P-Star Rising

This PBS documentary film tells so many stories. It's a New York story. A story about the quest for fame & wealth. The story of a single father. A story about drug addiction. A story about child entertainers. A story about the crumbling music business. A story about how quick and easy it is to spend a paltry $10,000 record company advance! All these tales are presented in this outstanding film about an up-and-coming rapper named P-Star. 

The documentary follows P-Star from age 9-13. She's usually billed as "The youngest girl in the game". Her skills on the mic are undeniable -- we see many scenes of her performing in the studio and on stage. Her father had a career in the music business decades previous and is integrally involved in his daughter's rise. Complicating matters, he is a single parent raising two daughters with no help from their mother. They live in a small apartment in Harlem.

"P-Star Rising" is gripping from start to finish. It's a family drama encompassed in a story about ambition and dreams. The filmmakers are never exploitative; this is to their credit. They always allow their subjects time and space to breathe and be truthful. Through it all, P-Star herself is a charmer, overflowing with gumption. You will root for her to succeed.