What happens when a young, brash, Neo-hippie white guy meets up with groups of creative Black kids from the poor boroughs of New York City to create music in a whole new way... No musicians, no instruments, no rules.. Just joy, community, and possibility?
It’s 1984, and a hundred bucks and 8 tokens between them can buy four kids with their favorite records under their arms four hours of studio time in a Manhattan penthouse loft recording studio like no other. There’s a renaissance of technology happening before their eyes; digital samplers, a souped-up, vintage twenty-four track tape machine with a thumpin’ low end, a vocal booth overlooking the city twenty-three floors below, with a dope vocal mic, a rad turntable and DJ mixer, and an engineer that’s down with it all, and up all night.
Calliope.
Within these hallowed walls futures are forged. The spark of spontaneous creativity and the desire to unite rather than divide catapults a new philosophy into the music history books forever: whimsy and rhyme is more powerful than the gun.
De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Black Sheep, A Tribe Called Quest, Afrika Bambaataa birth their babies here. The hundred bucks they put down for their first demo turns out to be their lottery ticket to a glorious tomorrow. They become millionaires — suddenly there is before them the great equalizer of their dreams. Hip-hop music. Deep, rolling grooves and a voice. Is there anything more seductive, more to be proud of? To be a leader. To be a kid that a cruel society has crushed so many times, and to rise above…
Now, at last, there are no limits.
But no more. No more, people... no more.