Krush Groove

Some movies defy a typical review. An example of such a movie that I recently watched would be the "rap musical" Krush Groove.

The movie is loosely based on the early career of Russell Simmons, a rap mogul who was the head of Def Jam Records and who has a cameo in the movie. The studio head here is named Russell Walker, played by Blair Underwood at the start of his movie career. He runs a small Harlem company called Krush Groove Records that has been promoting some acts doing the new sound of rap, this being the early-to-mid 80s before rap would cross over into the mainstream, notably with Run DMC's cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" (a duet with Aerosmith that would also re-launch Aerosmith's career). In fact, Run DMC (playing themselves) are one of the acts putting out records for Krush Groove, as are the Disco Three, an act that would later become the Fat Boys (again, playing themselves), an early pioneer of the genre of Non-Threatening Rap.

(This was a good year or two after Krush Groove, but an excellent example of how the Fat Boys were basically parodying themselves, and a lot of silly fun.)

Now, there's a bit of a problem. The songs are becoming successful enough that people want to buy the records. But Russell, who happens to be the brother of Run from Run DMC, has a cash-flow problem. They don't have the money to press more records to sell, so they have no more records to sell and make the money to press more. Russell tries to get a loan from the bank, which doesn't understand the business of record production -- or maybe understands it and the inherent risks all too well. Russell asks his dad, who just happens to be a minister in what has to be one of the most innovative plot devices ever; Dad tells him this is obviously a challenge from God and that Russell will become a better man by figuring out how to meet that challenge.

Faced with the loss of some of his acts to Galaxy Records, which has the cash to actually sign the acts to contracts, Russell decides to get the money from a loan shark. But the loan shark's terms are pretty onerous, putting Russell in some danger. Further complicating Russell's personal life is musician Sheila E. (another musician played by herself), an extremely talented drummer who has her own band and doing a thing that's good if a bit different from rap. Russell falls in love wih her, but Run is also in love with her.

Along the way, various bands, notably the Disco Three before they realize they should just embrace their heft and call themselves the Fat Boys, enter talent shows trying to win the money to keep their careers going. This gives the movie the chance to use a bunch of then up-and-coming acts as cameos performing their own songs, with the two recognizable names here being the Beastie Boys (well before "You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party") and New Edition (featuring future Mr. Whitney Houston Bobby Brown before he left New Edition to become a solo star).

Krush Groove is, on the face of it, little more than a genre movie with a bunch of story elements that have been done to death. Heck, at one point I found myself thinking of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, and perhaps these talented acts could just put on a show. Then again, that was also done with a lot of soul acts in The Blues Brothers. There's also a scene where it seemed like the producers thought, "Blair Underwood is young and fit; let's give him a shirless exercise scene on top of a building that doesn't fit in with the plot and then have his brother come up and talk with him in order to make it fit into the plot." That's not the love scene with Sheila E., which is reasonably well done and uses the ballad "Tender Love". Unfortunately, the "Tender Love" music is mistakenly reused for a later scene between Russell and Run.

But it's terribly unfair to Krush Groove to try to grade it based on the anodyne story and the musicians who aren't actors. Instead, one really needs to look at it for the quality of the musicianship. This being a musical about the music industry, having all those musical numbers are clearly much less out of place than in a lot of the Freed Unit musicals at MGM back in the day. I wasn't into rap back in the day, but the musical numbers here are a lot of fun, especially Sheila E. who has a tremendous amount of talent (she was part of a family of musicians and a protégée of Prince at the time), along with the Fat Boys who provide the comic relief.

The Fat Boys, in fact, get multiple highlights, with the first being a number the perform in the halls of their high school (no, they don't want to run through the halls of their high school or scream at the top of their lungs). The other big one is when they basically decide to become the Fat Boys, going to an all you can eat buffet at a Sbarro that has incredibly funny visuals to go along with their raps. Of course, nobody stopped to think why you'd want to eat anything at a Sbarro.

If you're into rap and would like to see a movie about the genre's early days, I think you'll have a lot of fun watching Krush Groove. Heck, even if you're not that into rap, it's still a fairly entertaining watch.