Back In The Day.

In Blog, Culture, Historyby Rashers TierneyLeave a Comment

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Interested in the origins of hip hop culture, fashion and street photography? Then this is for you.

As a young man, Jamel Shabazz documented the street style immortalized in early hip hop. His website is chockerblock with vintage shots of Brooklyn hood life.  It’s a bit slow loading, but worth a look.

Talking about the sort of folk he put on film, Fab Five Freddy said:

These were the heroes, these were the style icons, these were the cool cats on the corner on the street, that every major rapper was trying to emulate and give voice to and paint pictures of the life style these guys had. When you first saw Run DMC, real strong, chilling on the corner in a b-boy stance, what that was about how you stood, how you posed, how you kept your ground, a lot of those things come from the people Jamel just brilliantly captured for eternity.

Now a documentary about his life is coming to Dublin. Louis Scully of Disckotekken sez:

Jamel Shabazz is a Brooklyn based photographer who has been documenting his surroundings since 1975. Last year, Hip Hop Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Ahearn (Wildstyle, 1983) made a documentary film telling the story of his life & work to date, most notably his images of 1970s & ’80s NYC, a critically important time period in the city’s history. We’re screening the doc, followed by a Q&A with Charlie, at the next Discotekken event on Sunday June 15th. 

Get your tickets over here.

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