Search - Graffiti Rock and Other Hip Hop Delights on DVD

Old School 4ever

D. Lum | Hercules,Cali | 02/16/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Graffiti Rock! wasnt there 2 episodes? anyways,while the show itself is classic,they couldve included some BETTER special features!i think they could've represented a lot better on this disc,whut about classic b-boy videos,or battles.Some of the stuff on there is just plain corny!i remember seeing the Nyc breakers perform in front of President Reagan...Twice!! Hello??,only 2 stars, maybe 2 and a half,could've gotten more......."

I Sport It Fresh Homes!!!!

B-Magnetic | 12/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yo, I don't own the DVD, but having seen the show in its initial (and ONLY) airing, I remember it like it was yesterday. WPIX Channel 11 in the New York area...at 8pm in the evening. I just knew Hip-Hop had arrived officially!!! The world was finally witnessing what I had been into since 1978...yeah I goes back!! This show, corny as HELL by today's standards, gave you the nuts and bolts of what Hip-Hop was all about. The 4-Elements of Hip-Hop (emceeing, djing, graffiti art, and breakdancing) fully represented!

It's sort of like your average party that was happening back in '84 (minus the guns & weed) and you were invited. New York City Breakers (Rock Steady Crew's competition in "Beat Street") did their THING!!! Mr Wave, Chino, Powerful Pex...etc...killed the dancefloor with their breakdance/popping skills. Co-hosts Kool Mo Dee and Special K of the Treacherous 3 did their thing (in their HOT A$$ leather outfits - and I mean HOT as in perspiration). Run-DMC came thru and did "Sucker Emcees" (RIP JMJ), and then "battled" Treacherous 3....kinda weak, but it was on TV, it was Hip-Hop and THAT'S what made it cool. Then Shannon (Let the Music Play) came thru and did her thing.

All throughout the show, the "most host" Michael Holman would interview kids from the crowd and they would speak on what they were wearing. When Michael asked one kid "how do you sport your gear?", he said "I sport it FRESH homes!!" WOW, that was wack, but so cool back then...lol When the show broke for commercial, a word used by Hip-Hopers would fly on the screen (written in graffiti of course) the words "Fresh", "Wack" "Word".

I must agree with some of the writers above, this is sorta corny but still loveable in its own way. You sit back and laugh at yourself, because you know if that were you being interviewed, you would have said and done the same things. You were wearing the same clothes (kangols, shelltoe Addidas with fat laces, a name plate chain and belt buckle, and Cazals, windbreakers, etc), so you could identify with EVERYBODY at the party.

In all I highly recomend this DVD to all true Hip-Hoppers who recognize the true school of Hip-Hop, before commercialization, before gangstaism, before the bull crap, when Hip-Hop was all about getting girls and having fun!

As I said, I don't own this DVD, but considering nostalgic value the show itself contains, this is a true gem that MUST be owned by anyone considering themselves in any way part of this Hip-Hop culture.
Peace!"

Slice of history served up **FRESH**!!

Susan Doran | Portland, ME United States | 02/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"OK, Graffiti Rock might be considered pretty stale by some, and they wouldn't be entirely wrong...but it is stale in a completely charming way.

So if the question is: is this DVD worth purchasing? The answer is yes yes yall...if you're a hip-hop history head, if you were there, or if you wish you were there!

The DVD includes the 1/2 hour show (Graffiti Rock) itself, which, be forewarned, is amateurish and choppy as all get-out. Bad camera angles, cheesy special effects, garish lighting, a stilted and staged feeling. And yet, the show is also really fun! at times hilarious, and sometimes just interesting seeing how kids (from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Money Making Manhattan) danced, dressed, wore their hair, moved, talked, etc.

Special K and Kool Moe Dee (in a Kangol and ski goggles) are in the house rocking the mic as quasi-MCs for the whole corny show (a guy named Michael Holman is the actual host, producer, and originator of Graffiti Rock). Run DMC performs Sucker MCs live! Kool Moe Dee and Special K take on Run DMC in a battle--which in reality is exactly as lame as it sounds exciting--it's staged and sterile and silly, but so what?

And it don't stop--it keeps on and on with 45 minutes of rare and random Extras, including a nice piece featuring DJ Jazzy Jay, as well as Doug E Fresh rapping and beat boxing, Fab 5 Freddy rapping against a background of swirling colors and dancing children, lots of break dancing, some weird downtown party with a graf artist decorating a wall, a mini documentary about hip hop that includes a girl and a guy showing off their "fly" and "fresh" bboy outfits including shelltop Adidas with fat laces, a couple of basement sessions of various young rappers smoking, freestyling, and dancing (I remember coming upon scenes like this in NYC in the early '80s that were spontaneous and impossible not to stumble across because it was happening everywhere).

Earth shattering? No. But definitely **fun** in the way early hip hop was...pretty simple and unpretentious and almost innocent, lots of smiling party people in the place to be and love for the music. You may find yourself yourself poppin and lockin and old school rockin despite yourself!"