London's Most Wanted

Caught on Camera

Curated by Bertolain Elysee, Jessica Green and Philip Maysles

This two-part series sheds a spotlight on hip hop (and its cultural and political antecedents), from a region engulfed in environmental siege with centuries old roots and a New South identity. After considering hip hop's southern migration and local variations, Country Rap transitions into Katrina: Five Years Later, a selection of films that document New Orleans' rich history, as well as those films made in response to the devastation of New Orleans, and efforts towards recovery.

When hip hop traveled South from it's birthplace in New York, it was reunited with elements of culture and social experience from which African American popular music originally sprung. Country Rap presents Southern hip hop in the context of the "canon" of Southern roots music and the history of political struggle in the South in order to identify the elements that have shape its distinctive sound and inform the identities of its participants.

Katrina: Five Years Later which immediately follows Country Rap: The Gulf States celebrates the peoples, cultures and politics of gulf coast regions most affected by Hurricane Katrina with a special emphasis on New Orleans, arguably America's first multi-racial, cosmopolitan, urban center.