Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1983)

Updated: 02 September 2016

2012-2024

Summary

Wild Style is a hybrid—it is both a fictional film musical and a documentary. IMDB includes a nice summary:

Legendary New York graffiti artist Lee Quinones plays the part of Zoro, the city's hottest and most elusive graffiti writer. The actual story of the movie concerns the tension between Zoro's passion for his art and his personal life, particularly his strained relationship with fellow artist Rose. But this isn't why one watches Wild Style—this movie is *the* classic hip-hop flick, full of great subway shots, breakdancing, freestyle MCing and rare footage of one of the godfathers of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash, pulling off an awesome scratch-mix set on a pair of ancient turntables. A must-see for anyone interested in hip-hop music and culture.

The 4 Elements

As IMDB's summary suggests, Wild Style is a document of some of hip-hop's earliest and most innovative artists, including masters of all four elements: DJing, MCing, b-boying, and graffiti writing.

DJ Grandmaster Flash, b-boys Rock Steady Crew, and graffiti writer George Quinones

MCs the Cold Crush Brothers and the Rock Steady Crew

Graffiti Writing

The film's protagonist is a graffiti writer named Raymond, who tags as "Zoro." He is played by real-life graffiti writer George Quinones.