Fab Five Freddy
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Fred Brathwaite (born August 31, 1959), more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the
street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...
movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a
graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
artist. He was the bridge between the burgeoning uptown
rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
scene and the downtown No Wave art scene. He was immortalized in 1981 when
Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...
rapped on the Blondie song "
Rapture The rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an Eschatology, end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurre ...
" that "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly." In the late 1980s, Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking hip-hop music video show ''
Yo! MTV Raps ''Yo! MTV Raps'' is an American two-hour television music video program, which first aired on MTV Europe from 1987 to mid-90s and on MTV US from August 1988 to August 1995. The American version of the program (created by Ted Demme and Peter Dough ...
''.


Career

In the late 1970s, Freddy became a member of the Brooklyn-based graffiti group the Fabulous 5, known for painting the entire side of
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
cars. Along with other Fabulous 5 member Lee Quiñones, under his direction they began to shift from street graffiti to transition into the art world and in 1979 they both exhibited in a prestigious gallery in Rome, Italy, Galleria LaMedusa. In 1980, he painted a subway train with cartoon style depictions of giant
Campbell's Soup Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become ...
cans, after
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
. Freddy became a regular guest on
Glenn O'Brien Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in ''GQ'' magazine and published a book with that title. He ...
's public access cable show ''
TV Party Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
''. As a frequent attendant at the
Mudd Club The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for underground music and counterculture events. It was opened by Steve Maas, Die ...
and a participant in seminal ''
The Times Square Show ''The Times Square Show'' was an influential collaborative, self-curated, and self-generated art exhibition held by New York artists' group Colab (aka Collaborative Projects, Inc) in Times Square in a shuttered massage parlor at 201 W. 41st and 7t ...
'', Freddy was a bridge between the New York uptown graffiti and early
rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
scene and the downtown No Wave art scene. "I was bringing the whole music, hip-hop, art, break dancing, and urban cultural thing to the downtown table", he said. In late 1980, Glenn O'Brien cast Freddy, along with fellow
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...
graffiti writer Quiñones, in the film ''New York Beat'' (later released as ''
Downtown 81 ''Downtown 81'' is a 2000 American film that was shot in 1980-1981. The film was directed by Edo Bertoglio and written and produced by Glenn O'Brien and Patrick Montgomery, with post-production in 1999-2000 by Glenn O'Brien and Maripol. It is a r ...
''). The film showcased artist
Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...
in his
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
environment and the culture that surrounded it. Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry also appeared in the film and in early 1981, Freddy made a cameo in the Blondie music video for "
Rapture The rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an Eschatology, end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurre ...
." As recounted in the 1999 TV documentary ''
The Hip Hop Years ''The Hip Hop Years'' is a three part series of one hour television documentaries, made for Channel 4 in 1999. It was accompanied by a book and compilation CD. Media The series was devised by David Upshal who produced, directed and narrated th ...
'', the "Rapture" video featured Freddy in a cameo role painting graffiti art in the background. (
Grandmaster Flash Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958), popularly known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is an American DJ and rapper. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Hip Hop DJing, cutting, scratching and mixing. Grandmaster Flash and the Fur ...
, who was also name-checked in the song, did not show up on the day of the shoot, so Basquiat took his place behind the turntables). "Rapture" was the first hip hop video to be shown on
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
. Freddy connected with New York underground filmmaker
Charlie Ahearn Charlie Ahearn (born 1951) is an American film maker living in New York City. Although predominantly involved in film and video art production, he is also known for his work as an author, freelance writer, member of Colab, and radio host. He is m ...
, who he had met at ''The'' ''Times Square Show'', and they began production on the film ''
Wild Style ''Wild Style'' is a 1983 American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Stea ...
'' (1983) in 1981, which showcased artist Quiñones in the
Uptown, Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park ( 110th Street), ...
, environment of
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
and the burgeoning hip-hop culture. The movie ''Wild Style'', the first film to illustrate hip hop culture, grew from an idea Freddy had to refute the negative depiction of New York City's urban youth and to link for the first time break dancing, rapping, DJing and graffiti under one umbrella or branches from the same tree. Freddy created the film's original music, co-produced and ended up in one of the leading roles as the charismatic Bronx hip hop club promoter and former graffiti artist, Phade. In April 1981, Freddy co-curated with
Futura 2000 Leonard Hilton McGurr (born November 17, 1955), known as Futura, and formerly known as Futura 2000, is an American graffiti artist. Biography He started to paint illegally on New York City's subway in the early 1970s, working with other artist ...
the graffiti-related art show Beyond Words, at the Mudd Club which contained their own work along with Basquiat,
Rammellzee Rammellzee (stylized RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ, pronounced "Ram: Ell: Zee"; December 15, 1960 – June 28, 2010) was a visual artist, gothic futurist "graffiti writer", painter, performance artist, art theoretician, sculptor and a hip hop musician from Ne ...
,
Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...
, Kenny Scharf and others. This was the first time the many members of the Bronx hip hop scene had appeared in the downtown New York City art world. On his relationship with art dealers, Freddy said,
They didn't know me, but they had heard of graffiti. But they didn't understand the importance and the significance of what happened because, see, really what this comes down to is that my background basically is that of a vandal. I vandalize public property ... . In the real world, in New York, what made graffiti what it is, was the marriage which was the placing of the individual's mark on that blank surface. But that blank surface that the individual graffiti person tags on, belongs to someone.
In May 1981, Freddy was booked on
Henry Chalfant Henry Chalfant (born January 2, 1940) is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture. One of Chalfant's prints is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Ne ...
's "Graffiti Rock" performance with
Rock Steady Crew Rock Steady Crew is an American breaking and hip hop group which has become a franchise name for multiple groups in other locations. The group's 1983 international hit song " (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew" (from the group's first studio album ...
at Common Ground gallery in
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(not to be confused with Holman's ''
Graffiti Rock ''Graffiti Rock'' was a hip-hop based television program, originally aired on June 28, 1984. Intended as an ongoing series, the show only received one pilot episode and aired on WPIX channel 11 in New York City and 88 markets around the country, ...
'' TV show pilot). The show was cancelled due to violence, but was rescheduled in October at another venue called The Kitchen. After the Rock Steady Crew and Afrika Bambaataa were booked as the opening act for
Bow Wow Wow Bow Wow Wow are an English new wave band, created by manager Malcolm McLaren in 1980. McLaren recruited members of Adam and the Ants to form the band behind 13-year-old Annabella Lwin on vocals. They released their debut EP '' Your Cassette ...
at The Ritz nightclub in September 1981, Ruza Blue decided to book them at
Negril Negril is a small (pop. 6,900) but widely dispersed beach resort and town located in Westmoreland and Hanover parishes at the far western tip of Jamaica, southwest from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. Westmoreland is the wes ...
and begin a night called "Wheels of Steel". That became so popular that it was closed down by the fire department for over-capacity, and Freddy helped Blue (whom he dubbed "Kool Lady Blue") find another home for the party. Together they chose
The Roxy Roxy, Roxey, and Roxie may refer to: People * Roxy (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name Places in the United States * Roxie, Mississippi, a town * Roxie, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Music * Roxy ...
roller rink in NYC, which gained national fame once used in the film ''
Beat Street ''Beat Street'' is a 1984 American drama dance film featuring New York City hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Set in the South Bronx, the film follows the lives of a pair of brothers and their group of friends, all of whom are devoted to var ...
'' (1984). The A-side of the 1982 single "
Change the Beat "Change the Beat" is a song written and recorded by Fab Five Freddy, and one of the most sampled songs in music history. It was recorded at Martin Bisi's OAO Studio in Brooklyn, New York, United States, (later, BC Studio) and released as a 12" ...
" featured Freddy rapping the song in both English and French, while the B-side was a shorter version of the same song, this time performed entirely in French by female rapper Beside, who was credited on the initial pressings of the record as Fab 5 Betty. Freddy utilized a
vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...
with a white noise carrier during the chorus and at the end of the B-side track. When the beat stops in Beside's version of the song, Freddy says "Ahhhhh, this stuff is really fresh", a line which is quite possibly the most scratched sample in the history of hip-hop music. It was first utilized as a scratch sample on the 1983
Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
single " Rockit", featuring scratching by legendary DJ and
turntablist Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system ...
Grand Mixer DXT Derek Showard, better known by the stage name GrandMixer DXT, is an American musician, one of the earliest to use turntables as a musical instrument in the 1980s. Early in his career, he was known as Grand Mixer D.ST, a reference to Delancey S ...
, and has been used in over 750 hip-hop tracks since. Freddy's "Change the Beat" for Celluloid Records would also lead to four other records, including a song about graffiti painting by Futura 2000 with music performed by
The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...
, and all were released together first in France and was soon followed by the first hip hop tour in Europe billed as "New York City Rap", in 1982. The tour consisted of DJ Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Mixer D.ST and the Infinity rappers, The Rock Steady Crew, Futura 2000, Dondi, Phase Two, Fab 5 Freddy, Rammellzee and the McDonald's double Dutch jump rope champs. They played 10 cities in France and did two shows in London. Although at that time no other American hip hop music had been released in France, that now legendary tour sparked the hip hop movement there and France still is the 2nd biggest market for hip hop music outside of America. In 1983, Freddy produced a hip-hop version of ''"
Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder" (''Bommerlunder On The Rocks'') is a German drinking song by the group Die Toten Hosen. The song is repeated over and over, each time the song is sung quicker and a pitch higher, until performers can not sing anymore. ...
"'' called ''"
Hip Hop Bommi Bop "Hip Hop Bommi Bop" is a parody hip hop version of the Die Toten Hosen song "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder". The song was born with the cooperation with Fab Five Freddy and is one of the first German hip hop songs. A remix of the song ("Tap into ...
"'' together with German punk rock band
Die Toten Hosen Die Toten Hosen (literally "The Dead Trousers", figuratively "The Deadbeats") is a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. History The current members of Die Toten Hosen are Campino (Andreas Frege), Kuddel (Andreas von Holst), Vom (Stephe ...
which is said to be the very first co-production of Punk and Hip Hop. In 1988, Freddy became the first hip hop VJ by hosting the MTV
music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
show entitled ''
Yo! MTV Raps ''Yo! MTV Raps'' is an American two-hour television music video program, which first aired on MTV Europe from 1987 to mid-90s and on MTV US from August 1988 to August 1995. The American version of the program (created by Ted Demme and Peter Dough ...
''. He later went on to be an associate producer on the 1991 film ''
New Jack City ''New Jack City'' is a 1991 American action crime film based upon an original story and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, and directed by Mario Van Peebles in his feature film directorial debut. Released in the United St ...
'' in which he also made an appearance. In 1994, he directed the music video "One Love" by rapper
Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...
. In 2007, he played a murdered rap artist named Terrence 'Fulla T' Smith on the TV series "
Law & Order: Criminal Intent ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' is an American police procedural Drama (film and television), drama television series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and Executive producer#Motion pictures and television, p ...
" in the episode "Flipped". The same year, he made a small cameo in the film '' American Gangster'' directed by
Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
. In 2008, he appears as a special wedding guest in the film ''
Rachel Getting Married ''Rachel Getting Married'' is a 2008 American drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, and Debra Winger. The film premiered at the 65th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 200 ...
'', along with other notable musicians, as conceived by producer
Jonathan Demme Robert Jonathan Demme ( ; February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker. Beginning his career under B-movie producer Roger Corman, Demme made his directorial debut with the 1974 women-in-prison film ''Caged Heat'', before ...
to enhance the expansive and varied soundtrack and wedding members, in contrast with the normal duality of a traditional wedding. In 2016, he played the role of Atticus Howard in " Mob Rules" the fourth episode of the seventh season of the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
police procedural drama '' Blue Bloods''. On August 11, 2017, an animated version of Freddy appeared in a
Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
as a narrator, which observed the 44th anniversary of
DJ Kool Herc Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with contributing to the development of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s through his "Back to ...
's pioneering use of the hip-hop
break Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to: Time off from duties * Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties * Break (work), time off during a shift/recess ** Coffee break, a short mid-morning res ...
. In 2019, coinciding with the release of his Netflix film '' Grass Is Greener'', Freddy served as creative director for the full-size hip hop photography and culture exhibit entitled, Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, based on the 2018 book of the same name created and written by Vikki Tobak (published by
Clarkson Potter Clarkson Potter (September 19, 1880 – October 4, 1953) was an American golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, un ...
). The exhibit was hosted by
The Annenberg Space for Photography The Annenberg Space for Photography (2009 - 2020) was an exhibition space in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles' Westside. Founded in March 2009, it was dedicated to displaying photographic works, ranging from artistic to journalistic, ...
in Los Angeles. In the months before and during the exhibition Fab 5 Freddy served on several group discussion and lecture panels regarding the show.


References


External links

* * * Safra Ducreay,
Fab 5 Freddy
''Format'', Jan 21, 2008 (interview, with pictures of Fab 5 Freddy's paintings)
''Bomb Magazine'' conversation between Fab 5 Freddy and Olivier Mosset (Fall, 1982)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freddy, Fab 5 1959 births Living people VJs (media personalities) Rappers from Brooklyn Artists from New York City American filmmakers African-American male rappers African-American artists People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn 21st-century American rappers 21st-century American male musicians American graffiti artists 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American people