Filmmaker Byron Hurt, a life-long hip-hop fan, was watching rap music videos on BET when he realized that each video was nearly identical. Guys in fancy cars threw money at the camera while scantily clad women danced in the background. As he discovered how stereotypical rap videos had become, Hurt, a former college quarterback turned activist, decided to make a film about the gender politics of hip-hop, the music and the culture that he grew up with.

This program airs tonight on some PBS stations; its official premiere is on Tuesday.

About Independent Lens, the New Yorker wrote, in 2003:

Watching “Independent Lens” is like going into an independent bookstore —— you don’t always find what you were looking for but you often find something you didn’t even know you wanted.

That's how the New Yorker piece ends. I also like how it begins:

Cable news has a habit of treating viewers like children on a long car trip.

HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes | PBS Independent Lens