In its essence this DVD is an old classic PBS documentary from the 80's, polished up & thrown on a dvd and given a bunch of extras; it's all about graffiti culture and the larger emergence of the hip hop culture in general, and it wasn't just about one race doing this that and the other. There were white boys, brown boys, yella boys and girls doin all kines of rockin and poppin and sprayin up their sigils in train yards and what have you. Yeah, I mean, mos def there were preponderances of certain demographics, but you catch my drift.  

The music is bangin'. The art is unbelievable. The dance moves are enough to make you check your spine for scoliosis. But the most interesting part of watching this mind blowin and fascinatin dvd is the snapshot of an earlier age. I didn't say "more innocent," although maybe it was. Who can say? Maybe it was more guilty, actually. New York looks grittier in this movie than it does nowadays in my humble opinion, at least from my perspective of a couple weeks spent there this year. Be that as it may, it was a different time, and the thing to note is what hip hop IS and what it WAS.  

Back then, it literally was underground, not a megalopolis business entity posing as something hardcore and subversive. It really was subversive, but it wasn't necessarily violent, and it wasn't necessarily NOT violent. It was the voice of the next generation that had found a new way to express themselves that consisted of four equally important hands and feet and what have you. Dj'ing, mc'ing, graffing, and bboying. And it's all here. All 80's. even back to the 70's, explaining how it started, the graffiti, the art. Yeah, it digs more deeply into that facet, but you can't explain it without going into the other sections, just like you can't explain a dog's tail without mentioning it's eyes & nose. Or maybe you can? 

I dunno. If you like art, hip hop, music, dancing, history, or any cogent combination of any of the above then this is must view super extreme action multiplied by 83. Turbo force 7 endorsed. Supposedly. Aloha & gracias.