Long-time hip-hop fan Byron Hurt has created the documentary “Beyond Beats & Rhymes,” a film that takes a deeper look at the hip-hop industry, its reoccurring themes of aggression, and, in particular, the gender politics of rap.

Public Television’s “Independent Lens” program is introducing the television broadcast of “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes,” a look at the hip-hop genre’s issues of masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia.

“Hip Hop: Beyond …” premiered at last year’s Sundance Festival and has already screened at a number of college campuses – with much applause. Now the film is coming to PBS Tuesday, February 20 (check local listings for times).

In addition to studying the deeper issues and consequences of hip-hop music, the film includes interviews with rappers such as Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D and Jadakiss as well as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. It also has commentary from Michael Eric Dyson, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Kevin Powell and Sarah Jones along with interviews from young women at Spelman College.

“The reaction to the film has been phenomenal; it’s been incredible,” Hurt told reporters. “When the film premiered at Sundance in 2006, we received two standing ovations. But the most important thing for me happens after the film and that’s the conversation that takes place. It’s a conversation that happening across race, across class, and across gender. It’s really interesting to see so many different groups of people responding to the film and the film is resonating with so many different people. I think that’s rare in a film to have so many people, from different walks of life, be able to feel the film in a way that connects [them].”

“I think [hip-hop] reinforces preexisting stereotypes about black people. I think that there are a lot of people that are complicit in that,” he said and continued that media and shows like the very popular VH1’s “Flavor of Love,-” “setback people’s perceptions of African Americans, women, and the poor,” the filmmaker went on.

“I think some, not all, of what you see [in hip-hop] does reinforce a very retrograde idea about who black people are. I think that there are white corporate executives that are responsible for that, I think there are black corporate executives that are responsible for that, I think there are hip-hop artists that are responsible for that, and I think there are fans – black, white, Asian, Latino – who are also responsible for it. The point of my film is to challenge that and hold everybody accountable and hold a mirror up and say, ‘How do I participate in this?’ We all sort of participate in one way or another

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