All language subtitles for Fight.the.Power.How.Hip.Hop.Changed.the.World.S01E04.Still.Fighting.1080p.HDTV.H264-DARKFLiX

This program me contains scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting

All through the '90s
and then to the millennium,

hip-hop was taking over America.

All over the place,
all over the world.

Unbelievable growth.

Hi!

Hip-hop artists
were super-mainstream -

they were pop stars, now.

I wanted to be really different,
I wanted to be outstanding,

I just wanted to be flashy tonight.

It was all about who's
going to get to the money.

Who's going to be rich?
Who's going to be an entrepreneur?

Who'll be a millionaire?

Jay-Z owns his own
record label, clothing line

and movie production company,

generating half a billion
dollars a year.

I see absolutely nothing wrong
with doing what you love

to push the culture
and also, yes, earn a living.

But it's like, dude,

do you know what came before
having the good time?

A lot of rappers had that conundrum.

I got one foot in the hood
and one foot in the boardroom,

and now where should I be?
I'm straddling both.

Yeah, it's the biggest business.
It's bigger, it's bigger.

But when you got power,
then comes responsibility.

What you gonna do with it?

# Give it, give it,
give it, give it, give it

# Come on and get down

# Give it, give it,
give it, give it, give it

# Come on and get down

# Give it, give it,
give it, give it, give it

# Come on and get down

# Give it, give it,
give it, give it, give it

# Come on and get down

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# Fight the power

# We've got to fight
the powers that be. #

CROWD: Three, two, one...
CHEERING

Come the new millennium,

hip-hop was the soundtrack
to the celebrations.

We've been making a lot of money
for the music industry

over the past 20 years, plus,

so they thought it was a fad,

but the records show
that it's not a fad.

It's being applauded now.
It's well worth it,

so if I die tomorrow,
it's like, mission accomplished.

But a lot of us were asking, "What
price have we paid to get here?"

When hip-hop started,
it started from the rubble.

It started from the Bronx,

then it gains this traction to
when it gets to a point where

the music that derived from
that pain and that suffering...

...then becomes profitable.

But the music industry had
a harder time understanding

how to mass-market

a defiant
black image to Middle America.

And so the narrative became
cats with nice cars,

girls and fancy clothes. This is
the American dream, you know,

and it has a dope-ass beat
playing to it at the same time.

While these rappers were
showing the ice and the bling,

black people on the street
at the time were still

suffering the same issues

they always have.

A lot of crime,
poverty, police brutality.

This is not entertainment.

Hip-hop is for real.

Next, let us hear from...
our brother,

Chuck D.

The art started to disappear.

So I tried to give
a wake-up call, culturally.

There's a widening gap
right now between the art,

the artists and the public.

One cat calls giving back
to the community,

coming up out of the project,

throwing dollar bills up in the air
to the kids.

We're big, we're prosperous...
black elegance,

whatever the hell that means.

What are you saying for those
that don't have like you have?

When the companies narrow cast us
to be one-dimensional,

it's a god-damn shame.

Nobody is dealing with the fabric
of black America.

While record labels may have been

stripping back on the political
messages of hip-hop,

there was plenty for rap artists
to be talking about.

Morning.

Like in New York, where

Mayor Giuliani had been tightening
the screws on our community.

NEWS REPORTER: New York police

have increase increased efforts
in the last four months

to combat petty crimes
that make life miserable.

Rudy Giuliani supported
the broken windows theory,

this idea that if there's
a broken window on the building,

if you don't fix that broken window,
when you come back tomorrow,

there'll be two windows broken
or three windows broken.

Something that people sometimes
find a little unusual,

but it really works - emphasising
the quality-of-life crimes,

dealing with some of the small
things. This is really common sense.

Criminals cause crime.

Police officers can have
an impact on criminals.

If you arrest them,
take them off the streets,

and if you patrol effectively,

which is even more important,

you can prevent them
from committing crime.

Stay down, stay down.

Any time the cops
would pull us over,

you got to spend the night in jail.

It would just be crowded -
of course, black and brown -

and I'd be like,
"What you in here for?"

"I was drinking a beer."
"What you in here?"

"They caught me with a joint."
"What you in here?"

"Y'all crossed the street on a red."

And that was that Giuliani era
where he was just like,

"Lock everybody up."

Rudy Giuliani is also the one to
increase stop and frisk.

It set up a very hostile
relationship between the police

and the black community.

The war on crime
has been a key feature of

Mayor Giuliani's administration,

but with this extensive success

has come a tidal wave of
complaints of police brutality.

You look at what Giuliani
did to the police,

imagine what it's like going
out there and being the roughest,

toughest gang in New York,

and operating with impunity
because the mayor had your back.

It was only a matter of time
before they killed someone.

NEWS REPORTS: Amadou Diallo
was killed early Thursday morning

when police shot into the lobby
of Diallo's building.

Police, looking for a rapist,

fired 41 bullets at the unarmed
and innocent West African immigrant.

Amadou Diallo, cab driver,
hard-working dude.

So here you had this innocent man,

this hard-working man,
this migrant man,

who was killed.

And Giuliani stood
behind the police.

I understand feelings of
frustration and fear and anger.

I also think it's shameful
if people exploit that

and try to make it worse.

The very best thing to tell

people at this point, is to let
the legal system run its course.

Bring the jury in.

Is your verdict unanimous?

JUROR: Yes.

Not guilty.

REPORTER: The news that four
New York City police officers

who killed an unarmed African
immigrant in a volley of gunfire

were set free

brought swift reaction,
especially in minority communities.

We are not trying to
disrupt the city.

We're trying to stop
city police from disrupting us.

This is something that
has gone on too far, too long.

Amadou Diallo's story?

He's a black man coming home
with his wallet in his hand

and he gets shot at 41 times.

That resonates with me.

I come home with my wallet
in my hand every clay.

You felt the gravity of...of...

...the moment, and our
responsibility as emerging artists -

to use our platforms.

The younger generation
started to pop up

and say things, you know,
truth to power, directly.

So you had a movement coming up out
of, like, what Dead Prez would do.

# The average black male

# Live a third of his life
in a jail cell

# Cos the world is controlled
by the white male

# And the people
don't never get justice

# And the women
don't never get respected

# And the problems
don't never get solved

# And the jobs
don't never pay enough

# So the rent always be late
Can you relate?

# We livin' in a police state. #

I remember the hip-hop back then

became very much anti-establishment,

anti-police and police brutality.

# I want to be free to live
Able to have what I need to live

# Bring the power back to
the street, where the people live

# We sick of workin' for crumbs
and fillin' up the prisons

# Dyin' over money
and rel yin' on religion for help

# We do for self
like ants in a colony

# Organise the wealth
into a socialist economy

# A way of life
based off the common need

# And all my comrades is ready
We just spreadin' the seed... #

There was a consciousness,
a greater awareness,

that was wholly exciting, too,

because that introduced
this wave of...of self-empowerment.

We got to get together.
And whether it's the union,

whether it's the code of hon our,

or whether it's just us respecting
each other as human beings,

I think it's common sense.

It feels like the music
began to turn outward again.

Back, I would argue, to the
early beginnings, to the roots.

Ancl then, of course, 9/11 happened.

WOMAN YELLS

COMMOTION

SIRENS

Catastrophe.

It's like 9/11, what people
saw on the television screen,

was beyond anything that
they seen in the movies.

SCREAMING

When 9/11 happened,

and everyone sympathised...

...on America.

And then we responded.

At this hour, American and coalition
forces are in the early stages

of military operations

to disarm Iraq, to free its people

and to defend the world
from grave danger.

It used to be, when we went on tour,
the world loved America.

But then that same big smile

that we got when we travel led
around the world,

people were like,
"You're from America."

GUNFIRE

Why are you guys invading a country

that didn't show any
responsibility for the planes?

And so we wrote a song called
Where ls The Love?

I think the reason why
that song made a impact,

cos everyone had that same question.

# Where is the love?
Where is the love?

# Where is the love? #

I remember when Where ls The Love
came out,

honestly, I think it was difficult

for some people to translate
that to hip-hop,

cos it had pop influence.

# What's wrong with the world, Mama?

# People livin' like they ain't
got no mamas

# I think the whole world's
addicted to the drama

# Only attracted to things
that'll bring you trauma... #

But for me, identifying with
the Black Eyed Peas was easy.

It was them rhyming on
a track that was going to be

received in audiences
outside of hip-hop.

One of the lyrics in the song was,

"If you only have love for

"your own race, then you only
need space to discriminate,

"and to discriminate
only generates hate,

"and when you hate,
then you're bound to get irate."

Because it made so much sense.

It's like a simple way of saying,

like, "How can you
only look out for YOUR folks?"

Cos then that means other folks
are looking out for their folks,

and that's the whole
concept of racism.

You don't know how to work together.

# Let your soul gravitate
to the love, y'all

# People killin', people dyin'

# Children hurt
Can you hear them or yin'

# Can you practise what you preach

# Or would you
turn the other cheek? #

Will.i.am knew where his core
came from, culturally.

I need what's being said here
to be received

in not one household,
not two households -

I need this to be worldwide.

Selling 625,000 singles,

Black Eyed Peas have
the biggest-selling hit of the year.

And it played all over
American radio.

Even in Deep South states...

...they played that.

That song became super-important.

COMMOTION

George Bush! CROWD: George Bush!
George Bush! George Bush!

As the war in Iraq turned sour,

thousands took to
the streets to protest.

That energy was brewing,

and the hip-hop nation said,
"We ain't gonna take it no more."

Eminem is releasing a new
anti-Bush video online

and I have to quote Salon.com
who says,

it makes Fahrenheit 9/11
look a GOP campaign spot.

You know, going at Bush, like,
I just reached a point

where I seen... Like, I felt
like it'd be a real let-down

to any of my fans

if I didn't speak on, like,
how I felt from the heart.

America is the best place to live,
I feel like.

We live in the best country
there is, you know,

and there's supposed to be

freedom of speech and we have
troops overseas that are dying

and I feel like, let's get
this clude out of office,

because if not, he's gonna spend
the next four years, I feel like,

driving our country in the ground.

Eminem became a lightning rod

for whatever scared
those in control of society.

He wanted to poke fun at the facade
of, or the hypocrisy of America.

Oh, boy.

When I was a kid,
I just loved hip-hop.

I would just take
other rappers' beats

and loop them on a cassette tape

and make raps. just little, old me.

SCREAMING

So when all these millions of
people are listening to me,

it was crazy to watch this...
whole thing,

like, people are tripping
cos I said THAT?

It made me realise, like, hip-hop
is having this effect on me,

but it's having this effect on
millions of other people, too.

Eminem was a dope rapper.

I first met Eminem right after
he won the Rap Olympics.

He became popular purely because
of his talent and his skillset,

and the fact that he was

a white guy that was out-rapping
everybody at that time.

What's up, baby?

You can't talk about Eminem
without talking about Dr Dre.

Dr Dre foresaw NWA and helped
create what gangster rap music was,

but he also understood
the game needed changing.

What Dr Dre recognised in Eminem

was that there's a place
for poor, white people

to have say in this culture.

Eminem was not afraid to call out

white America and say the word
"white America".

# I never would've dreamed
in a million years

# I'd see so many mother...
people who feel like me

# Who share the same views
and the same exact beliefs

# It's like a army
marching in back of me... #

As a kid, you'd see MTV Raps and

you'd see somebody like Ice Cube
saying, you know, this is...

We're just basically reporting
to you what's happening

on the streets where WE live.

A lot of the same shit was going on
in neighbourhoods that I lived in.

He was a white kid out of Detroit

who had gone through
hard times himself.

He was able to reflect
white America in ways that

even black artists couldn't.

# White America
I could be one of your kids

# White America
Little Eric looks just like this

# White America, Erica loves my

# I go to TRL
Look how many hugs I get... #

Listen to Eminem's early stuff-
what's going on internally

in the white home.

He's writing you out.
He's telling you,

"Here's my struggle."

# So to the parents of America

# I am the Derringer
aimed at little Erica

# To spit liquor in the faces of
this democracy of hypocrisy... #

What Em showed the bigger world
that hip-hop could do

was unite people to understanding

everyone suffers undeservedly.

He participated in
a culture he loved

and he brought
new audience with him.

NEWS REPORTER:
It's the huge explosion

in legal downloaded music sales.

It had become so easy
getting hold of music.

Everything was available
at the click of a button.

Ancl that made artists like Eminem
just get bigger and bigger.

It was the first time in hip-hop
and rap music you could get somebody

who really, seriously, is making
Elton John type of money.

You went, in a decade,
from being an intern,

a college kid at
Howard University, basically,

and then within ten years,
you've got this empire

that you've put together, worth...

...I'm guessing, tens of millions,

if not, hundreds of
millions of dollars. Yes.

Well, how much
are you worth right now?

I mean, it's... I'm worth a lot.

The 2000s, for me, became
the birth of the businessman.

Young, black people who

were involved in hip-hop,
understood business,

and they could grow that business
in a radically different way.

The shoe itself is just
super attention to detail.

I mean, down to, like,

the end of the shoe string,

like you see
the ice cream design, here.

So whenever a big company
wants to sell something,

who do they turn to?

They turn to the inner-city
musician to help them

sell their products.

Turns out, we are an enterprise.

They're brand-builders.

They decide whether
it's Coke or Pepsi.

The hip-hop community does.

They decide, you know,

Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger,
they make choices.

There's just a worldwide takeover.

On every level.

50 Cent, when they announced
he had just made,

like, $100 million
off of Vitaminwater,

definitely one of
the transition points,

when it went towards
total domination of the market.

You know, cool, we all out here,

y'all, it's going down,
Vitaminwater.

They pay me a lot of money.

Hip-hop artists understand that
they are now major cultural leaders

in America and, being such, you
have a platform, you have power.

So when things happen
in the real world,

and hip-hop speaks to 'em,

everybody hears it,
everybody is impacted.

That's what takes place
with Katrina.

WIN D HOWLS

REPORTER: There's now over 25
feet of water where there was once

city streets and
flourishing neighbourhoods.

The city has been transformed,
tragically, and perhaps forever.

Hurricane Katrina,
the devastation took place,

which is when the levees broke.

It's like that area
sits almost in a bowl.

Those communities

are the most economically
challenged communities.

Predominately black communities.

Those that could leave, did.

So by the time the flooding
happened, the real devastation,

the people that were still there

were there because
they couldn't leave.

When Katrina hit me,
it was personal.

It was personal cos I...|...

...knew people from down there.

Great friend of mine,

her and her mom.

This gentleman's house
was wiped out.

The United States of America
and the world saw

people in New Orleans stuck
on the roofs of their houses...

...crying for help.

The President's job is
to reassure the citizens,

to make us feel that
things are under control.

That there's someone in charge.

He did not do that.

Coming back from a western trip,

Air Force One flew President Bush
low over New Orleans

for a first-hand look
at the devastation.

That tragedy showed me government
gave not one damn about us.

The government did not care

to save the people who were
poor and on the ground

in a way that they deserved.

The song you're singing
at the Grammys

is about Katrina, right?

Ancl in that song you write,
"I knew some people who...

"..were in that pool." Right?

Are you still angry about it?

Angry isn't the word.

THEY CHANT: Help, help, help...

When there was a space
for leaders to move in,

hip-hop artists moved in
and took over that space.

You know, artists like Diddy
and jay-Z getting together

and donating a million dollars

for all of the New Orleans artists.

David Banner organised an amazing,

an AMAZING concert in Atlanta

simply to get the money to send
to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Ancl we were in one of the biggest
stadiums in the country.

Hip-hop gave exactly
what they had - themselves.

They gave their talent
for the bigger purpose.

We're looking at Hurricane Katrina,
we are looking at 9/11,

we're looking at the Iraq war.

People were clamouring for
something different,

that they wanted change to happen.

People of colour were tired of Bush.

They were tired of being ignored.

Tired of being told that a black
man can never - or a black woman -

can never be President.
Got tired of that.

It's going to take... I feel it's
gonna take a black President

to make a change like that.
It's gonna take a black President

to stand up that has gone
through all of that pain and...

...and heartache and turmoil
in their lives

and struggle to be able
to set things right

and balance the world out.

CHEERING

I was there
at the Democratic Convention

at the coming out of
Senator Barack Obama.

Everybody was just thrown,
like, "Who is this guy?"

Tonight is a particular hon our
for me because, let's face it,

my presence on this stage
is pretty unlikely.

My father was born and raised
in a small village in Kenya.

Through hard work and perseverance,

my father got a scholarship to
study in a magical place - America -

that shone as a beacon of
freedom and opportunity to

so many who had come before.

You had the senator standing up

and speaking out
against the Iraq war.

...that in a dangerous world,
war must be an option sometimes,

but it should never be
the first option.

CHEERING

He was pointing out the ills

but making you feel that
there was some hope involved.

It's the hope of slaves sitting
around a fire singing freedom songs.

The hope of immigrants setting out
for diff...distant shores,

the hope of a skinny kid
with a funny name

who believes that America
has a place for him, too.

CHEERING

Thank you very much, everybody.
God bless you.

Barack hit my soul.

Ancl he had the look.

Thank you.

Did I see him being President
in 2007-08?

Hell, no. The United States Of
America is such in a racist place,

I...you know,
I don't see it happening.

Is this fun to do?
I love doing this.

This is what politics is all about.

Can I say hello?

Obama scares me.

I just... I'm worried about

what will happen to this
country if Obama takes office.

One person tell me that
they're afraid that if Obama

got elected as President,

that he would make
all the white people slaves.

You know, somebody told me

that they weren't gonna
vote for that BLEEP.

Um, I think that's probably

the most offensive thing
that you could say.

People were like,
"Get out of my face.

"No black man
is going to be President."

But Barack Obama
was a breath of fresh air

when you were tired of
the same old politics.

We are one people.

We are one nation.

And together, we will begin the next
great chapter in the American story

with three words that will ring
from coast to coast,

from sea to shining sea.

Yes, we can.

Thank you, New Hampshire.

Thank you.

By the time Obama started to run,

the youthful fervour in trying
to get some kind of change

had really picked up.

Obama was young and he had swag...

...and he was comfortable with
hip-hop and hip-hop culture.

Ancl so he had this mobilisation
of hip-hop artists

begin to flock to his side.

This is beautiful to me.

This is the thing
they don't understand.

We're honoured. We came out here
to see you guys personally.

I think about jay Z,
I think about Puff, Vote Or Die -

what better commercial
could you have?

It's comparable to the Beatles
campaigning for you.

Something that I never
felt before, I can feel,

you can feel, our children can feel.

Don't take it for granted, y'all.
Things are about to change.

We...mobilised in New York City.

We had parties, we came with, like,
Timberlands and Nikes and hoodies

and thugs and girls...

...twerking.

It was not, by far, your
average political fundraiser.

How many people voted already?

CHEERING

It was a whole new way of hip-hop

really getting involved

in getting people out to vote and
getting people registered to vote.

Decision day at last.

Turnout is huge.
Queuing time is up to five hours.

Go, Barack!
WOMAN CHEERS

My daughter was of voting age.

She voted, I voted,

and then my clad and my mom voted
for the same person.

Huge numbers of these people
have never voted before.

I believe democracy
is a flawed system.

So the first time I voted,
I felt like a sucker,

but I voted anyway
cos it was for Obama,

and I had to do my duty, I had to.
All African Americans had to vote.

People have died and fought
for us to have this right,

and so to exercise this right today

is like giving back to
Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

and everybody that fought
for us to have this right to vote.

We're not going to vote for nobody

just because they're black,
you know?

We're voting for him cos
he's the best candidate.

Yeah!

It does feel good that
we finally have somebody

that's actually qualified
that's given a chance.

CHEERING
We love you. You the man.

CNN can now project the President
Elect of the United States -

Barack Obama.

# My President is black
My Lambo's blue

# And I'll be
if my rims ain't, too

# My mama ain't at home
and Daddy's still in jail

# Tryna make a play
Anybody seen the ?

# My President is black... #

Obama is the first
hip-hop President.

The generation that grew up on
hip-hop, they voted Obama in.

So there has been
a changing of the guard,

for the better.

# Mr Black President
Yo, Obama for real

# They gotta put your face
on the $5,000 bill

# My President is black
My Lambo's blue... #

It brought tears to my eyes.

I remember going to
a club that night,

and they kept playing thatjeezy...
# My President is black... #

"all night.

# Tell him I'm doin' fine
Obama for mankind

# We ready for change
So y'all let the man shine

# Stuntin' on Martin Luther
Feelin' just like a king

# Guess this is what he meant when
he said that he had a dream... #

Rap is a lightning rod.

It connected that energy
to be able to say,

Barack Obama, yes,

it's your time.

If there's anyone out there
who still doubts

that America is a place
where all things are possible,

who still questions
the power of our democracy,

tonight is your answer.

Thank you.

God bless you and may God bless
the United States of America.

I was at the inauguration.

It was freezing.

But he had the whole hip-hop
community behind him.

It was a wave. It was an energy.

Obama sold us hope...

"like heroin.

It took a while for
that glow to wear off.

A lot of people had convinced
themselves that because

we elected a black man,

there was black equality now.

No, you elected a black
captain of the ship

but we still live in different
compartments on the ship.

YELLING

GUNSHOT

NEWS REPORTS: Trayvon Martin,
a high-school student,

never in trouble with the law,
was on an errand,

when he caught the eye
of Neighbourhood Watch captain

George Zimmerman.

After Zimmerman reported
the teen as suspicious,

two minutes later, the teen had
been shot in the chest and killed.

I'm sickened with every
black life I see

robbed of an opportunity to grow,

at the hands of the state
or white vigilantes.

Ancl with being sickened,
I cannot tell you I'm surprised.

You cannot name me a decade that
blacks have not been in this country

when this type of horror
has not happened.

Trayvon Martin was my son.

But he's not just my son.

He's all of our son and we
have to fight for our children.

MAN: Yeah.

Trayvon Martin happened
under Barack Obama.

When I think about...this boy...

...| think about my own kids.

You know, if I had a son,
he'd look like Trayvon.

We had never heard,
certainly a sitting President,

say something like that
from the heart.

The response among
African Americans was like,

"What are you going to
do about it now?"

There were a series of
very high-profile incidents

during the Presidential
administration of Barack Obama,

where black people die
in the hands of the police.

In Ferguson with Mike Brown,

you have the pictures of
a black man being shot

and his body being left in
the street for almost four hours.

People were frustrated,
people were fed up,

and it was an explosive moment.

What does it mean
to have a black President...

...if the streets are on fire?

HE YELLS. Our folk are dying!
Wake up!

We are here to be heard!

Our voices do matter!

We saw the birth of
Black Lives Matter.

I mean, that was happening under
the Presidency of Barack Obama.

THEY CHANT: indict, convict,
send those killer cops to jail,

the whole damn system
is guilty as hell.

We marched on Barack Obama's
White House.

You had black people, white people,

gay people, straight people,
everybody was there.

It was beautiful like that.

It was a realisation,
it was a wake-up call.

Your President ain't here to
do these things for you first.

You better figure out and make them
understand that black lives matter.

Enough is enough.

We are tired of going
to jail for nothing,

and others going home for something.

Hip-hop is always going to
give you the song that you need.

It's going to supply you
with the theme song to the moment.

CHANTING: We gon' be all right.

We gon' be all right.
We gon' be all right...

Louder. We gon' be all right.

Louder! We gon' be all right.

Louder! We gon' be all right!

Louder! We gon' be...

The anthem of the Black Lives Matter
is, "We gon' be all right."

# My knees gettin' weak and my gun
might blow but we gon' be all right

# We gon' be all right

# We gon' be all right... #

I remember watching the video

and, every time, my stomach
would go into knots.

Living in the United States
during the whole beginnings

of Black Lives Matter,

this is what we tell ourselves,

like, we're going to be all right.

# We're gon' be all right
Do you hear me, do you feel me?

# We gon' be all right... #

Not that we're going to
fix this shit,

not that it's never
gonna happen again,

but we gon' be all right.

And that's what we need
fight now, some hope.

CROWD JOINS IN:
# We g0n' be all right

# We gon' be all right

--- 455'

That youth that Black Lives Matter
is built on,

they were the ones
that were singing,

cos it gave them
a unifying thing of healing.

# We gon' be all right

# We gon' be all right
We gon' be all right... #

People are feeling the same trauma,
the same despair.

Kendrick coming
with this song helped you to

express your anger and your grief.

# Wouldn't you know
We been hurt, been down before

# When our pride was low

# Lookin' at the world like
Where do we go? #

We'd been through this before.

We fought it, we lived on beyond it.

So the only way to
express that is...

# We gon' be all right. #

When President Barack Obama came in,

I looked at his Presidency
as an hourglass.

I said, "Take advantage of your
time. Time will go fast."

By 2016, I knew that
that clock was running out.

I gotta go back to work.
I still got to work.

Donald Trump, real-estate man
and multimillionaire.

A wheeler, a dealer, who
doesn't let anything or anyone

stand in his way.

Somebody has to do it, and I've
decided it might as well be me.

Actually I'm having a lot of fun.
They're wonderful people.

Hip-hop, during the '90s,
embraced Donald Trump.

He showed that
upper level of status.

The riches, the diamonds,
the jewellery.

Donald Trump was even inside
cats' bars and lyrics

as being a focal point of where
people wanted to get to.

The aspirational side of hip-hop

saw Donald Trump like
a Great Gatsby kind of figure.

He made some of us
in the movement at that time uneasy,

because...we knew Donald Trump.

REPORTER: Five teens,
four black, one Latino,

all charged with the brutal rape

of a 28-year-old jogger
in New York's Central Park.

Two weeks after their
high-profile arrest,

Donald Trump took out full-page ads

in four major newspapers

calling for the death penalty
to be reinstated.

The Central Park Five
served their sentences,

nearly seven years in prison,

but none of them were guilty.

The guys that went to jail wrongly
around the Central Park Five,

were people that would buy hip-hop,
people that would buy rap.

So I would try to say to
a lot of hip-hop artists,

the fans that are making you

are the ones victimised
by the guys like Trump.

I never deceived myself of who
he was and what he was about.

I am officially running...

CHEERING

...for President Of
The United States.

Ancl we are going to make
our country great again.

From the first speech,
he never hid his message.

He played off of
racism and divisiveness.

When Mexico sends its people,
they're not sending their best.

They're bringing drugs. They're
bringing crime. They're rapists.

He had cardboards that said
"The silent majority."

So what you have to understand
is that cardboard was saying,

"Well, there's lot of people

"who feel the same way I feel,
they just don't say it."

We saw what they call the white-lash
response to Barack Obama.

Anger and frustration.

First thing I'd like to say, is ALL
lives matter, not just black lives.

If you're an American citizen,

stand up as American.

Hip-hop artists were no longer

talking about, "Yeah, Donald Trump's
the man cos he got billions,"

they're talking about, "What is
this white supremacist doing

"running on the White House?"

His conversation is divisive and
that's not an evolved soul to me.

So he cannot be my President.

CHEERING
He cannot be our President.

We don't need jay-Z
to fill up arenas, you know.

We do it the old-fashioned way.

This country was divided.

Ancl he played on that
and he got elected on that.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President
Elect Of The United States,

Donald john Trump.

CHEERING

When he got elected,
there was so much apathy,

disillusionment...

I said, "Now people have
steered their ass backwards

"into a dark, unknown area."

CHANTING

CONTINUES

SHOUTING

Trump had just gotten in office
when Charlottesville happened.

There was a sense that
we were moving backwards.

Hundreds of torch-carrying
white nationalists marched to

the University Of Virginia campus,

protesting the decision to remove

a statue of Confederate
General Robert E Lee.

You could feel the tension
when you rolled into the town.

You could see the people
just kind of watching us.

Then you started seeing dudes
with these big, long sticks,

these AR-15s
and these assault rifles.

SHOUTING
Stand back, stand back, stand back!

As soon as I looked back up, bow!

SCREAMING

One person is dead and 19 injured
after a speeding vehicle

drove into a group of protesters

marching peacefully through
downtown Charlottesville.

32-year-old Heather He yer died when
a car drove into counter protesters

after a demonstration by nee-Nazis,

white supremacists and
Ku Klux Klan members.

We condemn, in the
strongest possible terms,

this egregious display
of hatred, bigotry,

and violence on many sides,
on many sides.

The times we were living in
at that moment,

the way that he had divided
the country and some of the things

that was coming out his mouth...

...| don't know,
it was getting me angry.

There was a group on this side.

You can call them the left,
you've just called them the left,

that came violently
attacking the other group.

So you can say what you want,
but that's the way it is.

You need to be aware
of your platform.

Sometimes you might need to take
a stand and say certain things.

It's the calm before
the storm, right here.

Wait, how was I going
to start this off?

I felt like, I want to
take this opportunity

to let people who don't know
what I'm about, understand

this is why I'm saying this.

Racism's the only thing
he's fantastic for.

Cos that's how he gets his
rocks off and he's orange.

This is what I feel like
I need to say right now.

I wanted to make it
so that there was no doubt.

Ancl any fan of mine
who's a supporter of his,

I'm drawing, in the sand, a line -

you're either for or against.

Ancl if you can't decide

who you like more and you're split

on who you should stand beside,

I'll do it for you with this.

NEWS REPORTS: The headlines
this morning belong to Eminem,

who released a scathing cypher
directly at Donald Trump.

The four-and-a-half-minute take down
is throwing the world into a frenzy.

Eminem is a truth-teller

at his core. You know, that's
why he's a great hip-hop artist.

He knows that there's
a lot of overlap

between his fan base and Trump's,

which, to me, is why his call-out of
his fans is really so significant.

If it's going to divide
my fan base, then so be it.

You may divide some people,
but you are also going to bring

a lot more people together.

Ancl maybe I could take this
opportunity, in this platform I had,

to be somebody that...
could inspire change.

The rest of America, stand up.

We love our military,

and we love our country.

But We HATE TRUMP!

Nobody has clone more for the black
community than Donald Trump.

Ancl if you look, with the
exception of Abraham Lincoln -

possible exception, but the
exception of Abraham Lincoln -

nobody has clone what I've clone.

What the...?

Did I see that? Did I hear what...?

Did...did he just say that?

Donald Trump doesn't engage

with the problems black
communities continue to face,

like the problem of
police brutality.

I am the big, big believer,

and admirer of the people
in law enforcement, OK?

From clay one. From clay one.

He has visions of
crime-infested cities -

"We need to go back to
this era of punishment."

Please don't be too nice.

Like when you guys put
somebody in the car

and you're protecting their head,
you know?

The way you put their hand...

Like, don't hit their head and

they've just killed somebody,
don't hit their head?

I said, "You can take
the hand away, OK?"

What we saw in 2020
was a reflection of

where we were as a country

that had not made advancements.

So we had not dealt with police
brutality in a legislative way.

We had not changed
the police culture.

And it just took a spark.

Hey, man... Please, please, man.

POLICE OFFICER:
You got any ID on you?

SOBBING: I've got one at home.
All right, what's your name?

George.

GEORGE CRIES OUT

Are you on something right now?

No, nothing.
Cos you're acting real erratic.

SCUFFLE, GEORGE WHIMPERS
Stand up, stop falling down!

I'm claustrophobic, man. Stand up!

I'm claustrophobic! Stay on
your feet and face the car door.

Please, man... Please!

GEORGE GROANS
Stay on the ground. On the ground.

MUFFLED VOICES

You got your... Mama...
..on my right side.

Mama... Mama...

GEORGE SOBS

Please...

Please, I can't breathe.

REPORTER: 46-year-old George Floyd
died in police custody on Monday.

You can clearly hear Mr Floyd
saying that, "I cannot breathe."

When I saw the George Floyd murder,

I think that Americans who
don't believe tyranny is possible

need to look at that
George Floyd tape,

over and over
and over and over again.

Ancl take the fact that he was
a black and a man out of it

and understand that this can happen
to ANY United States citizen,

once another citizen is given
power by the state and a uniform.

My uncle was a father, brother,
uncle and a cousin to many.

That officer showed no remorse

while watching my
uncle's soul leave his body.

This is not just murder,
but a hate crime.

Why must the system be
corrupt and broken?

No more hate crimes, please!

The injustice that we're seeing,
it is not new.

This is centuries old.

The question is, what's going
to be different this time?

The rise of smart phones means
that we are beginning to capture

these incidents of police brutality

at an accelerated rate

and, instead of now millions of
people viewing this,

billions of people are viewing this
in very short periods of time.

REPORTER: "Stay at home."

That is the order tonight
from four state governors.

It was in the midst
of a global pandemic.

Everybody was at home.

Everybody was on technology.

And so the video with
the murder of George Floyd,

it got shared worldwide.

NEWS REPORTS:
This is a video of the incident.

I just need to warn you
that it is distressing.

In this newly circulated video,

you can hear Floyd pleading for air.

People all over the world are
watching this hatred and hostility

toward people because of
the colour of their skin.

Ancl it was all exacerbated by the
fact Donald Trump was President.

Why are African Americans
still dying at the hands of

law enforcement in this country?

So are white people.

So are white people.

More white people, by the way.
More white people.

There is a common feeling
of anger around the globe,

and hip-hop becomes
the guiding force

that compels people to
join in and speak out.

It's easy to be indifferent
when there's really no proof.

But now that you have proof,

there's no way you can
just stand on the sidelines

and be indifferent
about this stuff any more.

Hip-hop communicated, now,

not through bars and beats but
through cameras and social media.

This is the powder keg.

This is the perfect storm,
if you will,

for the opportunity
for change to come.

Social media is bigger
than the news.

What happens here is worldwide.

Now is the time to
plot, plan, strategise,

organise and mobilise.

Social media gave hip-hop
a platform to say,

"What we're gonna do is congregate.

"We're going to posse-up."

CHANTING: George Floyd! Say his
name! George Floyd! Say his name!

George Floyd! Say his name!

George Floyd! Say his name!
George Floyd!

Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!
Black lives matter!

Thousands marched in London,
Berlin, Tehran, Rio dejaneiro.

Even across the globe
in New Zealand.

You don't have to call 911 any more.

You call us, the people.

Ain't that right?

It's now or never!

Use your voice!

Black lives matter!

We're talking about the largest
protests in American history.

Ancl arguably, perhaps, some of the
largest protests in WORLD history.

That is very much
a reflection of hip-hop.

Hip-hop has always
been the soundtrack of

the revolutionary impulse.

We are fighting an
institutional, systemic problem

that has been allowed
to permeate since we were

brought to these shores.

I said to myself, yeah,
it's almost like cycles.

I emerged in the '80s.

Now you had the younger activists
with Black Lives Matter.

There's always been hip-hop,
brought us all together.

When we released
Fight The Power in 1989,

we were voicing
the struggle of our times.

But every generation has to
figure it out for itself,

cos, you know what?

Fighting the power means there's
always gonna be some shit.

Can you answer that shit?

# The year is 2020, the number

# A little somethin' to get down

# Sound of the funky drummer

# Music hitting' the heart
Cos I know you got soul

# Brothers and sisters... #

After what happened
with George Floyd,

it was beautiful to see the
resurrection of Fight The Power

with classic MCs and new MCs on it.

# Yo, Chuck, I'm fightin'
the power right now

# Thanks to you, Flav and P-E
Puttin' it down

# Puttin' your life on the line
so I could rap now

# The next generation
still sing in' Fight The Power

# Fight the power... #

It's just another way of telling
you that the fight never ends.

That we're together.
Remember that we're together.

# Fight the power

--- 455'

Hip-hop is the global voice
of dissent,

and really
the global voice for justice.

When people,
especially in urban areas,

want to get a message out to their
community, and to the world,

with feeling,
with vigour and with truth,

they turn to hip-hop
as culture, not just rap music.

In Ukraine, Kalush Orchestra,

they're speaking out against
what's going on in their country

and using hip-hop.

Hip-hop has definitely
influenced British artists.

Stormzy, oh, my goodness.

He's raw, he's edgy, he's crisp,

and there's a lot of artists

that are coming out of England
in that way,

but they have their own identity.

Hip-hop is you in your land,
you in your country,

speaking your truth to your people.

# Generations just how long
we been at war

# The revolution on all platforms

# You break a man's mind in his back

# Yo, solidarity is what
I'm wearin' all black for... #

The power of rap has brought
so many people together.

So many different nationalities,
so many from all backgrounds.

Ancl I don't know if that happens
without hip-hop.

Hip-hop is
the communication platform.

You know...
Is it powerful? Absolutely.

Does it have the power to shape
public opinion and shape minds?

Yes. Do I think that its
best days are ahead of it? Yes.

I think there's a lot of people
now realising...

...that it's bigger than music.

You know, it has to be.

# People, people
Stronger than this evil

# Smashin' your power structure
melanin royal, regal

# System designed to kill
and not protect

# Worldwide, hit the streets
just to get some respect

# Our fight and our rights
for freedom will never waver

# justice Breonna Taylor
Salute Chuck and Flava

# Feel the same anger since
Radio Raheem died

# Black power to the people
Push forward, pride. #

Hip-hop has always been like
a worldwide, religious experience.

I've always looked at myself
as being a service person.

I'm at service to the craft.

Hip-hop's greatest achievement is
seriously fighting for that voice

to be heard, that was for so long,
strangled and silenced.

# Make everybody see

# In order to fight
the powers that be... #

# Come on and get down

# Come on and get down

# The year is 2020, the number

# A little somethin'
to get down

# Sound of the funky drummer

# Music hitting' the heart cos
I know you got soul

# Brothers and sisters

# The Information Age

# Got 'em seein' what's really wrong
with these racist days

# I hon our the strong
and pity the weak

# Your thoughts run your life
Be careful what you think. #