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"Somebody... anybody... help me... scream!" insists Chief Rocker Busy Bee and you best believe the party people oblige. Recorded mostly in a dark and sweaty little rap club called the Dixie in the South Bronx, the soundtrack to the movie Wild Style may be the ultimate source for old school rap and hip-hop. It's the original shit - slick, young rappers with the lyrical prowess boasting and bragging, badder than bad, all over the steadiest, funkiest beats and scratches. The film, the story of a legendary graffiti artist named Zoro who's pursued by a reporter amidst the throbbing South Bronx rap scene, was made in 1982, predating what is considered the first rap album on CD, Run DMC's 1984 debut. The music from the film sounds as fresh and visionary today as it did then, the rhythmic and rhyming skills of the rappers and DJs undeniable, flowing with finesse and rock solid confidence. The a capella rapping on the tracks "Basketball Throwdown," "Stoop Rap" and "Street Rap" is especially raw and potent. Hearing the birth of what is now popular music's most dominant genre in the spontaneous street poetry of young city kids is a deep thrill. Other stand-out cuts, wall-to-wall with funky beats and relentlessly skillful raps, are "MC Battle," "Fantastic Freaks at the Dixie," "Cold Crush Bros. at the Dixie," and "Double Trouble at the Amphitheatre." The music of Wild Style has been sourced and sampled a million ways, inspiring a million styles, earning the CD the feel of a sacred text for the hip-hop universe.
--David Beckman (email)
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