j and i watched “the wackness” last night. set in nyc in 1994, the plot centres around the relationship between a newly-graduated, dope-dealing teen, and his dope-smoking, bipolar psychiatrist as they both grapple with the disillusionment and angst of growing up.

but as intriguing as this unusual pretext is, what really made me fall for this movie was the backdrop. from the first dropped beat, the music transported me straight back to a time when new york was the detonation point for the culture bomb that was rap/hip-hop. biggie smalls, wu tang, tribe called quest, krs-one… those formed the soundtrack of some of the best years of my life. in 1994 nyc, i was completely saturated with the haze of 40 oz malt liquors and blunts, the insistent vibe of bumpin’ rooftop parties and bass-heavy hip hop, the raw edge of scraping by and living cheap, and the pure adrenaline of being young and alive and in love in the greatest city in the world.

it was absolute intoxication, an irreplicable speedball concoction. and like any drug, that space and place and time brought some of the highest highs, and lowest lows – yet through it all, only the music and friends and dreams mattered. boiled down to the bare essentials as you can only live when you’re 22, the distillation of that experience changed me completely and turned my heart and head inside out. i would live in new york for many more years before moving on, but none was more seminal than that.

singing along, the music in the film resonates deeply – but at the end what the viewer finds is that, in spite of all the strange characters, “the wackness” is, at its core, a classic coming of age story.

and new york in 1994 was mine.

notorious b.i.g. – juicy

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