The first teaser trailer for Showtime’s new hip-hop documentary Word Is Bond has arrived. In between archival footage of freestyle sessions, including one featuring Notorious B.I.G., Rakim, Nas and Pusha T all speak briefly on how hip-hop became their life calling, and lyricism, king. “Rap is like the bible, G!” says Rhymefest, to DJ Shadow and Run the Jewels’ triumphant “Nobody Speak.”
Word Is Bond will also feature interviews with Big Daddy Kane, Jadakiss, Styles P, Tech Nine, J. Cole, Brother Ali, Rapsody and Anderson. Paak. According to Showtime, these artists will help explore “the many dimensions the hip-hop poetics occupy.” They will explain how hip-hop was born as a New York art form in the South Bronx, before the music went on to showcase other regional dialects from across the nation and take the world by storm.
Of course, director Sacha Jenkins is a hip-hop authority himself. The ego trip co-founder, one-time VIBE editor and current Mass Appeal creative director is also behind documentaries like 50 Cent: The Origin Of Me, Fresh Dressed and Burn Motherfucker, Burn!, which was about the Rodney King verdict and the Los Angeles riots that ensued.
Word Is Bond premieres February 16, 10 PM EST/PST, on Showtime.
