July 22, 2008, - 3:14 pm
Old School Videos of the Day: Cool Moves From the ’80s
By Debbie Schlussel
Remember this old school hip-hop from the ’80s–“Breakin’“–brought to you by the silver screen Israeli producing team of Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan a/k/a Golan-Globus and Cannon Films/The Cannon Group? While the music may not stand the test of time (it does in my view–both songs are part of my work-out music (including the Chaka Khan song), so sue me), the breakdancing moves still do. I remember in the ’80s when we had breakdancing contests and parties (I went to a Black high school).
None of the stars of this movie went on to big careers, but if you notice at about 1:03 in the first video, Jean Claude Van Damme is in a cheesy, black wife-beater tank top and shorts, dancing and clapping. The cheesy part as an extra paid off, since Golan-Globus produced a lot of his starring role films. Pro-cop-killing Ice T was also in the movie. In the first video, you can see that this movie had the same formula as all the ’80s dance movies, like “Flashdance,” where the stereotypical “uptight, stuffy,” old White people are at first stern and disapproving and then start dancing and cheering. Second video shows the Black dancers teaching the stiff White chick how to be hip.
(You can see a better view of Van Damme at 1:20 in this higher quality version, which can’t be embedded here.)
Even the trailer was cool:
And, no, I was not a fan of “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” So, I’m not that cheesy.
Hey Debbie
I don’t know if you ever saw it, but the movie “Beat Street” was much better in my opinion. Of course I’m biased being from New York. It had some of the early pioneers of Rap music and the Hip Hop club scene as well as the legendary Break dancing crew’s the “New York City Breakers” and the “Rock Steady Crew”. The Only thing that wasn’t so accurate was that the Bronx (especially the South Bronx) was much tougher and violent then in the film.
OneIrishJew on July 22, 2008 at 4:46 pm