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About Catalyst
THE STORY
Catalyst: Duro Wicks & Chicago Hip Hop is an independent documentary film about how Duro “Shame Love Tempo” Wicks fell in love with Hip Hop and helped give it a home on the Chicago music scene of the early 1990’s. It examines what made Hip Hop blow up in Chicago so much later than in other cities, how a tiny 100 watt college station became Chicago’s Hip Hop radio powerhouse, why it was so difficult for a young Black entrepreneur to get a party started, and a time when social, political and economic conditions ultimately proved to make Duro’s dream unsustainable, even though it was more successful than anyone ever imagined it could be.
THE CAST
There are still a few more conversations to be had and stories to be heard, but so far the film has interviewed Anthony “DJ Tone B. Nimble” Fields, John “JP Chill” Schauer, Lori "DJ Rapture" Branch, PJ "Black Fist" Khan, Andrew “Gravity” Kirkland, Scott "Ski One" Styles, Omar “TherapyBeats” Johnson, Chris “Cool-Out Chris” Hawkins, Howard Bailey, Rob McKay, Amina Norman-Hawkins, Mary Datcher, Rick Wojcik, Mario Smith, Leigh Jones, Yung Savolainen, Angela "Ang13" Zone, Jonah "J Fabulous" Robinson, Johnnie "Bizczar Sinista" Robinson, DJ Duane Powell, Los "Aztec Dinero" Durand, Kevin Beacham, Darrell "Artistic" Roberts & Rico "Kingdom Rock" Sanders Sr. of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum, Kim Dulaney of the DuSable Museum of African American History, Leor Galil of the Chicago Reader and Duro "Shame Love Tempo" Wicks.
THE TEAM
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER - Dave Steck
CO-PRODUCER - Duro Wicks
MUSIC & BEATS - Dug Infinite
EDITOR - Patty Schumann
SOUND MIXER - Thomas Ryan
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE - Media Burn Archive, Robert Benevides
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS - Chezik Tsunoda, DJ 33 1/3, Harley Hessel, Kiyoshi Najita, Lora Branch, Simone Koehlinger, Angali Fedson Hack
