Dir.: Peter Spirer; Phot.: Peter Spirer, Daniel Sollinger, George Mitas, Sean Adair, Brennan McClean, Alex Rappaport, Adam Vardy, Antonio Ponti; Ed.: Andy Robertson, David Wilson; Mus.: Benedykt Brydern; Cast: Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan, Pharcyde, Wyclef of the Fugees, Catastrophe of the Alkoholiks, The Alkoholiks, Raekwon/Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G., Kurtis Blow and Crew, Heavy D, Grand Master Caz, Salt-N-Pepa, Speech; Prod.: Charles X Block, Peter Spirer, Daniel Sollinger, City Block Films/Aslan Pictures, 1650 21st Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404 (États-Unis), tél.: (310) 582-8350, fax: (310) 582-8359; Sales: Miramax Films, 99 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013 (États-Unis), tél.: (212) 941-2433, fax: (212) 941-2087 ;Dist.: Alliance.

As this documentary shows, Hip-Hop is more than music; it's a way of life. RHYME & REASON goes back in time to reveal how the whole phenomenon began in the '70s. In some of the most run-down urban neighbourhoods in the United States, kids raised without much hope began inventing their own reasons to believe. They built a culture drawn partly from the traditions of jazz, gospel, rock and Jamaican dancehall as well as West African storytelling -- but a culture that was totally their own. It reflected the rhythms and the realities of young lives set against urban concrete and crime. It started on Bronx street corners and at block parties where guys with turntables began to get creative. The self-made deejays would interject sound bites or lyrics from one disc onto another by rotating records manually back and forth, often repeating a key phrase. This caused a scratching sound, and it changed the music into something rough, raw and percussive -- an authentic street sound. The messages of the songs changed too, because the deejays now controlled them. For the first time, these young people had a way of saying what was on their minds. Soon the music became a backdrop for the rhyming, hyped, poetic microphone styles of "rappers" and "MCs" -- guys with something to say and the wit to say it with a rhyming twist. The phenomenon took off...