Director Stan Lathan is known for helming pioneering TV series that paved the way for Black entertainment, including The Steve Harvey Show, Martin, Roc, Moesha, The Parkers, Amen, among others. He was a director for three seasons of the award-winning, groundbreaking PBS series SOUL! created by Ellis Haizlip (you can watch a wonderful documentary titled Mr. Soul! directed by Haizlip’s niece Melissa Haizlip).
Lathan co-created HBO’s Def Comedy Jam in 1989, and after running eight seasons, the stand-up comedy franchise birthed many of today’s stars. He went on to launch the Peabody-winning Def Poetry in 2003 and nabbed a Tony Award that same year for Def Poetry Jam. This set the stage for Lathan to become a preeminent director of a slew of comedy specials, including Dave Chappelle’s Netflix projects, which have caused quite a stir.
But one of Lathan’s films that stands out to me is 1984’s hip hop opus Beat Street. Originally released by Orion Pictures, Beat Street is set in the Bronx at the inception of the culture of hip hop. Spotlighting the four elements – DJing, MCing, breaking, and graffiti – the film stars Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, Jon Chardiet, and Robert Taylor.
The movie follows Davis’s Kenny “Double K” Kirkland, an aspiring turntablist, and his B-boy brother Lee (Taylor) as they become friends with others in the hip hop scene. Along the way, Double K meets composer Tracy (Chong), who is not in the hip-hop scene. The pair collaborate in a Save the Last Dance situation (but not as corny) to produce some dope music. But when graffiti artist Ramo (Jon Chardiet) is killed while tagging, the crew is impacted, and they join the community to honor his life with the art of hip hop.
Amplifying legends like Melle Mel, Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force, and the New York City Breakers, Lathan directed a screenplay from Andrew Davis, David Gilbert, and Paul Golding, showcasing hip hop as an art and not a trend – one of the first movies to do so. Beat Street portrayed the hip hop culture not only as “art as resistance”, but as a survival tool for Black and Latino folks in 1980s New York City.
Beat Street had an impact on many Gen X’ers (and some older millennials) – including myself. It was a standout of the golden age of hip hop cinema that included iconic, trailblazing movies, such as Wild Style, Breakin’, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Beat Street‘s influence on what white Hollywood would call “urban cinema” continued after 1984, churning out films and TV series like Do the Right Thing, Krush Groove, Juice, 8 Mile, The Get Down, You Got Served, the Step Up franchise, Belly, Set it Off, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Romeo Must Die, and a robust roster of others.
