He was a self-proclaimed “vandal” who quickly became a vanguard.
This week, Fab 5 Freddy, visual artist, documentarian and former host of “Yo! MTV Raps,” visited “Renaissance Man.” The New York native, whose real name is Fred Brathwaite, arrived on the scene tagging trains.
“I was a graffiti artist in the streets in New York, and that was something that started way back in the ’70s,” he told me. “But at some point, in the midst of doing that, I looked at pop artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, these guys are doing similar stuff. Inspired by the same stuff we were.’ So that led me to be like, ‘Wait, I want to be an artist now.’ And that began a journey for me that led me to become a visual artist, meet other people like Jean-Michel Basquiat that were trying to do the same thing back then in the ’80s. But then I also was very interested in this new thing in The Bronx called hip-hop, which was like an infant trying to find its way.”
Fab 5 Freddy touched all genres in important ways. His father was a fixture in the jazz world and his godfather was drummer Max Roach, who inspired his love of a natty hat. He was also fascinated with the similar energies between hip-hop and punk and befriended people such as Debbie Harry, ultimately becoming a cultural connector.
In her song “Rapture,” she famously rapped, “Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody’s fly.”
“When I first heard the record, I always thought they did this record as a goof in the studio just for me … About a month after hearing it, I was at one of my first art shows in Europe … I’m in France and I heard the record in a cab,” he said, adding “How does this cab driver get a copy of this record they just made for me? I then learned this was dropped as a single and went on to be a No. 1 song.”
Fab 5 Freddy is most famous as the host of “Yo! MTV Raps” in the ’80s, where he basically became a roving hip-hop correspondent and explorer taking us into rap subcultures across the country like Compton, Houston and Miami. He immersed us in their worlds with his smooth reporting style — an invaluable contribution before the internet and iPhones made the entire world accessible from your couch.
“I got to go to Compton and talk to Dre, Ice Cube Eazy-E about what they’re doing, what their hood is like. I got to go to Miami with Luke in the beginning when it was Luke Skyywalker and the 2 Live Crew … When I saw the fun in the room, [I said] this is a different energy than up in New York.”
But I had a burning question for the legend: When the media dubbed me and my University of Michigan teammates the Fab Five, did he feel like we were biting his style? Because I did. We tried to disavow the moniker and go with terrible “Five X’s” pronounced “five times,” but fortunately the media and fans won. And it turns out, he approved.
“I was telling people, of course I was an inspiration because the way y’all played, your swagger, y’all had that attitude at the time that was very hip-hop. I was happy to take some of the credit whether it was fact or not. I loved the flavor of the whole group, the whole era. I was cool with it.”
He originally landed the name because he became part of a graffiti group that was known for painting the whole subway car, particularly the Lexington Avenue 5 train. He was the one who helped them cross over into the legitimate art world with gallery shows.
Fab 5 Freddy continues to be a pioneer. He’s an NFT evangelist and cannabis entrepreneur. In 2019, he made the Netflix documentary “Grass is Greener” and is behind B Noble product, which he says also “raises awareness about cannabis injustice.”
I couldn’t let Fab 5 Freddy be around and not ask him for a story about his late friend Basquiat.
“We was typical young dudes chasing chicks trying to get into clubs for free, because in the beginning … we didn’t have any money.”
Then Basquiat started selling work and making cash. They were in a Lower East Side club when a panhandler came in.
“He was doing something weird when he took a sneaker, like he had it on his hand. Like, it wasn’t too hard to balance it. But he was trying to get the white folks to give
him some money, say, ‘Look, look, look y’all.’ And me and Jean were like, this dude doing nothing special. So they were giving him a dollar or 50 cents. Jean-Michel took a fresh $100 bill. And gave that to him and just put it in his pocket. Now the dude didn’t realize at the time, but me and Jean had such a great laugh imagining what this brother’s going to do later when he realizes what somebody put in his pocket.”
Getting a C note from Basquiat is amazing. But having a front-row seat to all this history is more incredible. That’s where Fab 5 Freddy has been since the dawn of hip-hop — and I feel honored to share a nickname with him.
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA, before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is currently an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book, “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker, and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
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