AllMovie

While politics and social activism have often lurked in the background of American rap and hip-hop music, in South Africa these aspects of the music took center stage when New York hip-hop records began making their way into the ghettos of Capetown in the dawn of the 1980s. Finding kindred spirits in early East Coast rap acts such as Grandmaster Flash and Run-D.M.C., blacks living in Cape Flats embraced rap as a voice of defiance and solidarity during apartheid, and as Nelson Mandela rose to power, South Africa developed a potent hip-hop scene of its own, with powerful and progressive artists such as Prophets of Da City and Shamiel X fusing socially conscious lyrics with slamming beats. Filmmaker Weaam Williams explores the history, culture, and impact of South African hip-hop in the documentary Hip Hop Revolution, which received its North American premiere at the 2007 Silverdocs Film Festival, a competition founded by the American Film Institute and The Discovery Channel.