Latin American Rappers Get Profiled In New Documentary

If you're looking for an antidote to the get-rich-quick schemes favored by many in modern hip-hop, be sure to check out a thought-provoking new documentary, Estilo Hip Hop, premiering this Sunday (June 28) at 10 p.m. on PBS.

The hour-long documentary, directed by New York-based filmmakers Loira Limbal (currently the Director of Operations at film production company Firelight Media) and Vee Bravo (an activist and journalist who edited Stress and Fuego Magazine) focuses on three dedicated hip-hop advocates and performers in different Latin American countries.

Among them is Eli Efi, a prominent rapper from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Guerrillero Okulto, a young community organizer and dedicated father in Santiago, Chile, and Cuban female Magia, who performs along with her husband Alexei in the duo Obsesión.

Bravo is gratified to have the film complete and ready for airing, but given how hard and long he and his partner worked on it, he knows the end goal is larger than just getting a movie on air and for sale (a DVD with lots of extras will be available from PBS Home Video after the airing and from iTunes in the fall).

“It’s a film, and we know it's not going to change the world,” Bravo explained to XXLMag.com. “But it could spark a dialogue amongst three generations: the people in their '40s who came up with the Zulu Nations, the people in their late-20s, early-30s who came up with 80s-90s hip-hop, like me and you, and the young people who are just coming up now.”

For more information direct from the filmmakers be sure to visit estilohiphop.net. –Ben Osborne