UCI program to explore reputation of rap culture

It’s the music that thumps, shakes, beats and creates controversy.

Tonight from 7 to 10, UCI’s Campus Assault Resources and Education program screens “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” a look into rap music and its culture. Filmmaker Byron Hurt dives head-first into rap’s creativity, poetry, violence and so-called misogyny and homophobia.

Hurt, a self-confessed fan of the music, will make a “loving critique” of the music’s representations of masculinity. Prominent artists such as Mos Def, Fat Joe and Busta Rhymes are featured in the movie.

UCI’s Jared Sexton, an African-American studies and film and media studies professor, will moderate a discussion on the film’s topics. The event will be in UCI’s Joseph White Conference Room in the Cross Cultural Center. It’s free and open to the public and refreshments will be served.

The event is co-sponsored by UCI’s Gender Education Series and Hip Hop Congress.

— Joseph Serna