Inside ego trip's Documentary Series: "Electric Boogie" & "Beat This! A Hip Hop History"

Learn about why these forgotten gems from hip-hop movie history are worth watching.

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Complex Original

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From books to TV shows, we love pretty much everything that the ego trip crew does. Last month they kicked off a monthly film series being co-curated by Andreas Vingaard in NYC called Under The Influence of ego trip, featuring a selection of carefully-curated documentaries from the early hip-hop era, which will be screened at the Maysles Institute in Harlem.

The second screening is Thursday night (February 25) at 7:30 p.m., and it features two more rare-but-essential movies, Electric Boogie and Beat This! A Hip Hop History, as well as special guest appearances by the Soulsonic Force, Easy AD of the Cold Crush Brothers, and filmmaker Tana Ross. To find out why these two documentary gems are worth checking out, we asked the ego trip guys to break down each movie and explain why they chose to bring it to the people. See ego trip's take on each movie below...

BEAT THIS! A HIP HOP HISTORY (1984, Directed by Dick Fontaine)
Screening Thursday 2/25/10 in NYC: Click Here To Buy Tickets

EGO TRIP'S TAKE: "As indelible original school imagery goes, you can't beat Beat This! Amongst its brain-staining frames: footage of hip-hop godhead Kool Herc chauffeuring a pair of monstrous speakers through the South Bronx in a Caddy drop top; Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force crashing Gotham's ozone on the last spaceship from Planet Rock; and the Cold Crush Brothers performing "Heartbreakers" at Danceteria in their wildest punk-rock-rap-inspired attire. But director Dick Fontaine's heavily stylized 1984 BBC production is much more than sci-fi/fantasy-infused eye candy. It is, like the title says, a real historical re-telling of rap's genesis and evolution, with legendary NYC radio host Gary Byrd providing rhymed narration. Herc, for one, has never been so personal and forthcoming as in his interviews here. The studio footage of Soulsonic recording "Renegades of Funk" with producer Arthur Baker is priceless. And when Bam and Soulsonic's Mr. Biggs take a moment to nostalgically survey the bird's eye view of their maligned, grimy home borough from a rooftop, it's with a pride that can't help but warm any hip-hop purist's heart. Essential viewing for going way back.."

ELECTRIC BOOGIE (1983, Directed by Tana Ross)
Screening Thursday 2/25/10 in NYC: Click Here To Buy Tickets

EGO TRIP'S TAKE: "Not all OG b-boy crews were created equal. For every Rock Steady Crew or New York City Breakers that made it there were countless others around the Rotten Apple whose footwork wasn't quite fancy enough to step up to the next level. One such quartet of kids, the Electric Boogie Boys, is the subject of Electric Boogie. Alternately heart-warming and heartbreaking, director Tana Ross' slice of life portrait pushes all the right emotional buttons. When you watch EBB perform and practice their often not-so-hot routines, they do it exuberantly enough that you can't help but root for them (especially the pint-sized and bespectacled "KK"). When the foursome hits their local menswear shop on the boulevard to try on sheepskin coats they know they can't afford (and admit they might get stuck for them even if they could), you feel shitty for them. When they conjure up a curious routine based on copping said sheepskins, you wonder how the hell they're gonna pull it off. And when the climactic b-boy competition takes place at famed SBX roller rink Skate Key, you're fully committed to this team of unknowns. EBB may not have won fame (or too many trophies), but thanks to this fine documentary flick they'll stay electric on celluloid forever."

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