article on Byron Hurt's film
www.beyondbeatsandrhymes.com
www.bhurt.com
--------------------
Hip-hop and sexuality
--------------------

LIer's look at misogyny and homophobia a key note among
music-driven movies

BY JAN STUART
STAFF WRITER

January 18, 2006

In the society of hip-hoppers, there are some places that you
just don't go.

Take the time when Smithtown-born filmmaker Byron Hurt asked
rapper Busta Rhymes to explain the link between machismo and
homoeroticism in hip-hop. Rhymes was so unwilling to go there he got up
and walked out of the room.

This agitated flight is captured in a new documentary that Hurt
will unveil at this year's Sundance Film Festival - which kicks off
tomorrow - entitled "Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in
on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture."

In this feisty hour-long film, Hurt asks all the prickly
questions you may have been afraid to ask surrounding the
hyper-masculine culture of hip-hop. The Long Island filmmaker pokes and
prods an array of musicians, producers, fans and authorities,
confronting them on the genre's ultra-violence, sexism, misogyny and
homophobia.

Russell Simmons' "cop-out"

Among the other notables who had their feathers ruffled by
Hurt's crusading camera was hip-hop entrepreneur and social activist
Russell Simmons, who, when asked to weigh in on the sexual
objectification of women in hip-hop, replied, "I think we have to
challenge sexism as it stands in the community, and not the poetry that
is a reflection of it ... I can't address every issue because I don't
have the equipment."

The 36-year-old Hurt seemed unconvinced. "I thought it was a bit
of a cop-out," he said from his home in Central Islip. "Here is someone
... the Rockefeller drug laws are important to, voting and registration
is important to, reparation is important to. He's a spokesperson for
PETA. But he's not willing to delve into issues of sexism and respect
for women. It's reflective of the general belief system a lot of men
have, that it's not a priority."

Hurt himself bought into that belief system well into his
college days at Northeastern University, where he attended on an
athletic scholarship and was asked to lead workshops in a gender
violence prevention program.

"I thought it was a violence protection program for young
people, which is much different," recalls the former Central Islip High
School star quarterback. "When I found out that they wanted me to go out
to colleges across the country and talk to athletes about sexism and
violence against women, my initial thought was, 'What are my boys going
to think about this? What is my father going to think about me?'
Honestly, I didn't know any man who was doing this type of thing."

A member of one of Northeastern's jockiest fraternities at the
time, Hurt nearly turned down the offer. "Automatically when you start
talking about gender issues, sexism, misogyny and homophobia," he
explains, "the first thing that gets called into question is your
heterosexual manhood. What kind of man are you? Why are you doing this?"

Embedded homophobia

Some of the film's more surprising sound bites come from black
drag queens, who profess to being turned on by gay-bashing lyrics, and
young women, who insist that male hip-hop performers' denigration of
women is not referring to them. "It goes to show how deeply embedded
homophobia and sexism are," Hurt says.

While pop music and its social significance has always been a
prevailing factor in the youth-energized film festival in Park City,
Utah, "Beyond Beats and Rhymes" signals a boom year for music-driven
documentaries.