Trading On Styles #3

Every so often, crustcake hiphop dilettante Scott Roc stops by to offer his anecdotes on old jams, fresh beats, and dope rhymes in a feature we call "Trading On Styles."

by Scott Roc

I've been watching a lot 80's movies recently, and I'm not sure, but being a teenager in the 80's may have been the best time in the history of pop culture to be a teenager, though an old slicked back greaser might disagree. Wild Style, Beat Street, and Krush Groove are required viewing at Trading On Styles headquarters. They are the holy trinity of early New York hip hop culture-- well, Style Wars too but that's just about graffiti in particular.

Wild Style, the first hip hop feature, stars Lady Pink and Lee Quinos, two notable early NYC graffiti artists, as the leads and follows them around New York's early rap scene. The film also stars Fab Five Freddy, who composed the soundtrack with members of Blondie, and Patti Astor, the heiress and financial backer of Wild Style. The film introduced hip hop to the world, showed what a shit hole the South Bronx was, and created many quotes and samples that rappers are still using today ("A to the mother fucking K...").

The craziest thing in the movie may be the jam at the end-- they shot that in a lower east side amphitheater with thousands of kids, boosted power, and no permits from the city. The city didn't even know, and they shot that twice in a six month period-- try doing that in post-Giuliani New York.

Beat Street is the best-acted and produced of the three; Harry Belafonte gets credit for that. It stars Guy Davies, the son of Ossie Davies and Ruby Dee, as a DJ trying to make it, and Rae Dawn Chong, Tommy Chong's daughter, as his love interest. It's a similar story line to Wild Style: gritty South Bronx kids doing their thing get up in the world despite all odds and throw a big party at the end. This one features more break dancing than Wild Style and a couple of trips into the subway to bomb trains. It also has appearances from Afrika Bambatta and Kool Herc, to name just two.

Krush Groove is the semi-autobiographical story of Def Jam. It stars Run DMC and Rick Rubin as themselves and the horrible Blair Underwood as Russell Simmons. It also has the Fat Boys and Shelia E, who kinda only serve as comic relief and a reminder that Shelia E was a freak.

It's weird to watch Rick, he comes off as a goofy guy. Meeting him in 1985 I wouldn't have had a clue to his genius. This picture is more about how awesome Run DMC is... oh yeah, and that friendship is important for musical success. On the down side it has gratuitous use of Kurtis Blow, why does he wear a leather tuxedo?

In these three clips, check out how much the style and delivery changed over the course of only three years:

Wild Style (1983) - Cold Crush Bros Vs Fantastic Five:



Beat Street (1984) - The Treacherous Three:



Krush Groove (1985) - LL Cool J: