Stomp the Yard is a 2007 drama film produced by Rainforest Films and released through Sony Pictures' Screen Gems division on January 12, 2007. Directed by Sylvain
White, Stomp the Yard centers around DJ Williams, a college student at a fictional historically Black university who pledges to join a fictional Greek-letter fraternity. The film's central conflict involves DJ's fraternity
competing in various stepping competitions against a rival fraternity from
the same school. The film's script was written by Robert Adetuyi, working from an
original draft by Gregory Ramon Anderson. The film was originally titled
Steppin', but to avoid confusion over the 2006 film Step Up, the title was
changed.
The film stars Columbus Short, Meagan Good,
Darrin Henson, Brian White, Laz Alonso, and Valerie Pettiford, with Harry Lennix and, in their film debuts, R&B singers Ne-Yo and
Chris Brown. Stomp the Yard was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia on the campuses of Morris Brown College,
Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta
University, and in the MAK Historic District of Decatur, Georgia.
Plot
DJ Williams (Columbus Short) is a krump dancer in
inner-city Los Angeles. He and his younger brother Duron (Chris Brown) compete in local dance competitions as members of a team known as the "Goon Squad".
Primarily due to one final dynamic step from Duron, the Goon Squad win a cash-prize battle held one night at an underground
krumping competition, and the losing home team responds by ambushing DJ and his teammates after the show. A fight breaks out, and
the leader of the rival shoots Duron and kills him.
Arrested for assault, DJ is subsequently sent by his mother to live with his aunt Jackie (Valerie
Pettiford) and uncle Nate (Harry J. Lennix) in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is to attend historically black Truth University. Nate, the physical plant director at Truth, aims to teach DJ responsibility, and puts the boy to work doing
maintenance as part of a work-study program.
While waiting in the line to register for classes, DJ meets a fellow student named April Palmer (Meagan Good), whom he is immediately attracted to. After registration, he moves into his dorm room, where he
meets his new roommate Rich Brown (Ne-Yo). Rich takes DJ to a stepping competition on the green between the Truth chapters of rival fraternities Theta Nu Theta and Mu Gamma Xi. The Mu Gamma Xi team, seven-time national
stepping champions, easily steals the show until DJ sees April across the way and runs right through the Gammas' step line in an
attempt to speak to her. A fight nearly breaks out between the freshman and the Gamma steppers, whose best stepper Grant
(Darrin Henson) is April's boyfriend.
That night, Rich and his friends go out to a local club called the Phoenix and invite DJ along. DJ takes to the dance floor,
hoping to impress April and upstage Grant and the Gammas, all of whom are also in attendance. Despite the animosity between DJ
and Grant, the Gammas recognize DJ's skills as a dancer, and the Gamma chapter's president Zeke (Laz
Alonso) invites DJ to pledge for Mu Gamma Xi. DJ turns down both Zeke's offer as well as an offer from the Theta Nu Theta
chapter's leader Sylvester (Brian White).
After learning that April is a student history tutor, DJ signs himself up for tutoring so that he can spend time with her. The
two slowly begin a friendship, and DJ takes April out to dinner. During their date, April discusses the importance of
black fraternities and sororities with the clueless DJ, and tells him to
visit Heritage Hall on the campus' Greek Row. At Heritage Hall the next day, DJ learns about the significant number of
African-American historical figures and celebrities who were members of various Greek-letter organizations, and decides to pledge
for the Theta chapter along with Rich and their friend Noel (Jermaine Williams). April
eventually leaves Grant for DJ, angering her father, Dr. Palmer (Allan Louis), the school's dean
and a Gamma brother himself.
After "crossing over" to become official Theta members, DJ, Rich, and Noel join the Thetas' step team. Dismissing their
traditional step moves as old-fashioned, DJ teaches his frat brothers a few of his old krumping moves. DJ does not notice that,
while he is practicing a few of his brother's old dance moves, one of the Gammas is secretly videotaping him so that their team
can learn DJ's steps.
Sly disapproves of DJ's attempts to modernize the Thetas' steps, and challenges DJ to a battle at the Phoenix between his line
brothers and DJ's; the new moves against the old. DJ's line brothers lose the competition due to DJ's show-boating, although Sly
agrees to let DJ teach the team some new moves as a compromise.
A few of the Gammas' run a background check on DJ, and learn about his criminal past. This information is forwarded to Dr.
Palmer, who has the school's Ethics Committee suspend DJ for the remainder of the year, preventing him from stepping at the
nationals. Dr. Palmer later offers to reinstate DJ, with the provision that he stop seeing April, an offer DJ refuses. When April
learns from her father why DJ has been suspended, she confronts DJ and learns first-hand the story behind his arrest. DJ's aunt
Jackie, an old girlfriend of Dr. Palmer's, intervenes and confronts the dean herself.
The final round of the nationals stepping competition ends in a tie between the Thetas and the Gammas, and each team is
required to choose a dancer for a head-to-head competition. The Gammas have secretly recorded DJ's practices, and choose Grant,
who has learned all of DJ's steps, as their dancer. However, DJ, reinstated thanks to his aunt's help, shows up in time to be
chosen as the Thetas' dancer. Going first, Grant does DJ's exact routine from the tape. After Grant finishes, DJ matches Grant
move for move, tossing in something the Gammas didn't get on tape: the move Duron performed to win his last competition with the
Goon Squad.
The Theta Nu Theta team is declared the winners of the competition, and DJ is mobbed by his frat brothers as April runs out to
kiss him. The scene is captured in a still black and white photo, which is added to the wall at Heritage Hall.
Cast
Soundtrack album
- "Go Hard or Go Home" - E-40 featuring The
Federation)
- "Vans" - The Pack
- "Poppin'" - Chris Brown
- "Sign Me Up" - Ne-Yo
- "The Champ" - Ghostface Killah
- "Walk It Out" - Unk
- "Pop, Lock, and Drop It" - Huey
- "The Deepest Hood" - Al Kapone
- "Come On" - Bonecrusher featuring Onslaught
- "Supermixx's Black In The Building" - Public Enemy
- "Storm" - Cut Chemist featuring Mr. Lif &
Edan
- "In the Music" - The Roots featuring Malik B &
Porn
- "Ain't Nothing Wrong with That" - Robert Randolph & The Family
Band
- "Bounce Wit Me" - R.E.D. 44
Alpha Phi Alpha boycott threat
A boycott of the film was threatened by Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity and supported by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, due to a conflict
between the organizations and Stomp the Yard producers Will Packer and Rob Hardy (both
members of Alpha Phi Alpha) over the unauthorized use of some of Alpha Phi Alpha's trademarks in the film.[2] The groups ended their threat when Sony Pictures and Screen Gems agreed to
the removal of all references, in the film, to the Fraternity. Sony and Screen Gems made a decision for a donation to the
The Washington D. C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial
Project Foundation, a project of Alpha Phi Alpha.[3]
The offending scenes of Alpha Phi Alpha steppers which were deleted from the final release print appear in both versions of the
Stomp the Yard movie trailer.
Reception
Reviews for Stomp the Yard were mostly unfavorable, resulting in a 23% composite critical approval rating on the
Rotten Tomatoes website. The general consensus was that while the film's dance and
stepping sequences were found to be impressive, its plot was seen as melodramatic and clichéd. [4] Regardless of the critical reviews, however, the film opened at number-one with a
first-weekend gross of $22 million, becoming the first film in three weekends to beat out Night at the Museum at the box office. Stomp the Yard, produced on a budget of $13
million, eventually went on to gross $61 million in the United States and $75 million worldwide. [5] [1]
Sony Pictures held a national high school stepping competition in conjunction with the release of the film. The winning team
was from North Stafford High School in the Washington, DC suburb of Stafford, Virginia.
Notes
See also
- Stepping
- Spike Lee's 1988 film School Daze, which also revolves around fraternity and sorority life at an HBCU. It was also shot on
same the three campuses used in this film.
- Drumline, the 2002 film about marching bands at an HBCU. This movie was also
filmed at the Atlanta campuses and features a similar final competition between rival organizations and individuals.
External links
[www.myspace.com/stomptheyardband]
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