Wild Style

The likes of a film such as Wild Style will never, unfortunately, be made again. Mainly because this was the culture of hip hop in a form of infancy, still naive to the ways of Hollywood and the music industry.

I first saw this when I was 16 years old - although it had been released 5 years prior, though not to my knowledge in the UK - and it has remained stamped in my memory ever since. Who cares if the actors weren't actors or if the camerawork was slightly dodgy in places ("look at the cinematography on the motherf****r!" - Chris Rock). It was a snapshot of a time and a place and that counts for than a thousand over-processed, overdone Hollywood versions of hip hop (Beat Street? C'mon!!)

In it's most basic essence, the director Charlie Ahearn just let the 'actors' improvise their lines with a few plotlines to guide them. These were real people. PHADE is actually FAB 5 FREDDY who DID promote shows and WAS actually an ex-graffiti writer. ZORO WAS a top writer and is played by graffiti legend LEE QUINONES. The 2 rap crews, COLD CRUSH and FANTASTIC 5 were vicious rivals in real life (although to my knowledge never actually participated in any basketball throwdowns ;)

I fully recommend this to any hip hop fan and try to steer New-Schoolers to it too.

Buy the Region 1 dvd version for the great FAB 5 FREDDY/CHARLIE AHEARN commentary track.

This film does not have a very good plot or actors, but it is a must see for fans of Hip-Hop. This film shows us what Hip-Hop started out as and what it was meant to be, before it was corrupted by the mainstream media. Hip-Hop in the mid seventies was a form of free expression for the young people living in the boogie down bronx. D.J.'s started looping breaks just like the Selectas in Jamaica, except they were using Disco and Funk singles instead of Reggae and Ska, and the crowds responded to this by doing crazy acrobatic or robotic dance moves. The D.J.'s called these people breakers, breakdancers or b-boys/girls. The kids started forming D.J. and breaker crews and they would tag the names of their crews on the subway trains and alleyways in the Bronx using spraypaint. D.J.'s used to shout out the names of the breakers and crews by saying, "Yo crazy legs is in the house.", they would also brag about themselves on the mic by making up rhymes about themselves. But as the break looping became more artistic and complex to keep the b-boys/girls breaking the D.J.'s had to get someone else to do the rhyming. Thus giving us the emcees or M.C.'s or Master of Ceremonies.

As much a document of primordial hip-hop culture as it was an arbiter of what hip-hop would become(for a time), this film perfectly encapsulates the earthshaking inventiveness and fun of hip-hop and, upon this viewing, reminds me of how much of that loose, experimental spirit is missing in the current scene. The flimsy story(carried, as it were, by the singularly inarticulate graffiti legend "Lee" Quinones) is aptly subordinate to the raw, bouncy hip-hop soundtrack(provided by Blondie's Chris Stein and the ever-smooth Fab 5 Freddy, who folks of a certain musical disposition might remember from Yo! MTV Raps and who also co-stars). A must not just for hiphop heads but also for anyone striving to understand why this "fad" caught on like it did. 10/10

Legendary New York graffiti artist Lee Quinones plays the part of Zoro, the city's hottest and most elusive graffiti writer. The actual story of the movie concerns the tension between Zoro's passion for his art and his personal life, particularly his strained relationship with fellow artist Rose.

Director Charlie Ahearn was approached by graffiti artist Fred Braithwaite, later known as Fab 5 Freddy, who wanted to make a film about hip-hop (as a broad culture encompassing emceeing, DJing, graffiti and break-dancing) and graffiti as an art form. Braithwaite was an acquaintance of Lee Quiñones, whom Ahearn had long-wanted to film and whose murals he has always admired. Braithwaite brought Quiñones in to meet Ahearn and the three began discussions about creating a hip-hop movie.

As a film, this movie is pretty lacking -- the plot is weak, and the acting is completely awful. But that was never the point. With most of the characters ad libbing their lines and actually being real life hip hop and graffiti artists, this almost serves as a pseudo-documentary. Probably no other film better captures the rise of hip hop than "Wild Style".

If you think you are a true Hip Hop fan and when I talk about Wild Style and you are asking me "What?", then something must be wrong...

Wild Style is the first and true Hip Hop documentary/film about a culture that remained one of the strongest of the past few decades. Never has there been an artform of music that was just basically made of other music styles, but has managed to grow and evolve on its own.

If you want to understand the basic elements of Hip Hop (Rappin', DJin', Breakdancin' & Grafitti) then don't look any further, here's what you need.

As one of the top titles wanted on my "Please-Release-It-On-DVD-List", this movie is not a movie in its real form. Because it was pretty much lowbudget, it has a feel of documentary, but it certainly has a story. Not very much, but the knowledge that almost everyone of the cast was/is someone in the Hip Hop Community 1982, makes this title very interesting to see what they contribute to this movie, and Hip Hop in general.

You've probably read the plot outlines in other reviews, so I won't tell you anything you've already read in those reviews. All I can say is, if you wanna know what the TRUE meaning is of Hip Hop, instead of the BLING-BLING type o' Hip Hop which is totally (well, almost totally) commercialised, see if you can get a copy of this movie and "take a trip down memory lane", like my man Nas said in his 1994 DJ Premier produced cut "Memory Lane (Sitting In Da Park)", another Hip Hop Gem..

RECOMMENDED!!