What dictates cool? Originality? Tenacity? Courage? Creativity? Is it the willingness to stand alone behind your own ideas, or simply being the first and flyest to ever do it?
Whatever the definition, Bedford-Stuyvesant’s own Fab 5 Freddy has embodied it for nearly five decades.
Born Fred Brathwaite on August 31, 1959, Fab was Hip Hop before much of America even understood what Hip Hop was. A graffiti artist, visual artist, filmmaker, music video director, musician and cultural connector, Freddy emerged from Brooklyn and became an important bridge between the developing uptown Hip Hop scene and Manhattan’s downtown art world.
Long before social media made cultural cross-pollination instantaneous, Fab was moving between worlds; connecting graffiti, MCing, DJ culture and breaking with artists and personalities including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Debbie Harry and others from New York’s downtown scene. His cultural reach became immortalized when Blondie’s Debbie Harry famously name-checked him on the groundbreaking 1980 hit “Rapture”: “Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody’s fly.”
But for an entire generation, Fab became the face of Hip Hop through Yo! MTV Raps.
As the original host of the groundbreaking MTV program, Freddy helped bring Hip Hop culture into millions of living rooms at a time when mainstream television still treated rap music as something happening somewhere on the margins. Yo! didn’t simply show videos. It gave viewers access to the artists, neighborhoods, language, fashion and personalities driving the culture.
Fab wasn’t an outsider explaining Hip Hop to America.
He was Hip Hop explaining itself.
For years, Yo! MTV Raps became one of the culture’s grandest stages; the Soul Train of the Hip Hop generation and eventually helped establish a television blueprint that programs such as Rap City, TRL and 106 & Park would build upon.
Fab’s microphone captured some of the most important artists and moments of Hip Hop’s Golden Era, but his significance extended well beyond MTV. He co-produced, appeared in and created music for the seminal Hip Hop film Wild Style, directed videos for artists including Nas, Queen Latifah, Snoop Dogg and KRS-One, and continued working as a visual artist, filmmaker and cultural historian long after Yo! left the air.
That’s what makes Fab 5 Freddy different.
He didn’t simply witness Hip Hop history.
He helped connect the people, places and artistic disciplines that allowed that history to happen—and then helped introduce it to the rest of the world.
Today, The Source celebrates the 67th birthday of one of Brooklyn’s original ambassadors of cool, Fab 5 Freddy.
In honor of his born day, let’s take a look back at some of the most memorable moments from Fab’s legendary run on Yo! MTV Raps.
1989 Grammy Boycott
In 1989 The Grammy’s awarded their first Hip hop Grammy to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince for “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” What could have been a huge moment for Hip Hop culture was turned into a farce. Although the award was given out, the Grammys refused to televise the reception speech. This discrimination outraged the rap community and caused a widespread anti-Grammy campaign to get underway. Fab Five Freddy was actually on the scene and able to get a short interview with The Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff about the incident that can be seen in full here.
Interviewing 2Pac with Digital Underground
In one of 2Pac‘s earliest interviews, Fab Five Freddy gets a chance to pick the brain of a young man who would grow to become one of the most influential figures in Hip Hop.
Leaders of the New School Break Up
In one of the tensest interviews ever conducted on Yo! MTV Raps, one of New York’s brightest groups, completely self-destructed on screen. Leaders of the New School had already been under scrutiny with rumors of standout Busta Rhymes looking to venture onto a solo career. What started as a normal interview broke apart into the group stepping off-camera to have a heated discussion. When the pow-wow finally broke up, Busta Rhymes apologized for the group’s actions, concluding the interview. The group officially announced its parting ways in the week following the interview.
Grand Finale Freestyle
In 1995 MTV decided to pull the plug on Yo! MTV Raps. What resulted was one of television’s greatest show finales of all time. With a cypher featuring Rakim, MC Serch, Erick Sermon, Chubb Rock, and a few other legends, Yo! MTV Raps bid a fond farewell to the fans and supporters that tuned in day after day for their daily dose of Hip Hop culture.