Beat Street

Beat Street is set in the South Bronx of the early 1980s, where young people caught between poverty and gang violence build a culture of their own around rap, breakdancing, DJing and graffiti art. Kenny Kirkland is an aspiring DJ, and with his friend Chollie acting as promoter, he looks for a way into the music business. A meeting with Tracy Carlson, a composer and choreographer connected to a college, pushes Kenny to take his ambitions further, while the graffiti artist Ramon pursues his own art and his younger brother Lee dances. The film follows this circle of friends as they try to turn their talents into a way out of the neighborhood.

Stan Lathan directed the film, the first entry in the chronological list of his directing credits, from a screenplay by Andrew Davis, David Gilbert and Paul Golding. Guy Davis plays Kenny, Rae Dawn Chong plays Tracy, and the cast of twenty credited performers includes Saundra Santiago, Mary Alice, Shawn Elliott and Doug E. Fresh, alongside figures from New York's hip-hop scene. Made for about 10 million dollars, it took in roughly 17 million worldwide. On TMDB it holds 6.9/10 from 97 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 4/10 from seven reviews, a wider gap between professional and audience response than the audience score alone would suggest.