Still heavily stuck in this footwork vibe, and with RP Boo dropping one of the genres finest LPs to date this week – Fingers, Bank Pads and Shoe Prints on Planet Mu – it seemed like a good time to revisit this. In 2012 famed underground photo and video kings Tim & Barry traveled to Chicago and created the authorative documentary on the footwork and juke scene.
Tim & Barry know how to do this better than most. It can be argued that their skill lies in taking raw scenes and engaging them with a wider audience without losing authenticity. And what the footwork scene may have been missing might just be some decent documenting of it.
Watching battles or DJ sets on youtube often lead to a feeling of disconnect, with poor quality of footage, sound and stream often combining to make it hard to immerse yourself in it. In some ways that’s the scene; despite it’s growing international recognition it’s still at it’s peak live in Chicago.
Tim & Barry have done a cracking job in their shoot locations and subjects, allowing anyway watching to get lost in the scene. From the basement rehearsal spaces of the dancers to the studios of the producers to the live battles with crews and DJs and even just bombing around in DJ Spinn’s car talking Chicago music history, I’m Tryna Tell You strikes a perfect balance on every aspect of the scene it’s covering. Hell, there’s even a gear porn section for folks like me, but it’s done as you watch a beat in progress, so it’s never excluding the watcher, and doesn’t drag on.
RP Boo, Manny, DJ Earl, Litebulb, Hot, Que and Traxman are among the dancers and in the documentary. There’s even unseen footage of the late great DJ Rashad sliced in, which was turned up during the filmmakers stay in Chi-town.
Even if you’re well over music documentaries, scene stories or even crew history youtube clips, I’d still recommend checking this out. It’s big. And it’s free; the whole documentary was thrown up on the web for the world to view. Check it out below, with press release underneath that again.
via Don’t Watch That
In spring 2012 an entourage from DWT went to Chicago to document the Footwork Scene.
A scene ingrained in the lineage of the City itself, filled with effervescent dancers, storytellers and beat makers. It was single handedly the most unique and in-depth tour we had ever experienced.
Featuring key players on the scene, such as DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, Manny, Traxman and Arpebu. The team navigated through the South and West sides of the windy City living with the GHETTOTEKNITIANZ or as they fondly refer to them self members of Teklife.
They slept on floors, sofas and in dodgy motels with their charming hosts.
All the while managing to obtain un-seen footage from the finest Producers, Footworkers and the good people of Chi-Town.
It’s taken our humble team a long and painstaking while to put this together.
We hope to do the people who shared their homes, talent and ultimately their lives with us, proud.