Afrika Bambaataa, Fab 5 Freddy, Frosty Freeze, Kool Herc, and numerous other relevant hip-hop connoisseurs explore the culture of hip-hop, specifically by breaking down how B-Boys and B-Girls pioneered and shaped the hip-hop culture known today. While this documentary, interview-styled film had limited information to share about other aspects of hip-hop, it gave a wide variety of facts and details of B-Boying, or ‘break-dancing’, which is considered to be one of the key elements.
Overall, this film did not incorporate an encompassing description of the four main elements that created ‘hip-hop’ (DJ-ing, MC-ing, graffiti, and B-Boying), but it did create a solid foundation of understanding for one of the four as well as provide relevant insight from those who started it all. In relation to all elements of hip-hop, this particular film did not do the best job of giving history. However, there were a few examples that could be pointed out that mentioned other elements.
One of the least mentioned and portrayed elements, DJ-ing, was given credit for being a foundation for hip-hop at the beginning of the film. Music, rap, graffiti, art, b-boying, DJs… peace, understanding, love, and fun’ were all accredited to being the key elements to this culture, spoken by someone. Kool Herc was also brought into light: a Jamaican born, American DJ who is known as the grandfather of hip-hop. He was said to have brought every style of hip-hop music and culture that was ‘underground, above ground, around 1974. And it was because of him that hip-hop spread like a wildfire. The mentioning of this iconic DJ and list of cultural characteristics showed that DJing was included in the starting elements for this movement.
However, the movie most emphasized B-Boying, therefore leaving out the relevance and connection of DJing to break-dancing, as well as to hip-hop as a general topic. To better incorporate the importance of DJing in connection to B-Boying, the director could have explained the purpose of DJs, such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, or Kool DJ Dee. “The hip hop DJs original mission overall was rocking the house, and to do this he or she needed an arsenal of beats (records).
The DJ’s ability to keep a dance floor packed relied on his selection of records. This statement specifically explains just why DJs are so important to the b-boying culture. Without music, there would be no b-boying; without DJs, there would be no music. This connection could have been further emphasized in order to better relate the film to the hip-hop elements. The element of MCing was nearly equally under mentioned. MCing, or rapping, is referred to as “spoken or chanting rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment”. This can be further broken down into the ability to flow, rhyme, and deliver.
The film The Freshest Kids explains how break dancing catapulted rapping. “If you asked someone in the early 70s what b-boying was, they could explain it. But if you asked them what ‘rapping’ was, they would say, ‘like wrapping a present? ‘” ‘Rap’, and the distribution of it on record, was a product-people could sell it, buy it, and take it home (whereas they couldn’t take a break dancer home with them). This perfectly explains the importance of MCing during this time period, and how it elevated the popularity of hip-hop.
On the other hand, the film could have more specifically named and discussed other prevalent rap artists or MCs that contributed to the rap scene. For instance, Nas, Rakim, Run-DMC, Busta Rhymes, MC Lyte, and Public Enemy were all mentioned in our previous readings, and could have been brought up in relevance to their contributions to not only MCing, but to B-Boying and hip-hop in general as well. “In the early days of deejaying, emceeing, and breakdancing, a break — the instrumental part of a song that is looped repeatedly by the DJ — was typically incorporated into songs to allow a showcase of breakdance moves. A third, key element of the hip-hop culture is graffiti: an art form scribbled, scratched, or painted often onto walls, trains, and other public places.
The Freshest Kids did little to mention the connection with graffiti art and break dancing. What they did mention was that a lot of graffiti artists were simultaneously break-dancers. This related back to the fact that these elements all combined to form true, hip-hop lifestyles, and are not just separate hobbies or interests. This film also mentioned the first hip-hop, previously watched film Wild Style, which connects and integrates break dancing with rapping and graffiti.
Beyond these two examples, the film did little else to discuss graffiti. “Dance is about expression, and a lot of people have forgotten that. ” Someone said this during the movie, and part of that ‘expression’ that dances is related to be the expression in general of the hip-hop culture (this includes graffiti). The film could have included more specific examples of graffiti artists who also doubled as break-dancers, or the relevance of graffiti to expression of material that was also being expressed through dance.
Clearly the most discussed topic and element of the film, b-boying (or break dancing), was eloquently discussed and portrayed through different visual examples, relevant artists, and historical background. Because this movie focused mostly on b-boying, it had a lot of strengths relevant to this element. It thoroughly discussed the difference between b-boying not being just a trend as some people considered it, but as a legitimate art form. True b-boys took it as more than a hobby or ‘just dancing’; it took charisma, finesse, and a habitual lifestyle.
The film said, these dancers “eat, piss, shit, drink, and think B-Boy”; it was a creative intelligence form within hip-hop that sparked an international phenomenon and multi-billion dollar industry. A passionate b-boy explained it as, “every single part of your body moving together: your head, neck, feet, hands, intellect, and character. ” The Freshest Kids gave an intimate description of what exactly break dancing entailed. For example, they explained that b-boys “break to breaks,” meaning they danced to the ‘frozen moment’ within a hip-hop beat.
B-boys spoke of how they danced often on cement or asphalt, and not only on linoleum and cardboard as mentioned in our text originally. These dancers would wind up with what were known as “b-boy burns” on their shoulders and backs from this type of movement. They described ‘original moves versus ‘power’ moves; this contained the difference of more old school, sporadic and jerky movements versus the fluidity and complexity of new b-boys’ movements. They dove into the description of the New York City Breakers (previously known as the Floormasters), and how they commercialized hip-hop dance.
Lastly, it provided relevant information of how b-boying spread to the West Coast with a fury in the 1980s, developing ‘pop and lock it’ techniques (locking, popping, ticking, hitting, bugalooing, etc. ). Break dancing developed to performances on national television, and a widespread epidemic occurred that developed into arrests for anyone seen break dancing. Each of these points signifies the strengths that this film portrayed in regards to the element of hip-hop of b-boying. Due to all of these strengths, little weaknesses were found for this particular element.
Throughout this film, references or examples from other films as well as readings and lectures that have been assigned thus far could be pinpointed. Specifically, ‘characters’ or people of importance were mentioned throughout the documentary and within other assigned materials. For instance, groups such as The Cold Crush Brothers, Fab 5 Freddy, Melle Mel, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, and several others were either interviewed or mentioned as a significant founding father in the growing culture of hip-hop.
Fab 5 Freddy helped to direct the movie Wild Style, which was a previously assigned film to watch. During The Freshest Kids, Fab 5 Freddy discussed the relevance of b-boying to Wild Style, and the other elements of hip-hop (and how Wild Style is such an excellent portrayal). Our readings gave depth of history on Afrika, The Cold Crush Brothers, and several other groups. However, several other groups or individuals were mentioned that were not previously learned about (i. e. Crazy Commanders, Spy, Crazy Legs, Lil Crazy Legs, Rock Steady, Frosty Freeze, The Unique Dominoes, and MC Serch).
I think these artists could have been more widely recognized within our assigned reading material, and that The Freshest Kids could have expanded on every important figure that they introduced. Overall, The Freshest Kids unlocked an insight within a prominent element of the rapid growth of hiphop. B-boying is to thank for the international participation of the hip-hop-culture’, for the movie “Flashdance”, as well as a whole new generation of young adults intertwining themselves within the culture.
While the main focus was on break-dancing, and the movie lacked a perspective on the three other key elements of hip-hop, it provided relevant information of key inspirational people and events that brought hip-hop to where it is today. The new sounds prompted new styles of dancing, bringing in wild acrobatic moves including backspins and head balancing. And some DJ’s began working with MC’s who would add rhyming raps over the newly extended rhythm breaks. Add in the flashy and distinctive style of Bronx graffiti art and you have the birth of the hip-hop revolution, which over the next 30 years.
