21/01/2023
Can’t believe we finally get to announce this – Steve and I are proud (to an unparalleled level!) to share our animation and graphics work for “FIGHT THE POWER: How Hip Hop Changed the World” commissioned by BBC Studios and PBS. The series is directed by the incredible talent that is Yemi Bamiro, and helmed by none other than hip hop pioneer, Chuck D. Episodes 1 and 2 of the four-part series air in the UK tonight (Sat 21st Jan) at 9pm (GMT) on BBC2, and features interviews with pivotal characters in the development of the scene including Abiodun Oyewole, Melle Mel, KRS-One, LL Cool J, Roxanne Shante, Ice T, Eminem and Killer Mike.
FT **** / The Guardian 'standout documentary... cracking series' / The Times 'superb... smart, sobering and clear-headed'
Subtractor directed and animated the title sequence, series graphic look and feel, and created all the in-film GFX – all of which aim to forge a link between the grassroots photostat flyers of the early NY scene and the urgent aesthetic of the protest movement culminating in BLM – the two events that book-end the series' narrative.
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Rewind a year…
When the call came in asking if we were interested in working with rising star director Yemi Bamiro (One Man and His Shoes, Super Eagles ’96) and BBC Studios on a four part box set, we were already excited. Then comes the news that it’s a landmark BBC2 series exploring the relationship between hip hop and Black culture – to be fronted by none other than the voice of hip hop, Chuck D (see below to check my fandom credentials), we assumed an elaborate hoax. Skip back to the present and we are here standing in awe of the amazing team who made this important series happen, honoured to just be a small part of it, and having enjoyed every moment working with them all (sadly there there are too many to namecheck here).
We were lucky enough to attend the press screening on Wednesday including a Q&A hosted by the UK’s undisputed heavyweight hip hop fan, Romesh Ranganathan, and the man himself, Chuck D. Eloquent as ever, Chuck put the genesis of hip hop simply, “Even in a bleak period you get a rose coming up out of the concrete”.
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And a quick personal recollection of Chuck D/Public Enemy that feels apt…
I first saw PE at the Rex, a run-down ex-cinema, in pre-Olympic, pre-Armani, Stratford, East London. It was 1999, The group had just gone independent from Def Jam, and there was an air of sniffiness around critics/the ‘industry’ at the time, who were too obsessed with the next big thing, and too culturally blind to see where music and society were heading. Pre-gig, that same air had seeped into the room.”It Takes a Nation…” had opened my ears to hip hop and everything it brings with it a few years earlier. I’d waited a for this. I was worried.
I needn’t have been. It took time and energy to break down the resistance in that room, but you really had the feeling that Chuck, Flav, DJ Lord and the S1W’s were there on a mission – a mission to affect hearts and minds in a meaningful way and they weren’t letting up until the whole of that crowd knew that and were fully on board. That gig stayed with me, and affirmed how powerful the music form and the culture that underlies it are – at revealing truths, changing minds and giving voice to those who use its various forms (music, dance, art) as a mouthpiece.
Yemi (and the rest of the team)’s series captures a similar mood. Rather than a fatuous surface level history of a musical genre, it runs much deeper, recognising this as a cultural movement – showing that the creativity, influence and meaning it has would not exist without the politics, poverty, history, inequality, culture of dance, and communality that underpins it.
