Backstage

Pitched somewhere between a concert film and a documentary, first-time feature filmmaker Chris Fiore's record of the 1999 "Hard Knock Life" tour, headlined by Jay-Z and DMX, is neither a showcase for the artists — not a single number is shown in its entirety — nor informative in the sense that it helps place hip-hop in any larger artistic or social context. But it offers a slew of high-profile rap artists the opportunity to posture and spout off obscenely about the importance of hip-hop culture; their fans will be entertained. Roc-A-Fella records co-founder Jay-Z conceived the tour as an affirmation of hip-hop's crossover popularity and assembled the line...