Official Trailer for ‘American Rapstar’ Doc Film About Lo-Fi Rappers
by Alex Billington
September 2, 2022
Source: YouTube
“What young people want from pop culture is not what old people want from pop culture…” Utopia has revealed a trailer for a music documentary titled American Rapstar, which originally premiered back in 2020 at a few major documentary festivals. It’s finally opening on VOD in October. A new scene of troubled, lo-fi young rappers have emerged from utilizing the SoundCloud streaming platform to quickly become the most culturally disruptive force in hip hop, shocking the world with their rambunctious antics, prescription drug use, facial tattoos, and tons of rebellious punk energy. Justin Staple’s new doc American Rapstar tells the story of how these artists, including Smokepurpp, Lil Xan, XXXTentacion, Lil Peep and Bhad Bhabie, have unsettled the music industry, tested pop culture boundaries and paved their own unique roads. On one hand, these artists seem over-the-top ridiculous. On the other hand, this looks like an honest doc that digs into modern music culture and the Gen Z rap scene more than expected. This ain’t just another puff piece.
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Justin Staple’s doc American Rapster, direct from YouTube:
A new scene of troubled, lo-fi young rappers has emerged from Trump’s America, utilizing the SoundCloud streaming platform to quickly become the most culturally disruptive force in hip hop, shocking the world with their rambunctious antics, prescription drug use, facial tattoos, and plenty of rebellious punk energy. We examine the SoundCloud rap scene’s biggest stars from within the culture as well placing them in the broader musical context in an attempt to understand how we arrived here and where we are headed. American Rapster is directed by producer / filmmaker Justin Staple, making his feature directorial debut with this film after a few shorts and other TV projects previously. Produced by Kerstin Emhoff and Braxton Pope. This initially premiered at the CPH:DOX and DOC NYC Film Festivals back in 2020. Utopia will debut American Rapster with a global virtual film screening on October 4th, 2022 via AltaVOD with exclusive bonus content, along with a regular VOD release starting on October 11th this fall. Who’s down for this?
