Beat Street (1984)
Producer and activist Harry Belafonte’s commercialized slice-of-life drama stars Guy Davis as Kenny ‘Double K’ Kirkland, a South Bronx hip-hop DJ with big dreams, and Jon Chardiet as Ramon, a Puerto Rican graffiti artist who would rather tag trains than get a real job. Rae Dawn Chong is Tracy, an upper-class music student from a college in Manhattan who sees something in Kenny’s proficiency with turntablism to want him to assist with her presentation on break-dancing.
Just as break-dancing had become a mainstream breakthrough, Beat Street had been beaten to the punch in the summer of 1984 by Breakin’ just a month before, and the overexposure at the box office of having two similar films seemed to work more in Breakin’s favor. However, Beat Street is arguably the better of the two films, as it is a little harder edged (it was originally rated R for language, then downgraded to PG on appeal), and it respects its subject matter more as art than as a passing fad, much in a similar way that superior predecessor to them both, Wild Style, had done. Much of the subject matter also spins off of the serious documentary on the era, Style Wars, including the character of ‘Spit’, who writes his name over the works of other graffiti artists, in the vein of the real-life graffiti vandal CAP, who would write ‘Cap’ over the art of others, as seen in Style Wars.
Reportedly, the idea for the film came from an in-depth article by Steve Hager, published in the Village Voice, on the underground hip-hop scene emerging in New York City. The original director attached to the film was Andrew Davis, though creative differences would force Davis out eventually, under the presumption that he was not in tune with the hip hop culture enough to understand how to properly bring it to the screen realistically. African-American director Stan Lathan was brought in to right the ship, which was built to be respectful to the people of the South Bronx and of the artists and their passions, especially in one of the rare films with a wide release at the time to not have a white character in a main role. The film doesn’t just celebrate street culture, but also showcases the celebration of song and dance from Africa, represented in the project put on by Tracy, who is mean to join the different social classes to show that they are united by a common bond of celebrating a heritage.
Nevertheless as respectful as the film is to hip-hop culture, the delivery still smacks of romanticized Hollywood interpretations of how the real youth of the Bronx live. Although about the humble roots of hip hop and b-boyism, the makers of the film have a more grandiose spectacle for its subject matter in mind, featuring some manufactured melodramatic elements (Ramon’s quest to tag the great white subway car, while also dealing with another vandal out to destroy his creations is a lot of manufactured drama to take in), culminating in a far-fetched song-and-break-dance concert featuring Melle Mel and the Furious Five (recently broken up with Grandmaster Flash) and future Rolling Stones back-up vocalist Bernard Fowler’s gospel chorus entertaining a packed hall of enthused aficionados.
To its credit, the film does spotlight the blight and dilapidated environs of the South Bronx neighborhoods in which the characters reside, as well as the bleakness of their prospects for getting out of their existence through the art of graffiti or break-dancing, though some indeed have come to be appreciated later for their self-taught gifts. Authenticity isn’t there for the graffiti art, with most of it created by professional set designers who emulated real spray-can art with airbrushing techniques to approximate the look and feel of the street. The wardrobe is also done more by sponsors to the film, like Kangol and Puma, than based on wardrobe that might actually be seen on the streets at the time (though Kangol would actually take off as a sought-after line of clothing after the popularity of LL Cool J’s look a year later.)
Yet, for true old school hip-hop heads, there’s still a great deal of nostalgia value in seeing such pioneering acts as Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Melle Mel, the Treacherous Three, Doug E. Fresh, Jazzy Jay, and the rest on the screen performing as no other film had captured. It is one of the rare films that had two volumes of soundtrack songs released (it is often credited as the first American film to do so), not counting an original score, and had even wanted to release a third volume, though it was scrapped when the second volume didn’t perform as well as the first. It also features real-life break-dancing crews like the Rock Steady Crew and New York City Breakers performing some truly breathtaking dance moves that never get old to watch. It effectively captures the imagination that is involved in DJing, which requires a deep knowledge of music even if it doesn’t require knowing how to play an instrument. Plus, it’s rare to see any form of entertainment actually uphold what most consider blight – graffiti art – as something that has value and meaning to a culture that is often misunderstood.
It’s too glitzy and theatrical in its execution to be fully embraced by the hip hop culture (although, it should be noted that the old school rap acts featured in the film were also glitzy and theatrical at this point before the less flamboyant styles Run DMC and LL Cool J’s style took over) it seeks to celebrate, and it spotlights a little too much commercial pop and R&B acts. However, for the key aspects of the film, it’s a worthwhile endeavor, with some great rap music and fantastic break-dancing that mesmerizes in ways that gives the film a lift whenever it threatens to bog down to TV movie caliber dramatics. Beyond all of this, Beat Street, along with Wild Style, is largely credited as the first exposure to countries beyond the United States to hip-hop music and culture, as break-dancing, graffiti art, and rapping would begin to take hold in Europe and other parts of the world soon after its release.
Qwipster’s rating: B
MPAA Rated: PG for language and some violence
Running time: 105 min.
Cast: Guy Davis, Rae Dawn Chong, Jon Chardiet, Leon W. Grant, Robert Taylor
Cameo: Jazzy Jay, Doug E. Fresh, Bernard Fowler, Melle Mel, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, Brenda Starr, Kool Moe Dee
Director: Stan Lathan
Screenplay: Andy Davis, David Gilbert, Paul Golding