"Should I die on the train track like Ramo in Beat Street? People at my funeral frontin' like they miss me." - The Notorious B.I.G

Wild Style and Style Wars got the Hollywood treatment a mere year after their release in the hugely influential Beat Street, co-written by Chicago native Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Stony Island) and produced by none other than a nearly 60-year-old Harry Belafonte (who clearly still knew cool when he saw it). Hollywood kids Guy Davis (son of Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis) and Rae Dawn Chong (daughter of Tommy Chong) star in this wintertime romantic drama set in the Bronx which follows the intersecting storylines of a graffiti artist, a DJ, a breakdancer, and a composer. Peppered throughout with insane breakdancing battles and club scenes, the real-life legends of hip hop manage to outshine the actors, and luckily they get plenty of screen time. Co-starring Duane L. Jones (Night of the Living Dead) in a small role, with non-stop mind-melting performances by the likes of Debbie D, Sha-Rock and Lisa Lee, Doug E Fresh, Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, Treacherous Three & Kool Moe Dee, DJ Jazzy Jay, Grandmaster Melle Mel, and breakdancing crews Magnificent Force, New York City Breakers, and Rock Steady Crew. If the moment b-boy Crazy Legs finishes his dance with his shoes on his hands as if it’s the most natural thing in the world isn’t pure cinema, we don’t know what is. See the film that brought hip hop to the world.

Lavie is a fourth-generation teacher with 20 years experience, a practitioner of graffiti writing and illuminated script, rapper, and part-time b-boy.