Nostalgia Kinky

Arrow Video has recently released one of the most important films of the eighties as an extensive special edition on 4K and Blu-ray. Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style, a 1982 work centered on early hip-hop and graffiti culture in New York City, still feels as energizing and revolutionary as ever. Featuring some of the greatest early pioneering DJs and MCs, Wild Style is a jubiliant celebration of the power of art, culture, and music. Most of all, it is a tribute to the DIY ethic that emerged from the intertwined Hip-Hop/Punk movements of the seventies.

Ahearn emerged from New York’s No Wave movement, which featured some of the most uncompromising filmmakers and musicians in history. Ahearn’s first film, The Deadly Art of Survival (1979), was shot on 8mm, guerrilla style, on New York’s Lower East Side. Wild Style was remarkably just his second film, and with it, he merges so many of the great ‘scenes’ of the period and shows how closely they were intertwined.

Wild Style was conceived by Gods. Two of them, to be precise. Fab Five Freddy and Chris Stein originally met around ’78 or so. Chris and his partner/band-mate Debbie Harry frequented Fab’s early appearances. The three quickly became mates as both Chris and Debbie became entranced by this completely new style of music. Within a year, not only had their band, Blondie, collaborated with Fab Five Freddy in the studio, they helped secure a spot on Saturday Night Live for the female-led Rap group Funky 4 + 1, a landmark moment in television history.

Fab came up with the idea for Wild Style and brought Chris on board for the film’s essential soundtrack duties. Debbie Harry, always a champion, never a vampire, allowed two of Blondie’s most popular songs to be used for free. After discovering Ahearn through a poster for The Deadly Art of Survival, Fab secured the appearances of the many amazing young hip-hop artists seen in the film from Grandmaster Flash to Lady Pink. In the meantime, Ahearn secured some of his No Wave comrades, including co-star Patti Astor.

The lives of NYC’s great graffiti artists weren’t easy. Having to constantly work clandestinely, with nothing but a spray can and vision, these icons risked prosecution for their art. What is more honorable than that? Wild Style appeared just after Jean-Michel Basquiat’s unforgettable time as the mysterious graffiti artist ‘Samo’, whose familiar stamp was seen everywhere it seemed.

Basquiat’s art and life weren’t the only things that influenced Wild Style, as his appearances on Glenn O’Brien’s endearing and influential public-access show T.V. Party had greatly impressed Fab and Ahearn. Stein was, as usual, key, as he played a pivotal role in T.V. Party’s history as its cohost.

Wild Style recreates this incredible period in a completely authentic way. Save for Astor’s rather wooden performance as a local reporter, Wild Style doesn’t strike a wrong note. If it doesn’t seem quite as fresh now, it’s only because of how often it has been copied. Despite any small gripes regarding casting, Wild Style has long been a favorite of mine, and I will always so love how it walks the walk. This is a film made for little money, celebrating art forms that cost next to nothing.
As Nas later wrote, “All I need is one mic, one beat, one stage.”

Wild Style vividly captures the dreams of its young protagonists, whether armed with paint cans or a turntable. Fans of graffiti will love this. Fans of ‘get over or get out of the way’ independent cinema will love this. Fans, especially of early Hip-Hop, will love this. All is carried along by Chris Stein’s astonishingly forward-thinking soundtrack compositions. Dude is working many years ahead of the curve here, and has barely got any credit.

Chris Stein is one of the most underrated figures of this era. While prepping for Wild Style, he helped Blondie become one of the biggest bands in the world, On top of this and the T.V. Party work, Chris also formed what might have turned into one of the most important independent labels of the decade, Jungle Records, Tragically, by the time of Wild Style’s release Chris was struggling phsically to get through what turned out to be Blondie’s final tour for more than 15 years. After the tour and just as Wild Style’s theatrical run ended, Chris was diagnosed with the debilitating and rare Pemphigus vulgaris. The disease kept my man down for several years, as Debbie Harry cared for him. It caused two of the period’s most important artists to drop completely out of sight, losing their grip on the decade they’d helped create. When they returned fully-armed and ready to go with 1989’s essential Def, Dumb and Blonde, time had (momentarily) passed them by.

Fab Five Freddy continued consistently great and important work in the art and music community, but neither he nor Wild Style’s many great artists ever received the financial rewards fitting their influence. Fab watched Rap’s early positivity turn increasingly dark as the decade continued. Wild Style influenced everyone that came after, but nothing has ever matched the film’s sheer exuberance.

The glorious Wild Style played in select American cinemas in November of 1983. If ever a film deserved to be a runaway hit, it was this one, but distribution-wise it just never got over. Critical reaction was mixed, and the film was soon out of theaters. Copycat films like Breakin’ (1984) generated the ticket sales Wild Style should have. Fab and Chris’s vision was ultimately just too ahead of its time.

There have been a lot of editions of Wild Style over the years, including some past special editions, but this new Arrow collection is easily the definitive version. The 4K looks astonishing. It doesn’t quite make up for me not seeing this theatrically as a kid, but it is pretty damn close.

By the time I discovered Wild Style on VHS in the nineties, I was already well-versed in everything from Ice-T to NWA to Public Enemy to 2 Live Crew, so getting a glimpse at the early years of Punk’s only true peer was kind of mind-blowing. Rewatching Wild Style all these years later is still pretty mindblowing. Ahearn created something really special and timeless here.

Arrow’s 4K/Blu-ray collections are LOADED up, featuring both new and legacy extras. I particularly loved the conversation with Chris, Fab and Ahearn on Disc 1, much of which informed this post. I love how much these guys obviously still admire and adore each other, as they reminisce about the way things were back in the day. So much respect, so much love. And, I love that we got to see all of Chris’s pets wandering around.

I don’t want to say best of all, but pretty close is Arrow’s inclusion of the film’s towering soundtrack on CD, now expanded with bonus tracks. You wanna talk about a great listen. This is the core, this is the beginning of decades worth of popular music. If you have never seen or listened to Wild Style get on it. This is still golden.

-Jeremy Richey, March 2026-

Wild Style can be ordered from Arrow and MVD.