Wild Style (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [25th Anniversary Edition]

Various Artists
Wild Style (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [25th Anniversary Edition]

Before hip-hop became the most commercially viable cultural force in the world, it was widely considered a fad. Pioneers like Lee Quiñones, Fab 5 Freddy, and the Cold Crush Brothers didn’t quite have promises of superstardom, so they lived in the present. Released in 1983, Wild Style was the first hip-hop film, starring the same pioneers who were bombing graffiti, break-dancing, rocking mics, and cutting up on turntables in the Bronx, building the culture from the ground up. The part documentary, part feature film told the coming-of-age story of a young graffiti artist who works anonymously and dodges cops while another crew creates legally commissioned works, with clips of performances spliced in along the way. The film is fun, confident, rebellious, and, frankly, magical in a way that’s impossible to duplicate in the decades since hip-hop forged its early identity—and the soundtrack matches its kineticism. Samples that would later appear on classic albums like Nas’ Illmatic, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, and Gang Starr’s No More Mr. Nice Guy will be instantly recognized by many hip-hop fans, serving as a compass to bring context to what made those legends fall in love. But it’s equally impressive to hear just how intentional, focused, and excited the artists are to showcase their skills. Moving the crowd was the priority for MCs around then, and while flows hadn’t yet evolved into the complex schemes of legends like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane, the likes of Busy Bee, Double Trouble, and Fantastic Freaks had an inimitable mic presence that still holds up today—and the pulsating persistence of breaks continues to serve as the genre's heartbeat. “Basketball Throwdown” sees Cold Crush Brothers and Fantastic Freaks facing off lyrically before taking the court; Grandmaster Caz finds beauty and opportunity beneath the veil of poverty on “South Bronx Subway Rap”; and Busy Bee employs old-school call-and-response on “Busy Bee at the Amphitheater” before rocking a set of boastful, crowd-rocking rhymes. Before hip-hop was being performed at stadiums around the world, your block and the amphitheater in your neighborhood was the main stage. The soundtrack works both as a time capsule for a simpler, more novel time and as a clear, surprisingly linear path for how hip-hop has arrived to where it’s at.

Disc 1

Disc 2

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