Hitting the mainstream in the ‘80s, curiously enough with a lot of thanks to Blondie’s very fun and very naff Rapture, hip-hop and rap has gone from strength to strength, becoming more than a simple musical genre with an entire culture building up around it. The time is ripe for a decent documentary on it all – it’s a shame then that this isn’t it.

This is a shout out to Crazy John's New York cousin - respec'!

Held together by one Mr. Excitement, this is simply a collection of interview grabs with a veritable who’s-who of the genre taken from the Live Music Channel show he hosts. Mostly nabbed hanging about at launch parties and birthday bashes, those appearing are in various states of coherence, some having pertinent things to offer up, others barely intelligible. Renowned artists the likes of Method Man, Nas, Dr Dre, Redman, Salt (of “and Pepa� fame), Xzibit, Ja Rule, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Eve and Snoop Dogg get their moments in the spotlight, be it to offer advice to aspiring young hip hop artists, flog their latest product (which unfortunately was only current a few years back – did you know for example that Ja Rule is appearing with Vin Diesel in an upcoming flick called The Fast and the Furious?) or to exhibit examples of their unfortunate afflictions with Tourette’s Syndrome motherf*cker-motherf*cker-n*gger-b*tch-motherf*cker. O*ps, s*rry...

A few interesting titbits can be dug out of the remarkable amount of rubbish that’s here, such as defining the unique parlance of the genre, dealing with the music industry, the trappings of money, power and fame, “keepin’ it real� and the importance of respect. Sadly, however, there’s little heard from any of the elder statesmen of the genre – no Grandmaster Flash, no Mel Melle, no Run, no DMC, no Jam Master Jay, no Chuck D, no Professor Griff – and say kids, what time is it? Certainly not time to hear from good old Flavour Flav!

A world often filled with controversy, such well publicised affairs as Death Row Records, the death of Tupak Shakur and, erm, Hammer and Vanilla Ice are also briefly touched upon, however this last point is one of the two major letdowns in Hip Hop VIPs – much is alluded to, but in a sea of “shout outs� and the aforementioned potty-mouthedness little is discussed in enough depth or coherently enough to be of much use to anybody. The other letdown? While quite a few snippets of the artists doing what they do best – performing – are included, none of the actual sound has been licensed, so the only musical accompaniment heard throughout is a series of quite generic instrumentals.

With all the rather rapidly cut together snippets videotaped in crowded locations for a television programme, this full frame presentation is about as good as can be expected, but certainly isn't great. Decidedly bright for the most part, colour and all that stuff comes through pretty well, while detail is just alright.

The standard Dolby Digital stereo audio would be disappointing if any of the performance footage featured the matching sound, however as it doesn’t a decent enough job is done in delivering the interview stuff, much of which is indecipherable due to mumbling and general out-of-it-ness rather than any fault with the sound format on offer.

As for extras, little respect is due, with only a rather long “trailer� for Hip-Hop VIPs, and one for a slightly more interesting looking documentary about rap battles entitled War on Wax.

To be honest with nothing in the way of music from the artists featured, it’s hard to see this being any more than a curio for seriously diehard fans of hip-hop and rap. Well, either that or a “how to� walk, talk and dress manual for those hopeless young wannabe homies you find hanging “tough� at the local shopping centre until their Mummys come to take them home in the 4WD…