Nas is engaged on adapting the beloved 1984 hip-hop film Beat Avenue for Broadway. Based on The Hollywood Reporter, the rapper is working to develop and create new materials impressed by the unique movie’s soundtrack for the musical that he’ll co-produce. He can be collaborating on the musical stage adaptation with producer Arthur Baker (Afrika Bambaataa, New Order), who served as a co-producer, composer and musical producer on the unique film.
The information was introduced on Friday after a fortieth anniversary screening of Beat Avenue on the Tribeca Pageant and marks the Queens rapper’s first dip into the Broadway world. “Beat Avenue wasn’t only a movie – it unfold the revolution of hip-hop tradition all through the nation and the world. It left an indelible mark, inspiring generations of younger artists and creating new hip-hop followers alike,” Nas mentioned at Tribeca. “It’s a thrill for me to hitch the inventive workforce of Beat Avenue, bringing the uncooked vitality of hip-hop into the material of Broadway. It’s an honor to breathe new life into this iconic work and have a good time its enduring legacy.”
The unique Beat Avenue was a cult traditional launched in 1984 that adopted a DJ, graffiti artist and breakdancer within the South Bronx attempting to make it on the then-new hip-hop scene. Serving as a form of primer for mainstream America on the weather of hip-hop, it starred Rae Daybreak Chong, Gus Davis and Jon Chardiet and featured cameos from a lot of early hip-hop legends, together with DJ Kool Herc, Doug E. Contemporary, Afrika Bambaataa, Soulsonic Power, the New York Metropolis Breakers, Rock Regular Crew, Loopy Legs, Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Livid 5 and extra.
The movie’s authentic soundtrack additionally paid homage to the primary wave of hip-hop icons, together with Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Livid 5, Jazzy Jay, the Treacherous Three with Doug E. Contemporary, Afrika Bambaataa and extra.