What Is “Hip-Hop Montage,” and Why Do Young People Like It More?

When we think of hip-hop, what usually comes to mind first is the strong beat, rapid-fire rap, and even violent lyrics—street culture full of “villain” symbols. When this culture collides with the language of film, it gives rise to a trendy, avant-garde editing style: hip-hop montage.

Hip-hop montage was formally coined and developed by director Darren Aronofsky. Before that, films like Beat Street (1984) and Do the Right Thing (1989) had already experimented with combining hip-hop music and cinematic storytelling, but those attempts were immature—there was hip-hop, but no montage in the strict sense. It wasn’t until Aronofsky appeared on the scene that things changed. In his debut feature Pi, he showed the prototype of this style—even though the film has nothing to do with hip-hop culture as a subject. Shaky camerawork, fragmented editing, extreme close-ups, and uncanny music all bore down directly on the characters’ inner worlds. At this point, there was montage, but no hip-hop.

It was only with the release of Requiem for a Dream in 2000 that the style of hip-hop montage truly matured. In terms of form, it is a rapid succession of short-shot sequences, paired with sound to create a strong rhythm. This rhythmic flow is then matched to the narrative, and ultimately shaped into a critical stance to convey emotion or reflect the theme—precisely the essence of hip-hop rap.

Requiem for a Dream doesn’t just use this approach in a few isolated segments; the entire film’s style is unified around it. Even in scenes without music, the sense of rhythm is always present. From this film we can also see that hip-hop montage requires extremely careful and constantly changing sound design. Sometimes different sound effects are arranged like a series of regular musical notes to create a melody. To produce groove, it may rely on repeated shots and repeated sounds; at times it also needs a bit of “accent” to break the melody and create a syncopated, jumping feel. Sometimes it calls for various asynchronous sounds—that is, editing where sound and image don’t match—to create an off-beat effect and hint at chaos. So even though hip-hop montage can look messy at times, the emotions it communicates are unusually clear. In this sense, what Aronofsky invented is far from a superficial “cut-to-the-beat” use of hip-hop-style music. Cutting on the beat can be purely cosmetic; hip-hop montage is built on the narrative core of hip-hop itself.

However, Aronofsky’s hip-hop montage may be too violent and despairing—just as hip-hop is not confined to the underground and can also be positive and uplifting. Another director who has carried this technique forward is Edgar Wright. In his films, the integration of music, rhythm, and storytelling is even more fluid. For example, in Baby Driver, the action choreography and shot editing achieve a truly “cut-to-the-beat” narrative effect. Unlike Aronofsky’s darkness, Wright applies hip-hop montage techniques to his comedies. Take the opening of Hot Fuzz: rich sound effects, including voice-over, paired with a faster cutting pace, create a style of storytelling that resembles hip-hop rap, with richer characterisation. In a short span of time, we learn about the protagonist’s heroic past, but at the end of the montage, there’s a comedic twist. Similar techniques appear throughout Wright’s work.

The key feature of hip-hop montage is that it can convey a complete set of themes and a significant amount of information within the duration of a single song. Its editing is extremely flexible and can be as flashy and fast as a music video, which is exactly why it is especially popular among young audiences. At the same time, though, it demands that editors shape a strong sense of rhythm out of a huge amount of footage—a task that undeniably requires serious skill.