Breakin’, directed by Joel Silburg

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Recommended: Hip hop effect on society

Breakin’(1995) is a film about the story of a jazz dancer named Kelly who meets two break dancers named Ozone and Turbo. The movie depicts their struggle from the street competitions to the stage of a professional jazz show. This movie also reveals that the way members of society view hip hop influences the effort one has to make in order to succeed in the industry.

Throughout the movie, one sees how certain individuals perceive breakdancing to be similar to a comedy act. This is equivalent to the way that the hip hop industry has been perceived among society and in some ways explains why artists have to work so hard to make it.

This is shown in the scene where Kelly is trying to convince her manager, James, to come see that the group is good enough for the dance contest. James replies by saying, “street dancing is for the streets.” This idea is explained in the article, “The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite” by Keith Negus, when explains that the well-established music genres are referred to as “cash cows”, while rap is classified as a “wild cat” by the industry because they are uncertain of its market value in the future (527). Kelly ends up convincing James to come see them at the street competition that night, which in turn, changes his mind about the dance contest and he tells them he will use his connections to get the group in.

Another scene that depicts the way some view of breakdancing and hip hop is when James has a party and he invites Ozone and Turbo, as well as Kelly. There are a lot of wealthy people there and when they see the two males from the trio, the looks on their faces turn into those of shock. Kelly’s former dance coach is also at this party, and when he finds out the grou...

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...ap has been made and continues to be made, appreciated and circulated, it has intersected and crossed numerous borders … yet it has not been crossing many divisions within the music industry” (531). Through the storyline of the movie, one can see that is the same for breakdancing.

Works Cited

Negus, Keith. "The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 525-540. Print.

Swedenburg, Ted. "Homies in The ‘Hood: Rap’s Commodification of Insubordination." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 579-591. Print.

Breakin’, Dir. Joel Silberg. Perf. Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones and Michael Chambers. Golan-Globus Productions, 1995. Film.

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