Legends of Hip Hop Press Kit Table of Contents 1. “Paying Multigenerational Tribute to the Pioneers of Locking and Popping” (LEGENDS Review) NEW YORK TIMES, November 15, 2004 page 2 2. “Hip-hop gets new respect” (LEGENDS Review), THE STAR-LEDGER, November 24, 2004 page 3 3. “Rennie Harris’ Legends of Hip Hop’ pays tribute to elders of locking and popping (LEGENDS Review), ASSOCIATED PRESS, November 22, 2004 page 4 4. “Dancing the History of Hip-Hop (LEGENDS Review), THE NEW YORK SUN, Nov 15, 2004 page 5 5. “Roam if You Want to, (LEGENDS Feature),” PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY, June 20, 2001 page 6 6. “Save the Last Dance (LEGENDS Feature),” THE SOURCE, October 2001 page 7 7. “Rennie Harris Festival a Homecoming (LEGENDS Feature),” INQUIRER, June 2001 page 8 Hip-hop gets new respect Wednesday, November 24, 2004 BY ROBERT JOHNSON Star-Ledger Staff NEW YORK -- Hip-hop isn't naturally respectful. The grass-roots art movement was born when people on the margins of society rejected passive consumerism. The inventors of hip-hop responded creatively to what they saw and heard, talked back to television, and subversively used LPs and turntables as instruments to make their own music. Finally, like computer hackers, they invaded the mainstream media, which began to broadcast and market their revolutionary art. Yet hip-hop is also more than 30 years old now, and it has matured. "The Legends of Hip-Hop," a spectacular, hour-long program at the New Victory Theater, showcases both the East Coast breakers and DJs, whose astounding virtuoso feats represent an extreme of stylistic development and the essential discoveries of hip-hop's West Coast pioneers. Rennie Harris, a former break dancer turned professional choreographer, has not lost his creative edge, as he demonstrated most recently in the innovative "Facing Mekka," created for his company Rennie Harris/Puremovement. But here Harris sets his own choreography aside and waxes nostalgic, reverently honoring pioneers like Don Campbell and his Campbell Lockers and Boogaloo Sam and his Electric Boogaloos, whose early influence on video audiences fueled hip-hop's development. Campbell, no longer thin but still clad in his trademark purple knickers, gets a flashy assist from the Tokyo City Lockers, a Japanese group that attests to his international influence. Looking sly in a bright red suit, Boogaloo Sam comes in to clean up after Poppin' Pete, Skeeter Rabbit, Suga' Pop and Mr. Wiggles, a team of dancers from the Electric Boogaloos and Rock Steady Crew, whose robotic articulations are well- oiled. The most exciting moments in "The Legends of Hip-Hop," however, are provided by young breakers from groups like Mop Tops, Footwork Fanatix and Skillmethodz, whose speed seems dangerous, and whose twisting, spinning pyrotechnics represent unbounded aspiration and heroic athleticism. The brilliant DJs, too, including DJ Evil Tracy, DJ Swift and DJ Razor Ramon, take charge of their material and run with it. At the outset of this educational program, a voice asks, "What is hip-hop?" Pulsing background music and images flashing rapid-fire across a video screen suspended center-stage supply an immediate answer. Then the images settle down, and blurry video footage takes us back to the 1970s. Talking heads expound their philosophy of art. Antique tapes of the Campbell Lockers seem to document a transitional stage between the 1960s, when television still reflected the dancing on Broadway, and the present. Now the dancing on MTV reflects the rhythms of television itself. With its speed, dynamic cuts and commercial "breaks," TV changed the way that people danced in clubs and at parties, and their creativity, in turn, changed television. Just as a clever advertisement could enliven a dreary sitcom, the improvisational brilliance of a dancer dropping to the floor during a pause in the music could prove to be the most memorable portion of a night spent dancing on an outdoor basketball court in Philadelphia. With all respect to the entertainment industry, it was the inspiration of ordinary people who watched television, then hit the streets to make their own art, that mattered most in the development of hip-hop. Monday, November 22, 2004 Copyright 2004 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Rennie Harris’ Legends of Hip Hop’ pays tribute to elders of locking and popping By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO – Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) – From back flips to head spins to a human beat box, Rennie Harris’ Legends of Hip Hop” zooms along like an extended highlight videotape. In such previous efforts as “Facing Mekka,” Harris has sought more esoteric explorations of the dance form. But in “Legends,” which opened Sunday at the New Victory Theater, Harris goes for—and gets—applause, along with a bit of history. Both projects are part of a larger design, as Harris reaches out to different audiences to show that hip hop is much more than what MTV would have us believe. Harris employs DJs, several members of his own Puremovement company and others to put on a rousing performance, with lots of showmanship and one-upmanship. But all give respect to hip-hop pioneers Don Campbell, creator of The Campbellock, or locking, and Sam Solomon or Boogaloo Sam, creator of—you guessed it—Boogaloo, or funk style dancing. Both emanate cool, with Campbell honored by the over-the-top Tokyo City Lockers and Solomon (dressed all in red, down to his tie and sunglasses) flanked by his debonair Electric Boogaloos. It’s hard to imagine either struggling to build a new form, to which Campbell alludes. “I made a lot of mistakes—mistakes are new moves,” Campbell jokes in an introductory video, which sketches a history of hip-hop dance, focusing on the rise of new forms in the 1970s. Of course, the form has much deeper roots—from the locking leaps ending in splits that reference the Nicholas Brothers to the relationship between B-boy and DJ so similar to that between tapper and jazz trio. DJs Evil Tracy, Ran and Razor Ramon shine in “Legends,” employing fingertips, chests and even their foreheads as the finesse the turn styles in highly physical fashion. They are balanced by the high energy of the young dancers—men and women—who must surely do Solomon and Campbell proud. “Rennie Harris’ Legends of Hip Hop” is showing at the New Victory Theater through Nov. 28. ************************** The New York Sun November 15, 2004 Dancing the History of Hip-Hop By RACHEL STRAUS Hip-hop hit Broadway cement over 30 years ago, but it didn't make it inside one of its theaters - as entirely its own show - until now. In Rennie Harris' Legends of Hip-Hop, the originators of popping, locking and electric boogaloo celebrate, with a cadre of younger acolytes, the moves that revolutionized dance. Throughout the 90- minute performance at The New Victory Theater, no Mariah Carey pushes these dancers into the corners. No Madonna rips off their movement and waters it down, calling it vogueing. This is unfiltered hip-hop dancing at its most expansive and proud. Legends doubles as an informal history lesson, especially for those who thought that hip-hop appeared one day in the 1980s only to show up again in suburban dance studios some 15 years later. The concept for the show evolved from workshops organized by Rennie Harris, who invited his mentors - Sam Solomon and Don Campbell among others - to contribute choreography. Legends builds on the success of Rome and Jewels, hip- hop's first evening-length narrative work, loosely based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which brought Mr. Harris international acclaim in 2000. Legends revisits hip-hop's seminal street-dance moments, where intense competition between rival gangs pushed the boundaries of human physicality. In one set, a Rock Steady Crew dancer spins off of one hand like a Lazy Susan in warp speed and then starts popping up from the ground like a fish out of water. It's flabbergasting. But then another Crew dancer tops it when he bends backward to grab his ankles, making multiple flips with his head between his feet. Above the dancers on stage, DJ Razor Ramon scratches rhythms with his back and then his nose, something not to be tried at home. As the curator of Legends, Mr. Harris focuses on hip-hop's artistic breadth, international reach, and its innovators. Don Campbell, originator of locking, and Sam Solomon, creator of popping and the electric boogaloo, strutting across the stage and out of obscurity. Their differing styles, steps and vastly different looks couldn't be confused for one another. While Mr. Solomon's quartet, the Electric Boogaloos, plays loose, slinky footwork against electric shock muscular freezes, Mr. Campbell's locking steps, performed by the Tokyo City Lockers, resemble jack-in-the-boxes, who jump and collapse onto the floor with uncanny ease. The Boogaloos, outfitted in white pinstriped suits, also share little with Mr. Campbell's look - think Ronald McDonald crossed with the bowler-hatted boys of "Clockwork Orange." With a cast stretching from the Bronx to Tokyo, Legends underlines hip-hop's geographic scope. Half the performers are female. Lady Jules, an acknowledged champion of the fast-stepping b-boy style, dominates the first act with her rip-roaring hip thrusts and lightening quick footwork. Other standouts include beat boxer Anointed S, whose microphone and mile-a-minute mouth transform him into a human drum, rivaling the acoustic force of a Madison Square Garden rock concert. The show's lessons come together fully through a series of video segments, projected onto four hanging panels, of the original hip-hop dancers. In one cut from the television show "Soul Train," Mr.