Street Beat

OK, hip hop history time. The assignment this weekend: Beat Street and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.

First Breakin' 2 (1984), more famous than the original Breakin', probably because of the awesome subtitle. It takes place in LA, where rich girl dancer Lucinda Dickey gets back together with her partner Adolfo Shabba Doo Quinones and his buddy Boogaloo Shrimp Chambers to put on a show and save the youth center from the evil developers. There is a lot of 1980s neon costumes, frizzy hair and Flashdance/Fame style music. There is also some really hot breakdancing. Ice-T raps in a sadly wack cameo. The whole thing is a Golan/Globus Cannon production and it shows.

There's a "dancing on the ceiling" number, and innumerable pop-and-lock style dance numbers, but this is mostly pretty lame.

Next, Beat Street (1984). This one stars rich girl (well, City College) Rae Dawn Chong and Guy Davis, who is into sound and wants to DJ. He lives in the Bronx with his long suffering mom and breakdancing kid brother, and hangs out with Puerto Rican graffiti bomber Jon Chardiet. This one was filmed totally on location and has a much grittier real feel - while staying pretty wholesome. The music is also considerably better - Cool Herc plays a solid role, Jazzy J, Doug E. Fresh, Wanda Dee, Melle Mel and Kool Mo Dee and the rest of the Treacherous Three all perform.

The dancing is hotter too, with lots of helicopter and head spins. Furious Five, Rock Steady Crew, Magnificent Force and the New York City Breakers all break it down, often dueling head to head.

Beat Street was produced by Harry Belafonte of all people. Not the first guy you think of for hip hop treet cred, but more than Golan and Globus, I guess. This reminded me a lot of Wild Style, another tale of the Bronx from 1983. The real deal.