The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

The incredible impact that Wild Style had on its first release could never be repeated, but it remains hip hop’s ultimate must-see visual document, capturing priceless snatches of New York’s B-Boy scene as it was about to explode outward. Wherever in the world the film was shown, kids could be found the next day trying to scratch records, pop The Caterpillar, write rhymes and steal spraypaint; not since 1955’s The Blackboard Jungle has a film so jolted the youth.

Using real artists and performers as his cast, Charlie Ahearn - abetted by the inimitable Fab Five Freddy - conceived a raw, low-budget fictional feature that would expose the astonishing new phenomena he’d been witnessing on the streets in the late 70s. Yes, the acting is stilted, the photography and editing are cruddy, and the plot, centred largely on graf writer Lee Quiñones’ broken romance, is daft - but had it been made as a straight-laced documentary, Wild Style might not really have been the same beast at all. Classic, much-sampled scenes like the shotgun stick-up, Double Trouble’s stoop rap, the Cold Crush-meets-Fantastic basketball stand-off and the emcee battles are all the more lovable as staged set pieces.

Wild Style ‘virgins’ should also note that almost everyone in the film is smiling; that was Hip hop before crack cocaine, folks. Sadly, the film’s most cherished spectacle, Grandmaster Flash cutting up breaks in his dingy kitchen, has not had its original soundtrack restored from previous DVD releases (it was messily redubbed, as outrageous sample clearance costs could not be met) but for this issue the extras make up for this oversight. The recent interviews with Ahearn and the main characters are honest and revealing, and we’re also treated to some brilliant new featurettes; footage of the 20th anniversary jam at the East River Amphitheatre, a visiting Tanzanian emcee battling Grandmaster Caz in a Bronx barber’s chair as the broom boy beatboxes, and Busy Bee merrily striding round his neighbourhood, rapping at bemused locals through a megaphone. Accompanying the DVD are an expanded double CD soundtrack and rather handsome book - essential and highly recommended, respectively.

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