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Freestyle - The Art of Rhyme director Kevin Fitzgerald
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Aug 10, 2005
Many aspects of hip-hop culture have been put into context with such as DJing with Doug Pray’s Scratch, graffiti art with Wild Style and breakdancing with Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. But now it’s freestyle’s turn with Kevin Fitzgerald aka DJ Organic’s film Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme.
It’s just been released by Palm Pictures and it has interviews with such hip-hop luminaries as Supernatural, Mos Def, Black Thought & ?uestlove of the Roots, Freestyle Fellowship, Lord Finesse, Cut Chemist, Craig G, Juice, DJ Kool Herc, Boots of the Coup, Medusa, Planet Asia, Sway, Crazy Legs, Jurasic-5, Wordsworth, Bobitto Garcia, and The Last Poets.
Buy the DVD of Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme
Daniel Robert Epstein: You finished this film a while ago; it must be a relief to have it finally come out.
Kevin Fitzgerald: Yeah it is kind of a relief. But you know there’s still always stuff to deal with.
DRE:
Like what?
KF:
There are always loose ends to tie up. I got to go to Europe and release it out there which is not the worst thing in the world.
DRE:
Why did it take so long to come out on DVD?
KF:
This is a film that I started basically shooting with a borrowed Hi-8 video camera back in 1993. I never really owned a camera, except for a Super-8 back when I was in college. It was just getting friends in the industry to help so it was just a total grassroots type of effort. We never really had a budget or anything like that. I kind of learned how to be a filmmaker through making this film.
DRE:
How were you able to get to interview all of these great people?
KF:
Since I started out as a DJ I knew all these cats. Also I would be introduced to really good freestylers and MCs and one thing led to another and eventually they got into the film. We couldn’t get everybody in there but the people that I really respected and appreciated as artists did.
DRE:
I’m sure some of the people that still live in New York and aren’t as famous anymore weren’t that hard to get, but what about someone like Mos Def?
KF:
I had the attitude that I really wanted to make this film and really nothing was going to stop me and I think people kind of respected that. It was a strong project so eventually we got the people that we wanted. We actually wanted to get Eminem in there but even though I’m not a huge fan of his. But technically, he’s a really good MC. It was funny, because his management was totally against him being in the film because, I didn’t even know it at the time, but some of the MCs in the film actually beat him in various battles. Eventually we got the footage but by that time 8 Mile was almost coming out and he basically didn’t want to have nothing to do with us.
DRE:
That’s funny. Who were the guys that beat him?
KF:
Otherwize, Wordsworth and Juice.
DRE:
I would imagine this film is a little bit controversial in the hip-hop world because you start off with people saying Kool Herc started the movement and a lot of people don’t believe he started anything.
KF:
Yeah, it’s funny you go to have some college screenings in the Midwest and you meet these young kids, white kids mostly, and when you start talking about the Bronx and African culture and hip-hop, some of the kids don’t buy it. It’s kind of trippy, because, in Jamaica, they were actually copying some of the stuff they were hearing off of R&B records of. Such as the scatting DJs like Wolfman Jack and people like that, and stuff that they would hear from short-wave radio that would come from New Orleans and stuff.
There were even DJs before Kool Herc in New York in the different boroughs that were doing stuff. But in terms of Hip-hop culture and the B-Boys breaking and the whole thing of actually taking the two records and the breaks and putting them together, he definitely is the one who kind of started that first. There’s obviously Grandmaster Flash and DJ Hollywood, even though he was more disco and stuff and DJ Pete Jones. You can go on forever and make different arguments about that, but to me freestyling at it’s essence just embodies so much of what hip-hop is about.
DRE:
Did some people not want to talk because of someone that was already in the film?
KF:
Maybe only once or twice but out of 13 years that’s pretty a good thing. Some people were not so down to share their knowledge or their music with us but after a while they figured out what we were doing. We would show them the film and they would be down.
DRE:
Who owns all this footage that was used in the film?
KF:
We got some of it from the people who talked to us and also the BBC owns a lot of it. We licensed a lot of the footage from the BBC and it’s like $100 a second. I thought that was ridiculous. But now I realize that it’s actually not that expensive. It’s kind of trippy that the British own a lot of this old hip-hop footage. But they were on it and they studied the stuff. It’s funny because Americans don’t really think of hip-hop culture as being as valuable as other people do. It’s kind of a wake-up call for us; we’ve got to take care of our hip-hop.
DRE:
What kind of extras are on the DVD?
KF:
We have outtakes, more freestyles and interviews, things like that. I wish I could have made it a little more beefy, but the guy who was authoring the DVD; was out of Australia so it was a little hard. But now I’m doing a European version that’s going to be off the hook.
DRE:
I read that you made the film with a younger audience in mind.
KF:
No! I guess I consider myself young too but I’m just a fan of hip-hop and I want to share what I experience with people. We had a big debate when I was working with my editors because they’re like, “Who do you want this film to appeal to, blah blah. You want to be able to have the little old lady in Indiana who doesn’t know anything about hip-hop except that her grandson is into it and you also want it to be appealing to the kid that watches 106 and Park Freestyle Friday.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s true.” So I think we had a good balance of all the elements.
DRE:
They stole Freestyle Friday from my show. I worked on a show called Studio Y on MetroTV.
KF:
With Monie Love! We were actually on that show. You guys should have trademarked Freestyle Friday.
DRE:
I know! We didn’t think anyone was watching!
What is your next film about?
KF:
It’s a love story. I can’t do no more documentaries for a while man. But I want to shoot it in the style of a documentary. We’re actually going to go over to Japan because half the film takes place in Tokyo and half of it happens in the Bay Area. It’s a hip-hop love story.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Many aspects of hip-hop culture have been put into context with such as DJing with Doug Pray’s Scratch, graffiti art with Wild Style and breakdancing with Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. But now it’s freestyle’s turn with Kevin Fitzgerald aka DJ Organic’s film Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme.
It’s just been released by Palm Pictures and it has interviews with such hip-hop luminaries as Supernatural, Mos Def, Black Thought & ?uestlove of the Roots, Freestyle Fellowship, Lord Finesse, Cut Chemist, Craig G, Juice, DJ Kool Herc, Boots of the Coup, Medusa, Planet Asia, Sway, Crazy Legs, Jurasic-5, Wordsworth, Bobitto Garcia, and The Last Poets.
Buy the DVD of Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme
Daniel Robert Epstein: You finished this film a while ago; it must be a relief to have it finally come out.
Kevin Fitzgerald: Yeah it is kind of a relief. But you know there’s still always stuff to deal with.
DRE:
Like what?
KF:
There are always loose ends to tie up. I got to go to Europe and release it out there which is not the worst thing in the world.
DRE:
Why did it take so long to come out on DVD?
KF:
This is a film that I started basically shooting with a borrowed Hi-8 video camera back in 1993. I never really owned a camera, except for a Super-8 back when I was in college. It was just getting friends in the industry to help so it was just a total grassroots type of effort. We never really had a budget or anything like that. I kind of learned how to be a filmmaker through making this film.
DRE:
How were you able to get to interview all of these great people?
KF:
Since I started out as a DJ I knew all these cats. Also I would be introduced to really good freestylers and MCs and one thing led to another and eventually they got into the film. We couldn’t get everybody in there but the people that I really respected and appreciated as artists did.
DRE:
I’m sure some of the people that still live in New York and aren’t as famous anymore weren’t that hard to get, but what about someone like Mos Def?
KF:
I had the attitude that I really wanted to make this film and really nothing was going to stop me and I think people kind of respected that. It was a strong project so eventually we got the people that we wanted. We actually wanted to get Eminem in there but even though I’m not a huge fan of his. But technically, he’s a really good MC. It was funny, because his management was totally against him being in the film because, I didn’t even know it at the time, but some of the MCs in the film actually beat him in various battles. Eventually we got the footage but by that time 8 Mile was almost coming out and he basically didn’t want to have nothing to do with us.
DRE:
That’s funny. Who were the guys that beat him?
KF:
Otherwize, Wordsworth and Juice.
DRE:
I would imagine this film is a little bit controversial in the hip-hop world because you start off with people saying Kool Herc started the movement and a lot of people don’t believe he started anything.
KF:
Yeah, it’s funny you go to have some college screenings in the Midwest and you meet these young kids, white kids mostly, and when you start talking about the Bronx and African culture and hip-hop, some of the kids don’t buy it. It’s kind of trippy, because, in Jamaica, they were actually copying some of the stuff they were hearing off of R&B records of. Such as the scatting DJs like Wolfman Jack and people like that, and stuff that they would hear from short-wave radio that would come from New Orleans and stuff.
There were even DJs before Kool Herc in New York in the different boroughs that were doing stuff. But in terms of Hip-hop culture and the B-Boys breaking and the whole thing of actually taking the two records and the breaks and putting them together, he definitely is the one who kind of started that first. There’s obviously Grandmaster Flash and DJ Hollywood, even though he was more disco and stuff and DJ Pete Jones. You can go on forever and make different arguments about that, but to me freestyling at it’s essence just embodies so much of what hip-hop is about.
There were even DJs before Kool Herc in New York in the different boroughs that were doing stuff. But in terms of Hip-hop culture and the B-Boys breaking and the whole thing of actually taking the two records and the breaks and putting them together, he definitely is the one who kind of started that first. There’s obviously Grandmaster Flash and DJ Hollywood, even though he was more disco and stuff and DJ Pete Jones. You can go on forever and make different arguments about that, but to me freestyling at it’s essence just embodies so much of what hip-hop is about.
DRE:
Did some people not want to talk because of someone that was already in the film?
KF:
Maybe only once or twice but out of 13 years that’s pretty a good thing. Some people were not so down to share their knowledge or their music with us but after a while they figured out what we were doing. We would show them the film and they would be down.
DRE:
Who owns all this footage that was used in the film?
KF:
We got some of it from the people who talked to us and also the BBC owns a lot of it. We licensed a lot of the footage from the BBC and it’s like $100 a second. I thought that was ridiculous. But now I realize that it’s actually not that expensive. It’s kind of trippy that the British own a lot of this old hip-hop footage. But they were on it and they studied the stuff. It’s funny because Americans don’t really think of hip-hop culture as being as valuable as other people do. It’s kind of a wake-up call for us; we’ve got to take care of our hip-hop.
DRE:
What kind of extras are on the DVD?
KF:
We have outtakes, more freestyles and interviews, things like that. I wish I could have made it a little more beefy, but the guy who was authoring the DVD; was out of Australia so it was a little hard. But now I’m doing a European version that’s going to be off the hook.
DRE:
I read that you made the film with a younger audience in mind.
KF:
No! I guess I consider myself young too but I’m just a fan of hip-hop and I want to share what I experience with people. We had a big debate when I was working with my editors because they’re like, “Who do you want this film to appeal to, blah blah. You want to be able to have the little old lady in Indiana who doesn’t know anything about hip-hop except that her grandson is into it and you also want it to be appealing to the kid that watches 106 and Park Freestyle Friday.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s true.” So I think we had a good balance of all the elements.
DRE:
They stole Freestyle Friday from my show. I worked on a show called Studio Y on MetroTV.
KF:
With Monie Love! We were actually on that show. You guys should have trademarked Freestyle Friday.
DRE:
I know! We didn’t think anyone was watching!
What is your next film about?
What is your next film about?
KF:
It’s a love story. I can’t do no more documentaries for a while man. But I want to shoot it in the style of a documentary. We’re actually going to go over to Japan because half the film takes place in Tokyo and half of it happens in the Bay Area. It’s a hip-hop love story.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
