Krush Groove

This is a movie about the struggles of early rap groups trying to make it big in the 80's when rap was not a popular music genre. This is not the most dramatic of movies by any stretch of the imagination, but if you like old school rap acts like RUN-DMC, The Beastie Boys, The Fat Boys, and LL Cool J you will find this movie entertaining. However if you are not familiar with the 80's rap scene you may not be very impressed with this movie. I though it would be a really stupid movie at first, but once I watched it I was impressed.

I almost forgot how incredibly dope, fly, def, and funky fresh Run DMC were; especially DMC!!! DMC held it down! I remember DMC's rappin and how it had a hard edge to it, but his character had the same hard edge to him as well. Krush Groove is a magnificent tribute to rap and the pioneers of rap. Krush Groove featured maybe half of the known rappers from that era. Run DMC didn't invent rap but they sure took it to another level. Rap is nowhere today without Run DMC. They elevated it to the stratoshpere. I remember dying to have a pair of Adidas because of them.

The movie itself is more or less a 95 minute concert with some acting in it. Blair Underwood was probably the only real actor in the entire movie. Being that this was his first movie, lucky for him it didn't kill his career. As poor as the acting was, I loved this movie. I totally understand that my affinity towards this movie is directly linked to my growing up in the 80's and listening to the very artists in the film. Each artists' appearance was an instant trip down memory lane. We're talking The Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, The Beastie Boys, New Edition, Sheila E., Full Force, and even Donnie Simpson before he hosted BET.

I could go on forever about the movie and even though the movie was low budget, poorly edited, complimented with sub par acting, it is the memories that are evoked that makes me like it. Put this movie on my list of old school niche favorites with Beat Street, Breakin', and The Last Dragon.

A lot of good review comments, so I'll just add. This movie could well be classed a historical in some respects, and is actually shown in some colleges as part of curriculum. It is based on the true and personal story of Run DMC, The Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Sheila E, and others breaking out rap music for the first time to the mainstream audiences against convention and against those who would view rap as non-music and a fad. It showcases the music as a true underground phenomena; fun, creative, positive, and energetic; embraced by urban youth eager to rebel. Poor, fat, whatever, just being yourself for a change was enough for you to make a go of it and be successful. There are 12 musical productions in the film and some showstopper performances by Sheila E (coached by Prince for this film) especially. This movie was based on real events and the roles played by the people themselves who lived them. In that sense it may not have a Hollywood calibre cast and complicated plot, but that wasn't the point of this film. This film was meant to showcase the struggles of a music, the struggles of artists in an emerging genre, and show people where it was at in 1985. It did just that, capturing the heart and soul of hip-hop, where it all is rooted, free from excessive profanity, free from guns and gangsterism; just go out and have fun, stand tall, express yourself, forget the nay-sayers, and throw down the creativity. And the rest is history.

Krush Groove is the most underrated rock n roll movie of the 1980s. Is it the Best music film of the 80s? No that title belongs to Purple Rain. Actually Krush Groove attempts to redo Rain's successful formula, using talented musicians generally playing themselves in a fictitious story with some realistic elements. It actually came out a year or so too early, with rap and hip hop still generally a black phenomenon despite Blondie's #1 pop `Rapture'. (Debbie Harry makes an appearance here portraying a club singer.) The one `Actor' not playing himself was Blair Underwood who played the character Russell Walker (While the REAL Russell Simmons played a stage hand named Crocket)

The story deals with a number of rap artists Run DMC, Kurtis Blow and the Fat boys in their efforts to make it big as hip hop stars. It deals with the good and bad of having a hit record on a small independent record label, competition between two brothers over the heart of a young female singer (Sheila E.), the consequences of borrowing money from a loan shark, the opportunity to sign with a major label and a talent contest looking for new hip hop talent. The contest includes an appearance from New Edition, an all too brief appearance from future superstars The Beastie Boys and an in studio audition from LL Cool J. The film was rated `R' generally for some mild violence and usage of the `F' word. (Six instances where two would automatically mean an `R' rating) It didn't do too hot at the box office. I had stated that the film came out a year or so too early. The reason I stated this was that in 1986, one year following this film's release, Run DMC's cover of Aerosmith's Walk This Way got heavy airplay on white radio, even going to number1 on album rock radio in Aerosmith's homebase of Boston MA. This success opened the door for The Beastie Boys, The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Will Smith (known at that time as The Fresh Prince) and a large number of other hip hop and rap artists to score BIG on the Pop singles and pop album charts.

This film isn't an award winner but it is a must see for all Hip Hop historians. Loosely based on the life of producer Russel Simmons this film takes us back to the early days of Hip-Hop when rap was just starting to break into the mainstream. Blair Underwood plays Russel and everyone else (Run DMC, Fat Boys, Sheila E, New Edition, Beastie Boys, L.L. Cool J, etc..) play themselves. I think, if anything, this film gives fans an idea of what it was like for young rappers, producers and other musicians from NYC in the early eighties. I think the film could have been better if it was a little grittier and honest, but if it was than Rap and Hip-Hop may not have blown up the way it did into mainstream culture.