Yo!
Speaker:(hip hop beat)
Speaker:(Bring it! C'mon!)
DynoWright::Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, where three old heads put their
DynoWright::old heads together to vibe on some of the most memorable or forgettable
DynoWright::hip hop themed movies of all time (Bring it! C'mon!)
DynoWright::and here's HHMC with your HHMCs Boogie, JB and DynoWright. (Bring it! C'mon!)
Welcome to season one, episode one 00:00:33
Beat Street.
JB:Beat Street released in 1984 is a quintessential 80s east coast hip hop film,
JB:contains all the elements of early hip-hop culture: the music, the breakdancing,
JB:the artwork in the form of graffiti, the entire b-boy lifestyle was introduced there. The movie
JB:itself features a young man Kenny and his younger brother Lee and their friends Ramon and Chollie
JB:as they hoped to make a name for themselves in the South Bronx of New York during the infancy of hip
JB:hop as we know it today. Wrought with beat boxes, spray paint cans, house parties, the club scene,
JB:breakdancing and legendary cameo hip hop artist appearances, Beat Street's like stepping into a
JB:museum of early east coast hip hop culture. It should be required watching for people of all
JB:ages that consider themselves fans of the hip hop genre. It's a definition of the b-boy era in a
JB:coming-of-age story about the young crew. Keep in mind this is 1984 and this is an instant classic.
JB:So what did we like about this film? Want to kick us off, Boogie?
Boogie:Okay so this is one of my favorite movies growing up. I cannot tell you how
Boogie:many times I've watched this movie. I love that it incorporated the four elements of hip
Boogie:hop and it came across as really authentic. Start with the main character Kenny he was
Boogie:a DJ and he was also dubbed as one of the early versions of an MC, hyping the crowd.
Boogie:There were also other DJs featured throughout the film you also have various stages of the MC,
Boogie:including those who ran at the local clubs and also to the well-established
Boogie:Roxy night club. And you had your local girl group that performed at the house parties.
Boogie:The breaking was top-notch you know what the Magnificent Force, the New York City Breakers
Boogie:and the Rock Steady Crew all make cameos in this film. All classics. And then you have Ramon
Boogie:who was just a local graffiti artist but he put his burners on the subway cars and walls
Boogie:and even the jealousy element you have the guy Spit who came across and defaces the artwork. You
Boogie:have all four elements of hip hop you got the MC, your DJ, your MC, you had your breakdances, your
Boogie:B-Boys and you also had your graffiti artists. That was one of the main things I liked about it.
JB:Nice, Boogie. Yeah, I agree. I mean it had everything that that you'd
JB:want to see and that was a lifestyle back then, that's what kids would do
JB:and like I said I like that it's like a coming of age story, you know. These young guys,
JB:they're trying to make a name for themselves. It's not a glamorous life, it's tough.
JB:It's tough out there on the streets but you see Ramon who had fathered a child with his girlfriend
JB:and he's learning the way the ways of the world in terms of he's finally getting
JB:to the point where he he's becoming a man and trying to be responsible and he ends up getting
JB:a job and not only just doing his artwork. But he becomes a man and unfortunately tragedy hits
JB:towards the end and they lose him but you see that community all come together and support. It's a
JB:brotherhood, it's a whole family and that whole culture was all about that. I really enjoyed it.
DynoWright:I enjoyed it too and having never seen it before which is crazy because it's a
DynoWright:classic and I missed out on it. But it was really cool to see all these early hip hop legends, it
DynoWright:was a lot of famous rappers I've listened to for a long time but never really seen on screen and all
DynoWright:of that. I did have to watch the credits again to see who was who because there were so many of them
DynoWright:but it was really fun to see. And we can talk about this later but
DynoWright:we see Kool Moe Dee without his sunglasses, like I didn't recognize him without it.
DynoWright:I didn't recognize him without his sunglasses. So it was a lot of fun stuff i
DynoWright:really liked in this movie, early hip hop who's who, at least the rappers.
JB:Yeah for sure. So Boogie you can expand upon this a little bit more. There's Doug E. Fresh
JB:who was he is the best beat boxer ever, he was there. And then the Treacherous Three
JB:is where Kool Moe Dee got started, so you want to go through who those artists were?
Boogie:a quick rundown of some of the cameos, you got Afrika Bambaataa,
Boogie:the Soulsonic Force, you had DJ Jazzy Jay, you got the Us Girls who consist of
Boogie:Lisa Lee, Debbie D and Sha-Rock. Sha-Rock originally from the Funky Four Plus One,
Boogie:original mother of hip hop. Kool Herc one of the fathers of hip hop, if you don't know who Herc is,
Boogie:Google is your friend. The Treacherous Three, Kool Moe Dee, Special K and L.A. Sunshine. Of
Boogie:course we mentioned Doug E. Fresh. We have Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five,
Boogie:Grandmaster Flash and then you have Brenda K. Starr, Wanda Dee and The System. You don't know
Boogie:who The System are, look them up as well, Google is also your friend. Theme song
Boogie:to "Coming to America", "Don't Disturb This Groove" they put some nice classics out, yes.
DynoWright:Yeah "Don't Disturb This Groove" is one of the best songs ever.
Boogie:Yeah from the opening riff that guitar, yeah. (Laughing.)
JB:Yeah with DJ Kool Herc, he was featured prominently in the Netflix show "Hip Hop
JB:Evolution" and he's pretty much brought the sound systems and the house parties.
JB:He was hustling before anybody else and bringing hip hop to the masses in New York and
JB:people call him sometimes the Godfather of Hip Hop, you know you may not
JB:know his name as much as you know some of the original hip hop groups you know
JB:like the Sugar Hill Gang and Run D.M.C. but DJ Kool Herc deserves just as much credit.
JB:That was awesome that he was he played a role in there at the Burning Spear nightclub where Kenny
JB:really got his big break in front of the talent agent. The music was great. I love also that
JB:the music is not just you know about the beats and scratches but there's a lot of strength and power,
JB:political commentary in the lyrics. I like at the very end as very uplifting I think it was
JB:Grand... was it Grandmaster Melle Mel you know they they had we're talking about
JB:yeah talking about you know they talk about Iwo Jima, they talk about Vietnam, they talk about
JB:all these wars, right? And then they talk about egomaniacs controlling the self-righteous,
JB:learning from the past, working for the future. And then they're inspiring the children in
JB:the audience, the young folks saying listen, you're the future so uh grab it by the horns.
DynoWright:There was a reference to being a slave to a computer which is funny because it's in 1984.
Boogie:Just took the words right out of my mouth, don't be a slave to your computer, yep!
DynoWright:And now look at us doing this on computers.
DynoWright:Everyone has a computer in their pocket. If they only had known back then.
JB:Yeah it's uh well 1984, right that's when that
JB:epic ad came out from Apple based on Orson Welles' 1984 right? and yeah saying you know so
JB:the future was you know they were foretelling the future there for sure.
DynoWright:People should remember 1984 isn't that far from the end of the Vietnam War
DynoWright:so, something on people's minds back
DynoWright:that then, that Melle Mel is still talking about it. It was a relevant thing.
Boogie:Yeah.
JB:Yeah, also you know that there were incidents in within the movie that super poignant again
JB:today. If you you see what's happening where Lee gets uh you know arrested along
JB:with some other folks with just really dance fighting, right? And it was literally like a
JB:racial profiling of these folks and they just get locked up. His mother has to come bail him
JB:out. They were doing no harm to anybody and you know this obviously still happens today.
JB:It's revealed that by Kenny and Lee's mother at the breakfast scene I believe. And it also
JB:later on when when Kenny is courting Tracy that he lost an older brother
JB:Franklin when he got caught up in the gang scene and the cops came in and his his words
JB:you know "folks got wasted and my brother was one of those' so very relevant to today.
Boogie:Yeah there were there were a lot of little easter eggs planted throughout the movie
Boogie:too. There was another scene that that always sticks out with me and every time I hear it
Boogie:it kind of resonates with me because I know some of the history of what was going on in the Bronx
Boogie:at the time. One of them was as you mentioned with the scene with Franklin being wasted by
Boogie:with the gang violence and there was another one when they first
Boogie:were having a house party and and Henry was downstairs banging on the pipes and they went
Boogie:downstairs see where the noise was coming from and he was telling him that he was looking for
Boogie:for his friend that he served in the military with and they were standing you know there was a fire
Boogie:and you know immediate response was he was in a fire and he said no the building was on fire
Boogie:the landlord set the building on fire five times. And you know that was very prevalent in that time
Boogie:frame and you know there was always the phrase "The Bronx is burning" - you know, the landlords
Boogie:were setting their buildings on fire to commit basically insurance fraud you know they were they
Boogie:were getting payouts and they were skipping out and you had all of these abandoned buildings some
Boogie:of them were still standing some of them were in ruin but you get this layout as if there's a war
Boogie:torn country in the middle of New York, in the Bronx because these buildings
Boogie:were getting burned down so these landlords could collect money. And that's the little
Boogie:small easter egg that they planted in there but every time I hear it it always resonates with me
Boogie:because it took a long time for the Bronx to recover and i mean even Brooklyn same thing.
JB:Yeah way to drop the knowledge there, Boogie, that's that's good knowledge.
DynoWright:Shout out to BX! Boogie: X!
DynoWright:(Laughing) JB:
DynoWright:I was wondering you know we try to analyze these movies and like
DynoWright:I said a lot of stuff is still on point and relevant but you know I do have to mention
DynoWright:there was one scene that was I guess was a little bit cringe-worthy with a homophobic aspect of it
DynoWright:with the Santa Claus scene where they did a rap. It was hilarious in terms of the concept, in terms
DynoWright:of jingle jangle for the poor, you know. They're talking about Santa not coming through and giving
DynoWright:them a G.I. Joe, a G.I. Joe toy but, you know, if they had to redo it, i'm sure they would have
DynoWright:reworded it. You know there was a part where he inferred that the G.I. Joe figure was gay and then
DynoWright:it was inferred that his his sexuality was questioned, things like that.
DynoWright:But remember it was back –not that it's ever acceptable– back then it was a lot
DynoWright:more commonplace but obviously if they had to do it again they would remove that scene overall.
DynoWright:1984 is close to the beginning of the AIDS crisis
DynoWright:which affected a lot of gay men, not that it was an excuse to have those comments in there,
DynoWright:but a lot of people weren't aware of gay culture and so that's what it was like back then.
DynoWright:There was a lot of this homophobic stuff going around.
Boogie:Yeah. A lot of uncertainty, a lot of stereotypes.
JB:Yep.
Boogie:A lot of stigmas.
DynoWright:Right.
JB:But overall if you go back to the Santa, it was it was funny they're calling him a drunk,
JB:they're cursing, they're dropping the f-bomb at him and I was like that's pretty pretty funny
JB:and uh well before the uh the Bad Santa movies with Billy Bob Thornton and stuff
JB:like that so kind of, uh cutting edge in terms of the, the concept. No one badmouthed Santa.
Boogie:That's one of my favorite scenes though because just out of the pure concept of them,
Boogie:you know taking shots at Santa Claus for for not getting what they wanted like so so much
Boogie:so much so that i actually have a t-shirt with that scene on the front of it (laughing).
DynoWright:Is that right? JB: That's right.
Boogie:I almost, I forgot to put it on today but um
Boogie:yeah I'll pass it around one time for one of the other episodes you can get a glance at it.
DynoWright:You should send us a picture of that, put it in our Instagram Stories.
JB:Yeah, yeah that that's a great idea. Yeah I mean there was some there were some humorous
JB:things throughout the film which which made me crack a smile. Obviously the fashion back then
JB:we always laugh at now. What we were wearing in the 80s, right, we laugh at our old pictures back
JB:in the 80s. But the fashions that the Us Girls were wearing and some of the other folks. However,
JB:you know this set the stage for kids are still wearing these, there's Kangol hats, there was um
JB:you know sideways caps, the loose fitting pants, parachute pants and things like that.
JB:You know, Puma sneakers and whatnot. I also thought some of the dialogue was was just
JB:really funny to break things up. There was a scene with Kenny was jawing with with
JB:Ramon and then Chollie actually I think it was Chollie that was jawing with Ramon and Kenny
JB:breaks it up by pretending to be a newscaster and just laughing his way through it, right?
Boogie:(laughing)
JB:Providing humor and uh yeah that was good and I like Kenny and Lee's mother uh
JB:rapping at the breakfast table a little bit too, telling him hey
JB:eat your eggs before I break your legs, so little little things like that were cracking me up.
Boogie:Yeah the one who played his mother, Mary Alice, she's a gem.
Boogie:She's played a mother in a bunch of movies that I've seen
Boogie:and it's always good to see her on screen. She's always brings a little bit of wit to her role.
JB:Yeah. Yeah that's great so while we get into a little bit of that as well is some of these actors
JB:and actresses, right? You may have recognized them from other things or maybe you didn't know
JB:about them but uh Guy Davis who plays Kenny was the son of activists, writers, prominent figures
JB:in African American culture Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. I mean that that's just remarkable.
Boogie:Yeah.
DynoWright:He's an accomplished blues guitar player, which I should have known, being a
DynoWright:guitar player. But I didn't know (yeah) he's an actual musician in the movie and in real life.
Boogie:Yeah my mom told me that.
Boogie:She actually came across him on something, might have been Facebook
Boogie:and um I think she used to communicate with him on there as well, yeah. He's an actual musician.
JB:Yeah and as Boogie mentioned the breakdancing crews were famous crews at the battle at the Roxy,
JB:New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew and uh that was an epic scene at the Roxy for
JB:sure. There were a few different dance scenes that it you got to check them out even if you just pull
JB:up the clip on YouTube put in Beat Street break dancing at the Roxy that is well worth your time.
Boogie:Yeah that that's probably one of the most iconic breakdancing battles ever caught on film,
Boogie:in a movie. Just amazing amazing footwork. Of course it had to be the battle ending with the
Boogie:iconic Crazy Legs removing the sneakers and going into a crab walk that was amazing (laughing).
JB:And that was like the mic drop moment right there.
Boogie:Basically yeah that was the mic drop right there (laughing)
JB:But also co-produced, the movie was co-produced by Harry Belafonte which we
JB:were talking about and we didn't realize that or maybe we had forgotten it to the recesses of
JB:our mind. But the legendary Harry Belafonte ,you know he put this, he put this on film.
JB:And he wanted to portray –he's from that area– the South Bronx and he wanted to just
JB:say, this is the culture and put it out there on film. And help to inspire a lot of folks.
Boogie:Yeah. Directed by Stan Lathan. You know, coincidentally a few hours ago I was upstairs
Boogie:watching a comedy special and who of course produced it was Stan Lathan. He produced uh
Boogie:all these iconic comedy shows, Def Comedy Jams. This one I happened to be watching
Boogie:was uh was Earthquake. You got Chappelle and and you know Chris Rock, all these iconic
Boogie:performances, he's been a producer for those. And also you know father of Sanaa Lathan (laughing).
JB:Yeah well Dave Chappelle's Real Husbands of Hollywood,
JB:I saw. If you look up his history he's done a lot of great work.
Boogie:He has an impressive track record, yeah.
JB:And father of Sanaa, right?
Boogie:Yep, future father-in-law.
Boogie:(Laughing)
JB:: JB::Actress Sanaa Lathan and who's quite the looker and uh yeah she's quite accomplished herself.
JB::Another fun fact the role of Robert who was Tracy's boss at the –I'm going to call it–
JB::the community center for the arts, right, it was played by Duane Jones who was was Ben,
JB::prominent figure in "Night of Living Dead" that was interesting fact that I discovered.
Boogie:Yeah. And of course we got Tracy.
JB:Yeah yeah you want to talk about Tracy?
Boogie:Yeah Tracy, who's played by Rae Dawn Chong who is the the daughter of the iconic comedian
Boogie:and partner of Cheech and Chong, Mr. Tommy Chong. Like she's been in a bunch of movies as well um
Boogie:in the 80s and um some some good roles so um yeah it's always good to see her on screen. You
Boogie:know this is probably one of probably one of her earlier roles but she had a very important role
Boogie:as well because she was one of the people who kind of brought hope to the crew. You
Boogie:know they were all looking to make their way and just by pure coincidence and being in the
Boogie:right place at the right time and crossing paths with Lee. She started off a little bumpy but she
Boogie:actually ended up providing some hope and gave Kenny some assistance in making his envision
Boogie:making his vision on how to memorialize and commemorate the life of Ramon, helped
Boogie:him bring that to fruition. So she played a very important role in the movie from my perspective.
JB:Yeah for sure they realized they have a lot in common because she was a
JB:composer, she was a choreographer and she was looking at the music musical aspect of it well
JB:they were able to collaborate because uh Kenny was DJ as well. Towards the end when you know
JB:Melle Mel does the iconic Beat Street song and the tribute to Ramon and following that
JB:you see a minister come out on the stage and tell the kids to believe it, right? And that
JB:minister is played by Bernard Fowler who if you don't know has a long history with the Rolling
JB:Stones as a backup singer he's quite accomplished as well. Very star-studded cast overall.
JB:In another musical tidbit for the younger generation,
JB:Biggie...Notorious B.I.G. had a song called "Suicidal Thoughts" and he actually has a
JB:line in his song that references Beat Street, says "should I die on the train
JB:tracks like around my own Beat Street people at the funeral front and like to miss me"
JB:so there's been a couple other songs that reference Beat Street and it holds up to this day.
Boogie:Absolutely.
Boogie:(Music)
JB:: JB::So I also wanted to ask you guys, Boogie and DynoWright, do you think this movie could be
JB::made again today? If so, how?
Boogie:I think that it could because I think in this day right now there's a big, I mean there's
Boogie:this there's a lot of a thirst for retro programs and the retro look and just everybody wants the
Boogie:retro everything. And even you look at some of the shows and the movies that are coming
Boogie:out now they're all like remakes or revisiting old iconic shows and movies that we grew up on,
Boogie:things like that. There was a show that was on Netflix, unfortunately it was canceled,
Boogie:it was called The Get Down. If you ever get a chance to check that out, if you
Boogie:haven't that's a great show. It actually it's fiction but it takes place in the Bronx as well
Boogie:and it kind of starts off with the beginning of how hip hop started with these actual the parties
Boogie:and they actually references Kool Herc and a couple of other guys, prominent figures
Boogie:from that time throwing these parties and who's going to go to these parties. And it also talks
Boogie:about the the night that the Great Blackout of New York where there was a lot of looting and everyone
Boogie:became DJs because they were able to get their hands on some good equipment (laughing) but...
JB:I remember seeing (sorry about that).
Boogie:Yeah but that show it was so great, it was such a great show. I think because of that show
Boogie:becoming so iconic and having such a strong following that I mean if you were to even imagine
Boogie:you know mention putting Beat Street out there I think that you know the world will gobble it
Boogie:up. I mean you don't even have to call it Beat Street you can call it something else
Boogie:but it would have the same premise but yeah I think, I think it would hold up.
JB:I totally agree and in fact I know how it could work if we pitch this or someone pitches
JB:this to Lin-Manuel Miranda, right? Because I love the confluence of the cultures you have
JB:Ramon who who's of Puerto Rican descent, you have the young African American kids, and you see
JB:even some Spanish songs, right? I know Lin-Manuel Miranda was influenced by old school hip hop. You
JB:see it obviously throughout Hamilton which is all hip-hop which was just a brilliant idea and just
JB:to this day is just super successful, made a ton of money and got a lot of more people into hip
JB:hop and American history. You know Beat Street is all about a huge part of American history
JB:with the B-boy era in the early hip hop and so like I think it could be done just like this,
JB:and I think people would love it. He could just enhance upon some of the songs
JB:and I mean great I mean if you think about it Steven Spielberg just remade West Side Story.
Boogie:Right.
JB:Which if i'm not mistaken set like in the 50s and he didn't modernize it which
JB:I love. It was not like you know we're going to do a different twist on it and
JB:stuff like that. He had it like exactly so we can preserve this and just add it
JB:what if we put it into like 4K you know and have these personalities and have
JB:cameos from from these same legends that made their appearances that would be incredible.
Boogie:Yeah i think it would work.
JB:Yeah.
Boogie:I think you want to get Steven on the phone (laughing)
JB:(Laughing) Exactly.
DynoWright:I think the movie could be remade. I think you can remake this movie but I don't think
DynoWright:you can make this movie as a new film today. The culture is not new anymore it's like 40 plus years
DynoWright:old now. This movie was like a clarion call like here's this new culture and here's this new thing
DynoWright:that people don't know about and it's going to become bigger and bigger
DynoWright:so for that reason, I think. I don't know what's going on underground right now that
DynoWright:would become as big as hip hop and could make a movie similar to Beat Street on that.
Boogie:Right.
DynoWright:Newer filmmaking techniques you know maybe not modernizing it like Spielberg
DynoWright:did with West Side Story you know? This is like 16 years before like bullet time in The Matrix.
DynoWright:It'd be interesting to see how they would remake this film with modern filmmaking techniques.
DynoWright:I'm not sure how you would make a film as a brand new statement about an emerging culture right now.
Boogie:Right.
DynoWright:You could say that hip hop is the last great big American
DynoWright:cultural export of this scale since jazz.
Boogie:Yeah.
JB:It's funny you mentioned exports. I was reading how this film specifically had a big
JB:influence on German culture, the youth in Germany as the Berlin Wall, you know in the
JB:tensions between East and West Germany and this is something that really united the youth and gave
JB:them something to to embrace back then so that that really brought hip hop over in the dancing,
JB:breakdancing to that part of Europe for sure. So yeah I'm glad you used that term export there.
JB:So Boogie is the DJ of our crew here literally he has a DJ business, doing it for years. Did
JB:you own the soundtrack for Beat Street and if not would you, would you buy it?
Boogie:I absolutely owned it and I was trying to look, I don't have it in my stack over there it's
Boogie:actually sitting in my mom my mom's house. I have a collection that that I keep at my mom's house
Boogie:but if you look at the picture (oops) get it there (oops) that's not it where is, it at I just had it
Boogie:where is it? I just had it there we go.
DynoWright:Levi's showing it to us on his phone.
JB:Yeah. yeah.
DynoWright:He's got the vinyl!
Boogie:That's volume one.
DynoWright:You have volume two too?!
Boogie:Volume two!
DynoWright:Wow I read that this was the first movie that had a two volume soundtrack.
Boogie:Yeah, it probably was because I know a lot of my other
Boogie:soundtracks it was just like one one right one record or it would
Boogie:it might have a double album but it would all be in one one sleeve.
DynoWright:Right.
Boogie:Yeah I had two two separate sleeves I've owned those albums since the movie came
Boogie:out (laughing) and they stay still play maybe a little bump in the road here and there but they're
Boogie:still pretty good in pretty good condition so yeah by all means that's the soundtrack.
DynoWright:We'll put that in our Instagram Stories.
JB:Yeah I love the nostalgia. Was there anything that you guys
JB:didn't like or or felt was lacking in the film?
Boogie:You know what there was a little hokiness in it occasionally but I think that's just as I
Boogie:watch it as an adult. I mean as a child it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Boogie:I didn't see much humor in it, it was more so this movie is great oh my god my mind is blown.
Boogie:Mid-40s now I watch it now and of course I could see some of the funny stuff in it
Boogie:that wasn't intentional but if you watch any 80s film in your mid-40s you're going to find some
Boogie:things in it that are humorous even though they weren't meant to be so but that's probably about
Boogie:it. Yeah that's probably about it with me but even those little little nuances aren't enough
Boogie:to detract away from the classic status that I have with Beat Street (laughing).
JB:Yeah I mean the only thing I mentioned before is you know the the unfortunate the homophobic...
Boogie:Oh yeah.
JB:slur which I know is important and uh but again we've progressed so much as a culture
JB:we're so as a whole we're open-minded obviously there's very large pockets
JB:of folks that are not open-minded right and not embracing all walks of life all
JB:sexual orientations and et cetera but that one obviously they they need a mulligan for that one.
JB:I really enjoyed it so much that the only thing that I thought was lacking was that I wish there
JB:was like an epilogue or where are they now because there was while there was uh two parts to the
JB:soundtrack, there was not a sequel to Beat Street, right? So I would love to know,
JB:did Kenny and Tracy's romance flourish? Did they eventually get married? Did they open up a school
JB:and studio to inspire young dancers and hip hop artists? That would be awesome. Did Lee go on
JB:to dance for like a Broadway show or something? Did he take his break dancing act on the road?
JB:Chollie you know promoting everybody et cetera. I'd love to see a follow-up on that.
Boogie:Yeah, like did Chollie eventually own the Roxy nightclub?
Boogie:(Laughing)
JB:He had moxie to walk into the Roxy like that
DynoWright:(laughing)
JB:And just kind of lay it down I'm in charge here. He was convincing.
Boogie:Yeah.
DynoWright:The thing i didn't like about the movie aside from the homophobia was there was
DynoWright:some character development that –and i'm not a professional film critic so listeners hit us up–
DynoWright:but we mentioned Spit who was the rival graffiti artist that would deface other people's burners
DynoWright:and murals and those things. He plays a pivotal role in the movie but we don't really know
DynoWright:about him, we don't really find out much about him. Maybe he was just supposed to
DynoWright:be part of the environment that they're supposed to deal with. He's based on a real person if we
DynoWright:go through Style Wars, that documentary about graffiti, you see is based on a character in
DynoWright:that film. But if you haven't watched Style Wars then you wouldn't know this so I felt
DynoWright:like i needed more meaning behind Ramon dying because he was fighting with Spit in the subway.
DynoWright:And for that matter Robert, you know, Tracy's boss - I was confused by the relationship
DynoWright:I think I see them kissing in one scene or she kissed him and it made Kenny jealous, so I felt
DynoWright:like something that it wasn't developed much, the sort of love triangle going on there and so I was
DynoWright:confused by it a little bit. Maybe the listeners, maybe you can explain it to me (laughing).
JB:That's true. Yeah I didn't, I caught that
JB:relationship. I didn't know it was a hug or a kiss but it was something that was kind of like
JB:maybe more accepted back in the day you know with this you know you know 70s for sure and maybe
JB:early 80s or secretaries yeah I understand that lacked a little bit of storyline for sure, yeah.
DynoWright:Maybe it was cut for time but
DynoWright:those two things I would have liked some more on on those.
Boogie:Yeah yeah I think Ramon he just he dropped a quick hint about Spit. They said he he said
Boogie:something along the lines that he used to create artwork out there and nobody really liked it.
DynoWright:Ah.
Boogie:And so that point, from that point on he'd just go around writing his name on other people
Boogie:stuff but yeah but it didn't, it wasn't much I think it was maybe like a couple of lines and that
Boogie:was it so I do agree that we probably could you know give them a little more character development
Boogie:so we kind of get a little bit more about you know what he was doing but they were definitely, I've
Boogie:definitely seen instances of that happen in my own neighborhood uh with people putting up you know
Boogie:burners and people coming along and just writing their name across it and um yeah (laughing)
DynoWright:(Laughing) It's hard out here in the streets.
JB:Yeah.
JB:(Music)
JB:So guys what do we think the overall rating and I think what we'll do for the ratings for
this podcast is we have two choices 00:31:58
bring that funky flick back (bring that funky flick back)
this podcast is we have two choices 00:32:05
or leave it in the vault (leave it in the vault) so Boogie what would you say for this one?
Boogie:Ha ha, bring that funky flick back! (Laughing)
JB:DynoWright, whaddaya you got?
DynoWright:Bring it back!
JB:yeah I'm with you, bring that funky flick back, bring that funky flick back!
JB:So yeah we we all like this and we think this as I mentioned in the beginning this should be
JB:required viewing Hip Hop 101 for those that love the genre for those that want to learn about it.
JB:(Theme music)
JB:There you have it.
DynoWright:We did it guys! We did it.
JB:Yep.
DynoWright:: DynoWright::Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, Boogie and DynoWright. Music by Boogie.
DynoWright::Thanks to Liv and Rose from the Highs and Lows with Liv
DynoWright::and Rose podcast. Go check them out and subscribe to their show.
DynoWright::Special thanks to Susan Berger, Towanda Edwards and Alice Seneres.
DynoWright::Hit us up at hiphopmovieclub@gmail.com or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @hiphopmovieclub.
DynoWright::You can also check us out at hiphopmovieclub.com. The next episode of Hip Hop Movie Club podcast
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DynoWright::Please do share this with a friend. Shout out to you listeners. Don't hate, congratulate!