Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

Russell Simmons is undoubtedly one of the major pioneering forces of hip-hop and urban culture. Often denoted as the “Father Of Hip-Hop”, he’s been instrumental in the rise of the genre’s first exclusive hip-hop record label Def Jam, the genre’s own distinctively street style with acts like LL Cool J, Run-DMC, and the Beastie Boys, and the first clothing line marketed at urban culture, Phat Farm.

Simmons is also responsible for launching HBO’s successful forum for urban comedic talent, Def Comedy Jam, which has launched some of the biggest comedy acts of the past decade like Chris Tucker, Cedric The Entertainer, Dave Chappelle, and others. In 2002, he decided to take his uniquely urban entertainment forays to its most unlikely place: the world of poetry. The result is HBO’s Def Poetry, of which the fourth season is now available on DVD.

Def Poetry is a half-hour late night program hosted by rapper/actor Mos Def. At the start of every show, it begins with a filmed intro of Mos Def reciting a verse of a poem from a venerated author he considers a “Def Poet”. As he comes out to host the show, he introduces a variety of different poets who perform.

Some are venerated in the art of “slam poetry”, which emphasizes performance and delivery and usually focuses on urban, ethnic, and political issues. The style usually borrows from elements of hip-hop rapping and the genre’s prototypical forefather, spoken word set to music. Others are more conventional poets who spout about various issues outside urban and political issues, such as gender issues, sexuality, and life in general.

In this season, aired during the year 2004, Def Poetry features such venerated poets such as Black Ice, Taylor Mali, Rafael Casal, Shihan, Beau Sia, and Suheir. The guest performers that were featured range from singers Floetry, Musiq and Ani DiFranco to actors Kim Fields, Ruby Dee and Tracy Morgan,to authors like Oscar Brown and Michael Eric Dyson.

Also on hand are spoken-word performances from rappers like KRS-One, Doug E. Fresh, MC Lyte, Dead Prez, Common, and Kanye West. Particularly noteworthy is West’s “18 Years” poem, which would end up as the basis of the memorable verses found in the lyrics of his most successful single to date, “Gold Digger”, the following year.

Def Poetry is undoubtedly the most unique and innovative hip-hop-oriented TV program to ever emerge from the brainchild of Russell Simmons. He ingeniously takes the world of poetry and shows how the performances of it are often as equally gripping to that of rapping and freestyling in hip-hop music.

It’s definitely a fascinating watch as you see how much the best of the hip-hop genre, which has often been denounced by critics as lacking any real merit in music whatsoever, is rooted in the world of poetry and spoken-word, which itself has been usually unfairly scoffed at by the much of the general public as pretentious. Mos Def is a charismatic host ...