New Hip-Hop Based Web Series, RHYME ANIMAL, Set to Launch

A new Internet-based show is mixing hip-hop, horror and a search for the American Dream.

Just in time for Halloween, RHYME ANIMAL premiered earlier this week on Koldcast.TV. The web series centers on an ambitious DJ ready to ride an up-and-coming MC’s bubbling success to the top. The problem is, the DJ is slowly realizing that his partner in rhyme may be a leading man in crime—as a cannibalistic serial killer.

“It’s a story about a guy who’s forced to make some really dark choices in order to chase down his dream,” says creator of the show, Jorge Rivera, adding that the idea came to him in a nightmare he had when he was a hip-hop record producer himself, much in the same vein as the DJ on RHYME ANIMAL. “We use a lot of themes of materialism and consumerism and the backdrop of hip-hop.”

"I think the world of hip-hop, in some ways, is a small microcosm of the American Dream gone awry; greed gone out of control," he continued. "Even though we love the music and we love the personalities, it’s still a reflection of the 'American Dream' gone bananas. [The show] is like hip-hop Dexter, [but] it gets into a lot of philosophical questions about what is the American Dream? And what the value is behind that?”

The series has won numerous accolades, including wins at the 2009 HBO/NYLIFF Pitch-a-thon and this year’s Mid-Atlantic Black Film Festival, and was a finalist at this year’s Independent Television Festival.

You can check out the show at KoldCast.TV. —Adam Fleischer