Chuck D to Tell 'The Story of Hip-Hop' in Four-Part Docuseries Slated for 2023

Kim Metso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chuck D's docuseries “Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed The World," finally has a premiere date.

PBS, along with its partner BBC Studios, announced today at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, that the Chuck D-produced series will make its debut on January 31, 2023.

“PBS is excited to join with Chuck D, Lorrie Boula and BBC Music to bring this illuminating project to audiences across our platforms,” said Bill Gardner, Vice President of Multiplatform Programming and Head of Development for PBS, of the impending launch. “Hip hop is one of the most influential artistic genres and cultural movements of our time, and we’re thrilled to tell a deep and unflinching story with one of its originators and most powerful voices.”

First announced during January's TCA winter press tour the series was developed by the Public Enemy co-founder and his manager Lorrie Boula, it promises to “trace the story of this globally influential art form over the past 40 years up to today” and will feature some of the arts' most influential names including Grandmaster Caz, Ice-T, Abiodun Oyewole (The Last Poets), Roxanne Shanté, Run DMC, John Forté, will.i.am, MC Lyte, B-Real (Cypress Hill), Melle Mel, Fat Joe, Lupe Fiasco and more.

“The hip hop community has, from the start, been doing what the rest of media is only now catching up to,” said Chuck D of the importance of the project at the time. “Long before any conglomerate realized it was time to wake up, hip hop had been speaking out and telling truths. Working with PBS and BBC is an opportunity to deliver these messages through new ways and help explain hip hop’s place in history and hopefully inspire us all to take it further.”

Boula added, “People are finally open to hearing and learning about the history of all Americans, and we want to deliver authentic, compelling and truthful stories to them.”