Russell Simmons is an active dude. Despite having more than enough success to rest on his laurels, he continues to work tireless on projects like All Def Digital, his upcoming hip hop musical and his political activism. Now he can add one more thing to the list: an upcoming documentary series titled The Definitive History of Hip Hop.
The series will cover everything from hip hop’s beginning in the Bronx to today’s multiplatinum stars. Simmons is producing the series with his All Def production team. All Def CEO Sanjay Sharma explained, “with the breakout success of entertainment properties like Straight Outta Compton and Moonlight in film, Empire and Atlanta in television, even Hamilton on Broadway, there could not be a better time to tell this story about the embryonic days of hip hop.”
Simmons also lent his own two cents to the announcement. He said, “hip hop began in the Bronx and Queens and was fueled by pioneering new artists with an incredible hunger to express themselves in unimaginably bold new ways. The Definitive History of Hip Hop is the untold story of the birth of this art form. The series gets behind the scenes of what drove the beats, the rhymes, the ideas – and the people – that so powerfully hit a chord with all of youth culture in America and around the world.”
No word on a release date, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated once we know more. We’re interested to see how Simmons plans to differentiate the show from all the historical hip hop media that’s being produced today.
[via Deadline]