Charlie Ahearn's 1983 triumphant Wild Style, playing Monday, January 19 at the Alamo Drafthouse, is one of those rare films that was ahead of the zeitgeist. It was instrumental in successfully documenting a new little movement called hip-hop and its fresh, multiple points of entry: graffiti art, break-dancing, fashion, turntable mastery and rap music. Ahearn had been approached by charming graffiti artist Fred Braithwaite, who essentially handed him the keys to the kingdom: Hang out with Fab Five Freddy and his friends who were starting an artistic revolution in the Bronx, turn the camera on -- and the film will practically make itself.
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Ahearn crafted a very loose thread of story for the film, which revolves around a graffiti artist named Zoro being pursued by an uptown journalist for an inside scoop in his exciting new world. But the bulk of the film is a documentary introducing the world to the hip-hop pioneers who would soon become household names -- or at least the notable powerhouses whose careers in that burgeoning world have stuck with us for decades. To borrow an inch of Blondie's "Rapture," here are five fab Freddies who told us everyone's fly:
Grandmaster Flash In an effort to bypass the music-licensing issues that plague most soundtrack-heavy films, Ahearn and Braithwaite got every artist in Wild Style to create original songs for the film so that the culture could be represented free and clear. One of the biggest artists to bust out onscreen with his cinematic antics was Grandmaster Flash (aka Joseph Saddler), whose mixing, scratching and cutting birthed the DJ as we know it best. Just before Wild Style hit, Flash was credited with Furious Five hits "The Message" and "White Lines" -- though their relationship came to blows over lost royalties and other infighting. Despite the pain, Flash's touch paved the way for decades of artists to come.
Grand Wizzard Theodore Though he was a DJ apprentice to Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizzard Theordore (aka Theodore Livingston) is credited as the creator of the "scratch" technique that is the heart beat of hip-hop. As legend goes, Theodore was playing records at top speed in his room when his mother came busting in to bust his chops. While she hemmed and hawed, Theodore held his place on the record by slowly moving the disc back and forth and noticed that it created a sweet sound all its own. He shared this new tool with Flash, who helped develop it with mixing and cutting to take it to the next level. Grand Wizzard went on to make beats for MC clans the Fantastic Five and the Cold Crush Brothers, keeping the pulse of his creation the whole time.
Lady Pink Playing the role of fictional Lady Bug in Wild Style, small but mighty Sandra Fabara steals much of the film with her personable, quick wit and cute looks -- but it is her graffiti art as Lady Pink that leaves her mark on the screen and in history. Grieving over the loss of a deported love, Fabara began spraying his name all over New York but soon realized that hers was the name that mattered most, and so the moniker Lady Pink was born. Going beyond subway cars and walls with her tags, Fabara was exhibiting in gallery shows and, by the age of 21, had her own solo show, Femmes-Fatales, mounted in 1985 at Moore College in Philly. Her expansive canvases may now hang in the Whitney, the Metropolitan and museums the world over, but it's how her art infuses Wild Style and the look of hip-hop that will forever be stamped in time.
Keep reading for two more hip-hop pioneers.
