Any conversation about modern music -- and, thus, any conversation about modern movie soundtracks -- has to eventually hit on the topic of hip-hop. That's not so bad when talking about music exclusively, but it can be a minefield when talking about movies, where, with a few exceptions, the music tends to shine while the movies tend to suck. Especially when trying to establish the best of the early hip-hop films, you open up a rather ugly can of worms: do you go with Beat Street, which did such an admirable job in introducing hip-hop culture (including graf art, breakdancing and street style, not just rap music) to the masses? If so, you've picked a soundtrack that was plagued with licensing issues, multiple versions, and a rather noticeable lack of actual hip-hop. Do you select Breakin', which featured a slightly more respectable rap soundtrack, but which was, let's face it, a terrible movie? For our purposes here at the Screengrab, we've decided to go with Krush Groove.
Not that it's going to go on anyone's lists of the best movies of the 1980s. Or the best movies of 1985. Or even the best movies of 1985 involving hip-hop. Krush Groove, as a movie, is as plagued with problems as any other rap movie of its era -- namely, dismal direction and writing (by Michael Schultz and Ralph Farquhar, respectively), a plethora of bad performances, a tendency to overvalue to the musical numbers at the expense of basically everything else, and, of course, the same old 'let's put on a show' plot that served, in one variation or another, as the format for every single hip-hop movie ever until the Fat Boys discovered that it was even easier to just ape the Three Stooges, thus paving the way for the future screen careers of Method Man and Redman. Krush Groove was meant to be a loose, fictionalized adaptation of the rise of Def Jam Records, hip-hop's first mega-successful label; while there's something to be said for the verisimilitude of casting the label's executives, producers and talent as themselves, there's absolutely nothing to be said for a movie in which Russell Simmons is frequently the best actor on screen. Or, for that matter, a movie in which D.M.C. is not the worst actor on screen. While Krush Groove did the world the dubious favor of launching L.L. Cool J's acting career, it also did the world the distinct honor of failing to launch Ronald DeVoe from New Edition's acting career. But before you go and thank Mssrs. Schultz and Farquhar, keep in mind that they also put Rick Rubin in front of a camera for the first time, which, as anyone who has seen his performance as Vic Ferrante in Tougher Than Leather will tell you, is tantamount to a war crime.
Still, there's no disputing that, amongst early hip-hop movies, the soundtrack to Krush Groove shines like the sun. The bland electro-funk of Beat Street and the mild, b-boy-friendly dance-pop of Breakin' simply can't compare to the plethora of talent on display here. Not every single track is a gem (we could do without Force MD's "Tender Love", for example), but for the most part, we're priveleged to hear a hellaciously strong Def Jam roster at the height of their powers. As mediocre as L.L. Cool J was on screen, there's no denying how powerfuly he was on record at only 16 years old; and the rest of the groups are almost as strong. There are some disappointments on the hard-to-find record -- no dedicated Run-D.M.C. track, for example, and some sequencing problems that were never corrected, as the CD version (a big hit at the time it was issued) was never re-released -- but most of these can be rectified by watching the movie, which contains a number of killer singles that aren't on the soundtrack, including Run-D.M.C.'s "King of Rock", the Fat Boys' "Don't You Dog Me", and UTFO's "Pick Up the Pace". Until Def Jam gives the soundtrack a much-deserved reissue, it's worth paying a few extra dollars on eBay or Amazon to pick up the CD, a terrific artifact of hip-hop's first real golden era.
BEST TRACKS: Though it looked as if the Beastie Boys "I'm On It" would be the breakout song here, the underrated Fat Boys, caught just before they went into a huge decline and started doing nothing but novelty remakes, deliver a great jam with "All You Can Eat", which ended up the big hit single from the Krush Groove soundtrack. Kurtis Blow, one of the oldest of the old school rappers, is given a centerpiece here with "If I Ruled the World", and even the non-hip-hop members of the Def Jam roster make admirable showings with Chaka Khan's "Can't Stop the Street" and Sheila E.'s outstanding "Holly Rock". Far and away the best song on the album, though, is the aggressive and totally charismatic performance given by a teenaged L.L. Cool J on "I Can't Live Without My Radio". From the very first verse, he proves why he deserved to become Def Jam's biggest star before he was even 18 years old -- it's a monster of a song that could very well serve as the official anthem of early hip-hop.
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