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| From Mambo to Hip Hop the movie |
From Mambo to Hip Hop is a documentary that takes you through the history of the Bronx and dives right in to the spirit of the people of the Bronx. It is a story of survival through rhythm that united generations of Nuyoricans. The music changed but the struggle was the same, the struggle of Nuyoricans trying to make it in the Bronx.
The footage from this soon-to-be released film is awesome. You see footage of a young Celia Cruz dancing in the streets of the Bronx! Tito Puente banging on the timbales right in the middle of the street, swinging his head, eyes half closed in a trance-like state as if he was one with the rhythm.
The movie documentary explained how many of the top names in salsa music all lived right in the Bronx near each other. Like Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, the Palmieri brothers, Johnny Pacheco and many more! As newly transplanted Puerto Ricans slowly transformed into Nuyoricans the music too transformed from mambo into salsa.
How did that music transform itself into hip hop? It’s all about the people finding their way through the music. Not so much about the music itself. It’s about the people using the music to identify themselves and escape from the pressures of poverty-stricken Bronx.
There was a burning of the Bronx in the 1970’s. Abandoned, burnt-down buildings everywhere. The film explains how these dark gutted out, burnt buildings where no one could live actually helped birth what we call Hip Hop today. Inside the ashy, molten buildings the people jammed all night until day.
The Bronx was changing. Puerto Ricans and Blacks kept moving in. Everyone else kept moving out. Gangs started forming. Gang violence was accomplishing what the mysterious fires did not- they were slowly destroying the community. Why didn’t the police stop all this gang violence? That was the question Afrika Bambaataa began asking while everyone was united together dancing and jamming to the same music. Everyone- that is the Puerto Ricans AND the Blacks.
DJ Charlie Chase from the Cold Crush Brothers explains in the movie that he wanted to get into the dee-jaying so badly but he knew that just his name was going to get him laughed at. So he came up with the name Charlie Chase. He was chasing a dream he explained in the documentary. The documentary explains how Latinos got involved with Hip Hop right along side African Americans. They lived in the same neighborhood. They jammed together, battled together with uprock and break dancing and the culture of the new generation became what we know as Hip Hop today.
The eyewitness- historians retelling the stories in From Mambo to Hip Hop spoke with first hand knowledge, passion, nostalgia and folklore. A music teacher on a school bus explains to the kids on the bus- how many of you put your music too loud? What does your mother tell you? “Baja esa musica!!!!” Right? Right? Well, that’s what happened with scratching you see. That’s how it all started. Mom came in while the record was blasting and slammed the hand down and shouted- Turn down that music! And slammed her hand down and banged the needle right off the smooth shiny record and… scratcccchhhhhhhhh! The rest is history!
And the rest of the film… well, you just have to check it for yourself!
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