This is a cliche-ridden coming-of-age story grafted onto a very good survey of current hip-hop culture in the South Bronx as of 1984, encompassing music, dance and graffiti. To my middle-class eye, it often appears chaotic, with its combination of recovered artifacts and overly pretty art design, and its Puma-brand product placement. It avoids many of the grosser issues of its compeers. The street scenes are shot on site without any effort to clean things up, which forces the viewer to confront its characters inner lives and creatitvity, their outsider status while yearning for acceptance.
the cast is headlined by Rae Dawn Chong at the beginning of a two-year run of well received performances, peaking with THE COLOR PURPLE. Surprisingly, it was co-produced by Harry Belafonte and that supports the thesis that they were taking the performers seriously. They are pretty good, but Hip-Hop moved in a different direction soon afterwards. That means this is a survey of a vanished moment in the popular arts, which gives it a sociological value.
the cast is headlined by Rae Dawn Chong at the beginning of a two-year run of well received performances, peaking with THE COLOR PURPLE. Surprisingly, it was co-produced by Harry Belafonte and that supports the thesis that they were taking the performers seriously. They are pretty good, but Hip-Hop moved in a different direction soon afterwards. That means this is a survey of a vanished moment in the popular arts, which gives it a sociological value.