The holidays are meant for catching up on movies. It is freezing in Manhattan this week, so Netflix and I have gotten to know each other well.
Today I came across Ice-T's documentary about hip hop called "The Art of Rap." It came out back in April, it's new to me.
There are a lot of parallels between writing and hip hop: both industries are tough, everyone seems to know each other and the rate of rejection is high. Anger, frustration and money management are common themes. For someone like me, who likes words and music -- specifically jazz -- hip hop has been a natural obsession since I was quite young.
It's an inspiring movie about how hip hop artists create, their process, their fascination with words. There is a great scene where one rapper carefully chooses his pen before writing.
You can watch the whole thing here. It mutes at times, so you may just want to stream it on Netflix.
