Fab 5 Freddy at The Museum of the Moving Image

May 20th, 2013 by Mr. C

fab 5 edit 450 podium
(Fab 5 Freddy at the Museum of the Moving Image)

To celebrate SPECTACLE: The Music Video exhibit, Chocko & I attended the event “An Evening with Fab 5 Freddy” hosted at the Museum of The Moving Image in Queens which was moderated by Warrington Hudlin last friday night! We almost didn’t make it because of concerns with traffic from NJ at the height of rush hour on a Friday evening and with the prospects of the Yankee game looming large at 7pm BUT we mysteriously were able to bob and weave through the traffic like Ghost Riders gliding into money making Manhattan to “The Bridge, The..The..The Bridge..Queensbridge”.

For those that do not know who Fab 5 Freddy is – he basically is an intellect from the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant who blossomed into a legendary hip hop relic before the term hip/hop even existed. Fab 5 is a pioneer, a transporter, and champion of urban culture through the use of visual arts (grafitti, fine arts), directing music videos,producing movies,making commercials, & just influencing pop culture in general with his eagle eye from the urban jungle! Fab 5’s hustle also led him into the punk rock party scene in the lower east side in the late 1970s with the likes of Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, The Clash, & the Sex Pistols! Fab helped introduce the world of hip hop to the punksters which in turn influenced hip hop to some shades of punk & nu-wave as well! We can all see where this is going now! Fab 5’s fever for the flavor of combining cultural mash ups in New York’s downtown film, music, and art scenes to the emerging hip/hop scene in Harlem and the Bronx which gave birth to a new style onto itself. Fab is a major influence in bringing hip hop culture to the mainstream for some serious consumption!

warr and fab 450
(Warrington Hudlin + Fab 5 Freddy)

I can remember how Fab 5 Freddy and his personality helped feed my habit of rap/hip-hop in the late eighties along with Ed Lover & Dr. Dre from the TV show – YO! MTV RAPS which juiced me to buy the 12” vinyl singles, 45 singles, and god forbid cassette albums of all our favorite joints! Fab 5 brought the swagger, the hustle, the style as he introduced the streets into our living rooms as he interviewed soon to be larger than life artists like Eric B/Rakim, Beastie Boys, EPMD, Naughty by Nature, RUN DMC, Big Daddy Kane, & Wu Tang Clan to name a few while segueing into their music videos! Between Ralph Mcdaniel’s Video Music Box TV show available to watch on public TV to YO! MTV Raps which was on cable, we would have tremendous access to the latest and greatest from hip hop culture. As I became more fascinated w/ FAB, I ventured over to his grafitti laced movie called WILDSTYLE. The rest is history.

Getting back to the talks on hand at the Museum of the Moving Image, Fab 5 Freddy churned out a TREMENDOUS presentation full of flashbacks and good times filled with music, stories, & music videos of artists that we grew up listening to. We knew Freddy had directed a few music videos (60 plus, wow!) but we did NOT know that he directed videos to rap songs that were basically our soundtracks, our anthems into hip/hop fandom. Music videos that he directed and showed at the talks included: Boogie Down Productions’ – My Philosophy, Stetsasonic’s – Talkin all that jazz, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Road to the Riches, Queen Latifah + Monie Love’s – Ladies First, NAS – One Love, Gangstarr – Just to get a Rep, and Shabba Ranks – Mr. Loverman to just name a few! He even showed a really cool Yo! MTV Raps clip of an interview that he did with the Beastie Boys as they showed Freddy where they used to live on location in Chinatown near the Manhattan Bridge! The whole talks that night at the Moving Image comprised of just Freddy being Freddy with his smooth operator talking self as he discussed the evolution of hip hop from the boogie down and uptown to mingling with the downtown scene which helped to manifest itself to movies like Wildstyle & shows like Yo! MTV Raps which further spawned fans of urban culture which propagated to the whole world! Fab 5 had a memorable story that he shared with us during the talks at the Moving Image that night on how he was trying to convince Chuck D/Public Enemy into creating a music video for them with a budget of $40,000 that would make them explode in the industry. Public Enemy would turn it down, stating that for $40,000 they can front a whole album! In retrospect, we can see how the visuals from music videos can play a big part in getting the message across to your audience. Another fact that we didn’t know pertained to Fab 5 Freddy’s single in 1982 – “Change the Beat”, this song has been sampled and most definitely scratched a zillion times over by old skool and new skool DJ’s alike! We knew about the **FREeeESH** scratching/sampling of course but did not know it was Fab 5’s single that everyone was scratching on! Right on! It was made famous by Grandmixer DST in Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”.

This presentation by Fab 5 Freddy was entertaining as all hell and captured our attention for a few hours! It really seemed like a flashback to Yo! MTV Raps in a certain way, but 25 years later! You know – talking, showing music videos, talking, telling stories, showing music videos – stylin’ and profilin – REPEAT! It seems like a magic formula especially if you dig the tunes! FAB 5 mentioned that he should take this spoken word/lecture on the road with DJ WIZ on hand to provide the cuts and some added visuals! Fab 5 should very well take the talks on the road because the story should be told! It’s part of american culture. I have got to say that this was one of the most entertaining spoken word events that I’ve been to and we’ve been to quite a few! I say John LeguizamoFab 5 Freddy would make a nice combo broadway punch!

Below are some music videos that Fab 5 Freddy directed. He showed these videos as part of his presentation at the Museum of the Moving Image! I added some linear notes from his talks to supplement this!

(Boogie Down Productions – “My Philosophy” – FAB 5 Freddy’s 1st music video venture. KRS-One is one of the most lyrical and positive conscious artists in the business.)

(Stetsasonic – “Talkin all that Jazz” – Fab 5 talked about Stetsasonic’s response to all the naysayers about sampling.)

(Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – “Road to the Riches” – Fab 5 discusses gangsta’ rap from Queens & the crack epidemic at the time. This video helped inspire the movie NEW JACK CITY. Fab 5 helped produce the film.)

(Queen Latifah + Monie Love – “Ladies First” – DJ Mark the 45 King discovered Latifah but wasn’t crazy over her, but when Fab 5 heard her, he was blown away. He mentioned this to Tommy Boy records and the rest was history!)

(NAS – “One Love” – Filmed in the Queensbridge projects not far from this Museum. The video was shot when crack still had a choke-hold on the neighborhood. NAS had all his homies act in the video.)

Nas – One Love (1994) from Golden Era Videos on Vimeo.

(Gangstarr – “Just to get a rep”– One of the lowest budget videos he shot. The video was about a stickup kid in the neighborhood. Filmed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.)

(Guru + MC Solaar – “Le Bien, Le Mal” – Guru’s influence with Hip Hop in France / MC Solaar. Solaar was a smooth rapper and this song blew down the doors in France.)

(Shabba Ranks – “Mr. Loverman”) – Fab 5 Freddy showed the adult cut of this video! Fab did 6 videos w/ Shabba and Mr. Loverman was one of his favorites. This was in a time when R&B was big mixing in w/ reggae and rap. The adult cut of this video was shown on the Playboy channel were you can be a bit more risque!)

(Crucial Conflict – “Hay”) Fab 5 mentions this Chicago group helped influence the No Limit/Cash Money/down south hip hop movement. Fab wanted to instill the southern rodeo attitude aesthetic to this video. There’s a cameo of an urban “lone ranger” in the video as well!).

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