Recently......I got the chance to sit front row to a slide and talk by an True Old Skool Player who had been booked to do his spiele in Brighton on a last minute tip.
The Spot was the soon to be bastardized old abandoned Music Library . Home to the Gang Up magazine launch, The Blind Tiger Club's notorious Speakeasy and the infamous Prescription Gallery exhibitions. The setting was the refrigerator like basement, and the layout was like a dodgy school assembly with its own makeshift bar, a large screen, and DJ Format spinning old skool beats exclusively on 45"s.
The place packed out quick and the shivering crowd had it's eyes glaring eagerly at the static image beamed by the warm projector. Until, a merry mid sized;middle aged man in baggy attire strolled down the crooked stairs and onto the scene....
Custom kicks, hoodie and Baller head gear.....This my friends is.....
......Mr. Ricky Powell....
For those who don't know....Rick has been dubbed as the 'Fourth Beastie Boy' and is a street photographer whose main body of work was taken during the late 70s to mid 90s in 'The Village' Manhattan,NYC, amongst other boroughs and cities.
His trademark shots are vintage Hip-Hop, but he also captures the life and soul of an era in a place where new culture was bubbling hard...and was simply too hot to handle for most, that is ,except for Ricky.
The first thing the man presents is a quenching thirst....and he is quickly offered a bottle of Baileys to help him run the show. He's initially taken by surprise by the density of the crowd, finding it hard to believe that we are them to listen to him.But he quickly gets comfortable and you get the feeling that this is not a shy man.
He has worked as a frozen lemonade seller, a bus boy for Def Jam, a messenger, a kitchen hand a rec center worker and a substitute teacher amongst many other things and with those job descriptions he has managed to paint a pretty thorough picture of the world he lived in. Andy Warhol, Run DMC, Cindy Crawford, Method Man,LL, the big names of the graffiti world, Tyson and the little girls from the community center all feature in his work sometimes together sometimes alone; the man had a camera in his pocket for every occasion.
His core work though is with the Beastie Boys, as through his charm and nature, and with a little of the 'right place, right time' scenario, the man befriended the Boys and even ended up on tour with them....1986...supporting Run DMC.
Tumbling a bit, he took us down Memory street and Mythical avenue, to a place when legends were young and the going was good for the rising stars of NYC. Studio 54 with then non- convicted rapist Mike Tyson, in the street with Andy Warhol , Method Man and the local bum, and Mike D's 20th birthday courtesy of JamMasterJay. These are not High Art, nor are they even what he likes to call 'Photography', these are time capsules. Insights into an original world, still free from vintage and beyond....
and for me....it felt like a night with Rick, looking at a few classy flicks , with a beer and some take away from around the corner....that and he signed my addidas!
Much love to Mr. Ricky Powell.
"Homeboy throw in the towell, your girl got D***ed by Ricky Powell" - Mike D (Beatie Boys), Car Thief, Paul's Boutique 1992.
Check his work here...
http://www.rickypowell.com/index2.html
Photos by Adam Bronckhorst (Garage Studios) with his lil'point and shoot Olympus Mjuii.
http://adambronkhorst.com/
http://garage-studios.co.uk/
