Documentaries are a great way to learn something new while remaining entertained by the possibly unfamiliar.
Take hip-hop, for example. The genre has been around since at least the '70s, so it's safe to assume that everyone has some familiarity with rap and its intricacies. However, it has such a storied history that it's easy to bypass some of the more nuanced stories that give you a fuller understanding of the sounds and tastemakers throughout the years.
Pharrell Williams' documentary-style LEGO film Piece By Piece enters the hallowed pantheon of movies that tell a rapper's life story, and although it isn't on this list because it leans more film than documentary, it isn't the only documentary about hip-hip and rappers. While there are eight solid films about rappers you should watch, we thought it was also fitting that, with Piece By Piece out, we put together a list of 15 documentaries you should also add to your watchlist.
15.Beat This!: A Hip-Hop History
Director(s): Dick Fontaine
Release: 1984
Runtime: 54m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
The lowest-ranked documentary on the list isn’t here because it’s unenjoyable. It’s framed as a radio show hosted by a DJ speaking in rhymes, a nice touch that makes the recounting of hip-hop’s origins feel like an epic legend. The film does have a bit of an identity crisis, though. Split between interviews and raw footage of parties and performances, Beat This! is too much of a documentary to be fully immersive and too vibey to be incredibly informative. Still, it's a cool experiment nonetheless.
14.Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap
Director(s): Ice-T, Andy Baybutt
Release: June 15, 2012
Runtime: 1h 50m
Rotten Tomatoes: 86% (Critics), 77% (Audience)
Ice T’s documentary on hip-hop’s origins is a bright, starry affair. Through interviews with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), Kanye West, and so many more pivotal figures, Something From Nothing begins to interrogate the philosophical beginnings of the genre and where it stands in comparison to other black art forms. “Begins” is a key word there, as the documentary loses this thread as it progresses. However, the love for hip-hop oozes from this film, making it well worth a watch.
13.Mixtape
Director(s): Omar Acosta
Release: 2023
Runtime: 1h 26m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A (Critics), 93% (Audience)
In the genre’s 50-year history, few terms have inhabited different meanings more than the word “mixtape.” This documentary dives into what a mixtape meant to the culture at different points in time, from party tapes to Spotify playlists. This all-star cast gives great insight into how essential mixtapes were to the careers of legends like 50 Cent and Lil Wayne, but also how they aided the globalization of hip-hop through their smuggling across country lines. Despite skipping over the impact of the blog era, Mixtape is endlessly informative and insightful.
12.Fresh Dressed
Director(s): Sacha Jenkins
Release: June 26, 2015
Runtime: 1h 24m
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (Critics), 55% (Audience)
Another documentary full of starry talking heads. Artists like Nas, Kanye, and Pusha T discuss the world of hip-hop fashion, how certain trends rose up, and why clothes contribute so much to a rapper’s image. This has one of the widest spectrums of guests you’ll see in a documentary with rappers, fashion icons, pop culture experts, and African American history experts giving exposing their knowledge on the intersection of fashion and rap. Fresh Dressed is lighthearted, but it’s also interested in penetrating beyond the surface.
11.Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives
Director(s): Bobbito Garcia
Release: 2015
Runtime: 1h 30m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A (Critics), 92% (Audience)
It’s hard to believe, but in the ‘90s, a pivotal testing ground for new rap talent was a weekly radio program on a Columbia University-powered station. Every Thursday night—during the graveyard shift—The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show would air, introducing fans to some of the greatest rappers of all time, including pre-fame legends such as Wu-Tang, The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, and Jay-Z. Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives offers a cozy look at that decade and the stars born from it. One red flag: Bobbito Garcia is the director of the documentary and one of its subjects, making it more memoir than journalism. However, Bobbito doesn’t shy away from his biases while addressing the creative and personal differences he had with DJ Stretch Armstrong. There’s also a warmth that drives this film and a knowing energy that this is for folks who know what the Jay-Z and Big L freestyle is. Since this is a documentary about a radio show, there isn’t a lot of footage. There’s plenty of rich audio, though. A portion of the doc is supplemented by illustrations that don’t always work, but that’s a minor quibble. The strength of this film is seeing Stretch and Bobbito’s Siskel and Ebert-esque dynamic and all the names featured here, from Common to Q-Tip to Eminem and more. — Dimas Sanfiorenzo, Music Editor
10.Biggie & Tupac
Director(s): Nick Broomfield
Release: 2002
Runtime: 1h 48m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
This investigative look into the deaths of Tupac and Biggie carries some of that true crime sleaze with it. Director Nick Broomfield has no qualms about barging into barber shops and putting cameras in people’s faces, making it seem as though he lacks appreciation for the culture he’s covering. However, the film presents the events of Biggie and Tupac’s lives in a more compelling way than either biopic, and it’s fascinating to see these stories told from different angles.
9.My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women in Hip Hop
Director(s): Ava DuVernay
Release: August 30, 2010
Runtime: 42m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
Coming from director Ava DuVernay, who would go on to make such acclaimed films like Selma and Origin, My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women in Hip Hop is a recounting of women’s history in the often male-dominated genre. The film does a great job of showing lines of influence from woman MC to woman MC, mapping out almost 40 years of history in 40 minutes. Due to that contracted length, it doesn’t get to dive too deep, but My Mic Sounds Nice provides an astute overview of important—and overlooked—events and figures.
8.Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Director(s): Michael Rapaport
Release: July 8, 2011
Runtime: 1h 37m
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% (Critics), 90% (Audience)
The 2011 Michael Rapaport-directed documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest treks into the generation-defining hip-hop universe of the legendary rap group. Released five years before the death of A.T.C.Q. member Phife Dawg, the doc centers the group’s comeback on the 2008 Rock the Bells Tour, while Phife and Q-Tip, the group’s frontman and main producer, confront their brewing rift. Along with the animated retellings of iconic A.T.C.Q. albums like The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders, what brings Beats, Rhymes & Life into full scope are Phife’s heartbreaking struggles with Type 1 diabetes and the group’s abrupt 1998 split. The film was a necessary reintroduction to A.T.C.Q. before they made an official return on the 2016 LP We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, but it’s also a meaningful goodbye to Phife. — Jaelani Turner-Williams, News Writer
7.Scratch
Director(s): Doug Pray, Bonner Bellew
Release: February 15, 2002
Runtime: 1h 30m
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Critics), 93% (Audience)
Focusing on a fundamental but overlooked aspect of hip-hop culture is Scratch, a documentary about the history of DJing. This is a solid watch that digs into how DJ culture has thrived in its own lane since record labels shunted DJs at the start of hip-hop’s commercialization. Scratch flirts with some wider themes and DJ Shadow particularly drops some knowledge, but the film mostly exists as a straightforward report on this culture.
6.May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story
Director(s): Holland Randolph Gallagher
Release: 2023
Runtime: 1h 40m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
Warmth and intimacy are rare currencies in filmmaking. If you can leave a documentary feeling less like you sat through an interesting lecture and more like you’ve spent a night talking with a friend over a few games of FIFA, then you’ve witnessed something special. May The Lord Watch draws you into Phonte and Big Pooh’s homes, hands you a cup of green tea, and regales stories about the formation of underground hip-hop, a melding of creative minds, and how life can get between the strongest of friendships. Its charismatic leads are supplemented by a cast of family, friends, and creative partners, gifting you the feeling of entering a community. Without breaking a sweat, May The Lord Watch has what every other film on this list wants.
5.Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Director(s): Michel Gondry
Release: March 3, 2006
Runtime: 1h 43m
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (Critics), 74% (Audience)
Dave Chappelle’s regression into a toxic person made the inclusion of this film tentative. Ultimately, I decided that erasing Dave Chappelle was not worth erasing an important cultural artifact. Few films on this list capture the specific state of hip-hop in the 2000s as well as this. They also don’t capture the genre’s ability to create community like this one does. On top of that, it feels sacred to see these legends occupy the same space. Kanye and Talib Kweli before they presented the less savory 2020s versions of themselves, Common and Mos Def dressed like part-time math teachers. This film feels nostalgic for a more innocent time.
4.Nas: Time Is Illmatic
Director(s): One9
Release: 2014
Runtime: 1h 13m
Rotten Tomatoes: 98% (Critics), 83% (Audience)
Documenting the creation and impact of one of the greatest albums ever made, Time is Illmatic is most interested in diving into Nas’ emotional inspiration. In a way, the film mythologizes his story. There’s a lot of talk of destiny and Nas’ belief in the path that led him to Illmatic. It works if you invest in those ideas, but a cynic would struggle with this. What makes it unique, though, is how little it needs to focus on the wider impact of Nas’ music, instead centering on the weight Nas had built up over the course of his life and the way he infused it into this legendary record.
3.Style Wars
Director(s): Tony Silver
Release: 1983
Runtime: 1h 7m
Rotten Tomatoes: 80% (Critics), 95% (Audience)
Style Wars is a documentary that traces the arc of Black art forms through the journey of graffiti artists in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Interviews with both artists and stiff-upper-lipped New York City civil servants show how Black art is at first derided and condemned but later commercialized and integrated for profit. Style Wars is also perceptive in the way it interrogates the act of making art for art’s sake while in poverty and evading the law.
2.The Carter
Director(s): Adam Bhala Lough
Release: 2009
Runtime: 1h 15m
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A (Critics), 76% (Audience)
This documentary completely subverted my expectations. A fly-on-the-wall film giving us a peek into Lil Wayne’s life one week leading up to, and then one week after, the release of Tha Carter III could have been a dull, shameless ad for Wayne’s music. Instead, you’ll leave deeply concerned for the man. You see people around him who worry about his health and the way he acts when under the influence, all while Wayne is celebrating selling a million copies in a week. It’s a fascinating insight into the man without him ever speaking to the camera.
1.Tupac: Resurrection
Director(s): Lauren Lazin
Release: November 14, 2003
Runtime: 1h 40m
Rotten Tomatoes: 78% (Critics), 90% (Audience)
20 years before the Allen Hughes-created docuseries Dear Mama premiered on FX, the 2003 documentary Tupac: Resurrection poetically explored the impoverished origins and perilous rise of the late rapper. Directed by Lauren Lazin, the Oscar-nominated doc was posthumously narrated by Tupac through archival interview footage, with standout scenes being from his time at Baltimore School for the Arts and one of his last MTV News appearances before his untimely 1996 murder. Through Tupac’s first-person perspective of impactful life stages—being a Digital Underground roadie, establishing the T.H.U.G. Life mission, serving time in prison, and his years-long feud with The Notorious B.I.G.—Resurrection brings fans into a closer view of the artist’s once-in-a-lifetime rap influence. — Jaelani Turner-Williams, News Writer