Hip Hop at 50

Hip Hop at 50. .

Photographs by Janette Beckman , Presented by Photoville and The Seaport , Curated by Janette Beckman and Sam Barzilay

, In 1982 I was covering London's thriving music scene for Melody Maker when I was assigned to document the first ever hip hop show to come to the UK: "New York City Rap." Before show I went to their hotel to take some portraits. GrandMixer DST, Afrika Bambaataa, Rammellzee, Fab 5 Freddy, Rock Steady Crew, Double Dutch Girls, Dondi and Futura 2000 posed for me wearing Kangols, sheepskins, tracksuits and fly sneakers. I had no idea who they were but I was blown away by the new style, sound and cultural explosion coming out of NYC., Arriving in New York a few months later, I embarked on what became my photography journey through the golden age of hip-hop. Most of the musicians I photographed were not celebrities, they were fresh, creative, at the start of their careers and we somehow trusted each other to collaborate., I photographed Salt-n-Pepa on the Lower East Side before they had a record contract, Run DMC on their street in Hollis, Queens, Stetsasonic in East New York, EPMD posing with their cars in Babylon Long Island. I was trying to capture a sense of who these artists are and what they mean to the neighborhoods they come from, cars, boom boxes, tagged walls, bodegas, all helping to give a sense of place and time. This year celebrates Hip Hop's 50th anniversary, we had no idea it would become a global phenomenon., Artist Bio , British-born photographer Janette Beckman began her career in the punk rock era working for music magazines The Face and Melody Maker. She shot bands from The Clash to Boy George as well as three Police album covers., In 1982 she photographed the first Hip Hop show to come to London and then moved to New York to document the underground hip-hop scene, photographing pioneers Run DMC, Slick Rick, Salt-N-Pepa, LLCool J, Eric B and Rakim, Tribe Called Quest and many more., Her work has been shown in galleries worldwide and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of the City of New York and the British National Portrait Gallery., She has published five books, including 'Rap Portraits and Lyrics of a Generation of Black Rockers'(1991), 'The Breaks Stylin' and Profilin" (2008) and 'The MashUp' (2018) a collaboration with iconic New York graffiti artists reinterpreting her hip hop images. her new monograph 'Rebels from Punk to Dior' was published in 2022., Janette continues to chronicle sub-cultures as well as photographing campaigns for brands like Dior and Levis. She is represented by the Fahey Klein Gallery.