Birth of rap, end of disco: “The Get Down”

There’s a reason why we love coming-of age-stories: they hold a certain magic we don’t always find in adulthood.
For decades, we’ve had the boring, well-off white kid’s coming-of-age magic – which isn’t altogether awful. But, when confronted with projects like “The Get Down,” where that coming-of-age magic is mixed in with real-world politics, a turmoil of oppression and struggle, and an unbridled passion for creating something beautiful, for reaching past the limitations set on someone to achieve success… then the boring white kid’s coming-of-age story just lacks in comparison, doesn’t it?
The Get Down is a series on Netflix that follows the lives of a handful of youths in the Bronx borough of New York City in the late 1970s.
The three main characters we follow are Ezekiel Figuero, a young poet and romantic, introduced to the budding art of rap by a larger-than-life best friend; Shoalin Fantastic, a protégé DJ to Grandmaster Flash and best friend to Figuero; and Mylene Cruz, the girlfriend of Figuero, with a voice to die for and a fervent ambition to become the next disco superstar.
When Netflix released the show’s second season – or “Part 2” – on April 7, I did not expect it to have such an air of finality to it. Rather than seasons, the show has decided to label their releases as parts one and two, which leads me to believe that there will be no Part Three.
Having finished both parts, I can’t say that they were wrong in ending it there. The Get Down perfectly shows a window into the culture of late 1970s Bronx youth and methodically lays out a crucial time period in the birth of rap music. The storyline of Zeke, Shoalin, and Mylene weaves through the true history of the Bronx magically.and while the characters aren’t real, they’re so rooted in realness that you often find yourself wondering if they truly are fiction.
When asked why I love this show so much, I thought of how steeped it is in the metaphor of music.
There are the musical numbers, of course; when Mylene breaks into song in her journey to become a disco queen, when Zeke and his crew, The Get Down Brothers, perform at The Get Down, or in a club. Past the obvious musical numbers, it seems that every tempo in this show – tempo between the cuts, tempo of the compilation of scenes, tempo of the story progression – reflects the tempo of the music that drives the main characters’ lives. What The Get Down does best is harmonize two into one. We see them do this with music and the story, overlapping Mylene and Zeke’s drastically different musically driven storylines into one scene, one song.
Part Two of The Get Down is jam-packed with a lot of beautiful music, powerful growth and heavy themes. It’s a mix of emotions, but nonetheless a mix that I recommend.

I give “The Get Down, Part 2” a 5 out of 5.

Advocate Staff