Beat Street

Beat Street (1984) is Stan Lathan's music drama about the birth of hip-hop, and you can watch online on iFILM. In the South Bronx of the early eighties, DJ Kenny dreams of spinning his way out of the projects, one block party at a time.

Around him a whole street culture is being invented in real time: breakdancers spinning on flattened cardboard, MCs trading rhymes, subway cars painted end to end with graffiti. Kenny's kid brother dances in a crew, his best friend hustles to promote their sound, and singer Tracy cracks open a path toward a real stage. Then the street collects its toll — the death of a graffiti-writer friend forces Kenny to face what the calling actually costs. Harry Belafonte produced it, and nothing is prettied up; this is the Bronx as it really looked.

The real treasure isn't the plot but the legends on screen: Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Doug E. Fresh and the New York City Breakers essentially playing themselves. For anyone curious about where hip-hop and breaking came from, it's a time capsule wrapped in a feature film. Stream Beat Street (1984) online on iFILM.