On this day in 1951, film director and creative cultural artist Charlie Ahearn was born in Binghamton, New York. Ahearn is best known for his Hip Hop cult classic flick Wild Style, which has become a cultural standard to represent Hip Hop’s origins in the South Bronx.

With the help of Fred Braithwaite aka Fab 5 Freddy and graffiti legend Lee Quiñones, Ahearn began the filming for the movie and finally released it in 1983 in Ties Square, selling out all of its screenings for three weeks straight. Pioneers included in this silver screen classic include the Cold Crush Brothers, the Fantastic Freaks, the Rock Steady Crew, Busy Bee, Grandmaster Flash and more.

Ahearn is saluted among the game’s originators, especially the graffiti writers, who first received a lot of their international recognition because of Wild Style. Salutations and libations for Mr. Aheartn on his 69th trip around the Sun!