‘The Get Down’ Romanticizes Comics and Martial Arts as Honorary Elements of Hip-Hop

“I walk pass with a nod and a reminisce / Swear to god hip hop and comic books was my genesis”- Atmosphere *No radio edit on spoilers here. Only read if you finished the series* Sun, you know a show is going to be good when your mans/womans/nonbinarys and dem keeps asking if you seen it and to contact them no matter the hour as soon as you do. That’s how Editor Will Evans was telling me about The Get Down, explaining how the story is vivid and moves like a comic book. He wasn’t lying — as soon as I turned it on we’re taking to ’96 era hip-hop with a grown Zeke giving us the foreshadowing to the journey we’re here for. What we see unravel is Zeke and his friends'(Dizzee, Ra-Ra, and Boo-Boo) introduction to the underground world of hip-hop through the enigmatic Shaolin Fantastic. The Get Down does an incredible job of creating the lore of the beginnings of hip-hop. Much like how Middle Earth is filled with a vast history in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, we start out on the ground floor for the world building hip-hop as its own entity. This entity is given life by the five elements of hip-hop: graffiti, emcees, BBoys, DJ’s, and knowledge. We see at least one or more element represented in each character, Dizzee (graffiti, knowledge), Zeke (Emcee, knowledge), Ra-Ra (knowledge), Boo-Boo (BBoy) and Shaolin Fantastic embodies more of the elements (DJ, BBoy, knowledge, graffiti) as he is a direct product of it. The beautiful thing is that although they aren’t official elements T…