When hip-hop culture was only ten years old, a visual journey through all aspects of the culture was the blueprint for hip-hop’s true roots.
Wildstyle is arguably the first film and one of the few that shows the essence of hip hop.when Hip-hop was a trend that didn’t last after “Rapper’s Delight”, but it vividly recreated the introduction of this art and culture to the world. of In 1983, film director and cultural artist Charlie Ahern premiered the film in Times Square, setting a record for a sell-out at every showing in the three weeks it ran.
A member of the collective artist group Collaborative Projects, Ahern was introduced to hip-hop through graffiti in the late ’70s when he photographed young people for a martial arts learning project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He was soon approached by Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Braithwaite to make a film that covered all elements of hip-hop (MC, DJ, breakdance, graffiti). Fab 5 Freddy brought his legendary graffiti artist Lee Quinones with him to meet with Ahearn to further discuss his approach to photographing graffiti and introducing it as a legitimate art form. Ahearn finds out that he’s the same graf king that Lee admired for the work during his LES shoot. With Ahern as producer and director, the trio set out on a journey to gather the faces of this groundbreaking film.
Evolving its name from the abstract letter designs made famous in the graffiti world by graffiti magnate Tracy 168, Wildstyle featured the most pioneers from every aspect of hip-hop. Cold Crush Brothers, Rock Steady Crew and Grandmaster Flash are just a few of the pioneers of hip-hop who made their debut on the silver screen in wild style.The Furious Five were unable to appear with The Flash and had to be cut from the film due to their previous commitment to another more mainstream film depicting the development of hip-hop that came out later. beat streetThis is why Afrika Bambaataa, the New York City Breakers, The Treacherous Three, or female pioneer MC Sharok never appeared in the film. Other notable legends include Busy Bee Starski, his Graf legend Dondi, Zephyr, Revolt (who designed the Wild Style logo) and Fantastic Freaks.
Lee Quinones played protagonist ‘Zorro’, an anonymous graffiti phenomenon introduced to the art world by his friend and fellow graffiti writer ‘Phase’ played by Fab 5 Freddy. Faiz introduces Zorro to Virginia, a journalist portrayed by cultural icon Patti Astor, who later introduces Zorro to the world stage of art in galleries and museums. This story is an accurate historical account of how hip-hop in general was introduced to mainstream America and later to the rest of the world. It showed the poverty and despair that existed in the South Bronx where I was born.
More than 30 years later, wild style Still an icon of American pop culture. Players who have participated and performed in films have become legends in their own right. But most people perceive acting in movies as a career catapult. The film has been sampled on various classic hip-hop albums, including ATCQ’s Midnight Marauders, Common’s Ressurection, Five Mic’s classics, and Nas’ Illmatic. Wildstyle was named one of the top 10 rock and roll movies of all time by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and VH1’s Hip Hop Honors acknowledged the film’s influence in hip hop in a 2007 tribute to him. .
