“I mean love is love. Recognize the hip hop culture ‘cause that’s what we are doing. We’re having fun with it. We spread love. There’s no animosity. There’s no prejudice in our culture. None of that. It’s red black green orange. We all in it. We come from Japan. You ever hear them rapping in Japanese? You ever hear them rapping in Swahili? I want you to know Charlie Ahearn has done his thing. The cast of the movie, I love you all. We all did our thing. We are history. Wild Style is all over the world.”

—The Chief Rocker Busy Bee, 2006

In 1982, Charlie Ahearn wrote, directed, and produced a small, independent movie that released a year later, taking the world by storm as it screened in Cannes, Tokyo, and Times Square. Wild Style, the first film to unite the underground urban art forms of nascent hip hop culture—DJing, MCing, b-boying, and graff writing—was filmed on location in the South Bronx without permits or pretensions. Some twenty-five years after it’s release, Wild Style is truly a classic, having inspired countless artists, musicians, and writers with unforgettable scenes starring the era’s most memorable personalities.

To celebrate the film’s silver anniversary, Wild Style The Sampler provides an inside look at the making of the film, its release, and the reverberations it caused around the world. Curated by Ahearn, this exhibition and accompanying book of the same name introduces us to a cast of characters and outrageous adventures through a collection of photographs, original artwork, production stills, and archival materials and includes the work of Ahearn. Martha Cooper, and Cathy Campbell, as well as animators Zephyr and Dr. Revolt. Featuring iconic images of legends and pioneers including the Chief Rocker Busy Bee, Lee Quinones, Fab 5 Freddy, Dondi White, Zephyr, Smiley 149, DJ AJ, Grandmaster Caz, GrandMaster Flash and the Furious Five, Melle Mel, the Fantastic Five, The Funky Four, Sha Rock, Double Trouble, Rammellzee, Debbie Harry, Patti Astor, and Frosty Freeze, among others.

Recounting the film’s influence over the past quarter century, Wild Style The Sampler offers incomparable insight into hip hop’s most indelible film.

In the summer of 1980, Charlie Ahearn began working with Fred Brathwaite and Lee Quinones on the hip hop classic Wild Style, which he wrote and directed and was first screened in 1982. After producing a number of videos on artists, Ahearn wrote and directed his next feature film, Fear of Fiction, in 2000. With Jim Fricke, Ahearn coauthored Yes Yes Y’all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade (Da Capo Press, 2002), which featured more than one hundred photographs, many by Ahearn. Currently hosting a weekly Internet radio show on WPS1.org called Yes Yes Y’all, Ahearn lives and works in New York.

Entering its 3rd year, the Annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival is a celebration of Hip Hop music and culture, and the borough of Brooklyn as a premier cultural destination. A free event, the BHF is an all ages event featuring the best in legendary performers as well as showcasing Hip Hop’s brightest new talent. Past participants include Big Daddy Kane, Brand Nubian, Little Brother, Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco, Leela James, Talib Kweli, and Ralph McDaniels among many others. This year’s BHF is set to take place over 5 days in June, and includes a Stax 50th Anniversary celebration, Wild Style 25th Anniversary Celebration, Hip Hop Under the Stars as part of Make Music New York, and an our final celebration of all-day performances and other festivities. For more information log onto www.brooklynbodega.com.