6. Beat Street (1984)
Although the concept of break dancing originated in the 1970's, it didn't really take hold in mainstream popularity here in Australia until the 1980's. Thanks to prolonged media exposure through films and television, this new craze took hold just like it had everywhere else. People everywhere were hilariously breaking their necks and twisting their backs, all in an attempt to imitate the madness we saw on the big screen. One of those was the positively underrated "Beat Street." Now even though there was a plethora of 80's breakdancing movies featuring all types of now popular and history making rap and hip hop stars before they were famous, I personally feel that this is not only the best of the bunch, but actually has credible acting performances, unlike some of its contemporaries. Beat Street stars the now infamous (not to mention beautiful) Oprah hate sprouting, sidekick of the Commando herself, Rae Dawn Chong and was set in the mean streets of the Bronx. Centred around the exploits of disc jockey Kenny and his graffiti spraying crew (or Krew), there are some actual tender moments to tug on your heart strings and considering the cast at that time were completely unknown, they pull off a pretty damn good job acting wise for the budget. Situated in the backbeat (old skool \m/) was a groovy soundtrack that sets the tone nicely and features such 80's hip hop icons like Jazzy Jay, Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5 and Doug E fresh, which was produced by none other than Harry Belafonte. You may remember him as the guy who brought us the banana boat song, which if you need a reminder to what that actually is, either watch "Beetlejuice" or simply say out loud DAAAAAAY-O! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMigXnXMhQ4 Now although this was instrumental in spreading the breakdancing culture throughout the world (especially in Germany, who went nuts for it not unlike David Hasslehoff)), was a commercial success and has been sampled several times by modern day artists, it has largely been forgotten by all except for 80's nostalgia freaks like me and true, hardcore hip hop and rap fans. Which is kind of a bummer for me personally as this is a nice little cultural reference for days gone by..In actual fact, thanks to my mental issues usually reserved for returning war veterans, I can remember every damn lyric to every damn song to this day. The look on people's faces when I throw out the "Santa rap" is priceless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph6hXpPbl0s Hmmm, maybe it's time for me to do a tribute album?