Search Film, Company, People...

OUTSPOKEN

RHYME AND REASON

By Sarita SIEGEL

PLANISPHERES - as PROD / CONS

Documentary - Post-Production 2023

Introduced by the grand-daddy of 1980's Bronx rap, Darryl Mac Daniels of Run DMC takes us into a kaleidoscopic cypher circle of activist rappers who share personal connections to oral traditions and unique music-driven activism. 'Outspoken' portrays the original intention of rap artistry.

- Year of production
- 2023
- Genres
- Documentary, Social issues
- Countries
- BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, NEW ZEALAND, MYANMAR, UNITED KINGDOM, USA
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 60 mn
- Director(s)
- Sarita SIEGEL
- Cast
- Daryl MCDANIELS, Melle MEL, Chuck D, Te KUPU, Zayer THAW, Mc XUMAN, Emmanuel JAL, Jota RAMOS, M C KUNUMI
- Producer(s)
- Sarita SIEGEL, Malcolm MOORE (Planispheres), Alana MCVERRY
- Synopsis
- In the wake of global instability and rapid change the voice of the rap artist echoes environmental catastrophe, social rupture and political brutality. Outspoken travels across continents to interweave the stories of activist rap artists whose stories intersect and overlap as each rhyme artist touches the lives of others. Rap warriors, who step up to the microphone
  acknowledge their links back to timeless and universal oral traditions and techniques while adding to a swirling global dialogue of social commentary for our times that transmits and adapts to suit specific places and people.
  
  Outspoken opens as Jamaican Rastafarian dub toaster Big Youth claims that he and Daddy U-Roy started the rap genre. Outspoken follows the entwining of music and politics that elevated Rasta social commentators in Jamaica, before a Big Youth dub track underscores an animation depicting the journey of Caribbean toasting and sound system culture to New York in the 1970s.
  
  Darryl MacDaniels from seminal rap crew Run DMC, remembers being a teen whenCaribbean sound systems appeared in the streets and parks of New York. Darryl describeshow early 80's rap transformed braggadocious dub poetry into gritty social commentary about daily life, crime, politics and history giving a voice to disenfranchised youth in an era of repressive government and urban decay.
  
  Soon artists begin committing confronting lyrics to vinyl records, allowing tracks to bounce around the world to reach a growing hip-hop diaspora. Local people in far-flung places began responding with rhymes in their own languages, creating a global cypher circle of shared experience.
  
  Across the Pacific in New Zealand, 1980's videotape shows a young Maori artist flipping through import records in a record store. Te Kupu established one of New Zealand’s earliest rap groups. Although US rap tracks were a crucial inspiration, Te Kupu rapped in his mothertongue about issues relating to growing up in a post-colonial nation. Maori Youth had been alienated from their language, land and culture and Upper Hutt Posse's tracks were a call to action that challenged colonial domination and land rights. Te Kupu was propelled to the helm of a revival of Maori language and identity. Te Kupu connects his rap activism to global indigenous movements and struggles.
  
  In Myanmar, musician and skateboarder Zeyar Thaw became fascinated with American stylehip-hop during an era when international culture was hard to access under a dictatorship.
  
  Zeyar Thaw formed a crew and began rapping in Burmese about human rights and freedom of expression and Zeyar Thaw founded Generation Wave, an activist group that protested military rule using rap and graffiti.
  
  We meet GW members in basement cafes and secret locations as they cannot openly organise. In 2008, Zeyar Thaw was detained and sentenced to a term as a political prisoner. For almost 3-years, Zeyar Thaw wrote rap lyrics in betelnut on the walls of his cell.