There's a definite romanticism attached to NY in the 70's. You think of Taxi Driver, the Warriors, and the seediness of Times Square before it turned into what we all know it as today. You think of the Ramones, Agnostic Front, Judge, Cro-Mags, all running wild pre-gentrification. NY used to be a scary ass place and the people who lived it loved it.
But one imagines this view is probably a half-truth. Rose-colored glasses illuminating all the things people loved about NY before it became super bougie and filled with mustaches and cronuts.
This doc dives into the real Bronx in the 70's, where gang life was the only life for youths in the projects. They had no options. Well, it was dead or alive, if you call that an option. It's a sad story of young kids running amok, spilling blood, and ruining lives. But it's also a story of hope and peace transcending violence. It's a story of black/white, right/wrong, fear/bravery, and P.M.A! For out of gang culture came hip hop culture. People started to battle rap and breakdance instead of stab and shoot. Beefs were squashed on the wheels of steel, and not in dark alleyways. From block warfare to block parties.
You get the picture. It's a tragic and inspiring tale of disenfranchised youth. Blacks and Puerto Ricans uniting. Kool Herc, the Zulu Nation, and all that.
Stream it on Netflix. It'll make you think differently about the Warriors next time you watch it.
Can you dig it?
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