Filmwerk :: Big Fun In The Big Town - 1986 Hip Hop Documentary

A Dutch film exploring rap music in 1986, and features Mr. Magic and the Juice Crew, Doug E. Fresh, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and some 'unsigned hype'. Armed with nothing more than a camera crew and vague understanding of the English language, Bram Van Splunteren;s fearless excursion into the world of American hip hop led him to the gritty landscapes of Harlem, South Bronx, and the Lower East Side during the peak years of the 1980s crack epidemic. As many would come to learn, this backdrop proved to be the incubator to what became a breeding ground for hip hop pioneers.

Van Splunteren happened to be in the right place at the right time. The amazing scenes contained herein will blow the minds of any self respecting fan of rap music; a 17 year old LL Cool J greeting Van Splunteren from the door step of his grandmother's apartment (where he still lived), the Mystery Crew out of Chicago who happened to be trying to snag a meeting with Russell Simmons outside the small first offices of Def Jam on the same day Van Splunteren happened to be interviewing him, DMC freestyling to and unreleased beat on the cassette deck of his brand new and first Cadillac, a still skinny Biz Markie beatboxing for Roxanne Shante on stage - Van Splunteren managed to capture so many incredible moments in hip hop history and really encapsulated the era perfectly. Amazingly, the film that captured the New York rap scene during its most vital moments never received a proper debut in the city until almost 25 years after it premiered.

That changed in 2002 when Dutch magazine Vara Gids named Big Fun as one of the top ten hip-hop films of all-time. The film was shown at the Maysles Film Institute in Harlem in 2010 with Van Splunteren in attendance along with a handful of hip hop luminaries. And now, Five Day Weekend has secured the rights to issue this documentary for the first time ever to American audiences in a physical format. Big Fun In The Big Town is a must own documentary for any true rap historian, and a window into a time and place many of us can now only learn about through study. Travel back to where it all began and relive the inspiring struggle of hip hop music all over again. Amazon