![]() Sam Be Yourself is white and his race is often described as a potential hindrance. Rhythm + Flow doesn’t shy away from this fact, and you can see the aspirational contestants slowly alter their music and presentation in order to be more marketable.īlack artists predominantly dominate hip-hop, so Rhythm + Flow’s contestants being overwhelmingly Black and brown artists is both an honest microcosm of the culture and a rare sight on major music competition shows. The fixation on commercial appeal is heavily prevalent in a genre that raps about Billboard placement and album sales in songs. Chance the Rapper recorded his first mixtape 10 Day in a Chicago library that we revisit in the show. Before Meek Mill was able to “pay mother $10,000 about a thousand times,” as he recently rapped, he was a nappy-haired teenager expelling his thoughts on the ills of his neighborhood while on a street corner. was in the ears of millions, he was freestyling on the streets of Brooklyn. It’s a breath of fresh air to see rapping broken down eruditely so fans can see the hip-hop traditions that must be adhered to in order to become a rap star.Īnother part of hip-hop tradition explored in a way seldom seen on music competition shows is how hip-hop talent can be discovered anywhere. He explains to a lyrically adept Jakob Campbell how spacing out his rhymes will help him create cadence, which will help him create rhythm. Hip-hop artist King Los appears on the show as a coach to the contestants and in one episode breaks down the “ancient hip-hop formula” for constructing a rhyme: set up, metaphor, punchline. Through learning who will move on to the next round, Rhythm + Flow also teaches viewers the science of the genre. laughing in his face and telling him, “You’re going to hate yourself for crying on TV.” Cardi also advises the crowd in her home city of New York to not be swayed by contestants with sad stories because everyone has a sad story. In a traditional talent competition, one, if not all, of the judges would’ve given him encouraging words as soft piano chimes twinkle in the background. He uses his hand to try shielding his sorrow. In the pilot episode, as contestant Inglewood IV was getting mixed criticism for his performance, he begins to crumble into tears. The judges are tough in areas where most talent competitions would be more sympathetic. At one point, Cardi B judges contestants on whether she’ll remember them later when she’s having sex and for looking like a girl she “would like to fight bitches with.” Even at Simon Cowell’s most vitriolic he never compared the tightness of the competition to the tightness of his anus like Cardi does here. There’s probably more cursing in the first seven episodes of Rhythm + Flow than in the entire 17 seasons of American Idol. So if you’re used to competitive yet tame competition shows like The Voice and American Idol, then Rhythm + Flow will feel like a punchline to the face, just as hip-hop is intended to be. More than anything, the trio represents an authentic look into hip-hop. ![]() Then there’s T.I., the 20-year veteran of the panel. Chance the Rapper is the hip-hop purist who appreciates lyrics above all else as long as it’s not too dark for the perpetually ebullient MC. Cardi B, who won best rap album at the most recent Grammy Awards, is the social media phenomenon that talks in Instagram captions throughout the show and mostly focuses on discovering what could sell. and Chance the Rapper-represent different types of rap stars. Only one will emerge as the winner of $250,000. ![]() The 10-episode weekly music competition series puts dozens of rappers from across the country through ciphers, battles, sampling and other hip-hop challenges. ![]() Thankfully, Netflix, along with dozens of aspiring rappers as contestants and established artists as judges, are looking to change that with Rhythm + Flow. ![]() Outside of the occasional docuseries-such as Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution and AMC’s Hip-Hop: The Songs That Shook America-deep-dives into the nuanced and ineffable talent requisite to become a rap star are mostly absent from major TV networks even as it seems like every channel is gathering celebrities to judge talent. It looks incredibly easy to become a rap star. ![]()
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