''5 Sides of a Coin'' is a 2003 feature-length documentary by Canadian filmmaker Paul Kell about hip hop culture. The title references the five elements inherent to this culture, ''viz.'', emceeing, deejaying,

b-boying Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in t ...

(aka breakdancing), writing (i.e.,

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

), and

beatboxing Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

. Each element is highlighted individually throughout the film's five chapters.

Synopsis

The documentary examines hip hop culture through interviews with hip hop artists such as

Kool Herc Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with contributing to the development of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s through his "Back to ...

, Jurassic 5, and

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenc ...

. The interviews are interspersed with performance footage and archival footage from various periods of time in the history of hip hop.

Critical reception

Critical reception for ''5 Sides of a Coin'' has been mixed. '' Variety'' wrote a predominantly favorable review, commenting "Not quite definitive, "''Five Sides of a Coin''" is nevertheless a thorough overview of hip-hop's origins and influences. Nifty, well-executed docu emphasizes music's creative, bohemian side, skipping more commercial excesses." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' also commented on the movie, praising Kell for the film's attention to music but also writing that "Still, you can't help but feel that something is missing, that hip-hop has been around long enough, and is complex enough, to deserve something more than piety."

References

External links

* Canadian documentary films 2003 films 2003 documentary films Documentary films about hip hop music and musicians 2000s Canadian films {{music-documentary-film-stub