Charlie Aheard's Wild Style

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In the early 1970 's, disco music ruled the airways and had a huge impact on the American audience. It started by an urban gay culture in New York City and had strong connections to R&B and Funk. But during the same era, a man named DJ Kool Herc migrated to the Bronx from Jamaica with what was thought of at the time to be an unusual playlist of R&B, funk, soul and obscure disco. That was the birth of hip-hop. It emerged to become the voice of a generation that wanted to be heard and refused to be brought down by urban poverty. Nowadays, if you ask most people to give a definition of "rap", they are likely to state that it is simply the reciting of rhymes to the beat of the music. At its core, rap music is a form of expression that finds its …show more content…

After watching a portion of a movie called Wild Style during a class session, I couldn’t help but rent it out afterwards and watch the whole thing, twice. When analyzed as a basic movie, Wild Style is less than mediocre. As a document of South Bronx culture in the early 1980’s, it is beyond priceless. The producer Charlie Aheard captured the hip-hop culture right before it became a nationwide phenomenon; Wild Style portrays a first person experience of when it all began. Legendary New York graffiti artist Lee Quinones plays the part of Zoro, the city 's most elusive graffiti writer. The actual story of the movie is about Zoro 's passion for his graffiti art and his personal life, particularly his complicated relationship with fellow artist Rose who 's known as Lady Pink. The plot is ridiculous yet not completely existing, and the acting was poor but quite natural. But the movie isn 't about the story, the acting, or even the camera work and sound recording; It presents a priceless look at the movement during one of its most important stages of the hip-hop culture. It’s the classic hip-hop flick, full of great subway shots, and content of the four elements of hip-hop mentioned earlier. There is also footage of Grandmaster Flash, one of the godfathers of hip-hop, playing an awesome scratch-mix set on ancient turntables. It’s a film that has shaped a generation, purely with the members of the cast and the records used in the soundtrack. It is more like a time capsule of the early 80’s Bronx and completely immerses you in the time and culture of the rise

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