Speaker: 00:00:00

Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop with the

magic of movies.

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Today we're discussing the 2002 graffiti drama Bomb the System.

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We're three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for you.

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I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan, and by the time this episode

comes out, I'll have been to the first show of the Wu-Tang Clan Final Chamber Tour with

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Run the Jewels opening.

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By the way, El-P

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from Run the Jewels did the music for this film.

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JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, longtime Hip-Hop fan.

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And I share my first name with my favorite MCs born name, Q-Tip, AKA Jonathan Davis.

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Haha, nice, nice.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan, little known fact for the listeners.

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I actually used to be a graffiti artist back in the day.

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I never got a chance to do any walls, but I did a ton of burners on paper.

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I also did some jeans, jackets, shirts, et cetera.

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But yeah, so this film kind of lines up what I used to do in the back, back in the day.

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In this episode we'll answer the question, is Bomb the system a must watch for hip hop culture enthusiasts?

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Bomb the System follows the exploits of Anthony, AKA Blest and his crew members, Justin and Kevin, who live the gritty life of graffiti bombers in New York City.

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Let's dig right in.

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So Bomb the System, I think a good adjective is gritty, is a gritty film, the way it was produced.

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You can tell it's got that indie vibe, a lot of like cut scenes and, you know, like almost like strobe light techniques and, not your traditional studio airbrushed.

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You know, no pun intended, know, airbrush quality, right?

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It's really, it's really gritty and it takes you, takes you there.

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And there's some character arcs and stories.

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it's a bit of a wild ride.

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You know, Anthony, you see, it starts off right away and tells us, shows a flashback where he's a young boy, like age seven, talks about his older brother, who was a great graffiti

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bomber, legend in the town.

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And he had died the one night and that's something that stays with him, that he has to overcome that struggle.

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So there's a lot to this film, even though it's never was a big blockbuster type hit, but

there's a lot we can dig into.

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Boogie, what was your initial impressions here that you took out of this film?

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Yeah, so I definitely like the gritty factor of it.

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mean, the opening scene shows, well, not the opening scene, but the scene that comes on

right after the title screen shows up.

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I thoroughly enjoyed that.

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PSK playing.

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What does it mean?

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Classic hip hop.

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A lot of people attribute that as the first.

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origins of quote unquote gangsta rap.

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I mean, it was such a hit that Biggie actually, Notorious B.I.G.

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used it as an inspiration for one of his intros for Mo Money, Mo Problems.

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But yeah, it's a hit.

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So when I heard it, said, okay, they've taken it back.

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So I originally thought the movie was going to take place back in the day, but I realized

after through that, that it was a flashback scene.

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But if you look in the background, you see B-Boy's break dancing.

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Mm-hmm.

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you also see artists doing burners in the background as well.

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got the elements all lining up right there.

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But like, you said, JB, that's the night that the main character of Blest, his brother,

Lazaro, died.

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And that was just a flashback of Lazaro passing on his pass on in a marker to him.

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So that, just kind of everything up.

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But I do like that the way that it was depicted, it shows an actual crew.

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what they had to deal with as far as creating their burners and their tags, et cetera, and

trying to elude the police officers with their task force, which was actually put in place

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to actually catch actual artists to slow down the tagging on subways and walls, et cetera.

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And I liked how they depicted those guys.

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I mean, unfortunately, you know, we have some bad apples with the police force, which unfortunately is a stark reality to growing up in the hood.

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You come across a lot of guys like that.

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But I do like the character arc.

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It showed that even though our main character, Blest was an accomplished graffiti artist

in his own right, you know, his name was recognized throughout the boroughs.

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He had aspirations.

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He actually did want to have his art in a gallery, which was something that we actually

saw flashback Wild Style.

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You know, was scenes of, know, aspirations of having your art actually published and produced into an art gallery setting.

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He was on the fence about going back to school.

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And yeah, I mean,

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do appreciate that.

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There was also some scenes that showed some rival artists.

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And that's also was a reality that we also came across in Beat Street with Spit running

right across Ramo's and other artists' work.

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So that was a well-known thing that if you got to be really good while there were some

that appreciated your work, there were also others that would hate on it and write across

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it.

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So that authenticity was there that I really appreciate it.

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Yeah, and like the guys hanging out and just, you know, kind of trying to figure out life.

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I like coming of age story.

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So I like to see stories where people are trying to figure things out.

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I wouldn't say that there was a happy ending in the film.

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not going to, you no spoilers, but.

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I enjoyed it.

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think it definitely, kept my attention.

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And just showing how, you know, these guys were trying to navigate and deal with not only

getting a name out and being being well-known graffiti artists, but also trying to cope

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with like life's ills and how to navigate the system.

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Nice breakdown Boogie as usual.

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DynoWright, what are your impressions as well?

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But for me, this movie was kind of like graffiti writ large.

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Like, it can be both vandalism and legitimate artistic expression.

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I was watching this like, this is kind of a good movie, but kind of not a good movie.

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So I did actually sort of enjoy it.

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But I do get the point of those who say that this was sort of a little trite and kind of

like preachy.

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But there was some good parts and overall, thought this was...

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This is an earnest attempt and I dig it.

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Yeah.

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Like you said, Boogie is smaller, smaller budget, like indie film, you know, the way it

was filmed and it was teaching lessons, kind like you said, also, this is what graffiti

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art, you know, people, when people tag over it, that's a brawl right there.

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You know, we steal our cans, you know, this is part of the gig.

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It kind of like lifts the covers, but like really intentionally it's like, we're run, we

run from the cops because we got the biggest cojones.

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It's like, this is what we do.

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So.

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It, that kind of stays with you at the end is like, well, the life of a true graffiti artist is that there's the internal struggles to the part that's kind of trite is like you

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have the traditional mother, like, Hey, you know, what are you doing with your life?

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Um, are you going to go to college?

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Like she had very little dialogue and that was it.

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Hey, we're waiting for letters from the college.

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You know, what are you going to do?

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When are you going to get a real job?

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Don't end up like your brother, like the cautionary tale.

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And that's kind of like.

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Trite type thing where it's been done so many times.

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There's not that much connection.

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He's barely home.

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And then there's a little bit of love interest with the girl Alex and she had her own agenda.

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So that was another element in that.

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She wanted to go nationwide and talk about protesting against the corporate messaging and

her own form of bombing the system with stencils and police zone type.

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things and he's like, that's not real art, but she wanted to protest that way.

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So it's kind of interesting.

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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She shows up.

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Anthony, except for Blest, everyone was like this like very nicely crafted plot device.

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Yeah, We got the familial, familiar.

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Yeah, exactly.

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But I mean, that cop, totally unhinged, you know, he's drinking heavily while driving.

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He's got the drug addiction.

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Like he's, he's, you know, he's abusing someone, another, another graffiti bomber.

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And then he's like sniffing cocaine.

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I'm like, this guy is totally unhinged, like insane.

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Yeah.

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of see that there could be some tragic repercussions.

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It was sad.

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Yeah.

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He was like the stencil for Denzel's character in Training Day.

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He walks, he walks so Denzel can run.

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It's like what the heck?

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Yeah, yeah.

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That's very true.

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watch this Bobby Cox character.

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Hold my beer.

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It's funny, uh I like the name Bobby Cox because if, know DynoWright remember Bobby Cox was the manager for the Atlanta Braves for many years and he's the antagonist and he

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actually had, if you look up Bobby Cox, there was some bit of a checkered past in his life with some abusive type stories and it's kind of like, is there any connection or no?

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He had the manager, the manager like, yeah, there was.

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know that.

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was some domestic abuse stuff that came up in his past.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So there you go.

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But it's just a funny name.

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Bobby Cox.

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But, you know, he was so corrupt, so aggressive.

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He was abusing drugs.

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He was talking about how he just takes advantage of prostitutes, and he represents the whole systematic corruption and he becomes increasingly unstable, more and more unstable

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throughout the film.

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And you're like, this guy's bad news.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, drama starts right away.

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because Bobby Cox crosses paths with Blest, Justin, who Buck 50 and Kevin his younger

brother, Loom.

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And of course, as they say, you we don't stop for the cops, we run.

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And most people that understand how that works is you run from the police, you're really going to tick them off.

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for making him run after you.

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Now they don't like it at all.

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mean, unfortunately they come across Kevin, Justin's younger brother, by himself and,

rough him up a little bit.

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Well, they rough him up more than him little bit.

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And that starts the spiral effect for Justin's character because, you know, that's his younger brother.

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So he really starts to become unhinged as far as

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his discretion with placing his tag.

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He was to tag everything at this point.

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said, you know what?

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this, F that, you know, let's tag this.

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We're to go on a bombing spree.

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We're going to tag everything from, the highway to the, I forgot how you word it, but it

was like everything from this line to that line and everything in between.

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We're going to tag the police station.

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We're going to tag this and that.

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And like, you know, the one part, it was actually a funny scene.

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It wasn't meant to be funny, but I cracked up.

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when Cox and his partner's name they were at the bodega and were buying some food and they left the car outside parked and Justin and Kevin came along and decided to go on a bombing

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spree with the car.

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man, it was crazy.

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That was bold.

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It was bold.

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But Cox had such a, he had such a, what's the word I'm looking for?

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He rubbed everyone so badly that when he came outside and was trying to figure out like,

who did this?

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Who did that?

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Who did this?

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Who's responsible?

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Did anybody see anything?

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The neighborhood basically just laughed at him because they knew that everybody knew who he was and he had a reputation.

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So they were just like, yeah, we know who did it, but we're not telling you.

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And they just basically laughed at him.

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I was cracking up.

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was like, aw man, that's so bad.

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Mm-hmm.

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But it's kind of like karma for him a little bit.

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But unfortunately, we know how karma is.

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It's a continual cycle.

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So yeah, he got something back.

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But because he got something back, he wanted to end up projecting onto someone else again.

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So he was like on a rampage as well, trying to find the people that were responsible for tagging his car up.

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Yeah.

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And another thing that happens is that conflict ensues because, you know, Anthony Blest you know, he's falling for Alex, his love interest.

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And then you have Justin questioning his allegiance to the crew.

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You know, we want to tag, we're going to bomb the system.

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Like I said, you know, they roughed up my brother.

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We want to go out here and do that.

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And he's like, yeah, man, I'm trying to just, you know, do it when I want to do it.

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And he's like, come on, man, you guys, we got to do this and you're representing your

brother.

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And then.

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You know, when tragedy ensues and then you get, Kevin was like, you you supported for, your brother, like, wouldn't you do the same, to fight for my brother, And, that, that

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part was, I think, interesting, that was the part that I like, like kind of most is you get the ties to the, older siblings on both sides.

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How would you react that, that kind of hit a chord with me?

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I'm like, okay.

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I can see how those parallels make a lot of sense for the storyline.

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Yeah.

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Like I'm not, I'm not, okay.

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of cycle.

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know, like it's cyclical and coming of age, like you said, that's some of the themes here.

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go ahead, Boogie.

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Yeah, another interesting conversation that I saw was, and I don't know why I can't think of his name, when, it's fast, going back to the beginning a little bit, when Bobby Cox and

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the partner were Shorts, yes, Shorts.

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Yes, they were doing their, I guess they were staking out the neighborhood trying to find some people tagging because everyone knows they're not doing it in broad daylight.

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wait until later on.

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So they were sitting in the car and they were talking.

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And he was telling Bobby, said, yeah, I used to be one of those guys, but I mostly worked on trains.

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And then he said, growing up in my neighborhood, either you take the paint or you take the pipe.

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He's like, gangsters.

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And he said, he chose to stick with the paint.

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And he said, he goes back and he looks back at of the people that were in his neighborhood

growing up.

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He had the gangsters in the neighborhood that were trying to sell drugs and trying to get

him to hustle drugs with them.

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But he chose to go on the other path and working on trains.

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said, a lot of the gangsters in his neighborhood didn't really amount to much, but all of the graffiti artists from his neighborhood, they all have decent jobs now.

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He said, there's the one guy that was hustling down my block.

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Yeah, he's in a wheelchair right now because he took a couple bussings and he's paralyzed

in a wheelchair now.

229

00:13:26,375 --> 00:13:28,958

He said, yeah, he was a tough gangster back then, but look at him now.

230

00:13:28,958 --> 00:13:35,000

He said, but all of the guys that decided to run with me and we're doing graffiti, he

said, we all got decent jobs now.

231

00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:46,375

It's like, Now I thought that was interesting because it's kind of a kind of parallel to the guys play basketball or football or the guys that quote quote unquote, nerds or

232

00:13:46,375 --> 00:13:47,500

whatever, the guys who

233

00:13:47,500 --> 00:13:49,375

who succeed academically.

234

00:13:49,666 --> 00:13:55,791

their paths and then they come back and you look at where those guys who were chasing the

fast money are now.

235

00:13:55,791 --> 00:14:02,875

Meanwhile, the guys who tried to aspire for other things other than the quote unquote

hustle life, how they ended up in life.

236

00:14:02,875 --> 00:14:05,083

I thought that was pretty interesting.

237

00:14:05,750 --> 00:14:07,791

Yeah, they made it out, exactly.

238

00:14:07,791 --> 00:14:10,583

I did enjoy the dialogue between Cox and Shorts.

239

00:14:10,583 --> 00:14:12,041

That was one of my favorite parts.

240

00:14:12,041 --> 00:14:14,416

The dialogue between them early on, that was great.

241

00:14:14,416 --> 00:14:22,208

Great storytelling, know, again, cautionary tale, how different paths you can take in life and, you know, reforming yourself, that type of thing.

242

00:14:22,208 --> 00:14:24,541

But then you see again, Bobby Cox become totally unhinged.

243

00:14:24,541 --> 00:14:26,666

Yeah, it's interesting.

244

00:14:26,666 --> 00:14:33,916

And then Hazer's another character you briefly mentioned that was Lazaro's best friend who

allows Blest to stay at his place.

245

00:14:33,916 --> 00:14:35,041

in New York.

246

00:14:35,041 --> 00:14:36,083

And I thought it was cool.

247

00:14:36,083 --> 00:14:41,583

The one aspect that, you know, he had all the writing on the wall in like a kind of

graffiti type style.

248

00:14:41,583 --> 00:14:42,416

And Alex is like, what's that?

249

00:14:42,416 --> 00:14:43,416

Like, that's my life story.

250

00:14:43,416 --> 00:14:46,625

So he has this whole life story, like in words on the wall.

251

00:14:46,625 --> 00:14:48,958

I thought it was kind of cool that he did that.

252

00:14:48,958 --> 00:14:50,250

And Hazer allowed him to do that.

253

00:14:50,250 --> 00:14:54,500

Yeah, yeah, Hazer of the other one that he actually made it out as well.

254

00:14:54,500 --> 00:15:01,375

He it looks like he's living somewhere in Manhattan and he says he's working on a

television show on Telemundo, I believe he said.

255

00:15:01,375 --> 00:15:09,750

So he's got a he's got a decent steady gig, but he allows those guys from the neighborhood

to come hang out with him every now and then he has these parties where we got to just

256

00:15:09,750 --> 00:15:10,625

kind of hangs out.

257

00:15:10,625 --> 00:15:13,500

But he's he's more or less looking out for Blest

258

00:15:13,500 --> 00:15:15,625

out of respect being his brother's best friend.

259

00:15:15,625 --> 00:15:23,666

And he was actually the one, talked about it later, that the night that died, told Hazer to take Blest home.

260

00:15:23,666 --> 00:15:27,125

And Blest took him home, and that's when he ended up dying.

261

00:15:27,125 --> 00:15:30,166

But he kind looked out for him the rest of his life after that.

262

00:15:30,166 --> 00:15:32,916

He took him in under his wing as a younger brother.

263

00:15:32,916 --> 00:15:36,791

But I do like the dialogue between the two of them towards the end of the movie.

264

00:15:36,791 --> 00:15:40,166

We do find out that Blest does get accepted into the college.

265

00:15:40,166 --> 00:15:42,833

And Hazer's like, yo, man, you need to go.

266

00:15:42,833 --> 00:15:45,541

You need to go and get out of here.

267

00:15:45,541 --> 00:15:46,541

Go to California.

268

00:15:46,541 --> 00:15:48,375

That's the best place for you to be.

269

00:15:48,375 --> 00:15:50,375

he's kind of talking them down.

270

00:15:50,375 --> 00:15:51,541

He's like, Lazaro didn't.

271

00:15:51,541 --> 00:15:54,833

Maybe he didn't want to make it back after he was tagged.

272

00:15:54,833 --> 00:16:00,500

Maybe that was his, he sort of has his way out because he couldn't control what was going

on around him.

273

00:16:00,500 --> 00:16:03,000

But you have the ability to control what's going on with you.

274

00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:03,875

You have an outlet.

275

00:16:03,875 --> 00:16:05,916

You have a college that you can go to.

276

00:16:05,916 --> 00:16:11,750

So I thought that was a, mean, I don't want to give too many details because it had kind

of hinted at what happens in the end of the movie.

277

00:16:11,750 --> 00:16:14,416

But yeah, I do appreciate that conversation.

278

00:16:14,416 --> 00:16:17,750

Him trying to, know, hey, listen, you were like your brother.

279

00:16:17,750 --> 00:16:19,875

but you don't have to be exactly like your brother.

280

00:16:19,875 --> 00:16:22,666

You have a choice and you can make it.

281

00:16:22,666 --> 00:16:26,166

Yeah, that was good mentorship by, by Hazer.

282

00:16:26,166 --> 00:16:27,416

Yeah, for sure.

283

00:16:27,625 --> 00:16:28,291

Yeah.

284

00:16:28,291 --> 00:16:29,833

I like that aspect of it also.

285

00:16:29,833 --> 00:16:30,875

So yeah, it has elements.

286

00:16:30,875 --> 00:16:31,708

It's getting gritty.

287

00:16:31,708 --> 00:16:34,875

It's not your traditional, you know, storyline plot.

288

00:16:34,875 --> 00:16:39,166

Not a ton of true character development kind of happens in fits and starts.

289

00:16:39,166 --> 00:16:41,708

but, there's a lot of, there's a lot of content here.

290

00:16:41,708 --> 00:16:44,500

A lot of, you know, goodness pick up on.

291

00:16:44,500 --> 00:16:46,291

social commentary, rebellion.

292

00:16:46,291 --> 00:16:49,083

There's these themes that you can pick out as we did.

293

00:16:49,083 --> 00:16:49,625

Yeah.

294

00:16:49,625 --> 00:16:56,875

Especially that whole conversation when Blest and Alex, well, Blest decides to finally go

out with Alex and she's like, come on.

295

00:16:56,875 --> 00:17:00,333

And then they're talking about she, how her crew does.

296

00:17:00,333 --> 00:17:01,875

And he's like, well, that's not really art.

297

00:17:01,875 --> 00:17:05,000

And he's like, well, know, she yeah, well, we do pretty much the same thing you do.

298

00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,416

We're just doing it in a different way.

299

00:17:06,416 --> 00:17:07,625

Like we're still,

300

00:17:07,625 --> 00:17:13,750

Rebelling against the system and establishment and you we're making statements About what

we think is right and what we think is wrong.

301

00:17:13,750 --> 00:17:22,750

We're just doing it in a different way Coming to find out that she wanted to you know him to join the crew And as they wanted to go across country, but you know, yeah, it was it

302

00:17:22,750 --> 00:17:23,083

was

303

00:17:23,083 --> 00:17:25,375

That aspect was interesting.

304

00:17:25,375 --> 00:17:32,041

Because I don't know if I recall ever seeing, well, no, I do have seen stickers posted

around different neighborhoods.

305

00:17:32,041 --> 00:17:41,125

Not as large as the ones they had in the movie, but I've definitely seen political

statement stickers all in different neighborhoods, downtown especially in New York as

306

00:17:41,125 --> 00:17:41,708

well.

307

00:17:41,708 --> 00:17:42,708

So was like, oh, OK.

308

00:17:42,708 --> 00:17:46,666

I I didn't really consider it art, but.

309

00:17:46,666 --> 00:17:48,791

I do appreciate the statements that they were making.

310

00:17:48,791 --> 00:17:51,041

Can we talk for a minute about Baba Kumar?

311

00:17:51,333 --> 00:17:53,833

thought that was kind of, that was bizarre.

312

00:17:53,833 --> 00:18:01,625

It's like an underground Hindu temple or, yeah, I don't even know what to call it.

313

00:18:01,625 --> 00:18:08,416

But they said, oh, we're going to like a boat that's underground and it's like a Hindu

temple and there's a class happening.

314

00:18:08,416 --> 00:18:10,458

It was kind of bizarre that was thrown in there.

315

00:18:10,458 --> 00:18:12,833

I'm like, okay, what is this?

316

00:18:12,833 --> 00:18:14,708

Yeah, was out of left field almost like.

317

00:18:14,708 --> 00:18:16,375

It's almost like a bet.

318

00:18:16,375 --> 00:18:25,708

I dare you to throw in a Hindu temple in here with a guru ah named Baba Kumar.

319

00:18:26,958 --> 00:18:27,333

Yeah.

320

00:18:27,333 --> 00:18:30,583

a real thing that, like, they paid to advertise in this film?

321

00:18:30,916 --> 00:18:33,625

Right, gotta go find the real Baba Kumar.

322

00:18:34,500 --> 00:18:35,583

He exists!

323

00:18:35,583 --> 00:18:36,708

yeah.

324

00:18:37,375 --> 00:18:40,291

I'm like, okay, that happened.

325

00:18:40,666 --> 00:18:41,166

Yeah.

326

00:18:41,166 --> 00:18:43,041

the underground Hindu temple.

327

00:18:43,041 --> 00:18:44,125

Yeah.

328

00:18:45,083 --> 00:18:46,208

That was random.

329

00:18:46,208 --> 00:18:51,541

then they went back there at some point later and I'm like, okay, that's interesting.

330

00:18:51,541 --> 00:18:54,208

It was kind of left field, like you said.

331

00:18:54,208 --> 00:18:55,291

Okay.

332

00:18:55,291 --> 00:19:01,291

and when Blest was trying to Kevin, were like, we don't know where he is.

333

00:19:01,291 --> 00:19:03,291

then Hazer's like, yeah, he's been hanging out down there.

334

00:19:03,291 --> 00:19:04,625

You've to go down there and get him.

335

00:19:04,625 --> 00:19:07,083

And he was down there just kind of zoning out.

336

00:19:07,500 --> 00:19:09,416

Yeah.

337

00:19:09,833 --> 00:19:11,208

off the deep end.

338

00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:12,500

That's funny.

339

00:19:12,500 --> 00:19:14,291

that was very I don't know.

340

00:19:14,291 --> 00:19:18,291

That was the one part of the movie where I was just like, what?

341

00:19:18,291 --> 00:19:21,125

Like everything else, was like, OK, yeah, I could get it.

342

00:19:21,125 --> 00:19:21,708

I get it.

343

00:19:21,708 --> 00:19:22,458

I get it.

344

00:19:22,458 --> 00:19:23,208

I get it.

345

00:19:23,208 --> 00:19:24,708

And that part, I was like, really?

346

00:19:24,708 --> 00:19:25,666

Those exist?

347

00:19:25,666 --> 00:19:29,958

I'm struggling to remember why they had to go there or what that was doing.

348

00:19:29,958 --> 00:19:33,583

if I'm not remembering why, it probably wasn't necessary to keep in the film.

349

00:19:33,583 --> 00:19:36,250

And so that's a strike against it.

350

00:19:36,250 --> 00:19:38,083

the term I used totally non-sequitur.

351

00:19:38,083 --> 00:19:39,541

Just didn't follow.

352

00:19:39,541 --> 00:19:46,875

Yeah, in the beginning they went down there because was trying to he tried to score some some Marijuana.

353

00:19:46,875 --> 00:19:56,250

Yeah, they went down there for that and Blest was like trying to kind of confuse the way where they were going and Noble was like, yeah, just sit there, don't say anything.

354

00:19:56,250 --> 00:19:56,958

It's like,

355

00:19:56,958 --> 00:19:57,875

He don't say anything.

356

00:19:57,875 --> 00:19:58,958

All right.

357

00:19:58,958 --> 00:20:03,833

And then if he was over there trying to talk to, Baba and Baba was like, yeah, I don't

know.

358

00:20:03,833 --> 00:20:05,041

I told you don't come back here.

359

00:20:05,041 --> 00:20:09,458

And they know was all like, oh, bowing down to him and like almost kissing his feet.

360

00:20:09,458 --> 00:20:11,291

I was like, what is going on here?

361

00:20:11,708 --> 00:20:17,958

I could be getting around, it could be Kumar Baba, I'm not sure, but I think he's listed as Kumar Baba, but Baba Kumar, whatever.

362

00:20:17,958 --> 00:20:21,583

yeah, that was just bizarre.

363

00:20:21,583 --> 00:20:24,375

Okay, but eh, solid film.

364

00:20:24,375 --> 00:20:30,500

this is one that's kind of underground, just like, sounds like I don't think a lot of

people know about this film.

365

00:20:30,500 --> 00:20:31,875

I don't think it ever hit the

366

00:20:31,875 --> 00:20:34,791

theaters, if it did it was probably in and out.

367

00:20:34,791 --> 00:20:41,291

Doesn't really have a lot of star power, not a lot of actors or actresses that you would

really recognize.

368

00:20:41,291 --> 00:20:49,750

those are people who watched the Sopranos, remember the actor who plays Bobby Cox is Al Sapienza, who plays Mikey from Sopranos.

369

00:20:49,875 --> 00:20:53,000

So in a few episodes, that's about it.

370

00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,375

I was trying to remember why I knew him from only why do I know this guy's face?

371

00:20:56,375 --> 00:20:57,375

That's okay.

372

00:20:57,375 --> 00:21:03,875

He clicked Think that I can actually start looking at him like he looks familiar, but I don't recall from where

373

00:21:03,875 --> 00:21:06,708

there's not a whole lot of like household names in this.

374

00:21:06,708 --> 00:21:07,291

Right.

375

00:21:07,291 --> 00:21:10,416

I did appreciate the Lee Quinones cameo though.

376

00:21:10,416 --> 00:21:12,708

Yes, yes, I'm glad you mentioned that, yeah.

377

00:21:12,708 --> 00:21:19,541

Yeah, I did appreciate that because that's an Lee Quinones, an actual legend in the game.

378

00:21:19,541 --> 00:21:26,041

Like I knew his name since like I was in the first grade when I got my first book with graffiti pictures in it.

379

00:21:26,041 --> 00:21:28,375

And his stuff was all over the place.

380

00:21:28,375 --> 00:21:34,583

because my name, my birth name, Levi shortened know, people ask some people actually did call me Lee.

381

00:21:35,416 --> 00:21:36,000

I gravitated to his tags.

382

00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,125

and his burners whenever I saw them.

383

00:21:38,125 --> 00:21:40,916

So yeah, like my eyes lit up, I'm like, my God.

384

00:21:40,916 --> 00:21:46,083

And as know, listeners, Lee Quinones is in Wild Style.

385

00:21:46,083 --> 00:21:50,666

He's the main character in Wild Style.

386

00:21:50,666 --> 00:21:57,458

So yeah, it was good that they actually got him to co-sign and make a brief cameo in the film.

387

00:21:57,458 --> 00:21:59,000

Definitely, you do something about graffiti.

388

00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:03,625

Lee Quinones is the guy that you want to have represent.

389

00:22:03,625 --> 00:22:04,708

That's right.

390

00:22:04,875 --> 00:22:06,541

credibility to the film.

391

00:22:06,541 --> 00:22:15,500

And we got to meet the director of Wild Style, Charlie Ahern, along with the Cold Crush Brothers about a year and a half ago or so.

392

00:22:15,500 --> 00:22:16,666

That was awesome.

393

00:22:16,666 --> 00:22:17,500

It was awesome.

394

00:22:17,500 --> 00:22:24,750

This journey that we're on with the Hip Hop Movie Club took us to see those guys live and

watch a screening of the film a memorable evening.

395

00:22:24,750 --> 00:22:29,208

Grandmaster Caz did a solo performance afterwards that we got to see up close.

396

00:22:29,208 --> 00:22:31,166

Yeah, that's a memorable night.

397

00:22:31,166 --> 00:22:38,958

Go back and listen to us talk about that and shout out to DJ ARM 18, our boy Andrew

McIntosh for setting that up.

398

00:22:39,333 --> 00:22:40,166

Much love.

399

00:22:40,166 --> 00:22:48,166

It's cool how we review films and they always seem to tie into something that we've already reviewed at this stage.

400

00:22:48,166 --> 00:22:59,500

It's like an intricate spiderweb of connectivity between we're talking about now and what we talked about a year ago, a year and a half ago.

401

00:22:59,500 --> 00:23:03,791

Yeah, it's cool to see Lee pop up in there and tying into stuff that we've already talked about.

402

00:23:07,541 --> 00:23:11,000

So Boogie, for Bomb the System, will you bring that funky flick back

403

00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:12,416

or leave it in the vault?

404

00:23:13,875 --> 00:23:15,833

You know, I'm on the fence with this one.

405

00:23:15,833 --> 00:23:20,458

think I actually might bring the funky flick back.

406

00:23:20,458 --> 00:23:26,666

And I've said this before, maybe watch it maybe one more time and then I might vault it.

407

00:23:26,666 --> 00:23:31,458

Because I feel like I might have missed some things in the film.

408

00:23:31,458 --> 00:23:34,333

So I think I might want to go back and analyze it again.

409

00:23:34,333 --> 00:23:36,791

get a pretty good grasp of what it's about and everything.

410

00:23:36,791 --> 00:23:39,750

But I think sometimes when I watch films,

411

00:23:39,750 --> 00:23:48,458

I like to go back if it interests me I like to go back and watch it at least one more time So this did interest me so I think I do owe it to watch it back go back and watch it at

412

00:23:48,458 --> 00:23:58,583

least one more time But I think after that I don't think I'll need to watch it anymore because I think you know I'll have a Mental grasp of everything so at that point I'll

413

00:23:58,583 --> 00:23:59,208

vault it

414

00:23:59,208 --> 00:24:00,041

Yeah.

415

00:24:00,041 --> 00:24:00,625

All right.

416

00:24:00,625 --> 00:24:01,000

Dyno.

417

00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,875

Wright For bomb the system, bring that funky flick back or leave it in the vault.

418

00:24:04,875 --> 00:24:09,125

I'm also on the fence on this, but I will say, bring this funky flick back.

419

00:24:09,125 --> 00:24:13,916

But I'll also say that I don't think this is a must watch for hip hop culture enthusiasts.

420

00:24:13,916 --> 00:24:19,250

I mean, if you're a hardcore fan, you'd probably watch this, but you definitely should watch Beat Street.

421

00:24:19,250 --> 00:24:28,000

By the way, we're screening soon or Wild Style or Style Wars or probably some other graffiti films that we haven't discussed.

422

00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:28,458

you

423

00:24:28,458 --> 00:24:31,125

things like Exit the Gift Shop or Infamy.

424

00:24:31,125 --> 00:24:33,083

There's a lot of other graffiti films out there.

425

00:24:33,083 --> 00:24:37,250

And even though this film does make a lot of people's top 10 lists, yeah.

426

00:24:37,250 --> 00:24:39,500

This isn't a must watch for me.

427

00:24:39,500 --> 00:24:40,500

Yeah.

428

00:24:40,708 --> 00:24:41,041

Yeah.

429

00:24:41,041 --> 00:24:42,333

I'm for myself.

430

00:24:42,333 --> 00:24:43,666

I'm of the same opinion.

431

00:24:43,666 --> 00:24:46,458

It wasn't my favorite, but I'm going to say bring this funky flick back.

432

00:24:46,458 --> 00:24:50,958

There's it's there are some themes that we discussed that are important themes.

433

00:24:50,958 --> 00:24:56,416

It wasn't my favorite presentation of it, but it's got some intrinsic value that.

434

00:24:56,416 --> 00:25:04,666

Is worthwhile, like you said, DynoWright, many better films that are well constructed that

stand the test of time, but.

435

00:25:04,666 --> 00:25:05,916

Keep this out in circulation.

436

00:25:05,916 --> 00:25:08,208

know, graffiti artists should check it out.

437

00:25:08,208 --> 00:25:12,375

Yeah, I think if you're a graf artist, you probably want to check it out.

438

00:25:12,375 --> 00:25:18,958

But I mean, if you're like a DJ or an MC, you know, up and coming b-boy or something like

that, I wouldn't say it's necessary.

439

00:25:18,958 --> 00:25:21,791

But if you're an artist, you know, maybe check it out.

440

00:25:21,791 --> 00:25:23,000

Get a little authenticity.

441

00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,583

See things from a from, know, a New York City perspective.

442

00:25:27,583 --> 00:25:30,750

But there definitely are more much more polished, more, you know,

443

00:25:30,750 --> 00:25:33,375

bigger budget, more well produced movies out.

444

00:25:33,375 --> 00:25:37,208

They were able to get Radiohead to put a song on this soundtrack.

445

00:25:37,208 --> 00:25:40,208

So I was like, whoa, that's a Radiohead song.

446

00:25:40,208 --> 00:25:41,416

In this economy?

447

00:25:41,416 --> 00:25:42,416

My goodness.

448

00:25:42,416 --> 00:25:47,833

don't know if you guys are familiar with the app Letterboxd.

449

00:25:47,833 --> 00:25:49,750

my son Iceberg has gotten me into that.

450

00:25:49,750 --> 00:25:51,208

I've reviewed this on that.

451

00:25:51,208 --> 00:25:58,208

I don't give a full review, but just a star rating and maybe just a couple of lines, but I gave it like a two and a half or three out of five stars.

452

00:25:58,208 --> 00:26:01,958

Yeah, it's B- minus B, something like that.

453

00:26:02,166 --> 00:26:04,041

Maybe B plus in its best parts.

454

00:26:04,208 --> 00:26:04,875

Yeah.

455

00:26:08,625 --> 00:26:13,625

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's JB, Boogie and Dyno Wright.

456

00:26:13,625 --> 00:26:14,625

Theme music by Boogie.

457

00:26:15,708 --> 00:26:19,458

As always, check out our full live event schedule on our website, hiphopmovieclub.com.

458

00:26:19,458 --> 00:26:22,000

Thanks for listening to the Hip Hop Movie Club Podcast.

459

00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,125

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend.

460

00:26:24,125 --> 00:26:24,916

It's real power up for us.

461

00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:27,958

And remember, don't hate, appreciate.

462

00:26:27,958 --> 00:26:28,666

Appreciate

463

00:26:28,666 --> 00:26:30,458

Hand out them flowers, please.

464

00:26:30,875 --> 00:26:33,250

Appreciate you guys.

465

00:26:33,250 --> 00:26:35,625

Appreciate you guys.

466

00:26:36,666 --> 00:26:37,250

Can't talk.

467

00:26:37,250 --> 00:26:37,833

Thank you.

468

00:26:37,833 --> 00:26:38,500

Yeah, man.

469

00:26:38,500 --> 00:26:40,458

I appreciate you guys and this journey we're on.

470

00:26:40,458 --> 00:26:40,958

It's fun.

471

00:26:40,958 --> 00:26:41,500

It's fun.

472

00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:42,625

It's definitely a