BIG FUN IN THE BIG TOWN......a Dutch peek at early hip hop in NY

Sunday evening.....november 30th 1986.....VPRO television.....the hearts of Dutch hip hop fans skipped a beat.

Early 1986 BRAM VAN SPLUNTEREN, the host of Dutch radioshow DE WILDE WERELD ("The Wild World") got the green light to produce a series of small documanteries for VPRO television. Each of the planned 4 episodes would cover some kind of underground music of that era. Together with FONS DELLEN (co-host of VAN SPLUNTEREN's radioshow), MARCEL VANTHILT (Belgian tv-host), cameraman DEEN VAN DE ZAKEN en soundtechnician BART VAN DE DUNGEN the plan got layed down to base the first episode on IGGY POP and THE STOOGES. They travelled to New York to interview them but IGGY POP proved himself hard to catch for the Dutch tv-team.

Being in New York, VAN SPLUNTEREN (who was already a fan of rap music) decided to make a documantery on the fast emerging hip hop scene. The result was amazing footage and interviews.

f.l.t.r. : Bert van de Dungen, DMC, Bram van Splunteren,

Marcel Vanthilt, Deen van de Zaken.

The team managed to create a broad view within the vibrant NY hip hop scene with mini-interviews, live footage and impression shots of a decayed NY, sick with the crack epidemy. The documentary had to have a running time of about 40 minutes so it was edited in a dynamic way to crunch in a lot of artists. Showcased are DOUG E FRESH, SCHOOLLY D, DMC, RUSSEL SIMONS, GRANDMASTER FLASH, LL COOL J and ROXANNE SHANTE amongst others. Classic highlights are without a doubt the visit to a very young LL COOL J who was still living at his grandmother and grandfather, DOUG E FRESH doing some human beatbox in the street and GRANDMASTER FLASH displaying his mixing skills in his own house. Also RUSSEL SIMONS got interviewed in his DEF JAM office, not suprisingly he wasn't too apreciative about the big Dutch rap hit "Holiday rap".

Imagine the impact of the tv broadcast in Holland. A small rap scene fed of very minimal hip hop-related appearances in the media but than....BOOOMMMM....this amazing documentary overwhelmed the fans of the genre and without a doubt had a big motivational effect of early Dutch rap artists. Till this very day the film is in high demand with old school freaks all over the world.

Cover of the VPRO tv-guide in the week the doc

got broadcasted

If you haven't seen this dope tv-item you should definately have a go at it. It's on Youtube so it shouldn't be that hard. Here's a little taster showing DMC who's as happy as a child cause he bought himself a new Cadillac: