Style Wars

The hip-hop culture has had a major influence on the world. The fresh lifestyle began in the 1970's and has created a community of people who love, breathe and live hip-hop. As the Connoiseur of Fresh,  I recently attended a private screening of Style Wars, a hip-hop documentary created by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, at the Brooks Museum in Memphis, TN. This film may have emphasized the start of hip-hop in New York City, but the film creators truly showed how graffiti, B-boying, Dj-ing, and MC-ing, representing the four elements of hip-hop, has become a major culture for the world.










The pre-show started with breakdancing, a freestyle battle, with DJ Superman on the 1's and 2's. After that, it was showtime as Henry Chalfant introduced the film with a Q & A session afterwards. The film itself was great-- showcasing the real life struggle and passion behind the culture of hip-hop and its start. The documentary itself brought reality to the screen and went deep into the minds of graffiti artists and explained how the early 1980's epidemic of "bombing" street cars. No, not literally blowing things up, but the type of "bombing" when graffitti artist would spray paint subway cars to showcase their creative artwork. Although this was a crime, the essence of it all came down to to an expression of art through hip-hop.

Since the film was released on PBS television in 1983, this hip-hop classic has been shown at several film festivals, such as the Vancouver and Sundance film festivals. This is a great documentary for anybody who loves hip-hop, and you can purchase it at www.stylewars.com. As always, enjoy and stay fresh!!