Hip Hop Harry is an American children's television series created by Claude Brooks that aired on Discovery Kids and TLC as part of the Ready Set Learn! block from September 25, 2006 to June 26, 2008. Similar to PBS Kids series such as Barney & Friends (the setting of the show bears resemblance to Barney in nature), Kidsongs, Sesame Street, Hi-5, Teletubbies and The Wiggles, Hip Hop Harry is a live-action program aimed at younger children ranging from around 2–7 years old. The program uses age-appropriate hip hop music and dance to teach social, educational, physical and creative skills.

Synopsis

The show takes place in a learning/play center house known as "Hip Hop Central", where Hip Hop Harry and various neighborhood children learn, play and dance. In between, the kids learn about the main topic of the episode. After they have learned about the topic, they sing and rap the song "I Love to Learn." Then, the kids and Hip Hop discuss what they've learned via questions/answers and watching recaps from the day's episode via a push-button monitor. Each episode ends with the "Hip Hop Harry Dance Circle", where the kids circle up while one of them dances in the center as they shout, "Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!", to an instrumental hip hop track, with Arabian-tinged music. Even Harry dances in the circle too (thus, the kids shout, "Go, Harry!!"). But before they dance, they do a warm-up dance called, "The Harry". After the kids come together to move in the middle, the credits roll.

Physical appearance

Hip Hop Harry is an anthropomorphic rapping yellow furry bear with a red shirt, blue hat, baggy blue jeans, a gold chain with an "H" in the middle and white sneaker shoes with an "H" on each side. He also wears a blue and red wristwatch. The character's appearance is in the general style of hip-hop fashion. His birthday is January 22, as noted in Episode 5.

Cast

People

Events

The cast performed their song Move Those Feet at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 25–26, 2009 on the Target children's stage on the campus of UCLA.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2006)

Season 2 (2007–08)

Legacy

In 2017, the character Harry was featured in the YouTube web series Hip Hop Harry Toy Review. In 2020, Hip Hop Harry had a resurgence in popularity on social media soon after people began to protest following the murder of George Floyd. Clips of the "Hip Hop Harry Dance Circle" portion of the show first resurfaced on Twitter when director and author Matthew A. Cherry posted a short video of this sequence in response to reports that all four of the officers involved in the death had been arrested. The video went viral and many across social media continued to post several dancing clips from the show in celebration of victories in the fight for police reform and racial equality.

Reception

Common Sense Media rated the show a four out of five stars.