Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity focuses on white fans of hip-hop and raises numerous fascinating questions about race in the United States in the process. The strength of the film is its ability to show a wide-range of opinions deftly and clearly without favoring any particular side. In so doing, Blacking Up reveals the multi-layered complexity of the underlying racial issues.

The filmmakers interview a wide range of people, from white rap fans and white rappers to some notable personalities, including Amiri Baraka, comedian Paul Mooney, critics Nelson George and Greg Tate as well as famous rappers Chuck D., M1, and Power. By interviewing such a variety of people, the film provides a wealth of varying insights. To the film’s credit, it remains objective and allows these ideas to flourish and puts any interpretive responsibility on the viewer.

In it’s relatively short running time (just under an hour), Blacking Up covers a lot of ground. It raises questions as to whether white suburban kids rapping is imitation bordering on flattery or if these acts are simple mockery. The film asks whether these artists are part of the lineage of minstrel shows and of the history of white people appropriate black culture.

Blacking Up does a wonderful job of raising these questions without providing any definitive answers, thereby exposing the complexity of the issue and creating a rather thought-provoking experience.