In Beyond Beats and Rhymes documentary-maker Bryon Hurt analyses the themes of manhood, sexism and homophobia in hip hop culture. Beyond Beats and Rhymes pulls into focus negative aspects of this culture that are just as often accepted or ignored. Hurt is a dominant presence in the film, taking the viewer on his journey to answer some of the tougher questions about the American hip hop industry.

The strength of this documentary is its ability to tackle complicated and topical issues, while maintaining a fast and entertaining pace. Many academics are interviewed in the film, but their opinions are interspersed with vision from popular culture, which continuously works to maintain the viewer’s attention.

Hurt divides the film into four sections, each representing a problem he has identified in hip hop culture: men’s obsession with violence, Black men and their repression of other Black men, sexism, and homophobia. Each of these packages concludes with statistics about the wider American community, and it is through this information that we are able to see the way in which the hip hop culture interacts with broader American culture.

Although the topics tackled by Beyond Beats are serious, the film never resorts to a preachy or moralising tone. Hurt announces at the beginning of the film that he loves hip hop, so it’s understood that he isn’t making this film to tear the genre apart.

The short documentary Toth follows Steve Martin, a Scottish ex-gang member, as he tries to persuade his son not to follow in his footsteps. The camera work in this documentary is very stylised, giving it an overall feel of a cinema verite film. This short is well worth a look, although at times it is a little difficult to understand the Dundee accent.