30th anniversary of the movie the Warriors

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Warriors Trailer

Warriors come out to play…

A late 70’s tense warping and fazing synthesizer sets the scene. The electrically lit Wonder Wheel lights up the night-time in a place resembling Coney Island, home turf to our anti-heroes The Warriors.
Cleon is about to lead The Warriors into a dangerous game.

Switch view to a place resembling the Bronx. The landscape is 1979 pre hip-hop.

Tonight The Warriors will enter unknown gang territory for a classic and fatal meeting organised by gangster overlord Cyrus. If there ever was THE definitive gang related incident waiting to happen, then this is it.

Cyrus has iconic status to cult film freaks, those that don’t know who Cyrus is, are minor league players; like The Orphans. Cyrus is leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the biggest and most feared gang in this Bronx simulation. this man has gangster status like Tupac Shakur, hiphop credentials like Afrika

Bambaataa.

Enter The Warriors 9: Cleon, Swan, Ajax, Cochise, The Fox, Snowball, Vermin, Rembrandt and Cowboy.

[Side note 1: A real life Cowboy who would have been fixated to the movie screen would have been Cowboy from Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. Melle Mel in an interview stated "Cowboy came up with the phrase hip hop! "He did it all. It just so happened that he passed at a young age and that’s what really put a void in Grand Master and The Furious Five".]

Warriors leader, Cleon, sets off play:

“Cyrus don’t want anybody packed, he don’t want no one flexing any muscle.”
“What do u know about Cyrus?” Vermin, the young Warrior asks.
“Magic… a whole lotta magic.” States Cochise the Red Indian clad black foot soldier.
“He’s the one and only” assures Rembrandt, the light-skinned afro-haired Warrior with spray can in hand. “When you’re president of the biggest gang in the city you don’t have to take no shit”
Ajax, the wild card, is much more cynical “AHH FUCK HIM”.
But then again Swan says Ajax was “never that smart”…
“I’m smart enough” sneer’s Ajax…Ajax and his idea of smart gets him a stomach full of night stick

Only Cyrus has the juice to call a meeting of this magnitude, 9 delegates from every gang (apart from The Orphans), 9 unarmed delegates.

In a place resembling Central Park, Cyrus addresses the hoards of hair trigger gang members. Every gang (apart from The Orphans!!), from the Baseball Furies to the Punks, the Highhats to the Boppers are there.

Exclusive rub: Dilla vs Warriors, an IG edit. Can u dig it?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Cyrus speaks from a makeshift wooden podium surrounded by Riff soldiers…

“CAN U COUNT? CAN U COUNT SUCKAS!?”

“We’ve the The Sarcens sitting next to the Jones Street Boys“… “We’ve got the Moon runners right by The Vancortlandt Rangers”… “Nobody is wasting nobody”… “That is a miracle”… “And miracles is how things ought to be”.

[Side note 2: You can imagine Afrika Bambaataa nodding in approval as he watched. Bambaataa's gang the Black Spades could have been there if this was real life...He could surely relate to ‘the miracle’, growing up among gangs like the Savage Skulls, the Savage Nomads, Seven Crowns and the Seven Immortals... In real life, Bambaataa made ‘the miracle’ materialise into the Zulu Nation.]

“I SAY THE FUTURE IS OURS IF YOU CAN COUNT!”

Cyrus fully understands strength in numbers. The Riffs are the biggest gang in the city, Cyrus has done the math, “9 delegates from 100 gangs and there’s over a 100 more”…

“That’s 20,000 hard core members, 40,000 counting affiliates, 20,000 not organized but ready to fight… and there ain’t but 20 000 police in the whole town”

“CAN U DIG IT!! CAN U DIG IT!!! CAAAN YOUU DIGGG ITTTT! ”

The masses in the park erupt at that moment, probably waking up most of those 20,000 police. If you haven’t realised that you were watching a movie with cult status of seismic proportions, then it’s probably past your bedtime…

“One gang could run this city… all we have to do is keep up the general truce. We take over one borough at a time. Secure our territory. Secure our turf.”

Cyrus is articulate, charismatic and convincing; sinister, totally insane, but hella hella Gangsta!! Gangland is in the palm of his hands for a split second. His plan is flawed to say the least, but hey it’s only a movie,

Enter Luther lurking in the shadows, the deranged leader of The Rogues.Their sole purpose is bloody havoc.

And havoc is exactly what is about to happen as the Rogues pass the concealed handgun secretly from hand to hand until it finally reaches the murderous Luther.

Cyrus is wide eyed…wired…arms held high relishing his moment as gangster messiah,the shouts and roars of the rabble is testiment to his supremacy, it is to be his last act as the bullet smashes into his body….a leering Luther holds a smoking gun. it begins…THE BODY COUNT!!!

The events that follow, unfold a legendary tale of a wrongly accused gang hunted down like dogs, through the fiercely guarded territories of the boroughs of this imaginary New York, Bopping heads all the way back home, is the only chance of survival.

Cyrus got wasted,.. a bullet has ended talk of miracles…For now…

“BECAUSE WE GOT THE STREETS SUKKAZ”

Shottsman