I took my friend up to LA back when this movie was released in '82 to see this in an independent theatre. We were both awed with this! In my mind this movie started the popular movement (yes, I know the music was on KSPC around this time too, but the rest of LA didn't know about the music).
Two years later "Beat Street" came out on the big screen, which is 1/1000 of this movie, and the popular crowd went with that, and the music all seemed to go "I'm poor/shot at/oppressed by the white man and I'm coming at him with my gun" as the years went on.
That's so sad to me - the genre could have had a meaning, a purpose, a style like this film shows. I think what instead happened is the studios just cashed in on whatever sold the most. Kind of a top 40 of rap/hip-hop. Get this film/video if you want to see where the genre really came from and was about back then. Get it if you want to see people and soul. Get it if you want to see people with a purpose.
Two years later "Beat Street" came out on the big screen, which is 1/1000 of this movie, and the popular crowd went with that, and the music all seemed to go "I'm poor/shot at/oppressed by the white man and I'm coming at him with my gun" as the years went on.
That's so sad to me - the genre could have had a meaning, a purpose, a style like this film shows. I think what instead happened is the studios just cashed in on whatever sold the most. Kind of a top 40 of rap/hip-hop. Get this film/video if you want to see where the genre really came from and was about back then. Get it if you want to see people and soul. Get it if you want to see people with a purpose.