The style is wild

Old school rules

by Tristam Lozaw

Anyone who has suffered through the technical snafus and overbearing security measures that usually accompany a modern-day hip-hop concert might not realize that rap actually began as a vital live music form. Back before wholesale theft of old hit songs became an accepted substitute for creating your own beats, back before white suburban pseudo-tuffs appropriated rap and graffiti trappings as their own, back when peace and "positivity" were still the heart of the movement, there were New York street corners and tiny stages in clubs like the Dixie where rap virtually exploded every night.

Wild Style, a lo-fi video docudrama recently released through Rhino Home Video, catches a resonating slice of NYC hip-hop culture at that critical point in 1982, grown up from its '70s beginnings yet still in the midst of a creative boom. It was shot on location in the South Bronx, where the MCs and DJs (Cold Crush, Fantastic Freaks, Busy Bee, Double Trouble, Lisa Lee, Grandmixer DST, Grandmaster Flash), graffiti artists (Lee, Futura, Zephyr, Dondi), and breakdancers (Rock Steady Crew and a few original fly girls) were in their element. Unfortunately, the plot reads like a D-plus senior film project and the "acting" is equally amateurish, particularly in the case of "Fab 5 Freddy" Brathwaite as Phade, a promoter trying to get exposure for the hip-hop arts. But director Charlie Ahearn uses the story merely as an excuse to document the street-level artistry of what "Fab 5 Freddy" called "the only legitimate youth-driven culture since rock 'n' roll.

Rappers' faceoffs were still considered an alternative to resolving bragging rights with AK-47s or drive-bys. A turntable was the only instrument they needed or could afford, and sometimes they didn't even need that. The invigorating basketball throwdown between Cold Crush Brothers and DJ Grand Wizard's Fantastic Freaks, choreographed between baskets on an uptown court, is perhaps the purest gut-level rap performance in any movie. And when the crews appear later at the Dixie, the sharply traded rhymes and break-beat scratches ricochet around the room. These moments are also documented on Rhino's companion soundtrack CD, but the live video is uniquely exciting stuff, delivering the same rush as prime footage of early Stones or Miles or James Brown.

By the time the film was released, in 1983, commercial considerations had already taken over. Rap quickly spread from clubs like the Dixie to arena-size concerts that dwarfed even the Green Park pow-wow -- the 2nd Annual Sugarhill Rap Convention -- that is the movie's finale. A "Wild Style" tour with 25 MCs, DJs, b-boys, and graffiti artists hit the road in 1983. Fortunately, Wild Style, the movie, had already captured hip-hop's original energy and artistry for posterity. It sure was sweet while it lasted.