”Outstrips all other films on hip-hop” - Josh Rothkoph, Time Out

Over ten years in the making, FREESTYLE: THE ART OF RHYME, provides an explosive inside look into the creative framework of hip-hop culture and the improvisational art of freestyle - where MC’s express themselves by creating rhymes in the moment. Following some of hip-hop’s biggest luminaries, FREESTYLE explores the art form’s history, rules, legendary MC battles, taboos, social impact, and the previously unexamined dimensions of improvisational rapping as a spiritual and community-based art form. The New York Times’ A.O. Scott hails FREESTYLE as “Joyful! Ferocious! A celebration of the verbal artistry of hip-hop - A rousing education in an art form that is too often misunderstood” while Jami Bernard of The NY Daily News writes, “The Hollywood version is “8 Mile” but the real thing is this admiring documentary that explores the phenomenon with spirit. It contains footage that is as exciting as an Ali/Foreman fight.”

Directed by rising filmmaker Kevin Fitzgerald (a.k.a. DJ Organic), FREESTYLE: THE ART OF RHYME documents the freestyle scene from the early 1980s through the present day, featuring a who’s who list of seminal hip-hop figures including MC Supernatural, Mos Def, Roots members Black Thought & Questlove, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Freestyle Fellowship, Lord Finesse, Cut Chemist, Craig G, DJ Kool Herc, Juice, Boots of the Coup, Medusa, Planet Asia, MTV’s Sway, Crazy Legs, Jurassic 5 members Cut Chemist, DJ Numark & Chali Tuna, Wordsworth, Bobbito Garcia, and The Last Poets, providing a rarely seen portrait of hip hop that is at once entertaining, historical, and educational.

“The energy is contagious, the poetry inspired, the most lively and informative movie about hip-hop since Wildstyle” - Amy Taubin, The Village Voice

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