Film: Wild Style

I remember it was a summer night 1994 and that I couldn’t sleep so I decided to go ahead and sneak into the living room and watch some t.v. and hopefully pass out after a while. I remember turning on the t.v. to some Brooklyn Public access channel (BCAT for those who know) and catching the 2nd half of Krush Groove and I told myself that i would hit the bed after I saw the flick but as soon as it ended all I saw was “Coming up next, Wild Style…”. All I will say is that after hearing that my curiosity overpowered my sleepiness.

At my 1st viewing I immediately felt like every kid who say this film for the 1st time, and that was “oh I wanna be a graf master like Zorro (Graf legend Lee), and I wanna be a b-boy like Crazy legs and Frosty Freeze”. I would eventually go on to pursue my dreams of being a writer and b-boy basically because I looked up to these Hip-Hoppers artistically as a kid growing up. So it’s easy to see how truly important this film is, not only in preserving and having a record Hip Hop culture, but in educating the present and future generations of kids who should know that this came from somewhere. Like a wise man once said “In order to know where something is going, you need to know where it came from.” and Wild Style is that.

Here’s a little story that most be told…

On Sunday, July 29, 2007 at Central Parks Summer stage free concert series, Hip Hop as a collective came together to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this film and the era from which it was spawned. I was there with a hoard of other Hip Hop fans which included families, couples, old-timers, and hard rocks. All of which came to this event with one thing in mind, and Busy Bee described this perfectly when he said it’s all about “Peace, Love, Justice, and Having Fun!”.

First up was Grandmaster Caz introducing the event and doing what an emcee is born to do, and that is get the crowd amped and the party started. He then introduced the man who he called “The main reason turntables outsell guitars 3 to 1…”, Grand Wizzard Theodore, the man responsible for bringing the world the scratch. He did his thing getting the crowd hyped for the festivities of the evening with an old school routine that included breaks and classic joints.

Caz then introduced the most legendary party rocker in Hip Hop history, the ever dope Busy Bee. Busy still has it after all these years and had the crowd hyped as hell to party. He also had a few choice words for BET and the current state of Hip Hop. In short he said “F@%k the bullsh@t you hear on BET, that Shit ain’t Hip Hop!”. After hyping up the crowd to a fever pitch, Busy Bee then introduced one half of duo Double Trouble, Lil’ Rodney Cee who did his thing even though his DJ was slacking big time. He and Busy Bee even relived their battle in Wild Style on stage. His performance was only marred by absence of K.K. Rockwell whose lyrics were badly interrupted by one of Rodney Cee’s homies which lead to him storming off the stage.

Next up was a special performance by the weird as f@%k Rammellzee. For those who don’t know who he is or what he is about just know that he is as brilliant an emcee and graf writer as he is just a lunatic. He came out in one of the many masks he designs for himself, accompanied by what you could call a semi hype man in a white ski mask (all he did was jump around the stage like a orangutan but it was entertaining as hell). He then went on to perform 2 songs that i can only describe as maddening yet dope. With lyrics like “…ride the horse down and whip ‘em…” all I could do was laugh and succumb to the madness. Next Caz introduced the musical director of the night, the one and only Fab 5 Freddy, who I later shared a few words with during the screening of the movie later that night. Fab is a really cool dude and its easy to see why he gets a lot of respect in the Hip Hop community.

The last performance of the night was one that i had personally been looking forward to since i 1st saw the movie as a kid and that was a performance by the legendary Cold Crush Brothers. With DJ’s Charlie Chase and Toney Tone on the wheels of steel Easy AD, Kay Gee and JDL had no problem rocking the crowd and getting everyone loose. Its crazy to see after all these years and the brothers still had the crowd in the palm of their hands. The crowd really went crazy when The Brothers performed their song Other MC’s, which I’ll say is one of my favorite joints as a DJ.

Then came the screening aforementioned film that brought together this collective group of people on this muggy Sunday night in NYC. To be honest with you, with the exception of the people I was with this night, everyone in central park was saying every line and lyric to the film, including myself. This crowd showed me how powerful of an impact this film had on a generation of people and the world. Wild Style gave the world a taste of a small underground movement of people in the Bronx that had no conventional rules that people had to obey in their everyday lives. To see Lee paint trains or Rock steady break was almost like leaving the world that held you down. I this aspect the message of Wild Style and Hip Hop culture will never die and will only grow stronger and more prominent in time.

All together it was a night to be remembered by anyone who came through to be apart of this celebration. Good people with the intention of having a good time which to me sums up what Hip Hop should be. So stop saying Hip Hop is dead, because believe me after all the noise we Hip Hoppers made on this night, you’ll all know that it’s alive and well and it ain’t going anywhere!!!

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop…..Woof The Phonocator

editors note : I saw Frost Freeze in the crowd and damn….dude is in real bad shape and it bothered the hell out of me. I dunno just had to get that off of my chest. God bless Freeze and hope all is well…