Joe Reagan normal.

Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, where three old heads put their old heads together

to vibe on some of the most memorable or forgettable

hip hop themed movies of all time.

And here's HHMC with your emcees Boogie.

JB and DynoWright.

C'mon! Bring it!

Welcome to Season one, Episode three.

Breakin'

Breakin', also known as "Breakdancing:

the Movie" was directed by Joel Silberg with story by Charles Parker

and Allen DeBevoise.

The two of them also wrote the screenplay with

Gerald Scaife. The film stars Adolfo "Shabba Doo" Quinones as Ozone,

Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers as Turbo and Lucinda Dickey as Kelly.

Christopher McDonald and Ice-T also featured

in this movie.

Breakin' is a 1984 movie in which a young, aspiring

jazz dancer, Kelly, aims to elevate her skills to a new level.

Perhaps into a main profession,

as well as

escape her lustful dance instructor Franco.

She finds escape and is enlightened into the world of street dancing, a.k.a.

breakdancing.

Upon meeting Ozone and Turbo,

young stars in this innovative style

as their friendship blossomed, so does her skill set.

She is all in on promoting the art of breakdancing

and exorcizing her past and any haters along the way.

One

So what do we like about this film?

You want to kick us off Boogie?

Sure.

Breakin' is one of those movies

that I grew up watching, so I always enjoyed watching it.

This is one of those coming of age movies where you have people that are trying

to make a way when they feel like they don't have a way, and in happenstance

they come across someone who offers them hope and a chance

to kind of take what they're doing and make the situation better.

So with that, I mean, the scenes and the dance battles

and dancing in the movie is always something I always enjoyed watching.

I always tried to emulate that dancing when I was a kid.

I used to have my box out out in the front of the house in my music playing.

You know, the dancing always was something that captivated me, you know, Turbo

and Ozone, the two characters played by

The late great Shabba Doo and Boogaloo Shrimp.

They had a chemistry like a a Laurel and Hardy

type chemistry where they fed off of each other's energy.

So the scenes with the two of them, they had a lot of comedic presence

about the two of them, even when they were not necessarily trying to be comedic.

I think it was more so the tone of the movie, they kept it light hearted

So even in some of those serious scenes, they were very comedic.

So it's always good to see those two onscreen together.

The dancing and the lightheartedness of the movie was something I always enjoy.

It focuses on breakdancing, but it's not necessarily

a lot of rap music in it, although you do see some cameos of rappers in the movie.

But the tone of the movie was always something that I enjoy.

Donna. Right. Want to add anything?

So I like that.

Since we had two New York movies, we're now on the West Coast

and actually see what that culture's like in terms of early hip hop.

So I enjoyed that. Yeah, I agree.

It was nice to see the West Coast right I enjoyed the film.

I hadn't seen it since I was a kid

and for some reason, break into stood out to me more in my memory.

Maybe because the catchy title, Electric Boogaloo but I'm glad I rewatched it.

I would think for all intents and purposes, breaking really

for real, put breakdancing into the mainstream of American conscious.

Right.

I think the other films that we reviewed so far, like a beach street

while still more like still underground, still a little bit more raw.

Now you see children breakdancing, you see them having a good time with it,

converting jazz dancers into break dancers.

And I remember as a kid wanting to also emulate ozone

and Turbo, we're emulating their moves and all that.

If I saw this correctly, the movie had a small budget

of like 1.2 million, and it garnered almost $39 million at the box office.

Back. And, you know, back then, that's huge.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Major distributor Golden Globe is, you know, that's a major distributor

for films at that time.

So it definitely pushed it to the forefront, as you say.

And it kicks off right away.

You see the fashion moonwalk, right?

And the opening scenes and there was a little dude there, not Turbo,

but a real little dude who was like, well, this is their hot shot.

But that's what it

appears on both breaking and breaking to me.

Both of them. Were so impressive, right?

The term pop in and lock in is used.

That's the first time I had heard that.

And there are some like epic scenes in the Turbos Broom dance scene

where he's dancing alongside the broom outside the convenience store where

he knows own work.

And it's almost like a magic trick.

He's, like, controlling the broom and dancing around it.

And that was that was pretty sweet.

Yeah. That's a classic scene right there.

Anybody that you know knows break and remembers that scene.

And they always point that scene out when they were in a store.

And Orson Welles was they refer to him as Fred Astaire, and he's like,

Who And then he goes outside his door and he has a Fred Astaire moment.

Yeah.

I mean, not to get ahead on breaking two, but I think, you know, when Reagan two

is the one where the you know, he dances on this on the side of the walls

and on the ceilings.

And so that and that they emulated some Fred Astaire with that also.

So they tried to bring some classic there

culture really was shown and the Ozone Dubs

Kelly special k, you know that's a you know people monikers and nicknames

and I like that there was a storyline in that you could understand.

Yeah.

Like I mentioned in the synopsis, Kelly's dance instructor was a creep.

Very lustful. Right.

Tried to advance on her with a kiss, and she's she wants none of it.

And, you know, she runs away.

And it's a theme throughout.

Even the agent that she taught agent is a shady character

where it's almost like he wants to be a love interest for. Her.

And she just wants to advance her career.

So you see a lot of that and that agent James James Wilcox,

I think it was was played by McDonald was the name Chris.

Chris, Chris.

McDonald.

Chris Chris McDonald, who played

Shooter McGavin is part I remember him most for and Happy Gilmore film.

I saw him with the like curlier hair and I'm like, that's shoot him again.

And so that. Was kind of fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember him from all this, too.

Please remember.

Yeah.

Yeah. He's been with a lot of stuff.

Yeah, he's he's had extensive career.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Into some TV shows and whatnot, right?

Yeah, there was some, there were some funny scenes.

There was a one scene also.

They were having lunch and there was these redneck guys maybe demonstrate

throwing a quarter at them.

And then Turbo, you know, love Turbo's Moxie standing up to the people.

And you'll see that throughout. That's the series, right?

And he just stands up comes water.

And the guy, the barroom brawl ensues and they end up escaping

and they're beating each other up. So that was kind of silly.

I like that.

Yeah.

There's a lot of can't be fun in this movie, which I enjoyed

it. Just the whole leotard thing within

the eighties is nostalgic and fun for you.

You don't really see that anymore

unless you're like on purpose trying to be retro or vintage.

But of.

Funny to see that leotard and leg warmers

as contrasted with like all the leather studded leather belts and bracelets

and things that I forgot that whole part of the whole early hip hop.

Scene.

And the big.

Dangling earrings would.

Think dangling earrings.

I was drawing connections to like the punk scene with like that

had leather belts and stuff.

Absolutely.

There's there's some kindred spirit happening between early hip hop and.

Oh yeah. At that time with punk.

I had a moment.

Yeah. I mean, these are all outside.

You're against the norm. Right?

Nobody has seen

this style of Dance Street, and they're both kind of like street cultures, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Subcultures and

ahead of their time.

Sure.

Also thought you saw

the battle

between ozone and turbo and electro rock.

Oh, yeah, true. Right. So there's electro rock crew.

That's they're the rivals so you see them bump heads a few times.

Was interesting.

Yeah.

I liked I always like the presence of the electoral rock guys, man.

One of my favorite pop lockers is actually

one of the electoral electoral rock, Bruno Falcon.

He's a very well known West Coast pop laugher.

Even if you you know Google his name.

I remember maybe, maybe a year or so ago, there's videos circulating

on Facebook with him pop locking, and he's got like long gray hair.

Yeah. Still going at it. You know, doing it.

Yeah.

Still doing it.

It was some classic songs as well.

Like you mentioned Boogie.

There was not real like true hip hop in this.

A lot of beats, but also but there was the classic there's no stopping us

early on, Molly and Jerry.

Mm hmm. Classic.

Right. In the opening.

And that kind of sets the tone. I like that.

There was another Chaka Khan song later on

and not recalling it right now or anybody.

Yeah, I know, but here we go.

You know? But it's the exact great, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, that was when

there was some little romantic interludes kind of between Kelly and Ozone, right?

That's. You see that song? Come on. The

classic song right there, or.

I love that song.

Yeah.

Although I had the name slipped my mind for a second, too.

Yeah.

That's why I was like, the the contrast between terminals.

Kind of like a street dance and culture.

And, you know, they come at a high class party at the end and they show up.

There was a funny line with Turbo, who just is the more comedic one,

as you said, and there's a type of cheese that he never saw.

Oh, you you say you said something like,

would you like this pig cheese or something?

Yeah.

He's the cheese.

Big cheese.

Pizza, single woman. Awesome. Pig cheese.

Yeah. Yeah,

see another. One? Cheese.

Yeah.

He's charming the older ladies, right?

But I absolutely loved him.

Yeah, exactly. He did.

Yeah.

There was another.

So that whole juxtaposition with the the ultraconservative folks,

and there's a big contest at the end, and they're getting denied.

This is a common theme.

Kelly kept getting denied in her own auditions.

At one point, she put on a wig to try to look blond.

That's not what they wanted, right?

She kept failing. And then even this bigger contest

where the creepy Franco instructor was at, right?

James, the agent, had a hard time getting called all this contest.

Couldn't get them in.

Finally, you know, he has them show up in top hats and suits,

looking all formal and got them under a fake name.

Put them a Trojan horse.

Yeah, he's. Actually a lawsuit, right?

He called them, like Allegro, which is a fancy Italian act.

Right. And he gets them in.

They start breakdancing and stuff like that and turning heads,

and they kind of told, you know, we don't like your style, whatever,

these old, decrepit judges and whatnot, but they still rip

in the sleeves and just, you know, continue to dance, don't give up.

And I like that scene at the end.

There is a good scene.

Makes redemption.

Yeah.

They broke through in. A.

Got there there well deserved shine and they got noticed.

Right there.

But nobody wanted to give him a chance

and they had even seen what they could do he just went off of pure appearance.

I don't like the look like, oh, no, you're not professional.

But when they sat down and let them do what they could do, they all enjoyed it.

Exactly. It was funny.

The old crusty judge kept saying, Go away like three or four times.

Finally, the younger judge was like, Hold on a second, I want a second.

And then they finally all came around.

They were like even dancing on the tables.

And Franco was trying to get them

to get the judges to dismiss them, and they were like, Pull away.

You ever watch this.

Frankenstorm sound like the baby?

That is.

And then there's a big music video type feel at the end.

Again, there's no stopping us.

Was headlining at the Street Jazz Show.

You know, towards the end, they they teased the sequel.

I remember the closing credits, so we knew that there was going to be a sequel.

Oh, you think they voted no right away?

Yep. This story is true.

So we report.

See exactly what? Ice-T.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very young and spry. Ice-T.

I mean, he spry now, but was really like, wow.

Like, he's back from back then.

He's from back in the day. Back in the day.

Yeah. Yeah.

Now he's on my cereal box in the back of my Cheerios.

You see that?

That's the dance in the morning with coach Ice-T.

I'll put that in the stories.

But I was like, Oh, that's nice.

T like the body can't get it.

Like Team Cheerios, cereal Cheerios. Box.

Are they on

anyway? Ice-T.

Yeah.

Iced teas, rapping, emceeing the event at the radio Tron Club.

And, yeah, he's one of his early performances.

Absolutely.

Salute to the OG Ice-T.

Oh, the one of the funny thing, too, is the agent, James McGavin.

You know, he's trying to fit in, right?

And he's, like, trying

he doesn't know how to do a handshake with Turbo, and he wants to be caught.

He ends up buying them matching jackets with the initials TCL if you cut that off,

you'll. Feel.

Right for each of their initials, you know, Turbo, Kelly and Ozone.

And that's what they go buy an old pickle group.

I mean.

He actually liked that being two.

These fit two was perfect.

It was. It is a great name.

Yeah. It's the perfect name for them.

Yeah.

There was a scene, too.

I was really impressed by the by the dancing.

This was great.

Introduced the dancing to the mainstream break dancing

there was a kid dancing with crutches at the end.

If he caught that.

Oh, yeah, he would. The president was great.

That was impressive.

I mean, upper body strength for sure. Yeah.

So overall, I mean.

He had some cameos in there, too.

Yeah. It's all about our friend that was in there.

Yeah. Go ahead, boogie. Now you got it.

So so one of the early scenes when Kelly is

introduced to Turbo and Ozone at the beach,

you see a bunch of these muscle guys in the background.

And if you look to the left, you see Jean-Claude Van Damme

and that beach scene. In a. Unitary.

Exact.

Yeah, we could

post it on a social media, but it's neat and it's pans on him for a little bit.

You could definitely tell him, Oh yeah.

He's doing that bop that he did in that movie that he was doing.

Was was it a Katrina movie? Right now?

It's a famous movie that he did the dancing.

Oh, he's doing the same day as he's

rocking yes.

That's funny.

I just remember Kickboxer was a great one.

Yeah.

It might have been kickboxing.

Was it maybe. Kickboxer?

Yeah, it was Kickboxer.

Yeah, boxing yeah.

Kickboxer, you. Know.

Extensions. Yes.

He's got one move. I mean, it works.

It works.

You talk about the key stars, as you mentioned, Shabba, do a Adolfo Quinones.

Yes. Unfortunately, passed away at the end of 20, 20 at age 65.

But legendary breakdancer and you could find him at all

types of shows and cameos.

And he was in a lot of music videos like

Lionel Richie's all night long, both him and Turbo were in that.

And Chaka Khan, I feel for you in those videos.

Yeah.

He is a well-established choreographer and dancer.

Yeah.

He did a lot of work for Madonna of choreography and

I dug in a little bit more and I found out that Shabba Do

was a member of the dance crew, the original lockers, along with Fred

Berry, a.k.a Rerun from What's Happening, one of my favorite shows of all time.

Me, too.

Tony Basil Singer from Hey Mickey and Don Campbell,

known as Campbell Lock, who is credited of starting the pop and lock.

So it's pretty cool. Yeah.

It's definitely cool.

And speaking of some coolness, I came across a documentary

on Boogaloo Shrimp a few years ago coming to find out he was the person

who's credited with teaching Michael Jackson the moonwalk.

And I just before we got on, I checked in.

That documentary is still on.

It's on Amazon Prime right now. And it's also on people.

TV's called The Boogaloo Shrimp Documentary.

So if you get a chance, anyone, you'll check that out.

It's got a lot of history

and it talks about how you got started out and how I started in

what he's been up to.

So yeah, that's pretty cool.

Disney promotion, Boogaloo Shrimp, also.

Michael Chambers, right?

Yeah, very well established.

In those videos I mentioned also.

And I was also reading, he played the character

of Mike Scat Cat and Paula Abdul's opposites attract.

Oh man. Yeah.

He wasn't the rapper, but they they used his moves.

And he's got Cat Charlotte FC sketch.

This cat cat. Underrated emcee.

Somewhere else.

And that's a throwback.

Yeah.

You know, I looked up Cilla Dickie, and she she was on solid gold.

She was a solid gold dancer, solid rock.

And I don't.

Know how why I've never known that,

but she was a solid gold dancer prior to snagging the role in breaking.

And I was like, Wow, that's really cool.

But now, now I want to go back

and see if I can catch her in some of the older episodes.

Yeah, they must be on YouTube.

We got to go look.

Yeah, that's right.

Kids today don't know it's solid gold, is it?

Of solid gold?

Solid gold.

Now, I used to wash it every Saturday.

Every Saturday. Exactly.

Why Soul Train

late morning, early afternoon.

After the cartoons are done.

So Soul Train comes on right as a solid gold.

And Cornelius.

Yeah.

You know, I was watching one of my favorite actresses.

She's got a small kid.

She's got a cameo.

She's actually in both breaking and breaking, too.

She's a cameo in the opening credits lead over Shaun.

I was watching it. I'm like, Wait a minute.

How come I've never noticed her dancing in the beginning of the movie?

But she's dancing in the beginning of the movie, and I'm like, Check that out.

And you still keep in touch with her.

Oh, no, I don't know where.

But, you know, I just like I just like her.

Her her as an actress.

Yeah, OK. Awesome.

That was also saw something about Shabba do choreograph

the 36 Mafia's performance on the Academy Awards.

That. Right.

That one was that one for the original song.

It's hard out here for a pimp.

Yeah, I choreographed that now.

Yeah. Nice.

Yeah, that's one of the classic Oscar moments.

Yeah, that was that was groundbreaking.

Very well established.

I mean, these these guys did so much for the culture

with great dance, and that's what we're here about on

the podcast, is like, you see people doing all these

types of dancing, and this is kind of the origins.

So it's neat for the young folks out there to kind of see where it started.

Yeah. I mean, break is now international.

You know, you got the Red Bull Championships, and I love watching.

I watch those every time I catch clips of them anywhere

and, you know, things that they're able to do now.

It's it's amazing.

But it all ties back to, you know, what we're talking about

in the last couple of podcasts.

So, you know, it definitely blossom in Rome and they see it's international.

It's a way of life. It's a culture.

It's cool. Very cool. Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah.

To boogie boogie.

You owned the vinyl.

Is that what you were talking about last time?

We're showing us recently.

There it is.

Got the vinyl with the plastic on it still.

Oh, yeah.

I still. Got a sticker from The Wiz.

In. Reverse.

How much does that? 699.

Oh, what a deal.

Yeah. I love this, man.

This is. This is.

Yeah.

It's real.

Ali and Jerry on their right.

It's them. See what's on here.

Yeah.

There's no stopping this freak show on the dance floor.

Body work. 99 and a half.

Maybe not even half is a good song. Too good song.

Yeah.

The Showdown Heart of the Beat Street people, which they perform at the end.

Right.

Cut it.

Ain't nobody and reckless with I only thing

I wish you would have had, but it probably was a lot of improvising.

I wish I would have had my team stuff.

But yeah, that stuff was probably improvised on the spot.

It probably wasn't even a studio record.

It probably was probably just freestyling.

Yeah.

I may have had the vinyl.

I can't recall now, but I don't have it any longer.

Nice to have you out there listening.

Let us know if you if you did that on the spot on the day

at final level, you hit us up.

Through

I'm. Curious. Now

I wonder if you could find those lyrics anywhere else other than in the film.

I am saying let's figure it out.

A listener, if you if you know this already hit us up.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I'm always curious to do to tag them in asking.

Him. Out. He came.

I did come up with it.

Is he definitely response to the fans?

I hit his up

three.

Three, three, three.

You think this movie could be made today?

Either in this state

like remade and preserved like this, or a remake of it somehow.

What do you think?

I think so.

Same thing I said earlier. With.

Speed Street, they make it as like a period piece.

I think it'd be really cool

to see a place in modern filmmaking techniques, 4K and all this.

But I think as a remake of the time, I think it could be done.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Daniel right on that one, I think.

And I was waiting for him to say

and he said exactly what I thought you were going to say,

you know, just kind of use it as a period piece with using some modern techniques

I totally agree.

I think that's what would make it possible to have it redone.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Preserve it as it is.

Don't try to do anything more with it now.

I really enjoyed it.

So as we do at the end of each episode, let's give our A rating, our take on that.

So the question is bring that funky flick back,

bring that funky flick back or leave it in the vault

boogie.

Oh, man, I got to bring that funky flick back.

This is just the classic.

Even with some of the some of the cheesy eighties references

and things like that, you can't now bring it back.

Got to bring it back.

I know. Right, right.

That's funky flick back.

It's not Hamlet or King Lear, but it's really fun.

It's just so much fun.

I agree. Bring that funky flick back.

I really enjoyed it.

We take us out.

Yeah, take it out.

Left, right. This

frigging Global.

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your eight emcees Boogie, JB and Dino.

Right

Be Music is by Boogie.

Special thanks to Susan Berger, Tawanda Edwards and Allison Jerez

hit us up at hip hop movie club at gmail.com or

on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at hip hop movie club.

You can also check us out at hip hop movie Forbes.com.

The next episode of hip hop Movie Club Podcast drops in two weeks.

Subscribe today on your favorite podcast app

and you won't miss it and want to help us out.

Share this podcast with a friend.

Shout out to you listeners.

Thanks for listening.

Donate Elevate