Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of hip-hop with this mixtape of the cultural phenomenon’s finest movie moments, featuring a stunning line-up of legendary musical figures including A Tribe Called Quest, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur, RZA, Nas, Ice Cube, MC Lyte, and DJ Kool Herc. It was Herc who, at a Bronx dance party on August 11, 1973, first used two turntables to create an instrumental “break beat,” an innovation that sent the crowd wild. This modest New York origin story inspired an unparalleled nationwide, then global, explosion encompassing music, dance, public art, fashion, and, eventually, cinema. This dynamic program spotlights the many ways that hip-hop has intersected with film, showcasing raw early documents of the scene’s key players, intimate and informative portraits of musical expertise and technical wizardry, and definitive, star-studded evocations of the culture’s impact.
Ashley Clark, Criterion’s Curatorial Director said, “We’re extremely excited to present this wide-ranging series that highlights the incredibly varied ways that hip-hop has shown up in film since the culture’s birth fifty years ago. From raw, pivotal early documents like Wild Style and Style Wars onward, there’s something for everyone here, whether you’re an expert or a beginner.”
Style Wars, Tony Silver, 1983
Wild Style, Charlie Ahearn, 1983
Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984
Krush Groove, Michael Schultz, 1985
Deep Cover, Bill Duke, 1992
Fear of a Black Hat, Rusty Cundieff, 1993
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch, 1999
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme, Kevin Fitzgerald, 2000
Scratch, Doug Pray, 2001
Paid in Full, Charles Stone III, 2002
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, Michael Rapaport, 2011
Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, Ice-T and Andy Baybutt, 2012
Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer, Charlie Ahearn, 2013
COMING SEPTEMBER 1
Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee, 1989
Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton, 1991
Poetic Justice, John Singleton, 1993
COMING NOVEMBER 1
Belly, Hype Williams, 1998
Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club, Ivan Frank, 2008
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