Jackie sits everyone down and explains how radio DJs no longer determine if a song is hot or not. In fact, you have to go to all the gay DJs because they run the disco clubs. But, to do that you have to get the album approved by Leslie. Pastor Cruz asks "Is Leslie one of the gays," upon finding out she's supposed to be a nice Jewish girl he responds "I have respect for the Jews," like he wasn't 15 second from going on a anti-gay rant.
Mylene and the girls play the record for the guys. They all love it, but Shaolin freaks out grabs a second copy of the record, pulls out a crayon and starts scratching the get down part of the record. Mylene freaks out and give Dizzee a copy but tells the others that they're ruining the music. Outside Zeke convinces her to give him what turns out to be their third copy of the record. So now Shaolin can DJ with two and Dizzee has one. She gave Dizzee the record because he said it makes him feel free and it'll set other people free of whatever is holding them down.
So they get to the club and Jackie meets with Leslie in what is the most disturbing scene in the series. Leslie was an intern for Jackie in the past. One day she caught him after work and gave him oral sex. She had also stolen a pound of cocaine and a gold rolex that day and was hoping he would be distracted by the oral sex so he didn't discover the theft. He fired her the next day when he found out. So she wants revenge. She has her body guard lock the door, then she jams her fingers into Jackie's mouth and drags him across the room forcing him to perform cunnilingus. When asked if she'll at least give the record to the DJs she refuses. Jackie says he'll go to the police because what she just did was rape. She laughed and said nobody would believe him.
She says that he raped her as well, and technically he did, but he also didn't. Usually in that situation, a student is forced to be there and that's a clear abuse of a teacher's power to have sex with a student. But in this case she took initiative to provide oral sex to hide the fact she stole a pound of cocaine and a rolex and provided oral sex to hide the crime. He's wrong for taking advantage of an intern, and she's wrong too. I feel like if she was an underage student being taken advantage of it surely would be rape. But instead we have a Clinton and Lewinsky situation where Lewinsky also just happened to steal some cocaine. I don't know, messy situation with those two. Jackie leaves disappointed but promises the girls he'll get their record played.
Jackie then heads to his room and does a line of coke. He then proceeds to call every single DJ in the city. When that fails he puts on a fake accent and tried again over and over until he passes out due to exhaustion.
Meanwhile, Dizzee finally finds Thor. He gets invited to a party that's supposedly top secret and you can't get in without being invited. Dizzee later stops by this place to see the meanest thug looking dudes ever. Only to have be tossed around and roughed up by them until someone from the party comes and says he's cool. When Dizee gets upstairs this is like no party he's ever been too.
This party has people just having sex in the open, and it's not just straight people. There's gay couples going at it too. He's most confused because there's a drag queen contest going on in the middle of the room. He asks if the people are boys or girls and Thor's lady friend tells him that some are "boys that got tired of being girls or girls that got tired of being boys but they're all free." He suggests that they'd like Mylene's record and Thor goes to give it to the DJ while Dizzee makes out with Thor's unnamed lady friend who gives him his first taste of ecstasy.
Dizzee then makes out with the woman and dances with her. When Thor comes back he joins the two in a dance and Dizzee gives him a kiss followed by a full blown make out session. This was followed by a montage of kissing and breast biting implying Dizzee had a threesome with Thor and his lady friend. Niggas wasn't letting Jaden Smith live before and if they can afford a Netflix subscription they're never gonna let him live now. That's really not fair either because he's finally becoming a good actor and I kind of like his music. Let Jaden live. Even if he does wear a skirt he's not demasculating black men. Just let him live his life.
Meanwhile both Zeke and Shaolin are selling out. Zeke basically flat out agrees with Herman Guns and promises to sell out the Bronx the moment he has to. He also brought a big ass roach into Herman's house. I've never seen a roach that damn big in my life, but it's New York, what else should I have expected. Meanwhile Shaolin has told Fat Annie that her associate, Chester or Charles, whatever his name is, is the one who wanted her dead. He's the guy who "accidentally" made Cadillac kill the kid who was about to confess to everything. Cadillac offers to kill him for Annie and she makes Shaolin do it. All the while he's thinking about what Flash and Herc said about music cleansing the soul and solving your problems. Cadillac finally accepts him and Annie gives Shaolin a promotion.
Turns out Dizzee got the most popular DJ in the city to play the record and it was blowing up the city with people trying to get a copy. Mylene finally gets her record deal. However she has some conditions. They have to bring along Regina and Yolanda because they're a group now. Fuerte has to be her manager because she trusts him and Jackie has to continue being her producer. So that's all great.
Shaolin being promoted means he has to supervise the drug sales. However the DJ battle is also on his night. So he suggest they sell drugs at the battle and will make more money. Annie agrees saying it's his only chance to prove himself and he's only getting it because he fucks her right. Her words, not mine. She be harassing that boy. Do drug dealers have sexual harassment hotlines?
So the time comes and Zeke has to give a speech for Ed Koch who just spent twenty minutes talking about how disgusting graffiti is. While older people in the crowd ate it up, the younger people there started looking uncomfortable. During the speech Zeke made references to artist from the Bronx causing them to ease up a little. While giving the speech he hears the DJ battle start.
His crew was just waiting and being destroyed. The Infamous 3 does have a loud sound system but they wack. When Zeke finally shows up they put on a show. They all had matching shiny jackets and pumas. They thought they was the shit. The crowd is messing with them because of the versatility. Mylene arrives and finally sees they aren't destroying music. She gets to see Shaolin use her record for the finale and watch the crowd go berserk.
The Get Down brothers win the battle as a series of onlookers are show. Grandmaster Flash is seen on a rooftop looking down and smiling with a creepy head nod of acceptance. Meanwhile Cadillac has pulled up to see Shaolin really did have them selling a lot of drugs, but he gets mad because they're killing disco and drives off. Then we get a happy ending with Zeke and Mylene kissing.
So that's Part 1 of The Get Down and there won't be any more for almost a year. I think one of the coolest things about this is that a lot of the main characters are living in two different worlds. Zeke is on his way to being a top MC but he's also Ed Koch's poster boy for the Bronx. Shaolin is finally making a name for himself but he can't leave the drug game alone and he's rising to the top in that too. It's like Zeke said, Shaolin is a natural at everything. Mylene is following her dreams of being a disco star, while still playing a large role in church. Even Fuerte is doing all this to save the community but he's wrapped up with shady politicians and drug addicts. Meanwhile Jackie is finally getting back on track in the record industry, but still can't leave the drugs alone.
So a lot of people haven't been the kindest to the series, saying they haven't learned much about the birth of hip hop. To that I say, it's a musical dramatization. Why would you go into this expecting a history lesson? I don't know man, people have weird expectations. I still don't like Nas rapping as adult Zeke. It's weird to me. Also he raps the intro which is basically a "previously on" segment. Nas sit down, I know Carmen takes you to court trying to get anything she can, but it's not that serious. You don't have to executive produce and do voice overs.
Another complaint I've heard, but can't verify because I wasn't alive yet, is that they're faking the funk of the 70s. What I mean by that is, there's a lot of things going on that just didn't happen. Again I can't verify but from speaking with older people they've told me that everyone over 12 was not smoking marijuana. It was not easy for kids to gain access to drugs and alcohol like it seems. So basically there's a lot of things from the 70s that has been exagerated. I can see that since most of the creators and producers on the show were somewhere between age 5 and 15 during this time period, or in Nas case, not even born until 73. A lot of these people aren't necessarily from the Bronx either. So yeah, I can see them faking that a little.
The show isn't without it's flaws that's for sure. However it's one of my favorite shows in a long time. I like this show more than rich white people love Hamilton, and they love them some Hamilton. For everything wrong it does, they do a bunch of other things right. Displaying the difference in style between Herc and Flash, creating an eccentric cast of characters in Fat Annie's gang, making sure almost every character has some meaningful role to play. The show really is just plain awesome and something you should consider checking out.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
