One of the first films to capture the true meaning of Hip Hop, back when graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, and MCing had nothing to do with bling-bling, rap wars, and making faceless hits. Directed by Charlie Ahearn, Wildstyle is the blueprint for the birth of hip hop in it’s origins of the South Bronx. Seeing a young Fab Five Freddy roaming the streets of a depressed looking Bronx and Lower East Side is like watching footage of Europe after it was bombed during World War II. While that is an eerie comparison, it is true as NYC back in the day was a scary place. Featuring Lee Quinones, the Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Patti Astor, Sandra Fabara and Grandmaster Flash in all their raw and talented youth before the label “Icon” was rightfully attached to their names, they were young upcoming artists who were bombing trains and having fun at parties, where much of their talent was being created and perfected down to a science for something, unknowingly, greater to come.
If you don’t know who Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Caz, Prince Whipper Whip, or Busy Bee are then you need to see this movie so you can understand where hip hop came from. A movie filmed documentary style, Ahearn leaves no stone unturned in showing the lives of graffiti writers, MCs creating rhymes live and breakdancers doing routines and competing while telling the story of Zoro (Lee Quinones) a hot graffiti writer who no one knows the identity of and his troubles maintaining his relationship with his girl Rose- another graff artist, and his art. What makes this movie one of the best, if not the best hip hop movie of all time, is that it truly captured the raw and real essence of the period. Seeing Grandmaster Flash scratching on some ancient turntables in a kitchen really drives the point across that hip hop artists didn’t get to the top without a lot of hard work.
What makes the 25th Anniversary Edition really great is that they have a ton of extras included, like recent reunion performances from 2002 and 2006 and individual interviews that Ahearn conducted himself with the main stars of the movie in 2006, which really gives an updated perspective on what was happening at the time and how much of an influence it had on the artists of today. For any hip hop fan, this is a must have. |