Rubble Kings: How the South Bronx gang scene gave birth to hip hop
Ever wonder how hip-hop was actually born? "Rubble Kings" takes us back to the 1970s South Bronx, a neighborhood abandoned by the city and ruled by more than 100 street gangs engaged in all-out turf wars. After the shocking murder of peace counselor Black Benji in 1971, something remarkable happened—rival gang leaders met at the historic Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting and decided to put down their weapons.
What followed was amazing: former enemies started throwing block parties instead of punches, and from those streets of transformation came the beats, rhymes, and moves we now call hip-hop. Through incredible archival footage and stories told by the gang members themselves, we witness how creativity flourished in the most unlikely place.
Topics discussed:
- ☠️ A Product of the Environment: The 1970s South Bronx, plagued by urban decay and government abandonment, had over 100 street gangs with approximately 11,000 members who controlled nearly every neighborhood
- 🎥 Cinematic Influence: The real-life Bronx gangs documented in "Rubble Kings" directly inspired films like "The Warriors"
- ☮️ The Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting: A historic 1971 gang peace treaty following Black Benji's murder transformed street battles into block parties
- 🎤 Origins of Hip-Hop: The violent gang culture of 1970s South Bronx created the breeding ground for hip-hop's birth
- 4️⃣ The Four Elements Connection: When territorial violence subsided, gang energy evolved into the four elements of hip-hop: DJing, MCing, breaking, and graffiti
Also check out:
Power-Fuerza, the Ghetto Brothers' 1972 album
Credits
Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie.
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Transcript
Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop with the
magic of movies.
2
:Today we're discussing the 2015 documentary Rubble Kings.
3
:We are three old heads who put their old heads together to vibe on these films for you.
4
:I'm Dyno Wright, podcaster, filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan, and I've never been in a
gang, but I believe MC Hammer when he said we're all in the same gang.
5
:I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time hip hop fan, and I still can't believe
that Jim Carrey was one of the main producers of this documentary.
6
:You
7
:Yes, sir.
8
:I'm Boogie, a DJ, longtime hip hop fan, and can you dig it?
9
:Can you dig it?
10
:Can you dig it?
11
:Yeah
12
:I had to, man, they referenced my movie.
13
:The role of Cyrus will be played by Boogie tonight.
14
:Yes sir!
15
:In this episode we'll answer the question, how did the violent gang environment of the
South Bronx evolve into the beginnings of the world-changing creative movement known as
16
:hip-hop?
17
:Ever wonder how hip hop was actually born?
18
:Well, Rubble Kings takes us back to the 1970s in the South Bronx, a neighborhood abandoned
by the city ruled by more than a hundred street gangs engaged in all-out turf wars.
19
:After the shocking murder of peace counselor Black Benji in 1971, something remarkable
happened.
20
:Rival gang leaders met at the historic Hoe Avenue peace meeting and decided to put down
their weapons.
21
:What followed was amazing.
22
:Former enemies started throwing block parties instead of punches and
23
:From those streets of transformation came the beats, rhymes, and moves we now call hip
hop.
24
:Through incredible archival footage and stories told by the gang members themselves, we
witnessed how creativity flourished in the most unlikely place.
25
:Here are five things you need to know about Rubble Kings.
26
:Number one, a product of the environment.
27
:The 70s South Bronx, plagued by urban decay and government abandonment, had over 100
street gangs with approximately 11,000 members who controlled nearly every neighborhood.
28
:Number two, cinematic influence.
29
:The real-life Bronx gangs documented in Rubble Kings directly inspired films like The
Warriors.
30
:Number three, the Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting.
31
:A historic 1971 gang peace treaty following Black Benji's murder transformed street
battles into block parties.
32
:Number four, the origins of hip hop.
33
:The violent gang culture of the 1970s South Bronx created the breeding ground for hip
hop's birth.
34
:And number five, the four elements connection.
35
:When territorial violence subsided, gang energy evolved into the four elements of hip hop,
DJing, MCing, breaking, and graffiti.
36
:Right on, right on.
37
:So, Rubble Kings, wonderful documentary really took us back to the street gangs.
38
:We didn't know how, I didn't know specifically how many gangs there were, as we mentioned
in the opening, over a hundred street gangs, over 11,000 members.
39
:And it was just wild, wild west turf wars all over the place.
40
:Boogie, what did you take away from, you know, how intense these turf wars were?
41
:Were back in the 70s there.
42
:Yeah, I mean it was really bad.
43
:I mean the Bronx was almost like walking through a war torn third world country.
44
:uh I've mentioned this in other documentaries, other recordings that we've done.
45
:There was a term where the Bronx is burning.
46
:There was world record number of arsons in the Bronx at the time.
47
:In the documentary they say there was over.
48
:30,000 buildings were burned down in the span of 10 years.
49
:Landlords wouldn't provide services, people would move out, landlords would burn down the
buildings, collect insurance.
50
:You got all these war torn battered up, beat down buildings all over the neighborhood.
51
:So the aesthetic itself was beat up.
52
:Now you got the people that are living there, in the desolate situation, New York City was
on a verge of bankruptcy.
53
:corrupt cops, corrupt politicians, the rise of heroin in the neighborhoods, the system let
the kids down, the services weren't there.
54
:So now all these kids, you have all these people who got nothing to do, they resort to
crime.
55
:And it just overrun the whole city.
56
:You mentioned there was over hundred gangs, thousands of members, every section of the
Bronx had gangs.
57
:And it was like jigsaw puzzle.
58
:You could walk from one turf into another just by walking down the street or walking
across the street or crossing where a garbage can or dumpster is.
59
:Things as simple as that.
60
:And it was very intense because people became so territorial that if you crossed into that
threshold, if you were wearing the wrong outfit, colors or whatever, you could not,
61
:there's a possibility you might not make it out.
62
:You know, so it was a very, very intense situation.
63
:And I mean, just hearing it from the members themselves in this documentary was
eye-opening.
64
:I I had an idea because I've seen, you know, news reports and things of that such, but to
actually hear, hearing it coming from the actual people who lived in it was eye-opening.
65
:right on.
66
:And the ghetto brothers were, you know, primarily featured.
67
:And uh yeah, they were great, great storytellers, right?
68
:uh Benji Melendez.
69
:He recounted how just deadly violent it was.
70
:And it was interesting the backstory.
71
:I like how it was filmed, by the way, you know, they use a little bit animation and uh
72
:and then archival footage.
73
:he was well, was Karate Charlie.
74
:He just went up to him at one point in the beginning of the show.
75
:like, I just wanted to, I saw this guy, looked like a tough guy and I just extended my
hand to him.
76
:And he was trying to, you know, get a little bit tense and everything.
77
:And then, you know, we became brothers.
78
:It was just a brotherhood.
79
:And then, you know, that grew and it grew because they needed something to latch onto.
80
:Like you said, the government was failing them.
81
:The city was failing them.
82
:So the cops aren't your friends there.
83
:know, where do you, they don't have the resources.
84
:So it's you, you bond amongst each other.
85
:And then because you don't have those resources, you fight to claim what, what you need to
get to survive.
86
:So yeah, it's just kind of spirals and spirals.
87
:was like in awe by all the different types and varieties of gangs, you know, based on
either ethnicities or,
88
:families, et cetera, et cetera.
89
:But they listed like some of the names.
90
:I mean, they kept popping off and I was recording some of them and I was just like, wowed
by, you know, Alley Cats, the Black Spades.
91
:Oh, these guys were tough, right?
92
:They were just all over the place.
93
:Like they would just show up and then you're surrounded.
94
:And the Javelins, the Latin Aces, Latin Kings, I'm sure, renegades, savage skulls.
95
:And, you know, they different offshoots, the turbans and
96
:Wherever you step, you're in someone's territory.
97
:Right.
98
:And he said like either a member or you're a victim So like wherever you grow up whatever
neighborhood you grow up at, know, whatever streets you grew up in there's a gang in that
99
:neighborhood, you know You either want to join them or you're gonna be terrorized and
plagued by them.
100
:So This is like one or the other flip a coin You know But okay
101
:Now, one thing that really caught me too when they were talking about the initiations with the Apache line.
102
:They were talking about how you would have to go down the line and have people on both
sides and they would just take jabs.
103
:at you the whole time down and see if you would make it down.
104
:They actually showed a clip from a great movie, Education of Sonny Carson.
105
:and they were talking about the Apache and
106
:That's a pretty tough movie to watch, but it was really good.
107
:But they showed that clip and they showed how it would happen.
108
:then one guy was talking about the, oh, was Yellow Benji was talking about the ghetto boys.
109
:said, they were playing 45 and you'd have to fight three guys as long as the song was playing.
110
:I was like, wow, that's a different one.
111
:I've never heard that one.
112
:And he said his brother went and bought an album.
113
:Cause he wanted to see one guy get really beat up and he ended up playing the whole album
and the guy's jaw got broken.
114
:I'm like, what the heck?
115
:It's like crazy stuff.
116
:then Charlie was talking about how the skulls, you know, they had the craziest one that they heard of.
117
:was like, we put one bullet in the gun and spin the barrel and then just pull the trigger and hopefully you'll make it.
118
:That's that's crazy.
119
:Yeah.
120
:But the backdrop to the seventies, just to go back a little bit, you know, the revolutionary times, you know, of the sixties, which was, as they mentioned, era of social
121
:and cultural reckoning where, a lot of these people, their heroes that were trying to stand up for, for equal rights.
122
:You know, they were all gunned down, right?
123
:Malcolm X, MLK, JFK.
124
:And they're like, what's going on?
125
:And then you had the Vietnam War and a lot of people just trying to seek to grab onto something because everything was just in turmoil.
126
:And so it's like, oh, well now I have this gang.
127
:This is what's gonna galvanize us and what I have to look forward to.
128
:What's gonna keep me afloat pretty much.
129
:It's crazy they were talking about how prior to, you know, all of this turmoil that occurred in the Bronx, how the Bronx actually had flourishing neighborhoods in it.
130
:And I was like, wow, I I never really realized that.
131
:But they were talking about how the neighborhoods were actually, you know, a lot of the neighborhoods were pretty decent.
132
:And then they, they said Ralph Lauren was actually from the Bronx.
133
:I'm like, what?
134
:specifically.
135
:And then when we talk about when the Cross Bronx Expressway was being constructed, it just made straight lines through entire neighborhoods, just taking down lot of the nice homes
136
:that existed in those neighborhoods.
137
:And once that occurred, in sociology, we call it white flight, is all the wealth or rich people in the
138
:neighborhoods start to leave.
139
:And then what's left is...
140
:the poor and that's kind of what happened in the Bronx.
141
:And I was like, wow, that kind of laid it out there.
142
:uh
143
:For sure.
144
:So we talked a lot about the environment.
145
:uh Takeaway number two is a cinematic influence.
146
:So the real life Bronx gangs directly inspired films like The Warriors, which Boogie quoted in his intro.
147
:One of the great cult classics.
148
:Yeah.
149
:This movie is such a guilty pleasure for me.
150
:love that.
151
:I sit and I quote the movie like and the mannerisms through the whole movie.
152
:It's crazy.
153
:Ha ha ha ha ha.
154
:I remember when we used to come on Channel 11 when I was a kid and I would watch it and in school we'd talk about it.
155
:But it's crazy because I was like, there's no way there was that many gangs in New York.
156
:Well, yes there were.
157
:I did not realize that.
158
:And they were just as big as depicted in the film.
159
:mean, granted they didn't dress as extravagantly as some of the gangs depicted in the Warriors, but yeah, they were everywhere.
160
:The Rubble Kings, lot of it like art imitates life or life imitates
161
:art.
162
:So, you know, what really happened here is just kind of spawned a...
163
:genre of gangs.
164
:Now you're talking about gangs on the West Coast that we discussed in some of our other films, etc.
165
:So gang violence becomes a big theme in the cinema.
166
:So gang violence becomes a big theme in the cinema.
167
:But then you have like, go back to like West Side Story, right?
168
:They're talking about gangs, but they're like snapping their...
169
:I always laugh at that one because it's like they're snapping their fingers, but you know, they have knife violence, right?
170
:Yeah, exactly.
171
:It's more like throwback.
172
:but Bronx Tale, et cetera, et So there's a whole genre.
173
:There you go, yeah.
174
:so yes.
175
:All that feeds into gang films, gangster films in the 70s.
176
:one thing that picked up too, they were talking about that they were drawing some of the similarities with the Warriors and they were saying that just like in the movie, internet
177
:and social media didn't exist back then, but the word got around, you know, just like in the Warriors when they were trying to run, they would pinpoint wherever they were via the
178
:radio DJ.
179
:It's, you know, word got around pretty quickly.
180
:when something was gonna happen or when there was gonna be a throw down between two gangs, you know, or some, or for gang, the rumor that something happened and it was gonna be
181
:retaliation, the word got around pretty quickly.
182
:And I said, oh, okay, all right.
183
:whole big meeting in the Bronx with Cyrus, whose quote, you know, I quote it in the beginning of the intro.
184
:They actually ended up having a big...
185
:meeting of such.
186
:when, granted, it was not the same purposes for Warriors, but to see that something like that actually did happen where they were able to pull all of the gangs in the area
187
:together was kind of interesting.
188
:I mean, I never thought that something like that would ever actually be able to happen.
189
:I knew that they did find peace at some point, you know, prior to the emergence of hip hop, you know, really starting to get its root and traction, but...
190
:To see that, to hear it from the people that were actually there was very interesting.
191
:That's a perfect lead into the next takeaway, the Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting in 1971.
192
:Unfortunately, it was after Black Benji from the Ghetto Brothers gang was murdered, he became an ambassador of peace.
193
:So these gangs had a president, a vice president, they had a whole hierarchy.
194
:then the Ghetto Brothers were trying to, I really admired, the Ghetto Brothers were trying to do more than just...
195
:obviously promote violence and protect themselves.
196
:were trying to, they had a cultural mission and trying to improve lives.
197
:And they were helping out with charities and things of that nature.
198
:And then they were trying to instill peace.
199
:And unfortunately when Benji, Black Benji went out, and tried to instill peace, was
murdered.
200
:But afterwards, that kind of upset a whole bunch of the...
201
:other gangs and it kind of galvanized them.
202
:uh remarkably enough, the peace treaty was successful and they agreed to put down their weapons.
203
:Their outlet for expression kind of leads into a lot of the elements of hip hop.
204
:You see actually Afrika Bambaata is featured a lot in the interviews and DJ Red Alert and I believe they were both part of the Zulu Nation, right?
205
:so as they start adopting hip hop, before that, Ghetto Brothers had put out music too.
206
:They had an album and they kind of, you know, had a creative outlet and the Latin music became popular.
207
:so for takeaway number four, we're talking about the origins of hip hop where the gang culture became the breeding ground for the birth of hip hop as the peace treaty took hold
208
:and the creative outlet became, rapping over breakbeats and dancing and et cetera.
209
:So that became an outlet and these
210
:crews started inviting each other to their block parties and it kind of became a cultural event.
211
:We're intermingling and it's like, all right, we're gonna get down with this.
212
:And it was like the stop the violence movement that we would see in the 90s kind of took shape.
213
:I think what's great about this film is that we always hear about Kool Herc and Sedgwick Avenue and the party, but all the things that led into that,
214
:don't even hear about that when you talk about the 50th anniversary of hip hop.
215
:so those groups coming together is an important part of this history that you don't get to
hear so much.
216
:So that's why I really enjoyed this film because
217
:Hip-hop had to start somewhere and it wasn't just Kool Herc doing what he was doing.
218
:You know, there's other things happening and the inclusion of Afrika Bambaataa was really great.
219
:He was a member of the Black Spades, which turned into the Zulu Nation.
220
:And then you have all these other luminaries of hip-hop joined the Zulu Nation.
221
:And then no one talks about like when the Zulu Nation sort of broke up.
222
:And Afrika Bambaataa's legal or at least accusations of troubles.
223
:But
224
:back in the beginning.
225
:I think that what I would like to see more is like the creation of hip hop from the standpoint of like the Zulu Nation, like Black Spades turning into, from a gang into like
226
:a hip hop collective.
227
:I that'd be like the part two of this would be really great.
228
:Right.
229
:Right.
230
:What was the conversation like after the peace treaty?
231
:Like when you guys left the peace treaty, what was the discussion?
232
:Like, how did that go?
233
:I want to be in a room where What happened?
234
:What was that conversation like?
235
:And was it just something like when you walked in and you were just talking and a bunch of people were just uh brushing you off?
236
:Were people just shaking their head yes?
237
:Or was it like a big discussion about it?
238
:How did that go?
239
:Cause we all know like to change the course of a group, a collective like that, it's not easy sometimes, you know, we all know that.
240
:Or, you know, in this case it might've been that easy cause it might've been like, hey, you know what?
241
:Yeah, the Ghetto Brothers are right, let's do this.
242
:And everybody just signed on.
243
:You know, I would love to hear how that happened.
244
:Yeah.
245
:I always think of Tribe Called Quest when I hear Zulu Nation.
246
:He says that I think it's ended Buggin out and it's somewhere in low end theory.
247
:But that just sticks with me, right?
248
:Because he shouts out Zulu Nation.
249
:It's so funny though, when they had the spring, the Rider when they had the spring 99 concert, when I got to introduce, when I was out on the stage and I had to introduce
250
:everybody that was performing, I said, we got my Man Phife Dawg from the Zulu Nation.
251
:Hahaha.
252
:he's nice.
253
:That's amazing.
254
:Love it.
255
:it.
256
:it.
257
:But Dyno Wright, your point was great.
258
:It's like the prequel to the Sedgwick Avenue.
259
:birth of hip hop.
260
:wasn't all of a sudden like, all of a sudden it's a pajama jammy jam back to school for my sister.
261
:It just popped out of nowhere, right?
262
:There will, we, I mean, we had learned in these movies about the Bronx is burning and the landlord, but we didn't know the extent of it until you lift up the covers on this movie
263
:and there's a hundred gangs where you cannot step on the wrong turf or you're going to be
assaulted.
264
:It was just total mayhem.
265
:People...
266
:People have no idea.
267
:lot of people have no idea.
268
:New York City, all glamour, the city that never sleeps, all the lights.
269
:at this point now it's been more than 50 years since New York was like that.
270
:You know, we remember it because we were there for that.
271
:But yeah, it's not the place, it's like a totally different place now.
272
:You couldn't walk down Times Square without like being accosted by one vice or another.
273
:Now it's like Disneyland.
274
:That's right.
275
:Yeah, this generation really, they have no idea what it's like, what it was like to walk
through Times Square.
276
:I remember like, we used to take our school bus trips up to New York to go to the
different museums.
277
:And I remember we would come out of the Lincoln tunnel and hit 42nd Street.
278
:And it was just like, what kind of like, and I'm living in Newark at the time, so I'm
like, well, what is this?
279
:This is crazy.
280
:were like,
281
:The Night Walkers were everywhere.
282
:During the day, this is like, we're in a school trip, it's like nine in the morning.
283
:I mean, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty.
284
:But now, like you said, it's like Disneyland, Disney World, like, wow, lights everywhere.
285
:It's crazy, the transformation.
286
:And like I said, I always remember, like I always watched the Warriors and it's funny
because like, I reference the Warriors because they referenced in the movie, but as
287
:they're running through the streets, you know, you can clearly see in some places you
could tell where they are.
288
:Like, you know, they're, okay, that's Union Square.
289
:Okay, that's, you know, they're running, that's Broadway right there.
290
:That's the, okay, yep.
291
:And you go about those areas now, it looks completely different.
292
:You know.
293
:a long time.
294
:No, it's really not.
295
:It's really not.
296
:You know, it's like, wow.
297
:And it makes me wonder if we didn't have the South Bronx like it was, and we didn't have
the great blackout that people got a lot of equipment out of.
298
:I feel like hip hop would have evolved anyway, would have come out of somewhere, if it's
just that inevitable, but it would have been totally different if it originated, I don't
299
:know, even in Queensbridge or something, or if it happened to originate on the West Coast.
300
:And so these elements are quite unique, not unique, but...
301
:this combination of elements to create what we now know as hip hop.
302
:Boy, it was an accident almost.
303
:Yeah, the perfect storm.
304
:uh
305
:Exactly.
306
:Yeah, what a story.
307
:Bronx Expressway never got built?
308
:You wouldn't have this white flight.
309
:You wouldn't have the situation you in the South Bronx.
310
:Like what, who knows what hip hop would have come out of?
311
:I feel like it would have come out anyway.
312
:Maybe it would come out of Queens Bridge.
313
:Maybe the South Bronx versus Queens Bridge beef would have evolved differently.
314
:Then Nas may not have been the rapper he was.
315
:So the like butterfly effect is a little wild here.
316
:Absolutely.
317
:that's true.
318
:So then all four elements were present because you had, you had the rapping, you had the DJing, you had the graffiti and the breaking and kind of like crews of each, right?
319
:Pretty much you had collectives and crews.
320
:We've seen the dance battles, we've seen the rap battles, just like you just mentioned there between South Bronx and...
321
:the violence you see and just like the battles, just rap battles or breaking battles.
322
:Exactly.
323
:your crew couldn't exist unless you had somebody in your crew that could that can do all you had to have somebody that could do at least one of these things.
324
:Each person, like a person that can do some, I guess some people could do all of them.
325
:But you had to have those representations.
326
:You know, just like in the Warriors.
327
:They had a member in their crew that tagged.
328
:You had Rembrandt.
329
:spray paint the Big Red W wherever they went.
330
:That was their tag.
331
:I mean, granted, that was very simplistic of a tag.
332
:Most tags are much more elaborate than a Big Red W, but evolved into the graffiti artists.
333
:Instead of fighting, you do a choreographed moves, imitating fighting, but you're doing it to music.
334
:There's your B-Boys.
335
:The DJ was the guy who was...
336
:commanding the break beats.
337
:the MC was the, they talked about it as the president and the group was the charismatic one, the one who could talk to the people.
338
:The charismatic one became the MC.
339
:That's the one who was getting the crowd hyped up.
340
:They could get the crowd to follow along.
341
:So you had to have members in your gang-turned-crew.
342
:And you know, there we have it, the most four elements.
343
:It's funny though, we always talk about
344
:a fifth element of knowledge being passed along.
345
:He said the fifth element of style.
346
:And I said, huh, because you did see a style change.
347
:You know, guys were went from from went from looking like biker gang members to being a little more flashy, dressing to impress the ladies, you know, said, the ladies have always
348
:been around.
349
:Yeah, they've always been around.
350
:But now you could talk to women from different areas where you couldn't go before.
351
:without the threat of being chased out.
352
:Now you can go talk to that woman over there that lives in another neighborhood or that Black guy, go talk to that Puerto Rican or vice versa because there's no threat of getting
353
:jumped or chased out of the neighborhood now.
354
:So now the style is changing.
355
:I'm like, ah.
356
:That was a good point, yeah.
357
:Yeah, that was the first time I think I actually seen a documentary where they specifically pinpointed that moment of changing.
358
:Yeah.
359
:see the evolution of style changing.
360
:Because I remember, as I was younger, you see guys and they would, you know, cut off this and cut off that.
361
:And then it was like, nah, no more ripped off stuff.
362
:You're gonna start wearing, know, flashy stuff.
363
:know, everything's clean and matching.
364
:Your hat, your sneakers matching, your shoelaces and your hat are matching, your belt and, you know, your shirt matching.
365
:Everything's starting to change up a little bit.
366
:And I'm like, okay.
367
:Yeah, yeah.
368
:There's definitely a divergence between the original look that was like cut off jeans and like you look like rock and roll punks.
369
:You know, there's a lot of studded leather belts and stuff like that.
370
:And then you get this kind of break and then you get the more refined look, I guess you call it.
371
:And you start looking like Kool Moe Dee in 1983 or something and less like Joey Ramone in ‘78.
372
:but even like, know, even like you think about, you know, Afrika Bambaataa in the Soulsonic Force, how they will how they appeared on stage and then there's versus like Run
373
:DMC.
374
:We talked about Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys
375
:Yeah, you know, they look like the guys from around the way.
376
:Yeah, the guys from around the way.
377
:Kurtis Blow was dressing them all
378
:like pimp-like.
379
:then, know, Run DMC was like, right, we're the Adidas, the tracksuits and the hat.
380
:And that became the standard.
381
:So yeah, the evolution of style is a good point, Boogie.
382
:That's kind of like a fifth element and or knowledge, right?
383
:They both vie for a top billing is another element.
384
:Yeah, there's probably lots of documentaries that need to be made about hip hop style and its evolution.
385
:There are some out there.
386
:Get ‘em on the show.
387
:I've come across couple of them because I know one of them.
388
:Walker, wear I know she pops up in a couple of them.
389
:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
390
:I'm going look for those ones.
391
:can talk about those.
392
:guys.
393
:uh
394
:had at, I don't know, was that MoMA or some other art museum or the bling, the bling um exhibit, Museum of Natural History, right?
395
:All bling was all like that was worn by all hip hop artists, like flashiness, et cetera.
396
:Yeah.
397
:I went to FIT one afternoon and they had that hip hop clothing exhibition that was really
great.
398
:So it's definitely something put on the list.
399
:Hip-hop fashion can talk.
400
:That could be...
401
:that's her name.
402
:I was like, I know it's Walker where Amber Walker, I follow her.
403
:I follow her.
404
:I've been following her like years since I got her IG.
405
:Right, right, right.
406
:One more point about the four elements.
407
:think there's an easy connection you can make between gang culture, I guess, and graffiti.
408
:Because even now, there's still a stigma attached to graffiti and tagging, whether you
consider it vandalism or not.
409
:mean, that is sort of a gang activity.
410
:But now it's been monetized quite a lot, and it's different now.
411
:Yeah.
412
:And even it's crazy though.
413
:It's even I know I've seen in my neighborhood with the gangs.
414
:Well, I call them fake gangs, but that in the neighborhood, but they actually still tag areas.
415
:there's some like right at the corner of my street there, there's some tag there, but it's like, it doesn't hold the same weight as if I was walking through the Bronx and saw that
416
:tag I'd go run for cover.
417
:Yeah.
418
:Oh, I got one point.
419
:Yeah.
420
:The song that they kept playing in this movie that I love, absolutely love, is “Just Begun” by the Jimmy Castor Bunch.
421
:Shout out to that song. Oh my God.
422
:Every time that song comes on, I want to start dancing.
423
:That is a great song.
424
:I heard it come on, was like, oh, here we go.
425
:I'm trying to type notes and I'm over here rocking with it.
426
:Like, oh man.
427
:(singing)
428
:I'm like, yes.
429
:There was good music in this.
430
:The score was nice.
431
:Yeah.
432
:This score, yeah
433
:Speaking of shout outs, we wanted to shout out DJ Dynamite for recommending Rubble Kings to us.
434
:Yeah, thank you, Dynamite.
435
:Hope to collab with you again.
436
:so let's go around the room and we'll rate Rubble Kings.
437
:So BooGie, for Rubble Kings.
438
:Bring that funky flick back or leave it in the vault?
439
:(echoing) Bring that funky flick back
440
:or leave it in the vault
(sound of vault door closing)
441
:Bring that funky flick back, no doubt about it.
442
:DynoWright?
443
:Definitely bring this funky flick back.
444
:It's unanimous bring this funky flick back. A lot of historical content.
445
:I'm always amazed by how much archival footage exists.
446
:It wasn't easy to have.
447
:You had to have like legit equipment.
448
:You can't just have like a phone in your pocket.
449
:It's 50 years ago.
450
:Yeah, I wish I had come across this earlier.
451
:But yeah, I'm glad we reviewed this one.
452
:Yup.
453
:Like I mentioned in the opening, Jim Carrey was credited as a producer.
454
:That's wild.
455
:I would never have. Yeah.
456
:I think he had seen an early screening of it.
457
:Yeah, that’s awesome.
458
:He got behind it. Yup.
459
:That was so funny.
460
:said, I was like, let me go to IMDB.
461
:Producer credit.
462
:Oh, he really is there.
463
:Fire Marshal Bill, let me tell you something.
464
:Let me tell you something.
465
:Oh man. Oh man.
466
:Ace Ventura was behind this one.
467
:Hip-Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMC's JB, Boogie, and Dyno Wright.
468
:Theme music by Boogie.
469
:Join us on May 28th at the Lower Macungie Library for a screening and panel discussion by us of We Want the Funk, the new documentary from PBS.
470
:Go to lowermaclib.org to register.
471
:And as always, check out our full live event schedule on our website, hiphopmovieclub.com.
472
:Thanks for listening to Hip-Hop Movie Club Podcast.
473
:If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend.
474
:It's a real power up for us.
475
:And remember, don't hate.
476
:Graduate.
477
:It's about that time.
478
:It’s the time of the year.
479
:Graduation.
480
:Dads and grads.
481
:Get that graduation party lineup.
482
:Right on.
483
:If you need a DJ, hit me up.
484
:BooGie is available for graduation parties!
485
:That’s right.
486
:No mumble rap though.
487
:No mumble rap here, only good stuff.
488
:Only the good stuff.
