Why Rhythm + Flow is the best-ever rap reality TV competition

Slate

"The Netflix show doesn’t neuter rap’s inherent aesthetics, or mostly doesn’t," says Carl Wilson. "It’s better able to reflect rougher realities about the racialized communities hip-hop comes from than the conventionally sentimental backstories of reality TV. There are a lot of murdered, imprisoned, addicted, and otherwise vanished relatives in Rhythm + Flow’s would-be stars’ lives. For many of them, the stakes of the competition—with its prize of a quarter-million dollars—are as much about slipping out of American nightmares as they are about pursuing American dreams."