Beat Street is a 1984 mainstream hip hop dramatic feature film, and the third following Wild Style and Breakin’. It is set in New York City during the rise of hip hop culture in the early 1980s.
The movie was the East Coast answer to the Los Angeles-set Breakin’, displaying break dancing, DJing, and graffiti with a mild social undertone. Some of the plot line was based on the graffiti documentary Style Wars. Most visibly, the antagonist Spit in Beat Street was lifted from the real-life graffiti artist CAP MPC, who was portrayed in Style Wars.
Notable performances include a song by Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five, breakdancing battles between the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew, and cameos by Doug E. Fresh, Richard Lee Sisco, and the Treacherous Three. As a member of the Treacherous Three, emcee Kool Moe Dee also appeared in the film. It stands as one of the few media appearances he has ever made without his trademark sunglasses (a style he had not yet adopted at the time).
Cast
- Mary Alice – Cora
- Afrika Bambaataa
- Jon Chardiet – Ramo/Ramon
- Rae Dawn Chong – Tracy
- Doug E. Fresh
- Crazy Legs
- Guy Davis – Kenny
- Leon W. Grant – Chollie
- DJ Jazzy Jay
- Kool Herc
- Kool Moe Dee