Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots (2012) watch online HD

Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots (2012)

*** (out of 4)

Snoop Dogg narrates this rage-induced documentary taking a look at the L.A. riots and the impact that rap music had on the events. We get interviews with the likes of John Singleton, Arsenio Hall, Ice Cube, Ice-T and various other artists (as well as some public service folks) and they talk about their memories of the riots. I guess I'll start off by talking about the actual film because it is very well-made and director Mark Jones does a very good job at telling the story. I think the film has a lot of strong moments as it covers the Rodney King beating, the verdict and then the riots that broke out. With that said, I must admit that I have a problem with any documentary that tries to show the riots as something good. I can't mentioned how many times people were bragging about all the death and destruction that happened over those three days and I'm sorry but I find it stupid that such violence took place. I think most would agree that those four cops were worthless scum but those acting out really weren't any better. On such person is Henry Watson, the man who was involved in the beating of the truck driver Denny. Watson is interviewed here and just running off his mouth screaming more hate and it just got to the point where this guy would make anyone look bad. Throughout the documentary we see video footage of the fires, the beatings and neighborhoods being looted and at times it really does seem as if the director doesn't know how to show this stuff. On one hand he's putting it down but then the next we have interviews with people talking about how great these days were. Showing people looting and burning their own stores just seemed counter productive to me and I don't see how anyone could support anything that happened between the King beating and the final days of the riots. There's quite a bit of ugly video footage here and we end the film with a threat that stuff is boiling over and we could see the same situation again.

This documentary was extreme. I was born in 1991, so it was an educational history lesson for me too. I was entertained the whole time and you see the connections between the LA Riots and hip hop artists and groups mainly N.W.A. and Snoop Dogg. It all started when police officers pulled an African American man named Rodney King over. They dragged him out of his car and beat him nearly to death. This is not an unusual thing for police officers to do, but this was the first time someone caught it on camera. The video footage was used in court, but still all officers were not guilty in the eyes of the law meaning that it was okay what they did. This was a message to black people saying that law enforcement is allowed to violate your rights and beat you till near death. Once the news was out that they were not guilty, the riots started. Citizens started to attack police officers and their vehicles to the point that law enforcement pulled every officer out of the area for weeks. Fights broke out in the streets and any white person seen got attacked with bricks bats and more. Looting started and fires broke out too. This documentary surprised me the whole way through. I highly recommend it.