Hip-hop, don’t stop: inside The Get Down

And despite being a generation older than the show’s young stars, the pair weren’t immune from getting starstruck. “You’re in a rehearsal and somebody comes in, and it’s Grandmaster Flash?”, says Tone. “I mean, come on, dude! You’re talking about two kids who lived hip-hop growing up, and all you’d see was Grandmaster Flash on TV. We’re groupies, but we had to keep our cool and be reserved.” It didn’t matter that the brothers were raised on the West Coast, such was the reach and influence of 1970s and 80s New York. “We grew up in the ghetto in North Richmond, California, but man, all that was playing was The Message by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, The Mo-ther-fuck-in’-Mess-age” – Tone bangs his fist on table to accentuate each syllable. “That song was synonymous with all the hoods of America because the ghetto is the ghetto, everybody went through the same stuff.”

Working on the show wasn’t all fun and games for Rich and Tone, however. One of the biggest challenges they faced was ensuring that their young charges didn’t slip into contemporary dance styles when they were filming breakdancing and disco routines. “A lot of these kids are stuck on what’s going on now, like the ‘Whip/Nae Nae’ and so on,” laments Tone. “They did not move like that back then, so we had to be really, really strict. That went on every day in rehearsal. It was hard.”

Rich agrees: “The kids had that youthful energy. You’re dealing with cellphones, social media… When we started rehearsal we had to ban phones. ‘Why are you on Snapchat?’”, he sighs wearing a part-wry grin and part-pained expression.

George describes Rich and Tone as “leaders and mentors to the cast”, and when I ask Herizen and Justice about the pair, they erupt into a spontaneous, rapid dialogue that sounds scripted, but can’t be. (Herizen speaks first):

“Amazing.”

“They are the best.”

“They’re like my uncles.”

“They’re so hype, so much fun, yet professional.”

“They’ll kick your ass if you mess around.”

“Don’t fuck around with them.”

“Just don’t.”

“But then on your down-time they’re so chill.”

“They’re so funny, I love them,” says Herizen, and the dialogue stops. “I got yelled at by Rich a lot. Rich is the bad cop. Tone is more serious, but he’s more mellow, and I feel he kinda tells Rich and Rich gets the vibe. Then he’s like, ‘now y’all need to pay attention!’”

Tone confirms that tempers frayed: “It got to the point where our frustration overcame us, and we had to separate ourselves from the kids one time. We had to tell them, ‘Well, if you think you know what you’re doing, then you put it together.’ We walked away. Of course, an hour went by, they didn’t do anything, we came back, and they were like, ‘OK, we’re sorry, we’re sorry.’” Rich picks up the thread: “We gave them some tough love. But we did acknowledge them like: ‘If you do this shit, it’s gonna live forever. And just remember that kids your age are going to be watching this. They’re going to look up to you.’”

The pair’s enthusiasm has clearly rubbed off on The Get Down’s young stars, who all seem quietly confident that, in plumbing an inspirational, near-mythical past, they’ve created a work of art that will resonate now and in the future. “I think people are going to refer back to The Get Down a lot,” says Jaden Smith, shortly before our time runs out. “They have the database to tap into, to look at. They can live the Bronx when they watch our show.”