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About the Book:
In 1982, Charlie Ahearn wrote, directed, and produced a small, independent movie that released a year later, taking the world by storm as it screening in Cannes, Tokyo, and Times Square. Wild Style, the first film to unite the underground urban art forms of nascent hip hop culture—DJing, MCing, b-boying, and graff writing—was filmed on location in the South Bronx without permits or pretensions. Some twenty-five years after it’s release, Wild Style is truly a classic, having inspired countless artists, musicians, and writers with unforgettable scenes starring the era’s most memorable personalities.
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To celebrate the film’s silver anniversary, Wild Style: The Sampler provides an inside look at the making of the film, it’s release, and the reverberations it caused around the world. Narrated by Ahearn, the book introduces us to a cast of characters and outrageous adventures through a carefully curated collection of never-before-published photographs, original artwork, production stills, archival materials, and personal stories from stars Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quinones, LADY PINK, ZEPHYR, Patti Astor, Busy Bee, Grandmaster Caz, Frosty Freeze, and Glenn O’Brien.
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It also offer insights into the film’s influence by artists, writers, and musicians including Sacha Jenkins, Carlo McCormick, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Melle Mel, Biz Markie, SHARP, REVOLT, Martha Cooper, Cathy Campbell, Cut Chemist, and DJ Krush, and additional photographs by Joe Conzo, Henry Chalfant, and many others. Recounting the film’s influence over the past quarter century, Wild Style: The Sampler offers incomparable insight into hip hop’s most indelible film.
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About the Author:
In the summer of 1980, Charlie Ahearn began working with Fred Brathwaite and Lee Quinones on the hip hop classic Wild Style, which he wrote and directed and was first screened in 1982. After producing a number of videos on artists, Ahearn wrote and directed his next feature film, Fear of Fiction, in 2000. With Jim Fricke, Ahearn coauthored Yes Yes Y’all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade (Da Capo Press, 2002), which featured more than one hundred photographs, many by Ahearn. Currently hosting a weekly Internet radio show on WPS1.org called Yes Yes Y’all, Ahearn lives and works in New York.
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Miss Rosen’s Contribution:
Art Direction, Photo Editing & Sequencing, Text Editing, Production Management, Publicity, Event Planning, and Advertising.
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Honors:
Featured in the Fourth Annual VH1 Hip Hop Honors:
October 8, 2007, at 10 PM
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EVENTS
New York Launch, in partnership with Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival – 6/22/07
New York 25th Anniversary Screening at Film Forum – 11/13 – 11/20/08
25th Anniversary Reunion, Central Park SummerStage, New York – 7/29/07
Featuring live appearances by Fab 5 Freddy, The Chief Rocker Busy Bee,
The Cold Crush Brothers, Grandmaster Caz, and DJ GrandWizzard Theodore.
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EXHIBITIONS
The powerHouse Arena, Brooklyn – 5/31-7/15/07
Dissident Display, Washington, DC – 9/14-10/14/07
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Coordinated international publicity campaign including coverage in
All Hip Hop, All Things Considered/NPR, Art Crimes, Current TV, The Guardian, Mass Appeal, MenStyle.com,
New York Times City Room, Nonfiction/WBAI, L’Officiel Homme, Publisher’s Weekly, Record Collector,
Style.com, The Soundcheck/WNYC, Time Out New York, Trace, Village Voice,
Warp, Washington Post, Wax Poetics, and XLR8R, among others.
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FILM / HIP HOP / PHOTOGRAPHY
HC, 10.5 x 10.5 inches, 200 pages, over 200 photos, artworks, and documents
ISBN: 978-1-578687-364-9, $35.00
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Fab 5 Freddy photograph ©Charlie Ahearn
Wild Style cow photgoraph ©Banksy
Event photographs ©Joe Conzo
Cover courtesy of powerHouse Books