The Criterion Channel Announces Hip-Hop 50th Anniversary Film Program

The Criterion Channel has announced a film series celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Beginning August 1 and with more additions throughout the year, the streaming service will highlight films “showcasing raw early documents of the scene’s key players, intimate and informative portraits of musical expertise and technical wizardry, and definitive, star-studded evocations of the culture’s impact.” Check out the full lineup below.

Highlights include 1983’s Style Wars and Wild Style, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog (which features a score by RZA), Michael Rapaport’s Beats, Rhymes & Life, Hype Williams’ Belly, and John Singleton’s classic films Boyz n the Hood and Poetic Justice.

“We’re extremely excited to present this wide-ranging series that highlights the incredibly varied ways that hip-hop has shown up in film since the culture’s birth 50 years ago,” Ashley Clark, the curatorial director for Criterion, said in a statement. “From raw, pivotal early documents like Wild Style and Style Wars onward, there’s something for everyone here, whether you’re an expert or a beginner.”

When Boyz n The Hood was released in 1991 to great acclaim, not only did it make Singleton the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, but its accompanying soundtrack helped bring the filmmaker’s tale of the black experience to life.

“How To Survive In South Central” captures Ice Cube in his prime, though it wasn’t initially included on any of his own releases. Cube’s female protégé Yo-Yo comes correct with “Mama Don’t Take No Mess,” while fellow West Coast gangsta rappers Compton’s Most Wanted and Kam also contribute tracks.

“Whenever I’m trying to do something that is endemic of a certain environment, I have to use that music from that environment,” Singleton revealed, with regard to the Boyz N The Hood soundtrack’s heavy reliance on LA-based hip-hop.

Explore the best of hip-hop soundtracks on vinyl and more.

Criterion Channel Hip-Hop 50 Lineup:
August 1
Style Wars, Tony Silver, 1983
Wild Style, Charlie Ahearn, 1983
Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984
Krush Groove, Michael Schultz, 1985
Deep Cover, Bill Duke, 1992
Fear of a Black Hat, Rusty Cundieff, 1993
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch, 1999
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme, Kevin Fitzgerald, 2000
Scratch, Doug Pray, 2001
Paid in Full, Charles Stone III, 2002
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, Michael Rapaport, 2011
Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, Ice-T and Andy Baybutt, 2012
Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer, Charlie Ahearn, 2013

September 1
Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989
Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton, 1991
Poetic Justice, John Singleton, 1993

November 1
Belly, Hype Williams, 1998
Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club, Ivan Frank, 2008