For all its faults, the BBC's coverage of hip-hop and Black music has at least come on a lot.

Back in the late 80s to early 90s, they put together a special on rap music in the UK for the children's documentary series The Lowdown. Although it's a little dated (to put it mildly), it does at least give an interesting look at what the infrastructure for the rap scene was like at the time, even if it does occasionally have a slight air of derision in the way it presents some of the kids they interview.

In short, there wasn't much of one and it was still very much based around imitating what was going on in the States. Pieced together via interviews with aspiring rappers at the time, it takes a look at how they write, their thoughts on the political elements, the differences between the US and UK, the fashion, the DJs, and not too surprisingly, the ever-present accusations of instigating violence. It even includes some soundbites from Ice-T who was still considered a controversial figure at the time.

It also features some insight from Radio 1's rap advocate at the time, Dave Pearce—known as 'Dangerous' Dave Pearce at the time—before his eventual migration over to the dance world. We see Dave hosting his Hip-Hop Connection series (which later grew into a magazine), which put aspiring rappers head-to-head.