Wednesday, December 18, 2013

(What's Dope?) World Star Hip Hop: Life on Skid Row





For a site that's infamous for reveling in the lowest common denominator from scantily clad "WSHH Honeys", brutal scraps ranging from chaotic schoolyard rumbles to vicious street fights and other graphic acts of human cruelty, Worldstarhiphop, for once bucked its 8 year trend of capitalizing the darker side of human nature in the urban space.




You can say what you want about WorldStarHipHop and you'll most likely be right if you were brand the site as exploitative, sexist, and eerily indifferent to the brutality it depicts on a regular basis but WSHH definitely broke the mold by uploading an excellent documentary on their site entitled "Life On Skid Row"

The film could have easily used its usual strategy of exploitative voyeurism covering the poorer members of American society in an area infamous for its intense poverty levels but, surprisingly, the often not so good people at WSHH chose a more holistic view of why poverty is so entrenched in the area and the problems faced by inhabitants of the area.




Sure we are greeted with images of poverty that can be seen as exploitative but very few images regarding the poor at rock bottom pass the sniff test no matter what side the filmmaker stands on the issue of poverty. What's even more strange about WSHH producing original content covering poverty in a area notorious for it is that such a documentary casting a light on America's poor is lost on popular culture yet finds itself on a site that is regarded by detractors and even some fans as a platform for the bottom feeders of society.

At the time of writing, WSHH attempt to provide some wholesome content has gotten notable play as Life on Skid Row has reached just over 3m views in just two days which shows that WSHH can thrive providing content that actually shows people as humans rather than tools for cruel spectacle. 

However old habits die hard as a video entitled "Hood Rat In Washington State Assaults Man & Goes Crazy When Treated As A Man"  was posted just a day later !!

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