"I felt I really had to do this film because rap music saved my life," explains Ice-T, narrator and co-director of this glossy documentary, which celebrates the men and women who propelled the lyrical art form into the musical mainstream. Almost 50 interview subjects are shoe-horned into 111 minutes, from old skool legend Grandmaster Caz, who surmises, "Hip hop didn't invent anything, hip hop re-invented everything!" to a typically chilled Snoop Dogg, claiming to get his creative juices flowing by smoking "a bit of weed". Popular figures like 50 Cent, Jay-Z and Queen Latifah don't warrant a mention but Ice-T and co-director Andy Baybutt embrace other icons including Chuck D from Public Enemy, Q-Tip and Eminem.
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