Wild Style

source: Wild Style

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.

I took my friend up to LA back when this movie was released in '82 to see this in an independent theatre. We were both awed with this! In my mind this movie started the popular movement (yes, I know the music was on KSPC around this time too, but the rest of LA didn't know about the music). Two years later "Beat Street" came out on the big screen, which is 1/1000 of this movie, and the popular crowd went with that, and the music all seemed to go "I'm poor/shot at/oppressed by the white man and I'm coming at him with my gun" as the years went on. That's so sad to me - the genre could have had a meaning, a purpose, a style like this film shows. I think what instead happened is the studios just cashed in on whatever sold the most. Kind of a top 40 of rap/hip-hop. Get this film/video if you want to see where the genre really came from and was about back then. Get it if you want to see people and soul. Get it if you want to see people with a purpose.

As a time capsule of a particular scene, this is incredible with the birth or rap, breakdancing, graffiti art, etc. all on display. That said, it's barely a movie. It's all extended concert scenes with no plot. Add in terrible acting, and poor editing and framing and you get an objectively bad piece of work that still manages to be extremely important and vital.

To start, Wild Style is not a documentary despite what it says on IMDb (just saying ... minor gripe), although it was sort of shot like one and it does a fantastic job of documenting HipHop in 83 quite lovely. With that said, Wild Style doesn't look like your typical Hollywood type movie (those came later). Younger generations may have a hard time understanding the praise it receives, or the reasons for its cult following status. It doesn't have the big budget, or hit all the familiar notes casual moviegoers are accustomed to. It's far too gritty and raw for that. Charlie Ahearn took the conventional rule book and threw it out the window, but that's all part of the charm. For us Old school, New school, True school, or Too cool for school HipHopers in the audience, our culture was never represented on the big screen like this before, and though a few may have tried, nobody had done it quite like this since. Finally, the art in Wild Style is presented to us, not by actors, but by the artists who were there when this phenomenon was emerging. The viewer comes away with a good understanding of HipHop's four elements and how they define a culture. If nothing else, Wild Style serves as a great time capsule piece during HipHop's infancy.

Put it simply, this is a piece of history in hip-hop. This is a must-have for any hip-hop fan with legendary performances from The Cold Crush Brothers and Grandmaster Flash (yes, he always kept his turntables in the kitchen). Because of the poor technical quality of the film itself and of course the diabolical acting, the only reason I couldn't give this a full 10 stars. But for that, you don't buy Wild Style, the real selling point is the historic nature of the performances.

Featuring some of the biggest names in hip hop, Wildstyle is the seminal docu-rama on this lifestlye. B-boys and b-girls, graf artists, DJs, MCs and larger than life characters are feature in this flick that is, ultimately, a real-life documentary on the early movers and shakers of the hip hop movement. Anyone who listens to rap, wears fat laces, loves the 'old-skool' look, spins bits of plastic on two (or more) turntables, or is just curious about hip hop should have watched this film at least five times! A to the K? What acting there is in this film is weak, but it's made up for by appearances from Grandmaster Flash, Double Trouble, Crazy Legs and gang, as well as a whole host of graf artists including Lady Pink and Lee. There is a loose plot-line but you soon realise that this isn't really important to what is captured on film. What is captured is the vitality and energy that is hip hop and no other film (including Beat Street and Style Wars) comes close.

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.

No true hip-hop head should go without seeing this movie. It is the first and probably the most accurate representation of the early hip-hop scene. IMDB has categorized Wild Style under the genre of documentary. Although the movie has a documentary feel with footage of hip-hop heads in action, it is not a true documentary because it contains a plot line which was scripted. The plot revolves around the character of Raymond, who is played by the legendary graf artist Lee Quinones. We see what happens to him as his art starts to receive recognition from wealthy art connoisseurs. He has many personal struggles as he deals with this new attention. But it seems that all of his problems are resolved when he is painting a mural for a large hip hop concert and realizes that his art shouldn't always be about him. There is plenty of footage that represents all four elements of hip hop: the MC, the DJ, the graf artist, and the B-boy. The Double Trouble scene and the basketball rapping scene were recently remade in Sprite commercials (Nas, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, etc.) to appeal to the hip hop crowd. We also see Lee Quinones in action in several scenes as well as footage of Grandmaster Flash. My personal favorite is the footage of a young Rocksteady Crew (Crazy Legs, Prince Ken Swift, Mr. Freeze, Frosty Freeze, etc. I think they're about 14-15?) performing at the concert at the end of the movie. And there are many other memorable scenes. Although Wild Style is not a true documentary, I think it has preserved the true essence of hip hop during that time for younger people (such as myself) to experience. Truly a must see and a classic.

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".