The VH1 documentary ‘ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game’ aired last night (September 2, 2014) and it was embraced with open arms.

The show not only went through the musical history of Atlanta, it was also a Black History lesson in that the hip-hop explosion that occurred in our city also coincided with Atlanta’s civil rights legacy.

The documentary is different in that it touches on the city’s meager, mostly overlooked hip-hop beginnings and pays well-deserved homage to frequently overlooked early musical contributors like MC Shy D, Kilo Ali, Raheem the Dream, King Edward J., Arnell Star and more.

[FLASHBACK: Remembering Arnell Star: Atlanta’s Legendary Music Legend Laid To Rest… (PHOTOS + VIDEO)]

The documentary also focuses on the musical groundwork laid by producers Organized Noize, Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupri.

By linking the city’s rap scene with its historic civil rights roots, the film sets Atlanta’s southern breed of hip-hop apart from the coasts that alternately dominated the genre before the South’s rise.

The documentar also ties the local scene’s launch in 1982 — when Mo-Jo became the first local rapper to release a record with “Battmann: Let Mo-Jo Handle It” — to the end of Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered Children case that plagued the city’s African-American community for four years before reportedly ending that same year.

In case you missed it, catch your ATL history lesson and watch the full episode of ‘ATL: The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game’ below… Continue Reading…