An Erieau native is back in the director’s chair as he takes an in-depth look at the evolution of hip-hop.
Director Darby Wheeler is taking a passion for the hip-hop culture and putting it on screen – something he's done in the past.
Wheeler helped make Hip-Hop Evolution -- a documentary series which aired on Netflix in 2016.
Now, he’s back at it. Wheeler was in Houston this past week, working on what he calls a “top secret” project.
“I’ll give you a little bit of a hint. We were filming some more hip-hop artists,” he says. “Houston has sort of a vital hip-hop theme that started early on and no one really knows [about it] – it’s different than other places like New York and Los Angeles.”
Filming Hip-Hop Evolution, Coke La Rock (left) and Shad (right). (Photo courtesy of Darby Wheeler)
This new project comes a little over a year after Hip-Hop Evolution was released. He says the series gives an inside look into the genre, showcasing artists such as Kool Herc and Shad.
In addition to some of the on-screen cast, Wheeler says he worked with some well-known people behind the scenes, such as Comedian Russell Peters and Producers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen.
The series proved so popular that it recently won a 2017 Peabody Award.
“It’s pretty surreal, a bunch of Canadians accepting such a prestigious award,” says Wheeler.
So how did it start?
Wheeler says Banger Films was the real driving force behind Hip-Hop Evolution, who had previously produced something similar called Metal Evolution.He says after meeting with Dunn and McFadyn something had "sparked" where his ideas -- and that of co-writer Rodrigo Buscunan -- set a pace for the series. Wheeler wanted to dig deeper to where the true culture of hip-hop lies and bring that forgotten history to the surface.
“Today, Jay Z and Puff Daddy make millions of dollars, but Kool Herc was a Fed-Ex delivery man at one point in his life – so I always wanted to celebrate the champions of this culture, and they needed to shine so that’s definitely what the inspiration was,” he says.
No word as to when Wheeler's latest project will air but something should be on the way. Meanwhile, Wheeler will continue working and plans to make a trip back home sometime in the summer.
