little success with anything but being brushed off by his handlers. The perception was that he had too much to risk. Too many people, too many hip-hop magazines, some of which were started by white people, might use it as an opportunity to go after him.

Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity airs February on public television (check local listings)

The perception that race, as a topic for discussion, is bad for business is one that I encountered with every white rapper I spoke to with a market to their name. So those with a fan base that did agree to be in this film the people –– Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, and some of the others –– deserve some credit for putting the topic of the film above the safety of avoiding it. By doing so, I hope that they, along with all the film’s participants, are given a sincere listening to by viewers. Even Vanilla Ice, who has been at the butt of the joke for so long that his appearance in a television show has the effect of a laugh track, deserves credit. He’s the kind of person who just puts himself out there –– without thinking too much of the consequences. That may be naïve, but I think his perspective should be taken into account, at the very least because it is forthright.

In talking about my film with those that have not yet seen it, there is all too often a kneejerk response to side either for or against whites in hip-hop, as if the topic were as simple as choosing sides in a football game –– on one side, the color-blind participants, who just love the music for what it is; on the other side, the racists, who are mimicking, mocking, romanticizing, and capitalizing on it. Rarely is it so straightforward. Take the characters in the film and give thought to what they’re doing –– Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Vanilla Ice, Too White Crew, Crack’d Owt, and Empire Isis, an aspiring female rapper from Bloomington, Indiana, who had to leave her high school after receiving death threats for “acting black.” They may all be white, but they’re not all simply racist or color-blind.

Robert Clift
Filmmaker of Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity

NEW MUSLIM COOL premieres tonight on a brand new season of P.O.V. on PBS

Even though the Independent Lens season has come to an end, you can still catch some of the best Indie films on our sister series P.O.V., which kicks off its season with NEW MUSLIM COOL tonight at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).

Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he’s moved to Pittsburgh’s tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. NEW MUSLIM COOL takes viewers on Hamza’s ride through streets, slums and jail cells—following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing. Produced in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

Learn more about NEW MUSLIM COOL >>