Martha's Vineyard Performing Arts Center

THE SIXTH BOROUGH chronicles Long Island’s enduring impact on Hip-Hop music and culture through the voices of legendary artists including De La Soul’s Posdnuos and Maseo, Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Keith Shocklee, EPMD’s Parrish Smith and Erick Sermon, Rakim and Method Man.

Long Island’s single-family homes, diverse schools, and open spaces created a stark contrast to life in the city and offered a sense of freedom and possibility to the kids whose families set out to claim their slice of the American dream. But the green lawns and sandy beaches concealed a dark underbelly of pervasive racism and fierce opposition to the migration of Black families from New York City. A new generation of Hip-Hop pioneers was crystallized in this cultural collision, shifting the genre by adapting an urban sound to suburban surroundings.

Similar to other historical confluences of time and place – Harlem’s Jazz renaissance, Paris’ Roaring Twenties, Seattle’s grunge explosion – Long Island forever changed the face of Hip- Hop, earning its place in the pantheon of culture shifting movements.

Directed by: Jason Pollard
RT: 74 min