Greenroom Magazine's Second Issue Is Available Now
@greenroom_mag's Second Issue Is Available Now
After the well-received release of their inaugural issue a few months back, the Minneapolis-based publication Greenroom Magazine has shown brand-expanding progressions into the digital world just in time for the second issue to hit the stands with a streamlined website and bubbling video content. Closed Sessions’ co-founder Alexander Fruchter wrote the first issue’s cover story on Chance The…
[Industry Insight] Alexander Fruchter Discusses Physical Goods in a Digital Age
[Industry Insight] @DJ_RTC Discusses Physical Goods in a Digital Age
Upon seeing the huge response we received for our industry interviews with the owners of prominent Chicago brands Bucketfeet, Cool Socks Bruh and Dope Boy Magic, I was thinking of ways we could offer our readers the same direct knowledge to normally-unseen facets of the industry within a new medium. While many artists and listeners focus on the actual music in the realm of an artist’s career,…
We Are Not Playing - An Interview with Pusha T of The Clipse
originally published 11.23.06
The Clipse, The Clipse, The Clipse, that's who people are talking about now. The waiting is about to come to an end, and their new album, Hell Hath No Fury will be in stores in less than a week. The album has gotten rave reviews both in magazines, and in the streets. It's all good then right? Not according to Pusha T. He is frustrated on how things are going, and with good cause. Despite the acclaim and the accolades, the Clipse are absent from heavy rotation on MTV and BET, as well as radio stations across the country.
I was eating dinner with one of our videographers last night, and he asked me if I could remember being involved in music before the Internet? If I could go back to what things were like, and what exactly I was doing? This videographer is roughly a decade younger than me, and also a transplant to Chicago. I'm sure the half-baked memories and fuzzy strategies I recalled still sounded incredibly foreign to him, and others that have professionally and culturally grown up in the full-on digital age of the music business.
I do like to go back and think about that time, the mid-2000's, when major labels were still spending money, there were hardly any blogs, and while downloading was happening - free mixtapes and a feeling of entitlement were both in early infant stages.
For me, Lupe had a lot to offer. He was from Chicago. He was a supreme lyricist. And he embraced a role as a "hip hop nerd". A big theme in my classroom was "Knowledge Is King". It was a slogan that I made the students write on all their assignments and it hung from the bulletin board right above the center of the blackboard in the center of the room. I brought in music - and later wrote a curriculum - using Hip Hop songs to teach sociology and psychology. Lupe was not only someone that made great records, he brought value to my classroom and fed my need for inspiration - teaching in Englewood can get very bleak - music and being able to interview such talented people served as a huge lifeline for me at that time.
I remember leaving school just as the bell rang in order to make it down to my parents apartment in Hyde Park, just east of my school. I did practically all my interviews there, since I could record the conversation on their landline and many of my interviews took place very close to the final bell, not giving me much time to get back to my own apartment. It was there that I first interviewed Lupe. The label scheduled the interview to be done within striking distance of his debut album, originally slated to released June 27th. The album leaked and then got pushed back, eventually being released in the fall.
Even back then, Lupe expressed thoughts and feelings that he still holds onto today, in fact, you could say many of his thoughts & ideals appear more steadfast and stronger than ever in 2013. Get a hindsight-ed view of that evolution in this old interview with Lupe Fiasco.
originally published 5.11.06
Lupe Fiasco's recent mainstream success is nothing new or surprising to the Chicago emcee. He's been a Hip Hop artist for many years, and already has the respect of your favorite rapper. While some fans just catching on may hear "Kick Push" and view him as Chicago's answer to Skateboard P, there are others who know that Lupe has a style all his own. His debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor is set to drop June 27th, and Lupe has a lot going on as the release date nears. SoundSlam recently caught up with "Cornell Westside" to discuss the album, it's recent leak on the Internet, and just how he feels about being called a "Hip Hop nerd." Check it out.
Alexander Fruchter: When and where did you come up with the name, Lupe Fiasco?
Lupe Fiasco: I got the name Lupe Fiasco in high school. I had a friend named Lupe. My name is Wasalu, so I was always rapping under Lu, cause when you shorten it, it would be Lu. People would call me Lu. So Lupe wasn't that much of a stretch. I just took his name cause we were kind of like good friends. Fiasco came from the Firm album. They had the song, "Firm Fiasco." I just liked the way it looked on paper. And so it's like, Lupe...Fiasco.
Alexander Fruchter: Can I ask where did you go to high school, what high school did you go to?
Lupe Fiasco: Thorton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois.
Alexander Fruchter: I'm actually calling you, and am from the Southside of Chicago, Hyde Park.
Lupe Fiasco: Oh word.
Alexander Fruchter: Being from there I've been exposed to all kinds of different cultures and ideas. It really made me who I am, and I heard you kind of say similar things. I was just wondering how Chicago's layout, and the way the city works, has impacted you and your music?
Lupe Fiasco: Well, cause it's segregated, which can be good and bad. But that segregation means that's there's just clots of ethnic groups and stuff like that. Seeing as how we were Muslim, our family was Muslim, so we would go to different mosques around the city. Each mosque would be in a different community, so it would be a different ethnic group. It would Pakistanis, it would be Indians, it would be Palestinians, or it would be Africans, or it would be whatever. And then being in the martial arts we also had karate schools all over the city. So I was always all over the city in different neighborhoods. I got to see a lot of different people. We would go to China Town on a regular basis, so you would see nothing but Chinese people. You would just be in there, and you would be like, 'OK...' Then later on that day we'd be at a mosque somewhere, there'd be nothing but Palestinian people. It's like we were almost traveling the world. Since it would be so concentrated, their culture would be really thick. Not like in New York where it's all together and everybody kind of has the same culture....On the Westside where it's all Mexican, it's like you went to Mexico. I got exposed to a lot of different cultures.
Alexander Fruchter: You've received a lot of praise and respect from a lot of people in Hip Hop, Kanye West, Jay-Z. Since you have their backing and respect, how important is it for you to get the commercial success with the album?
Lupe Fiasco: Ummm, it's more for the company. I want to see the company succeed. Just as much as I like Hip Hop and the whole thing, I like business. I want to build a company that's successful. This particular company, 1st and 15th, depends on the commercial success of the album. It kind of rolls into-I got my kudos for being a rapper. I'm not really in Hip Hop for that, because I got it early. Now it's like, I want to see my company succeed. I want to see my artists get their shine, and get their kudos, and put them in position for that, and see my company do different joint ventures and different things with different companies. All that depends on the success of my album.
Alexander Fruchter: "Kick Push" is getting a lot of play right now. When I was listening to it, I know it's about skateboarding, but I also thought it could be about how people get through life. You kick and push, and then you coast, searching for your place. Was that running through your head at all when writing it?
Lupe Fiasco: Yeah. I speak double entoundres a lot. I write that, that's one my things that I tried to master to do in my music. Even in my writing, I try to put that in my writing as well. It means a lot. I like to make music where people ingest it and make it their own. I leave it blank enough, vague enough for people to insert their own meaning into it. That was kind of the purpose of the jaunt. It was deliberate. I meant for it to be like that. I do that a lot. Kids will go through my songs like, "Failure." They'll find four, five different meanings for one record, for one line in a song, so, yeah.
Alexander Fruchter: I also read somewhere that the title has a lot of meaning as well, and involves the balance of good and evil. How is that balance explored on this album?
Lupe Fiasco: It's more subtle. It's more speaking to hypocrisy. A lot of it is injected into particular songs, as opposed to being the whole layout of the album. I didn't want the whole album to be this whole thing about good and bad. And it speaks to subtle issues, like hypocrisy, and what goes on in the world on a social level, and then to a further extent on a political level, and trying to find some solution to it on the album. I address that all as liquor. But then it's like, 'how do you get passed it?' I'm not really trying to answer that on this album, because I still got two more albums to go. I only plan on doing like 3 albums. It's just, a meal is a good starting point. And it spoke from the basic where just most of the stores in Chicago are called Food and Liquor. It speaks to that aesthetic, which to me is just specific and particular to Chicago, because I haven't seen that anywhere else. It kind of like pays homage to that.
Alexander Fruchter: I've also seen articles in which you are referred to as Hip Hop's whiz kid, or somewhat of a nerd. They're complimenting your uniqueness, and also creativity. Do you ever think those comments show people's low expectations for creativity and originality within Hip Hop music? Like, 'here's this kid. He comes along and he's Hip Hop's whiz kid,' while you're just being yourself. It's like, 'damn the ceiling's that low that I'm so, so creative.'
Lupe Fiasco: I've never really looked at it as like a, like they used that statement to, 'OK, now Hip Hop is dumb.' I just think Hip Hop is really violent right now. But it's so violent that it's becoming numb to the violence that creates it, and to the people that are a party to it. I think when they see nerd, most of those writers are nerds. Most people who run a magazine, they're just the same, we can relate on the same level. I think it really just speaks to that. I don't think they're really trying to make a comment on Hip Hop. I think the comment on Hip Hop is that it's violent. That's it. It's not that people are stupid, or that they don't know any better. You have some people that just are numb to it. They get in the studio, they might break down the whole encyclopedia on the way to the studio, they'll break down the entire fall of Rome. Then they get into the studio, and the only thing that comes out of there mouth is 'crack cocaine this, crack cocaine that.' I don't want to question the IQ of any other rapper. I don't want to bring that into play, but it's still something.
Alexander Fruchter: I'm a teacher, and I give my students quotes everyday. One of the mottos of our class is "Knowledge Is King/" I'm trying to show them that it is cool to be smart, and to be a nerd in a sense. You don't have to give up all of yourself to be smart.
Lupe Fiasco: Yeah. I got that lesson from Cornell West. And that's why I'm [sometimes called] Cornell Westside, just to pay homage to him. He said you really want to make change, if you want to do that, you got to make it hip to be square. It's true. The cool stuff is the stuff that kind of takes you off your game and leads to necessity, and leads to want and excess, which leads to waste, which leads to pollution, which leads to all type of other things. So it's really trying to get kids to focus on like 'yo, focus on the regular stuff first. Focus on math. It's cool to know the square root of 75.'
Alexander Fruchter: It kind of reminds me of something you said earlier and I want to read it to you, and then ask you a question about it. You said, "What you put out into the world comes back to you. You actually change the world with what you do. I want to put some good in the world." How important is it for us, just as humans in our regular day-to-day life, as well as artists to understand that statement? Do you feel people really do understand that?
Lupe Fiasco: I don't think the grand plan is for everybody to get it. I think it's only a few people that are really going to try to do something. I think some people have aspirations. I think certain people have no aspirations. I think certain people are acting on their aspirations, and certain people don't. But, I definitely think that people should try to make the conscious effort to not, to refrain from certain things, or aide and assist in certain things, especially when it comes to kids. We won't change the world. Our children won't change the world. Our children's children will change the world. You have to teach your kids so they grow up in an environment where they're oblivious to the past. And then they'll teach that to their kids, cause that will be all they know. All they'll know is, you should do this. You shouldn't do this. This is cool now. It's cool to be, like you said; it's cool to be a nerd. So just imagine if your kids think it's cool to be a nerd. They'll teach their kids like, 'this is cool.' Then it's going to be like Super-Nerds. Then eventually, hopefully they'll build a machine that cleans the air, and builds houses...all the regular stuff. I think it's very important for people to understand that just to live in a better society.
Alexander Fruchter: Your album is set to come out June 27th. You've been working for a while. Now with a few months to go, are you starting to feel any extra excitement, anxiety, or nervousness with the release date pending? I know some of it leaked out earlier. I'm just wondering how your feelings are changing now that we're getting closer and closer.
Lupe Fiasco: I think the anxiety level goes up because of the actual just technical things that go on within the building and the record label, and particular situation in Chicago with my crew, with my record label. So really it's just trying to get those two machines to align in the same direction. So the anxiety comes in that. It doesn't really come in "prove a point." Because to me, the points are already proven. I always say I'm not out to really change the world. The point's been proven. And even with the leak, it's really been proven, cause they're like, 'yo, it's like Illmatic. You got a lot of people walking around like, 'I don't know if Lupe's album's going to be hot. Food And Liquor is like Chicken And Beer, and I don't really get blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's a skateboard nerd.' Then when the leak comes the kids are like, 'he had no other songs on the album where he's talking about skateboards. There's really some social-this, that, and the third. He can rhyme.' Kids that never heard the mixtape, and they just go from "Touch The Sky" with cartoon reference and then "Kick Push" with skateboards and then they get to hear a version of the album.... 'Oh snap! Oh man!' So, not really, I'm actually more comfortable because that weight is off my shoulders of proving to people that this album could possibly be something great.
Alexander Fruchter: You are a real smart guy, mellow right now. If you weren't doing music, what other career might you be pursuing right now?
Lupe Fiasco: I would probably be in theater, a theater tech. Or possibly into some design work, or toy work, or something like that. Or maybe in the field of science, I'm just not good at math. That's what killed my scientific learning, I suck at math. I'd probably be in the theater somewhere. All through high school I did the theater, like sounds, and lights, and things like that.
Ricky Powell was forever locked into the brains of millions of Hip Hop fans when the Beastie Boys rapped, “Homeboy throw in the towel, your girl got dicked by Ricky Powell” during the song “Car Thief” on their sophomore record, Paul’s Boutique. But that’s nothing compared to the people, places, and things that are forever locked in time thanks to Ricky Powell and his and point and shoot mentality. Powell is much more than a Beastie Boys’ reference, but the fact alone that they mention him is just a further testament to his position and purpose during the rise of Hip Hop music and culture in New York City.
Another photographer, John Ricard said this about Ricky Powell, “The guys like Ricky Powell, Glen E. Friedman, and Ernie Paniccioli…They captured a culture, and captured a moment in time. There are guys like Ernie Paniccioli who say ‘I am Hip Hop.’ And I admire that and I respect that because they embody that…I might like to say that, but I’m not sure how true it is.”
“I always say, ‘show me what you got..the questions,” Ricky explained to me. “Cause there’s a few, yo…One time I had a f**king dude that was going to interview me cause I had some Converse come out last year, some hemp ones…his questions were unbelievably retarded. It was so bad. I told them, ‘I’m not doing the interview with this dude. He’s a f**king idiot.’ They kicked him to the curb and got somebody else. I was like, ‘OK. These are better.’ I’m not trying to waste my time with idiots. I’m not trying to go backwards…I saw your questions, I was like, ‘Ok. This kid’s intelligent.’ I like intellectual stimulation. It has to be reciprocal and mutual for something to be worthwhile, not that I’m f**king Socrates, but that’s just how I feel about it…”
Ricky Powell has a matter of fact way of telling his story. He speaks about his photography in a way that seems to underscore its importance, and while doing so only illustrates further how important he has been to street photography in NYC as well as Hip Hop’s early days. He is a definitely a man of principal who believes firmly in giving credit where credit is due, and always asks before taking a photo.
“You know the paparazzi stake out people and take their pictures like roaches. Me, I’d rather ask. Even just yesterday I ran into my puiblisher, Sarah Rosen, we were walking and I saw people with really nice dogs. I stopped and said, ‘yo, excuse me, can I get a picture of your dogs?’ They’d be like, ‘yeah, OK.’ And I’d be like, ‘thank you.’ And they say, ‘yeah, you’re welcome.’ That exchange, does it for me. It’s like scoring a three pointer. It feels good and everybody wins.”
Ricky Powell is winning right now. The European market has taken up a new interest in his work, and he has also been successfully selling reprints of his famous photos. But, that’s not to say all the times have been easy. In this Ruby Hornet exclusive, Ricky Powell talks about staying in the photography game through the ups and downs, biting versus innovating, and speaks on the line that made him famous.
Alexander Fruchter: How do you feel about the title of Hip Hop photographer? Do you consider yourself as such? How has the meaning of that changed over the last 20-25 years?
Ricky Powell: I don’t mind…These people call me that, but I don’t do it anymore. I started taking pictures seriously in the spring of ’85. I would go up to the Apollo and photograph groups like Kurtis Blow and Joski Love. I liked it then, throughout the ’80’s. I don’t do that anymore. Now I just want to be known as who I am, Ricky Powell, and do different things. I take pictures, I write, do a little video. But if people want to refer to me as that, it’s fine. I’m not mad at it.
Alexander Fruchter: I guess there’s worse things to be called…
Ricky Powell: Yeah. Like corny…My main forte right now is street photography.
Alexander Fruchter: Can you explain a little bit how that may differ, because a lot of people may interchange the two Hip Hop photography/street photography, they may not know the difference.
Ricky Powell: Well, Hip Hop photography is taking pictures at the parties or concerts, but the street photography is bringing my camera where ever I’m walking around, running errands. I just like street life. It’s more interesting to me. Especially when you look at the images. When you take a picture of anything on the street, it could be a quick little moment of anything, someone petting a dog, two people relating, you just take that moment when you snap a photo. You preserve it, and that could be an iconic moment…It’s just more intellectually and visually stimulating to me. It has a long lineage, I like street photographers from the past. There’s history in it.
Alexander Fruchter: When you look back at the photos you were taking earlier in your career and the photos you’re taking now, what would you say is your growth even or change in technique or style? Have you picked up certain things, what goes through your mind when you look at old photos?
Ricky Powell: Bascially I just use a point and shoot camera so I shoot whatever I like. Mainly I try to put whatever’s in front of me in a certain composition as far as shooting it vertical or horizontal. It’s just capturing moments basically, that’s it. Then and now, I capture moments. I’m against it, but people catch butterflies because they want to preserve them, my style’s the same.
Alexander Fruchter: A rapper might have a first record at 19 or 20 and then they may continue to rap into their 30’s, it’s easier for the audience to hear a growth or maturation because they’re listening and hearing the thoughts and feelings. Have you noticed you like to take pictures of certain things as you’ve gotten older or you’re interests have changed?
Ricky Powell: Wth Hip Hop, yeah definitely. I’m not interested in it anymore. It’s real weak to me now. I have no interest in it whatsoever.
Alexander Fruchter: Even on a musical level? What are you listening to?
Ricky Powell: I just listen to jazz. That’s it. I listen to jazz and a classic rock station and an oldies station. That’s it, maybe some classical music, but the only Hip Hop I like is from the 80’s. I was actually hanging out with Fab 5 Freddy the other day. We were doing something for Puma and the 20th anniversary of Yo MTV Raps! We had a goof, it was cool. Walt Frazier showed up. I was talking to Freddy. He was like, ‘yeah, I don’t know what I could talk to the rappers of today about.’ There’s nothing really-to me, not him-compelling about what they got to say. It’s not anything groundbreaking, or trailblazing, or innovative. In the early to mid-80’s Hip Hop was interesting to me. I liked the whole graffiti art scene, it was interesting. Now, it just seems mad commercial, mad toy. Mad toy.
Alexander Fruchter: Going to into the Hip Hop from the 80’s that you’re talking about. I’m a big Beastie Boys fan since I was younger, and one of their lines as you know is, ‘Homeboy, throw in the towel, your girl got d**ked by Ricky Powell.’ Do people hit you with that line randomly?
Ricky Powell: Once in a while people say that to me and I laugh. I’m like, ‘yeaah, you know.’ I remember when they played it for me before the album came out. I was blown away. That album, Paul’s Boutique, has a special place in my heart. That was a very innovative album. I loved it. I liked the cats they were working with, the Dust Brothers. I remember him playing it for me, looking at him as he was looking at me waiting for my response. It was funny.
Alexander Fruchter: Can you share anything about what that comes from?
Ricky Powell: We were just goofing. I used to get busy with a lot of girls on the Licensed to Ill Tour. They came up with it so I was pretty taken aback. It was mind blowing that they did that. It worked. People dug it in the song. I can’t complain. It put my name out there. I was like, ‘oh s**t.’ I used to be regular old substitute teacher. I was touring with the boys and I was interchanging both touring with rap groups and being a substitute teacher in the board of ED.
Alexander Fruchter: When I started getting into music, groups like the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy they were really namedropping each other so you could learn a lot from the music. Where you listen to one group back then and they drop your name in there, then it’s like ‘oh crap, I got to figure out who Ricky Powell is…’ That’s what I think you’re also talking about, that’s not as much in the music anymore where one song used to lead you to another song to another group.
Ricky Powell: Yeah. S**t’s different now. The whole music industry, I don’t f**k with it. I don’t even know how this s**t works anymore. The music business in the 80’s, you could go to any record company. They were in different lofts, even the Def Jam label. It was cool. I loved the early Def Jam 808 bass drum. It was easier to deal with record companies. Now there are all these conglomerates in their skyscrapers and getting into mad security spots. They’re on some other s**t, they think this and that…It’s a whole new ball game today.
Alexander Fruchter: Talking about the new ball game, I know you’ve been involved with Hip Hop Honors. What do you see as a photographer’s role in Hip Hop history, and do you feel any responsibilities come along with having a status as a widely known veteran photographer to ensure that the integrity of the art remains in the younger generations?
Ricky Powell: Well you know, taking pictures is, when photographers are there they’re shooting for their own, to get their s**t published and get up there. I mean, as long as Hip Hop goes or anything interesting goes, there’s going to be photographers snapping pictures of them. As far as my integrity, with the Beasties or any other group I got a special bond with, I feel a duty never to publish a bad looking picture of them, or a compromising photo. I would never do that.
Alexander Fruchter: That’s not something all photographers would say. Those are the pictures now in our society..
Ricky Powell: I could have made mad money showing retarded looking pictures, but I was like, ‘nah, f**k that.’
Alexander Fruchter: That’s commendable. It’s like in our society, everyone wants to see people at their most vulnerable.
Ricky Powell: You got roaches in every industry. A couple photographers who I have witnessed or have the un-pleasure of being at the same event, there’s few I wouldn’t mind pushing in front of an oncoming truck. These dudes think they’re all that, being disrespectful to me. I’m just like, ‘who the f**k are you? Where’d you come from? You’re a f**king new jack toy, I’ll f**king smack you.’ But, there’s that in every industry. Every industry you go into there’s always jerkoffs. I like to think that I got a good rapport with people, and I feel good about myself. The other day when I went to meet with Fab Five Freddy and Walt Frazier, I came up on them and Walt Frazier was like, ‘Ricky, Ricky.’ I was really like, ‘wow.’ I did some stuff with Walt Frazier and Puma when the Clydes came out. One time, Daddy-O from Stetasonic came up to me at a party a couple years ago. He was like, ‘yo Rick, thank you so much for putting me in your book Oh Snap.’ I just feel it’s rewarding when these dudes you photograph give you love and props. It feels good.
Alexander Fruchter: You were just talking about the parties, and I don’t know, but I would imagine that as time went on you got invited to more events and it got easier for you to get the photos you would want. What was it like in the early days? From what I read it seems like you were just going all out for pics.
Ricky Powell: I like to shoot for self. When I go out I like to mix the two. I want to check it out, have a good time, but if I’m having a good time and there’s something interesting that I see, I definitely break out the camera just to preserve those moments. At one point I did work for a photo agency, Lynn Goldsmith, LGI. She was like a mentor to me. She would send me out on paparazzi gigs. I remember one time she said, ‘Oprah Winfrey’s at the so and so restaurant. Go there and get a picture of her.’ I went there, I sat there for 3 hours while she was haivng her big business lunch. They let me sit there and wait. When she finished, she was going outside with her entourage. I walked outside and I said, ‘you know, I’ve been waiting three hours to take a picture of you. Do you mind?’ And she said, ‘no, go ahead.’ And she posed for me for one quick shot under the awning. I don’t know…I used to like going to art shows. I was interested in going to the graffiti art openings, the regular art openings. They were interesting. That was something, go have a drink and then you see some interesting people so you’re catching your buzz and you get some interesting photos. That’s the ultimate. You’re having a good time, and you’re getting good photos of people. That’s the ultimate.
Alexander Fruchter: Do you remember when you first picked up a camera? What inspired you to do that? At what point were you able to drop the other gigs like substitute teaching, bus boy etc..and focus on just photography?
Ricky Powell: I went out with this artsy girl ’83-’85. She had some cameras so we would go out and take pictures at clubs and s**t and I just found that it was natural for me. I would look at people and be like, ‘oh s**t, can I take your picture?’ Or I would put two people together and take their picture. Me and this girl split up and I had a camera of hers. It wasn’t good terms when we split up. I was pissed cause she ditched me for some corny dude. I said, ‘this girl’s going to be sorry one day that she played me like a soggy cannolli.’ So I used that camera and said I wanted to take some pictures seriously. Cause I figured I could do it for the rest of my life, there will always be pictures to take. It will never get tired or played out. So, it was a combination of things. I decided to take pictures one cause I felt natural with it, and two, it was kind of on the spite tip.
I got into it and things were quick for me right off. It doesn’t pay the bills all the time so I had all these other jobs, bus boy, bike messenger. I was always carrying my camera with me just in case. I was always taking pictures. If you look in my book Public Access, there’s a good picture I took of Cindy Crawford I took in the women’s bathroom at this club MK, in ’89-’88 whatever. I went in the women’s bathroom at the bus-down, picking up bottles and glasses. She came out of the bathroom stall, out of the toilet stall. I was like, ‘oh, dip.’ I said, ‘yo, you mind if I get a picture?’ She said, ‘yeah. Alright.’ And she posed for me. I had my little point and shoot in my pocket.
I stopped working regular jobs probably in the early ‘90s cause I can’t work for nobody. I can’t do it. I got ADD, man. It hasn’t been easy, there’s been a lot of dry spells. Cause a lot of times, magazines, they pay peanuts or they don’t pay. They just give credit, all kind of s**t. It’s been tough sometimes. But right now I’m actually riding a nice wave cause of the Europeans. They’re giving me props, but they’re also stepping up with the cheddar. Right now I’m coming back financially cause I’m getting good dollars. I just shot an ad campaign for Dickies Europe. I’ve sold a couple pictures to some art galleries. It’s good. I love it when that s**t happens, cause, you know, making a living off taking pictures, there’s nothing like it. It’s up and down, it’s never constant. but that’s with everything. Everything is up and down. Right now the economy is doing bad, this is a pretty bad one. This whole millennium’s been pretty whack with the whole Bush regime, a real f**king bummer. I just want to say, whoever voted for this jerk off should be f**king deported to Iraq. Actually, who killed it first in New York, the Republicans f**king suck, but Giuliani is a phony b***h ass. I’ll never let that asshole off the hook. He’s the first one, he’s the one that started stifling New York culture. I got a real beef with Republicans because they’re a bunch of phony b***h asses and criminals. This millennium’s been rough, the last couple years. But right now the Euro dollar’s thriving and they’re into my s**t. Thank God they’ve been reaching out to me, thank God. I don’t believe in God, so thank goodness.
Alexander Fruchter: The road to success that a rapper could take or a musician, that’s been covered before and documented, but people don’t really know how to make a living as a photographer. Is there any advice you could give to someone?
Ricky Powell: There’s no advice. All I got to say is, and it goes for anything. You gotta just stay in the game. With me, sports and life are analogous. A couple years ago the Eagles were playing the Giants in the playoffs and they asked the linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, What’s your gameplan? And he was like, ‘basically, we’re just going to try to stay in the game, and hope some fumbles come our way.’ And basically that’s my strategy in life. I’m just trying to maintain, stay in there, and hopefully people up there who got the duckets come to me. There’s a lot of photographers. The industry is flooded. One time I saw Bill Gates on Charlie Rose. In essence he said, ‘yeah I’m rich, but everything I put my money down on doesn’t materialize. I lose money, but if you put yourself in the position for something good to happen, at least you got a chance. If you don’t get down or throw down, then you don’t have a chance at all.’ Basically, I just keep doing my s**t. Even if I don’t get paid, I keep doing my s**t. I let people know I’m still out there, still doing it, and I got a chance.
Alexander Fruchter: Talking about Public Access, which is a collection of your work 1985-2005. Are there any pictures that stand out to you?
Ricky Powell: My publisher and my slash editor, Sarah Rosen, she edited that book, she picked out what she liked. I was like, ‘all right, that’s cool.’ There’s some images I love. LL Cool J with the Troop gear. I love the picture of Erik B. and Rakim on stage where Rakim has his back to the audience cause he’s got that Rakim jacket. There’s a couple pics in there I love. I’m not mad at that book. It’s a fancy book too, great product. I like giving it to people, signing it for people. They dig it. I like doing collabs with artists, and bringing up my friends, collabs with graffiti legends. I think that book is a classic, if for no the reason because of the collabs with artists. I think a lot of jerkoffs are biting that.
Alexander Fruchter: What’s the fine line between the younger generation biting the older generation, and really being influenced and trying to incorporate that style into their own?
Ricky Powell: That’s a good question. I think blatant biting is obvious, but if you’re influenced and you use it subtlety or don’t over use it, I think that’s cool and you get props. But blatant biting, it’s kind of cheap. That’s how it is. I don’t know man, I never really bit myself. I see something and I’m like, ‘that’s cool’ and I just keep it in my mind for future technique or some s**t. I try to always give props to the photographers that came before me. I just interviewed George Kallinski, the official photographer for Madison Square Garden since 1966. I just interviewed him for Interview Magazine. It was great giving him his props and he was real humble. It was a great experience. Look out for that in the June issue of Interview Magazine.
For more of Ricky Powell’s photos, visit www.rickypowell.com
An Interview with Action Bronson - The Simple Life
photo by Alexander Richter
originally published 6.7.12
“You know why this is so dope?” Action Bronson asks through a cloud of smoke at Chicago’s SoundScape Studios. “Because it’s so simple!” he says, answering his own question while emphatically nodding his head along to a beat by Thelonious Martin. It is early November and unseasonably warm for this time of year in the windy city, which works out well for Bronson who traveled to Chicago with just a hoodie, shorts, and a pair of New Balances. It was that attire which he wore the night before to the James Beard award-winning restaurant Blackbird, where he guided us through a multi-course dinner and was greeted by every chef in the kitchen.
Bronson’s own back story unfolds something like this. He grew up in Queens doing what dudes that grow up in Queens do. The ethnic diversity of his surroundings and his parents’ own immigrant background made a big impression on Bronson, an impression that shows up throughout his music, work ethic, and regular-guy mentality. He was taught the ropes of the kitchen growing up, and decided to become a chef. Somewhere along the way he began rhyming, got introduced to producer Tommy Mas, created the breakthrough album Dr. Lecter, hit the blogosphere, and committed himself full time to making music while confined to a hospital bed with a broken leg in February of 2011.
Since then, Bronson followed up Dr. Lecter by releasing projects with Statik Selektah (Well Done), Party Supplies (Blue Chips), and has forthcoming works with Alchemist and Harry Fraud. He has also shot photos with Terry Richardson, was briefly on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “The Layover”, and rapped while eating bagels with Princeton kids wearing pink chinos, and polos. Bronson has given himself a lot of freedom because he has done a great job of positioning and branding himself on his own terms. It’s why he can simultaneously be seen as a catalyst bringing New York Hip Hop back to the forefront and championed by underground face-scrunchers on one-hand, while not being disowned or out of place when he pops up on records with Riff Raff and Justin Bieber.
“What’s this synergy with you and Riff Raff? It seems weird, but not weird,” I told him when we picked up the conversation in late May following Bronson’s set at the Rhymesayers-thrown Soundset Music Festival in Minneapolis.
“It’s weird as fuck, but it’s not because he’s a funny motherfucker. I’m a funny motherfucker,” he explained. “It’s just all about comedy. He’s just a good dude… He’s a cool fucking dude just like me and you, any normal person. Any cool dude. I don’t give a fuck what anyone says. I think he can rap. And I think he says some of the illest shit. It may not be the way that you’re used to hearing it, but it’s just genius level type shit at times. People might think I’m crazy, but he says things that I aspire to say. Like his wrist look like a blank CD. That shit’s amazing to me.”
“I think some of your fans think of Action Bronson and think, ‘finally, real Hip Hop has a new emcee,” I tell him, offering up what I see as an amusing occurrence. “And then you go and do a song with Riff Raff and I think some of them are like, ‘I don’t know what to do now. Can I still like Action Bronson?’”
“Of course they can. They could like whoever they want,” Bronson responds. “Me? I’m myself. I’m going to do whatever I want. I happen to come from a background of loving and growing up in that type of stuff that I do. No one’s gonna question my lyrical ability. No one’s gonna question my skill, nothing like that. I’m the same rapper, the same person. But I will do things funny cause that’s the type of personality I have. I want to do a song with Andy Milonakis. I don’t give a shit, I’ll do whatever as long as I’m happy with it. I’ll go and do a song with Andy Milonakis, then go and do a song with Lloyd Banks. Cause I can do that.”
While artists before Bronson that dared to do such collaborations would have been shunned in some circles, Action Bronson is unique in that he is revered by the underground and also by those that don’t know anything about it. In one way, Bronson is the answer for fans that want rap to be taken seriously again and those that want it to lighten up. He further illustrates the blending of Hip Hop’s sub-genres as well as the realization by many reformed backpackers that spending time and energy rebelling at things that are not “real Hip Hop” is a pointless endeavor in 2012. Where some artists lock themselves into an expected line of behavior or code (think Talib Kweli and Prisoner of Consciousness), Bronson’s only promise to his fans is to just be himself. He doesn’t think about how his actions fit in with any image or what he should “be doing.” As stated above, any meaning attached to his actions is done so after the fact and mainly by others.
This simplicity is king mind frame also stems from Bronson’s round about way into burgeoning Hip Hop stardom. Unlike other artists who spend their whole lives with visions of being on microphones, rocking stages, and making rap records, Bronson came into this without any real expectations or elaborate plans. The whole thing just happened, and he doesn’t allow himself to take anything too seriously. He does what comes naturally with an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it’ kind of mentality. “When you think too much about things, you start getting yourself crazy,” he explained to me at Soundset. “What should I do? I just keep doing the things I used to do, what got me here. And that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
It’s a simple philosophy from a simple guy that just happens to make rap records that are anything but simple.
