1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:14,981 --> 00:00:17,817 ♪♪ [ Marching Band Drumming ] 4 00:00:33,199 --> 00:00:35,135 ♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ] 5 00:00:38,838 --> 00:00:40,407 ♪♪ [ Whistle Blows ] 6 00:00:42,776 --> 00:00:44,144 All right! 7 00:00:44,210 --> 00:00:46,713 Come on, come on, come on! Come on. Where everybody at? 8 00:00:46,780 --> 00:00:49,582 Showtime, ladies, showtime. Showtime, showtime. 9 00:00:51,351 --> 00:00:53,386 Come on. Come on. Come on. There we go. 10 00:00:53,453 --> 00:00:55,622 Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. 11 00:00:55,688 --> 00:00:58,825 ♪♪ [ Continues ] Hold it! 12 00:00:59,359 --> 00:01:01,728 [ Chattering ] 13 00:01:05,565 --> 00:01:07,567 Over here. Come on. 14 00:01:12,439 --> 00:01:15,442 ♪♪ [ Continues ] [ Whistle Blows ] 15 00:01:19,579 --> 00:01:21,514 [ Girl Shouting ] Get behind! 16 00:01:23,316 --> 00:01:25,852 ♪♪ [ Record Scratching ] 17 00:01:25,919 --> 00:01:29,155 Jamel-- Jamel had a vision. 18 00:01:29,222 --> 00:01:31,791 He was ahead of a lot of people, man. 19 00:01:31,858 --> 00:01:33,693 And nobody ever knew what his vision was. 20 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,163 He was capturing life. That's what he was doing. 21 00:01:37,230 --> 00:01:41,167 He was capturing life in its purest form, man. 22 00:01:41,234 --> 00:01:46,573 ♪♪ [ Drumming ] 23 00:01:52,479 --> 00:01:55,014 ♪♪ [ Record Scratches ] 24 00:01:55,081 --> 00:01:57,150 Back in the fall of 1980... 25 00:01:57,217 --> 00:02:00,820 I had just returned home from doin' my three-year tour of duty... 26 00:02:00,887 --> 00:02:03,089 over in the military in Germany. 27 00:02:03,156 --> 00:02:05,425 This is one of the very first pictures I took... 28 00:02:05,492 --> 00:02:07,427 upon my arrival back home to Flatbush. 29 00:02:07,494 --> 00:02:11,998 It is one of the rare pictures of myself coming home from the military. 30 00:02:12,065 --> 00:02:14,334 So I was very much prime at that point. 31 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:17,504 It was deep. It was something about that train, 32 00:02:17,570 --> 00:02:20,306 walking car to car, looking for somebody. 33 00:02:20,373 --> 00:02:22,342 Sometimes I'd get off a train... 34 00:02:22,408 --> 00:02:24,444 and get on another train that was more crowded... 35 00:02:24,511 --> 00:02:27,714 or had greater light in hopes of finding that subject matter. 36 00:02:27,780 --> 00:02:32,085 I never had a location in mind to go to. I would just go. 37 00:02:32,152 --> 00:02:34,187 Oftentimes-- It might be Manhattan. 38 00:02:34,254 --> 00:02:36,689 'Cause Manhattan was the nucleus of a lot of activity. 39 00:02:36,756 --> 00:02:41,261 There's a particular shot I have of my four partners on 42nd Street. 40 00:02:41,327 --> 00:02:43,630 I saw these cats. They were photographers. 41 00:02:43,696 --> 00:02:45,865 And they had hats on. 42 00:02:45,932 --> 00:02:48,701 I said, "Okay. This is a deep shot." They are on 42nd Street. 43 00:02:48,768 --> 00:02:52,105 "Let me put them behind this backdrop of a hat store." 44 00:02:52,172 --> 00:02:54,841 When I look through my lens, that's the picture I'm looking for. 45 00:02:54,908 --> 00:02:57,877 ♪♪ [ Light R and B ] 46 00:03:11,891 --> 00:03:14,427 And I'll never forget the first day of school... 47 00:03:14,494 --> 00:03:16,529 I was up at Tilden documenting people. 48 00:03:16,596 --> 00:03:18,531 They was fly, and that point... 49 00:03:18,598 --> 00:03:20,833 I realized that people wanted to be photographed. 50 00:03:20,900 --> 00:03:24,170 They felt that they looked good. Style was booming back in the '80s. 51 00:03:24,237 --> 00:03:25,905 The students at Tilden allowed me-- 52 00:03:25,972 --> 00:03:28,508 Those were my first models up at Tilden High School. 53 00:03:28,575 --> 00:03:31,477 And once school would be completed up at Tilden, 54 00:03:31,544 --> 00:03:35,114 I had so much energy in me, I would continue on... 55 00:03:35,181 --> 00:03:38,685 and travel throughout Brooklyn, looking for more shots. 56 00:03:38,751 --> 00:03:42,855 Oftentimes, if it was raining outside or it was cold, I took to the subways. 57 00:03:42,922 --> 00:03:45,158 That's why I have so many images of the subway. 58 00:03:45,225 --> 00:03:48,328 Not because I just like the subways, but because the lighting is good, 59 00:03:48,394 --> 00:03:50,730 and then you out of the cold and rain, the elements. 60 00:03:50,797 --> 00:03:52,298 The subways is like my galleries. 61 00:03:52,365 --> 00:03:55,068 I love the subway. There's never a dull moment on the subway. 62 00:03:55,134 --> 00:03:57,270 This guy. 63 00:03:59,806 --> 00:04:01,608 [ Tone Sounds ] 64 00:04:04,310 --> 00:04:07,880 This is the train I grew up on, right here. The F train is a bad train. 65 00:04:07,947 --> 00:04:12,085 This is the train we took to go out to Coney Island back in the '70s. 66 00:04:12,151 --> 00:04:14,520 This is our train-- Last stop Coney Island. 67 00:04:14,587 --> 00:04:16,623 Then we take it opposite way uptown to Manhattan, 68 00:04:16,689 --> 00:04:18,224 it would take us to 42nd Street. 69 00:04:18,291 --> 00:04:20,827 ♪♪ [ Synthesizer Rhythm ] 70 00:04:28,568 --> 00:04:31,137 ♪♪ [ Record Scratches ] 71 00:04:31,204 --> 00:04:33,506 My name is Fab 5 Freddy. 72 00:04:33,573 --> 00:04:39,078 Um, I'm here to talk about my good friend, Jamel Shabazz, 73 00:04:39,145 --> 00:04:41,948 a great photographer whose work I own. 74 00:04:42,015 --> 00:04:47,120 Um, and I'm proud to have been involved in his career, his first book. 75 00:04:48,121 --> 00:04:49,656 We're from different parts of Brooklyn. 76 00:04:49,722 --> 00:04:51,357 I'm from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section. 77 00:04:51,424 --> 00:04:54,927 He's from that Crown Heights, Flatbush area. 78 00:04:54,994 --> 00:04:58,498 But we basically had experienced a lot of the same things. 79 00:04:58,564 --> 00:05:04,270 We witnessed, listened to the same music, danced the same dances. 80 00:05:04,337 --> 00:05:06,873 We were wearing what the cool styles were. 81 00:05:06,939 --> 00:05:09,442 The right hats, the right pants. 82 00:05:09,509 --> 00:05:13,780 All those things that, before rap made them large, 83 00:05:13,846 --> 00:05:15,348 all those little details, 84 00:05:15,415 --> 00:05:21,354 the Cazal glasses, the Kangol caps, the sneakers and stuff-- 85 00:05:21,421 --> 00:05:27,560 Way before those things were, uh, mythologized in rap, 86 00:05:27,627 --> 00:05:30,229 in the numerous videos, 87 00:05:30,296 --> 00:05:32,231 Jamel had captured it. 88 00:05:32,298 --> 00:05:35,535 These were the heroes. 89 00:05:35,601 --> 00:05:38,771 These were the style icons. 90 00:05:38,838 --> 00:05:43,576 These were the cool cats on the corner, on the street, 91 00:05:43,643 --> 00:05:49,782 that every major rapper, uh, was trying to emulate-- 92 00:05:49,849 --> 00:05:53,152 was trying to give voice to, 93 00:05:53,219 --> 00:05:57,657 was trying to paint the pictures of the lifestyles that these guys lived. 94 00:05:57,724 --> 00:06:01,127 When you first saw Run-DMC real strong, 95 00:06:01,194 --> 00:06:03,162 chilling on the corner in a B-boy stance. 96 00:06:03,229 --> 00:06:05,698 What that was about, how you stood, 97 00:06:05,765 --> 00:06:08,701 how you posed, how you kept your grill-- 98 00:06:08,768 --> 00:06:12,739 A lot of those things come from the kind of people... 99 00:06:12,805 --> 00:06:16,809 that Jamel just brilliantly, uh, captured for eternity. 100 00:06:16,876 --> 00:06:19,412 ♪♪ [ Record Scratches ] 101 00:06:19,479 --> 00:06:22,382 [ Jamel ] This picture was taken in 1975... 102 00:06:22,448 --> 00:06:25,485 at Meyer Levin Junior High School in East Flatbush. 103 00:06:25,551 --> 00:06:30,356 These were three popular girls from that day and time, very beautiful girls. 104 00:06:30,423 --> 00:06:33,960 I was in love with some Keisha. Keisha was fine. She's the one in the middle. 105 00:06:34,026 --> 00:06:36,162 In this particular photograph... 106 00:06:36,229 --> 00:06:40,366 I was about 15 years old with my peers. 107 00:06:40,433 --> 00:06:43,703 And as a pastime, we would go to Coffey Park... 108 00:06:43,770 --> 00:06:47,807 and indulge in drinking quarts of Olde English. 109 00:06:47,874 --> 00:06:52,044 Fortunately for me, a-a-a Muslim brother... 110 00:06:52,111 --> 00:06:55,381 came by and approached us, me in particular, 111 00:06:55,448 --> 00:07:00,286 and told us the importance of putting the right ingredients in our body. 112 00:07:00,353 --> 00:07:03,289 And he told me to replace a bad habit with a good habit, 113 00:07:03,356 --> 00:07:05,658 and turned me on to Tropicana orange juice. 114 00:07:05,725 --> 00:07:07,560 From that point on I stopped drinking Olde English... 115 00:07:07,627 --> 00:07:09,128 and started drinking orange juice. 116 00:07:09,195 --> 00:07:12,465 I went on a mission to encourage people to get off the malt liquor. 117 00:07:12,532 --> 00:07:16,436 This is in front of my building. This is 167 Bush Street. 118 00:07:16,502 --> 00:07:19,539 These is three real cool individuals. 119 00:07:20,807 --> 00:07:24,243 This is a picture taken back in 1975 of me and Val. 120 00:07:24,310 --> 00:07:25,845 This is taken in Red Hook, Brooklyn. 121 00:07:25,912 --> 00:07:27,547 This represents the time period... 122 00:07:27,613 --> 00:07:30,483 when I first started rollin' with my camera every day. 123 00:07:30,550 --> 00:07:33,119 This is Wolf and Tyrone. 124 00:07:33,186 --> 00:07:36,689 What's deep about Wolf and Tyrone is that we were the same age. 125 00:07:36,756 --> 00:07:42,328 And real cool cats but both-- both of them lost their brothers. 126 00:07:42,395 --> 00:07:44,464 Tyrone on the right with the Quarterfield on-- 127 00:07:44,530 --> 00:07:46,032 That coat is a Quarterfield-- 128 00:07:46,098 --> 00:07:48,701 His brother, Brian, was murdered. 129 00:07:48,768 --> 00:07:50,903 Ray, on the left-- 130 00:07:50,970 --> 00:07:53,940 His brother, Mustafa, he died at a young age. 131 00:07:54,006 --> 00:07:57,343 I think he might have even died in 1978. 132 00:07:57,410 --> 00:07:59,979 He died. He had got shot in the neighborhood. 133 00:08:00,046 --> 00:08:02,982 This is my first major group shot. 134 00:08:03,049 --> 00:08:07,420 This picture was taken directly behind Tilden High School. 135 00:08:12,024 --> 00:08:16,562 This is a picture taken of my father back in 1955. 136 00:08:16,629 --> 00:08:20,867 He was a crewman aboard the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier. 137 00:08:20,933 --> 00:08:24,904 I had this painting done right after he had passed away. 138 00:08:24,971 --> 00:08:29,108 The actual image itself was taken approximately... 139 00:08:29,175 --> 00:08:32,578 1955, when he was in the Navy. 140 00:08:32,645 --> 00:08:35,615 My father was a trained combat photographer... 141 00:08:35,681 --> 00:08:40,119 who was assigned to the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier. 142 00:08:40,186 --> 00:08:43,055 During his, I believe, eight years in the military, 143 00:08:43,122 --> 00:08:45,925 it enabled him to travel throughout the Mediterranean... 144 00:08:45,992 --> 00:08:47,493 taking pictures. 145 00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:52,532 This picture here was probably taken around 1964. 146 00:08:52,598 --> 00:08:55,601 This is a shot my father took of me getting my hair cut... 147 00:08:55,668 --> 00:08:58,704 out there in Red Hook, Brooklyn, back in the days. 148 00:08:58,771 --> 00:09:02,074 Prior to his passing, he gave this picture to me as a gift. 149 00:09:02,141 --> 00:09:06,612 When I started, um, showing an interest in photography, 150 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:10,316 my father made it a point, mainly, when I came home from the military-- 151 00:09:10,383 --> 00:09:13,886 He saw my desire to learn. I had a Canon camera. 152 00:09:13,953 --> 00:09:16,756 He basically gave me the fundamental principles of photography, 153 00:09:16,822 --> 00:09:20,293 the mechanics, which were extremely important back then. 154 00:09:20,359 --> 00:09:23,162 My father never really understood my compassion... 155 00:09:23,229 --> 00:09:27,266 a-and empathy for that type of social conditions. 156 00:09:27,333 --> 00:09:29,936 I remember bringing those images home to him, 157 00:09:30,002 --> 00:09:34,974 and he just would be somewhat disgusted in my wasting the film. 158 00:09:35,041 --> 00:09:36,976 He never saw the purpose in it. 159 00:09:37,043 --> 00:09:39,812 ♪♪ [ Drumming ] [ Chattering ] 160 00:09:39,879 --> 00:09:42,582 [ Whistle Blows ] Harlem! 161 00:09:49,555 --> 00:09:51,057 [ Jamel ] All right. Showtime! 162 00:09:52,725 --> 00:09:54,226 Right here! 163 00:09:54,293 --> 00:09:56,896 All right. Here we go! Hold that pose. 164 00:09:58,464 --> 00:10:04,103 ♪♪ [ Marching Band Continues ] 165 00:10:08,774 --> 00:10:12,178 [ Whistle Blowing ] 166 00:10:18,551 --> 00:10:22,288 I had read Malcolm X's autobiography, 167 00:10:22,355 --> 00:10:28,928 and it was something about his character that really inspired me. 168 00:10:28,995 --> 00:10:32,865 Malcolm in particular. The nation of Islam as a whole-- 169 00:10:32,932 --> 00:10:35,835 But they went after the downtrodden people. 170 00:10:35,901 --> 00:10:38,704 They went after the prostitutes and the pimps and the drug dealers. 171 00:10:38,771 --> 00:10:43,309 And they were able to inspire them to transform their lives. 172 00:10:52,752 --> 00:10:56,455 I first became a correctional officer in 1983. 173 00:10:56,522 --> 00:10:58,991 And it was a very interesting challenge for me. 174 00:10:59,058 --> 00:11:02,194 It was my first time ever being in a correctional institution. 175 00:11:02,261 --> 00:11:05,965 My first duty assignment was working with adolescents-- 176 00:11:06,032 --> 00:11:09,001 ages, at that time, 16 to 21, 177 00:11:09,068 --> 00:11:12,338 at the notorious C74, as they called it back then, 178 00:11:12,405 --> 00:11:14,473 where I spent quite a few years for the most part. 179 00:11:14,540 --> 00:11:17,209 That's where I got my basic training development, 180 00:11:17,276 --> 00:11:19,512 working with what were considered the worst of the worst inmates. 181 00:11:19,578 --> 00:11:23,049 It was said if you could work in C74, you could work anywhere. 182 00:11:23,115 --> 00:11:26,619 The system itself was not designed to rehabilitate them. 183 00:11:26,686 --> 00:11:29,388 It was interesting. We even called it gladiator school. 184 00:11:29,455 --> 00:11:34,760 Where you had these people in the system-- really no education. 185 00:11:34,827 --> 00:11:39,832 There wasn't a lot of social programs to help them readjust to society. 186 00:11:39,899 --> 00:11:41,400 It was just violence. 187 00:11:41,467 --> 00:11:45,538 Oftentimes, the incidents will explode in the mess hall. 188 00:11:45,604 --> 00:11:48,808 We were told back then-- What happened in the mess hall is-- 189 00:11:48,874 --> 00:11:50,409 You'd have all these housing areas, 190 00:11:50,476 --> 00:11:53,179 about four housing areas any given day... 191 00:11:53,245 --> 00:11:54,880 going into the mess hall to eat. 192 00:11:54,947 --> 00:11:57,583 You'd have two housing areas in. You'd have one half-out. 193 00:11:57,650 --> 00:12:00,052 You'd have two housing areas in the hallway. 194 00:12:00,119 --> 00:12:02,788 That was an opportunity to set things off. 195 00:12:02,855 --> 00:12:04,356 In the mess hall... 196 00:12:04,423 --> 00:12:08,227 you might be in a situation where anything can go down. 197 00:12:08,294 --> 00:12:10,229 You could have beef with somebody on the street. 198 00:12:10,296 --> 00:12:11,864 Could be a person that might've murdered you. 199 00:12:11,931 --> 00:12:13,966 This could be your co-defendant that flipped on you. 200 00:12:14,033 --> 00:12:15,735 Now you see him in the mess hall. 201 00:12:15,801 --> 00:12:18,871 That hatred is so deeply rooted in you. 202 00:12:18,938 --> 00:12:21,474 When you see that person, you are going to shank him. 203 00:12:21,540 --> 00:12:23,876 Back then, it was about warfare. 204 00:12:23,943 --> 00:12:25,444 You improvise. You made weapons. 205 00:12:25,511 --> 00:12:28,514 Straight razors were common. Uh, razors-- 206 00:12:28,581 --> 00:12:31,751 Weapons made out of toothbrushes sharpened on the edges. 207 00:12:31,817 --> 00:12:34,587 You brought that. Sometimes you can detect these things. 208 00:12:34,653 --> 00:12:38,290 If you saw an enemy, you're going to bring it regardless of the consequences. 209 00:12:38,357 --> 00:12:41,360 There was times in which these riots would ensue inside the mess hall, 210 00:12:41,427 --> 00:12:44,697 and the doors would be closed, and it would be all-out chaos. 211 00:12:53,572 --> 00:12:56,642 Wussup? I'm Sharp. [ Laughs ] 212 00:12:56,709 --> 00:13:02,047 The first time that I ever saw Jamel Shabazz's work... 213 00:13:02,114 --> 00:13:06,085 was in a art exhibition... 214 00:13:06,152 --> 00:13:09,855 which was curated by Claude Grunitzky, 215 00:13:09,922 --> 00:13:13,692 who is the head honcho over there at Trace magazine. 216 00:13:13,759 --> 00:13:17,496 I saw these photos, uh, 217 00:13:17,563 --> 00:13:21,867 that were portraits of people standing in subway cars. 218 00:13:21,934 --> 00:13:27,339 And in the photo were signatures inside the trains, 219 00:13:27,406 --> 00:13:32,144 some of which I knew when they had taken place... 220 00:13:32,211 --> 00:13:35,481 because I was with the person when the tags were made. 221 00:13:35,548 --> 00:13:37,550 This particular picture is really interesting too, 222 00:13:37,616 --> 00:13:40,586 just because it looks like they are in the last car. 223 00:13:40,653 --> 00:13:43,022 They are about to smoke a joint. They got a radio. 224 00:13:43,088 --> 00:13:46,392 Know what I mean? People don't smoke weed in the subway anymore, 225 00:13:46,458 --> 00:13:47,960 much less listen to music. 226 00:13:48,027 --> 00:13:51,096 And if you didn't want to get robbed, you didn't go back there. 227 00:13:51,163 --> 00:13:55,000 You stayed in the fifth car, next to the conductor's booth. 228 00:13:56,468 --> 00:13:57,970 My name is Claude Grunitzky. 229 00:13:58,037 --> 00:14:00,406 I'm the editor and founder of Trace magazine, 230 00:14:00,472 --> 00:14:04,443 which has been around since the late '90s. 231 00:14:04,510 --> 00:14:07,880 In the late '90s-- Actually, in 1999, 232 00:14:07,947 --> 00:14:11,684 um, one day Jamel Shabazz walked into our office. 233 00:14:11,750 --> 00:14:13,819 But he came with a portfolio... 234 00:14:13,886 --> 00:14:17,957 that had these hundreds of photographs from his archives. 235 00:14:19,191 --> 00:14:21,894 For someone like me who grew up as a hip-hop kid... 236 00:14:21,961 --> 00:14:23,662 in Paris in the '80s, 237 00:14:23,729 --> 00:14:25,931 longing for that New York experience, 238 00:14:25,998 --> 00:14:28,767 that discovery was absolutely amazing, 239 00:14:28,834 --> 00:14:31,537 because I could see that Jamel was the witness. 240 00:14:31,604 --> 00:14:34,573 He was the guy who had a camera. 241 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:38,744 In that fall of 1999, in this specific issue, 242 00:14:38,811 --> 00:14:42,448 we then cleared a few pages for Jamel... 243 00:14:42,514 --> 00:14:44,717 and published his portfolio which is called... 244 00:14:44,783 --> 00:14:46,285 "Not Just Another Date." 245 00:14:46,352 --> 00:14:48,320 And I started seeing these people... 246 00:14:48,387 --> 00:14:53,125 in situations wearing these old-school pants, old-school sneakers, 247 00:14:53,192 --> 00:14:57,563 and seeing these old boom boxes and-- 248 00:14:57,630 --> 00:15:00,966 The music was everywhere. I was wondering who these people were. 249 00:15:01,033 --> 00:15:03,903 Just seeing a couple in love like that-- 250 00:15:03,969 --> 00:15:06,338 There was something that felt very natural and hopeful, 251 00:15:06,405 --> 00:15:08,474 and I was really moved when I saw it. 252 00:15:08,540 --> 00:15:12,845 So, we decided to exhibit his work in a gallery in Paris, 253 00:15:12,912 --> 00:15:14,413 the Galerie Beaurepaire. 254 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:18,484 I was thinking of it from a French person's perspective. 255 00:15:18,550 --> 00:15:22,988 I wanted his point of view as an American, as a New Yorker. 256 00:15:23,055 --> 00:15:28,193 This photograph is one of my most precious possessions. 257 00:15:28,260 --> 00:15:32,164 It is a photograph that was taken by Jamel... 258 00:15:32,231 --> 00:15:35,200 in my family apartment in Paris. 259 00:15:35,267 --> 00:15:37,937 My father ended up passing away... 260 00:15:38,003 --> 00:15:40,572 a couple months after this photograph was taken. 261 00:15:40,639 --> 00:15:43,876 I remember that Jamel could tell that my father was ill, 262 00:15:43,943 --> 00:15:46,912 and he wanted to capture that moment with a photograph. 263 00:15:46,979 --> 00:15:50,182 I'm so grateful to him for having done that. 264 00:15:50,249 --> 00:15:51,850 This is actually the last photograph... 265 00:15:51,917 --> 00:15:54,720 that was ever taken of my father and I, 266 00:15:54,787 --> 00:15:57,823 probably the last picture that was ever taken of my father, period. 267 00:15:57,890 --> 00:16:00,259 [ Woman On PA ] If you see a suspicious package... 268 00:16:00,326 --> 00:16:04,797 or activity on the platform or train, do not keep it to yourself. 269 00:16:06,332 --> 00:16:09,935 Tell a police officer or MTA employee. 270 00:16:10,769 --> 00:16:12,805 Remain alert and have a safe-- 271 00:16:14,473 --> 00:16:16,408 How you doin'? I am David Villorente, 272 00:16:16,475 --> 00:16:20,446 better known as Dave "Chino" or by my tag, Chino BYI. 273 00:16:20,512 --> 00:16:24,283 I worked for The Source magazine between 1994 and 2005. 274 00:16:24,350 --> 00:16:27,419 I was an editor of the Graf Flix section of the magazine... 275 00:16:27,486 --> 00:16:29,555 which eventually becameBomb Shelter. 276 00:16:29,621 --> 00:16:32,358 So, uh, sometime around the tail end of '97, 277 00:16:32,424 --> 00:16:36,695 while we were working on The Source magazine's 100th anniversary issue, 278 00:16:36,762 --> 00:16:40,366 our then photo director Janene Outlaw came into the office... 279 00:16:40,432 --> 00:16:41,967 and tapped me on the shoulder and said, 280 00:16:42,034 --> 00:16:45,404 "I've got something you should check out. You might appreciate this." 281 00:16:45,471 --> 00:16:47,906 She was sitting on Jamel Shabazz's portfolios. 282 00:16:47,973 --> 00:16:52,311 Um, prior to this he hadn't had any of his work published anywhere. 283 00:16:52,378 --> 00:16:55,280 So this stuff was absolutely mind-blowing. 284 00:16:55,347 --> 00:16:57,016 We were sitting there in awe, 285 00:16:57,082 --> 00:16:59,385 checking out guys with bell Kangols... 286 00:16:59,451 --> 00:17:03,322 and leather Double Gooses and Three-quarter Gooses... 287 00:17:03,389 --> 00:17:07,926 and fat dookie ropes and three finger rings and gold fronts. 288 00:17:07,993 --> 00:17:09,661 What really stood out to me was... 289 00:17:09,728 --> 00:17:11,764 that a majority of these pictures were taken in Brooklyn... 290 00:17:11,830 --> 00:17:13,332 or in my Fort Greene neighborhood. 291 00:17:13,399 --> 00:17:16,535 When I started getting my feet wet in graffiti, 292 00:17:16,602 --> 00:17:18,137 sometime around the time I was 11, 293 00:17:18,203 --> 00:17:20,406 there was an art store on Fulton Street. 294 00:17:20,472 --> 00:17:22,708 I met Willie in front of the art store. 295 00:17:22,775 --> 00:17:25,010 He asked me what I wrote, and I made up a tag. 296 00:17:25,077 --> 00:17:28,781 I told him I wrote "OE." I just made it up on the spot, 297 00:17:28,847 --> 00:17:31,717 not realizing there was an old-school "OE" from Brooklyn. 298 00:17:31,784 --> 00:17:33,552 He was the first guy to be like, 299 00:17:33,619 --> 00:17:35,821 "Listen, there's someone that writes that name. 300 00:17:35,888 --> 00:17:37,990 That's not a very original tag." 301 00:17:38,057 --> 00:17:41,960 These guys are from a Brooklyn graffiti crew known as the "XMEN." 302 00:17:42,027 --> 00:17:45,964 That's Tattoo XMEN standing here with the white shorts on. 303 00:17:46,031 --> 00:17:47,766 This is OB XMEN. 304 00:17:47,833 --> 00:17:50,636 Some of their more prominent members of their crew... 305 00:17:50,702 --> 00:17:53,972 were SO XMEN, DJ NO, TES. 306 00:17:54,039 --> 00:17:59,445 NO and TES are the first two guys credited for the graffiti sticker trend. 307 00:17:59,511 --> 00:18:01,980 They were local graffiti artists that I grew up looking up to. 308 00:18:02,047 --> 00:18:05,551 OB was one of the first established graffiti writers I had ever met. 309 00:18:05,617 --> 00:18:07,352 I was probably about 11 at the time. 310 00:18:07,419 --> 00:18:08,921 Me and OB remained friends... 311 00:18:08,987 --> 00:18:11,490 up until he passed away about two years ago. 312 00:18:11,557 --> 00:18:13,225 Back in the Days and Time Before Crack, 313 00:18:13,292 --> 00:18:17,196 I recognize so many of the locations, so many of the people. 314 00:18:17,262 --> 00:18:19,565 These two photos here were taken near the Fulton Mall. 315 00:18:19,631 --> 00:18:23,836 You can tell this is the Dime Savings Bank next to Juniors, 316 00:18:23,902 --> 00:18:28,006 and left of the bank is where the Albee Square Mall used to stand. 317 00:18:28,073 --> 00:18:30,042 Many people are familiar with the Albee Square Mall... 318 00:18:30,109 --> 00:18:31,610 from the BizMarkie track... 319 00:18:31,677 --> 00:18:33,645 "My House is the Albee Square Mall". 320 00:18:33,712 --> 00:18:36,648 The two gentlemen are standing in front of a HEC 398 tag. 321 00:18:36,715 --> 00:18:39,718 HEC 398 was from a crew called CW-- Crazy Writers. 322 00:18:39,785 --> 00:18:42,721 This guy in particular, we knew as Pipo growing up. 323 00:18:42,788 --> 00:18:44,823 He was kind of, like, dabbled with gangs. 324 00:18:44,890 --> 00:18:48,560 You can see on his sleeve here, they've written 1369, 325 00:18:48,627 --> 00:18:51,296 which was a gang symbol with a swastika in the middle. 326 00:18:51,363 --> 00:18:54,500 He's got FTW which stood for "fuck the world" on his arm. 327 00:18:54,566 --> 00:18:57,269 Pipo, he was older than us at the time. 328 00:18:57,336 --> 00:19:01,140 He was really big for telling us these tall tales every time we saw him. 329 00:19:01,206 --> 00:19:03,142 One day, I could probably tell my kids, 330 00:19:03,208 --> 00:19:05,677 "You want to see where I grew up, the faces I grew up around?" 331 00:19:05,744 --> 00:19:07,679 I can just pick up one of these two books. 332 00:19:14,419 --> 00:19:17,756 Back in the spring of 2000, there was a knock at the door. 333 00:19:17,823 --> 00:19:20,859 There was just myself, Sara Rosen in the office, 334 00:19:20,926 --> 00:19:24,530 and the third of powerHouse Books, Daniel, wasn't there. 335 00:19:24,596 --> 00:19:26,198 So I said, "Sir, what's your name?" 336 00:19:26,265 --> 00:19:28,000 He said, "My name is Jamel Shabazz." 337 00:19:28,066 --> 00:19:29,902 It hit me like a ton of bricks. 338 00:19:29,968 --> 00:19:33,772 Because I had seen a small catalog from a show he did in Paris... 339 00:19:33,839 --> 00:19:35,908 that Trace magazine organized. 340 00:19:35,974 --> 00:19:39,678 And, I had wanted to see more of that work for about a year, 341 00:19:39,745 --> 00:19:42,214 and there he was, just standing in my office. 342 00:19:42,281 --> 00:19:45,284 I had never seen a book like Back in the Days before. 343 00:19:45,350 --> 00:19:47,486 And we still thought it was an artist's book. 344 00:19:47,553 --> 00:19:49,388 It wasn't until the book was released-- 345 00:19:49,454 --> 00:19:51,190 We only printed 4,000 copies. 346 00:19:51,256 --> 00:19:54,426 Before the book arrived, we had sold out. 347 00:19:54,493 --> 00:19:57,696 So we placed our reprint order for 5,000 copies... 348 00:19:57,763 --> 00:20:00,199 as the boat arrived with the 4,000. 349 00:20:00,265 --> 00:20:03,835 And... eight printings later,Back in the Days... 350 00:20:03,902 --> 00:20:09,274 is the cornerstone of the hip-hop culture book. 351 00:20:09,341 --> 00:20:12,044 ♪♪ [ Record Scratches ] 352 00:20:12,110 --> 00:20:13,845 All right, showtime. 353 00:20:13,912 --> 00:20:15,948 We here at Samuel J. Tilden High School... 354 00:20:16,014 --> 00:20:17,916 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, 355 00:20:17,983 --> 00:20:20,919 the school I attended back in 1975. 356 00:20:20,986 --> 00:20:23,488 It's a joy to be here after so many years. 357 00:20:23,555 --> 00:20:26,024 I'm looking forward to having an opportunity... 358 00:20:26,091 --> 00:20:30,295 to photograph the students very much like I did 30 years ago. 359 00:20:30,362 --> 00:20:32,564 [ Shutter Clicks ] [ Laughing, Chattering ] 360 00:20:32,631 --> 00:20:34,533 Let me get the whole posse, here. Come on. 361 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:36,301 Let me get some hard-- Chicken head! 362 00:20:36,368 --> 00:20:37,903 Okay. This my boo! 363 00:20:37,970 --> 00:20:40,572 This is Brooklyn, baby. Come on. This Brooklyn. 364 00:20:40,639 --> 00:20:42,874 Right now. Take one more. 365 00:20:42,941 --> 00:20:46,378 Don't let me find out you're all visitin' from Jersey. [ Laughs ] 366 00:20:46,445 --> 00:20:48,880 All right. You stop, son. I got to get you. 367 00:20:48,947 --> 00:20:51,016 A'ight. You're makin' me feel like a celebrity though. 368 00:20:51,083 --> 00:20:52,584 No doubt. Feel like a celebrity. 369 00:20:52,651 --> 00:20:54,820 Got smooth skin, got one earring in the ear. 370 00:20:54,886 --> 00:20:58,223 - That's the tomb status. There you go. - So light. 371 00:20:58,290 --> 00:21:00,425 If I could get y'all... right. 372 00:21:00,492 --> 00:21:02,828 This gate is good. This is old-school gate. 373 00:21:04,463 --> 00:21:06,064 Tilden-- That's my man right here. 374 00:21:06,131 --> 00:21:07,699 You got that hard-core look. 375 00:21:07,766 --> 00:21:10,269 Come on. We got the blacks in the middle. 376 00:21:10,335 --> 00:21:12,638 Two blacks, let me get you here in the front. 377 00:21:12,704 --> 00:21:16,141 Let me get you crouched down, girl. See, let me get you crouched down. 378 00:21:16,208 --> 00:21:17,743 My man, you come right there. 379 00:21:17,809 --> 00:21:20,545 That's the picture right there. That's old school! 380 00:21:20,612 --> 00:21:22,681 That's the shot! Just like this. 381 00:21:23,649 --> 00:21:25,951 That's it. That's the love. 382 00:21:26,018 --> 00:21:28,287 And... beautiful picture. [ Shutter Clicks ] 383 00:21:28,353 --> 00:21:32,691 The key element to taking pictures, you got to find who the general is. 384 00:21:32,758 --> 00:21:36,361 Once you find that alpha male or that dominant male in the group, 385 00:21:36,428 --> 00:21:38,363 you make him feel good. 386 00:21:38,430 --> 00:21:39,931 You show him love. 387 00:21:39,998 --> 00:21:43,135 Once you could captivate him, all the troops will follow. 388 00:21:43,835 --> 00:21:45,604 I'm Kevin Stukes. 389 00:21:45,671 --> 00:21:49,141 I grew up in this area over here with Jamel Shabazz. 390 00:21:49,207 --> 00:21:53,045 We all went to junior high school together and high school and, um-- 391 00:21:53,111 --> 00:21:55,681 Listen, this was Nazareth Park right here. 392 00:21:55,747 --> 00:21:58,917 Tilden High School-- This was our stomping grounds right here. 393 00:21:58,984 --> 00:22:00,585 This is where we did everything. 394 00:22:00,652 --> 00:22:04,389 We played ball in here in the mornin' times, on Saturday mornings. 395 00:22:04,456 --> 00:22:06,491 Used to have the big block parties. 396 00:22:06,558 --> 00:22:09,861 Inside, the guys used to bring out the DJ, a guy named Magic. 397 00:22:09,928 --> 00:22:12,164 Jimmy would be playing music over here. 398 00:22:12,230 --> 00:22:16,034 Don't forget. We used to have a hell of a lot of good dice games. 399 00:22:16,101 --> 00:22:19,538 I'm talking about 40 to 50 people in a dice game. 400 00:22:19,604 --> 00:22:22,074 Right here in this park. 401 00:22:22,140 --> 00:22:25,477 Jamel would come take pictures, but he wouldn't gamble. 402 00:22:25,544 --> 00:22:27,412 This is in front of Tilden High School, 403 00:22:27,479 --> 00:22:29,414 which, some kinda way, we all wound up at. 404 00:22:29,481 --> 00:22:31,783 They are in front of Tilden, right? In front of Tilden. 405 00:22:31,850 --> 00:22:36,888 That's Mark. That's, uh, Craig. That's José. 406 00:22:36,955 --> 00:22:40,325 All these little kids is right here. All of them are still around. 407 00:22:40,392 --> 00:22:43,028 This is a picture of the hat store... 408 00:22:43,095 --> 00:22:45,564 which was on Saratoga and Pitkin Avenue, 409 00:22:45,630 --> 00:22:47,733 where we all used to get our Beavers from. 410 00:22:47,799 --> 00:22:52,537 At that time, Beavers and Panamas were the hats you mostly wore. 411 00:22:52,604 --> 00:22:55,607 This is me right here-- 1979. 412 00:22:55,674 --> 00:22:57,642 We was what you would call early gangsters. 413 00:22:57,709 --> 00:23:00,178 We thought we were early gangsters. 414 00:23:00,245 --> 00:23:02,547 This is a homey here, Chico. 415 00:23:03,982 --> 00:23:05,484 Chico from Brooklyn. 416 00:23:05,550 --> 00:23:07,119 - [ Jamel ] Chico got 40 years. - Forty years? 417 00:23:07,185 --> 00:23:10,021 Got 40 years. He's been down now about 17. 418 00:23:10,088 --> 00:23:11,123 Damn! 419 00:23:11,189 --> 00:23:12,758 Ronald Williams. Ronald Wayde. 420 00:23:12,824 --> 00:23:14,359 I forgot his name. 421 00:23:14,426 --> 00:23:17,829 Actually, he used to go with my wife back in the days. [ Laughs ] 422 00:23:17,896 --> 00:23:20,799 The girl I'm married to now, he used to go with her... 423 00:23:20,866 --> 00:23:22,501 until I ran him out of town. 424 00:23:22,567 --> 00:23:26,605 Then the nigga had the nerve to ask me why did I take his girl? 425 00:23:26,671 --> 00:23:28,707 You did! Nigga, was my girl first! 426 00:23:28,774 --> 00:23:30,842 How you going to tell me that? 427 00:23:30,909 --> 00:23:34,212 Ced! [ Imitates Karate Yell ] 428 00:23:35,814 --> 00:23:39,251 What you call this brother? Karate expert. Karate and no socks. 429 00:23:39,317 --> 00:23:42,954 I'm tellin' you. That was Cedric, man. 430 00:23:43,021 --> 00:23:46,625 [ Shouts, Chuckles ] 431 00:23:46,691 --> 00:23:49,461 Yeah, I remember that used to be my barber back in the day. 432 00:23:49,528 --> 00:23:51,763 Tell him about your waves. 433 00:23:51,830 --> 00:23:54,800 You don't got your waves no more? No waves. 434 00:23:54,866 --> 00:23:58,370 [ Man ] That's one thing about Jamel-- In the first book-- 435 00:23:58,437 --> 00:24:01,006 Is that the first one? In the first book... 436 00:24:01,072 --> 00:24:03,942 there's pictures of everybody who was deceased in the back. 437 00:24:04,009 --> 00:24:05,510 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 438 00:24:05,577 --> 00:24:08,280 [ Stukes ] You have Trev here who used to live on Ralph Avenue... 439 00:24:08,346 --> 00:24:10,115 between Synder and Tilden. 440 00:24:10,182 --> 00:24:14,753 You have Just-God here who grew up on-- lived on 51st Street. 441 00:24:14,820 --> 00:24:18,590 A great guy who also was a photographer. He was murdered. 442 00:24:18,657 --> 00:24:22,294 You have another guy, Isaac, who was mysteriously found dead. 443 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:25,197 I mean, Jamel just captured all these pictures... 444 00:24:25,263 --> 00:24:27,666 of all these individuals prior to their death. 445 00:24:27,732 --> 00:24:29,734 Oh, look at the outfits. I remember that. 446 00:24:29,801 --> 00:24:33,805 [ Man, Indistinct ] [ Laughs ] 447 00:24:33,872 --> 00:24:35,407 [ Woman ] This was my best friend's brother. 448 00:24:35,474 --> 00:24:38,510 He got killed in, um, '86. 449 00:24:38,577 --> 00:24:40,445 [ Girl ] By what? That was his girlfriend. 450 00:24:40,512 --> 00:24:44,916 Um, gunshot, you should say. 451 00:24:44,983 --> 00:24:47,986 - Is she still alive? - Mm-hmm. Remember? We saw her. 452 00:24:48,053 --> 00:24:51,656 You would not know her though. You wasn't even there. 453 00:24:51,723 --> 00:24:54,125 See how he educates people through his books? 454 00:24:54,192 --> 00:24:56,495 That's one thing you knew about him back then. 455 00:24:56,561 --> 00:24:59,130 - He was an educator then. - Oh, definitely. Definitely. 456 00:24:59,197 --> 00:25:02,133 He was my educator to the Nation of Islam. 457 00:25:05,170 --> 00:25:08,173 That's true. When I looked at the images... 458 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,410 and sat down to write the introduction, 459 00:25:12,477 --> 00:25:14,779 one of the things that hit me... 460 00:25:14,846 --> 00:25:19,317 that he captured, um, is... 461 00:25:19,384 --> 00:25:20,752 "cool." 462 00:25:20,819 --> 00:25:23,722 I thought to myself, well, you know, 463 00:25:23,788 --> 00:25:27,959 "cool" is a word we throw around rather loosely, 464 00:25:28,026 --> 00:25:33,198 very much a part of our American English lexicon. 465 00:25:33,265 --> 00:25:36,535 But I wanted to go deep into the origins of cool. 466 00:25:36,601 --> 00:25:40,405 And, um, I had to do some research, believe it or not. 467 00:25:40,472 --> 00:25:42,874 [ Chuckles ] Me? Nah. 468 00:25:42,941 --> 00:25:47,245 I had to really delve in, peel the covers back on what "cool" is. 469 00:25:47,312 --> 00:25:52,517 And, um, a great academic thinker, 470 00:25:52,584 --> 00:25:55,153 um, and scholar, Robert Farris Thompson, 471 00:25:55,220 --> 00:25:58,056 in a book calledFlash of the Spirit, 472 00:25:58,123 --> 00:26:03,995 who has done extensive research into African cultures in the Diaspora, 473 00:26:04,062 --> 00:26:07,766 and is able to interpret and break things down, 474 00:26:07,832 --> 00:26:12,804 traced "cool", the word, back to the 15th, 16th century... 475 00:26:12,871 --> 00:26:15,040 in Nigeria, 476 00:26:15,106 --> 00:26:17,809 in a word, I think, Oshun, 477 00:26:17,876 --> 00:26:24,215 that actually translates into "cool" as a concept. 478 00:26:24,282 --> 00:26:28,720 Um, he basically has documented... 479 00:26:28,787 --> 00:26:33,291 where this word began, if you will, as a concept... 480 00:26:33,358 --> 00:26:35,894 that we were conscious of. 481 00:26:35,961 --> 00:26:41,366 It's something that moves through the African experience, 482 00:26:41,433 --> 00:26:43,368 obviously through the adversity... 483 00:26:43,435 --> 00:26:46,538 of all the things people of African descent... 484 00:26:46,605 --> 00:26:48,406 have had to go through-- 485 00:26:48,473 --> 00:26:52,277 Being cool-- [ Chuckles ] is a big part of that, man. 486 00:26:52,344 --> 00:26:55,280 Because keeping that cool pose, 487 00:26:55,347 --> 00:26:59,484 that cool face, that demeanor, that attitude, that style, 488 00:26:59,551 --> 00:27:01,353 has been like an armor... 489 00:27:01,419 --> 00:27:06,291 for many people of color here in America and in other places. 490 00:27:06,358 --> 00:27:08,660 But specifically, what I know about here-- 491 00:27:08,727 --> 00:27:12,263 I think our music has been an extension... 492 00:27:12,330 --> 00:27:14,032 and an interpretation of that. 493 00:27:14,099 --> 00:27:17,268 So when you really kind of get a sense of what that is... 494 00:27:17,335 --> 00:27:22,540 and how it's one of those inner things that's in us-- 495 00:27:22,607 --> 00:27:26,978 Jamel Shabazz's pictures, I think, an inherent aspect of what he does, 496 00:27:27,045 --> 00:27:29,881 has done, is captured cool... 497 00:27:29,948 --> 00:27:31,950 within the individuals and the settings... 498 00:27:32,017 --> 00:27:34,519 and in how he composes his shot. 499 00:27:34,586 --> 00:27:37,989 The point, the millisecond, that he decides to... 500 00:27:39,090 --> 00:27:40,859 press that shutter down-- 501 00:27:40,925 --> 00:27:45,296 Hey baby, that's it. Cool. [ Cameraman Chuckles ] 502 00:27:45,363 --> 00:27:47,932 ♪ Cool 'cause I don't get upset ♪ 503 00:27:47,999 --> 00:27:51,102 ♪ I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug and I jet ♪ 504 00:27:51,169 --> 00:27:55,006 ♪ Back to the lab, my man, Rakim Without a mike to grab ♪♪ 505 00:27:55,073 --> 00:27:56,408 Rakim, cool! 506 00:27:56,474 --> 00:27:58,610 [ Man ] He's comin'. I was trying to get you to come. 507 00:27:58,677 --> 00:28:02,113 I was excited. I was like, "Jamel is coming! Jamel is coming!" 508 00:28:03,081 --> 00:28:04,616 We're going to do big things. 509 00:28:04,683 --> 00:28:07,719 When you first called my name, I said, "Damn, this sounds like static." 510 00:28:07,786 --> 00:28:10,121 The way you called my name, it's like, "Damn. 511 00:28:10,188 --> 00:28:13,058 I got to throw down with this kid." What did I say? 512 00:28:13,124 --> 00:28:16,628 You said, "Jamel Shabazz!" Then you got into a fighting stance. 513 00:28:16,695 --> 00:28:19,330 I said, "Damn. I ain't came here to fight." 514 00:28:19,397 --> 00:28:21,800 It's too early-- Too many women in here. 515 00:28:21,866 --> 00:28:25,503 [ Buzzing ] 516 00:28:25,570 --> 00:28:28,006 My man right here, I've been knowin' him for a long time. 517 00:28:28,073 --> 00:28:30,909 Break it down, brother. I want to hear the history. 518 00:28:30,975 --> 00:28:34,079 You say some really deep things to me. They won't believe me, man. 519 00:28:35,213 --> 00:28:37,549 What about the beef that happened out there? 520 00:28:37,615 --> 00:28:39,250 That's what really gets me. 521 00:28:39,317 --> 00:28:41,553 The way I was rolling was interesting... 522 00:28:41,619 --> 00:28:43,121 'cause I knew everybody. 523 00:28:43,188 --> 00:28:45,957 When you start breaking down to me, Pringle, and all the beef, 524 00:28:46,024 --> 00:28:47,525 the conflict that was going on-- 525 00:28:47,592 --> 00:28:50,995 We don't want that in here. Not to talk about it but-- 526 00:28:51,062 --> 00:28:53,098 I never knew there were so many enemies back then. 527 00:28:53,164 --> 00:28:55,800 Listen, tell them how much murders they had out here. 528 00:28:55,867 --> 00:28:57,435 [ Man ] Oh, yeah. Whoo. 529 00:28:57,502 --> 00:29:00,772 [ Man ] Every time you turned around. Goddamn, it was bad out here. 530 00:29:02,774 --> 00:29:06,177 That's when-- That's the first time-- When I came home-- 531 00:29:07,545 --> 00:29:11,282 When I came home, that was the first time I seen crack. 532 00:29:11,349 --> 00:29:12,951 I didn't know nothing about no crack. 533 00:29:13,017 --> 00:29:17,422 I was walking down the street, and I thought that people had a parade. 534 00:29:17,489 --> 00:29:21,760 And people threw these confetti tops up, 535 00:29:21,826 --> 00:29:26,431 because the whole street was full of red, yellow, green. 536 00:29:26,498 --> 00:29:29,067 Those were the capsules to the bags. 537 00:29:29,134 --> 00:29:31,202 You know, the tops they used to put the crack in. 538 00:29:31,269 --> 00:29:32,771 They had-- Right, John? 539 00:29:32,837 --> 00:29:34,372 They had that shit all over the street. 540 00:29:34,439 --> 00:29:36,574 You could be walking down the street, tops everywhere. 541 00:29:36,641 --> 00:29:38,243 What the hell is going on? 542 00:29:38,309 --> 00:29:39,911 I didn't know nothing about that. Mmm. 543 00:29:39,978 --> 00:29:41,613 If you come home, you know nothin' about that. 544 00:29:41,679 --> 00:29:45,283 But that was-- That was the crack, you know? 545 00:29:45,350 --> 00:29:47,018 [ Buzzing ] 546 00:29:47,085 --> 00:29:48,987 If Carroll was alive today, 547 00:29:49,053 --> 00:29:50,555 I could have the same conversation with him. 548 00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:52,857 I didn't even know Carroll was dead. 549 00:29:52,924 --> 00:29:56,127 I kept lookin' at that picture, like, "I know this guy from somewhere." 550 00:29:56,194 --> 00:29:59,731 ...we are talking about are really interesting individuals, because I speak about-- 551 00:29:59,798 --> 00:30:02,767 These are the younger brothers to my partners. 552 00:30:02,834 --> 00:30:04,435 All of my partners had younger brothers... 553 00:30:04,502 --> 00:30:06,971 about two, three years younger than us. 554 00:30:07,038 --> 00:30:09,440 The people we are discussing are basically them. 555 00:30:09,507 --> 00:30:12,544 Tony's generation is actually that generation. 556 00:30:12,610 --> 00:30:16,548 He was one of the survivors, but Brian Davis, Mustafa, Naquan-- 557 00:30:16,614 --> 00:30:19,517 These is three guys that I knew their brothers very well, 558 00:30:19,584 --> 00:30:21,085 and they all died violently. 559 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,190 You spent time back-- You were there in the '70s? 560 00:30:25,256 --> 00:30:27,559 [ Man ] Uh, sure. That sounds accurate. 561 00:30:27,625 --> 00:30:30,461 Hold on. Let me show you this picture of my partner. 562 00:30:30,528 --> 00:30:33,898 Yeah, brother Cedric, Larry-- - I've seen him before. Yeah. 563 00:30:33,965 --> 00:30:36,267 Malik. He was born and raised-- You remember this brother, right? 564 00:30:36,334 --> 00:30:38,603 Cedric's brother? Wild-ass karate Cedric? 565 00:30:38,670 --> 00:30:40,004 That's my man! 566 00:30:40,071 --> 00:30:42,841 Cedric had on a whole karate suit. [ Laughs ] 567 00:30:44,742 --> 00:30:46,845 That's Ced. Listen, kid. Like Bruce Lee. 568 00:30:46,911 --> 00:30:50,181 Whatever the karate dudes do, he'd do the same shit. Water. 569 00:30:50,248 --> 00:30:52,183 He'd take buckets of water-- 570 00:30:52,250 --> 00:30:54,185 [ Laughing ] 571 00:30:54,252 --> 00:30:58,122 And put it on his back... and walk with-- 572 00:30:58,189 --> 00:31:01,392 Take buckets-- The water, with towels, put it on his head... 573 00:31:01,459 --> 00:31:03,628 and put the other two-- [ Imitates Blows ] 574 00:31:03,695 --> 00:31:05,763 You think I'm joking? Without it falling. 575 00:31:05,830 --> 00:31:08,600 I seen all the photographs in The Source magazine. 576 00:31:08,666 --> 00:31:10,168 [ Jamel ] Yeah. I was like, "Oh, shit! 577 00:31:10,235 --> 00:31:13,238 That looks like a Jamel Shabazz. I know these people right here." 578 00:31:13,304 --> 00:31:17,342 That magazine actually opened up the door for me to do my book. 579 00:31:17,408 --> 00:31:19,544 'Cause people loved those images. 580 00:31:19,611 --> 00:31:22,180 No one was able to get shots like that back in the days. 581 00:31:22,247 --> 00:31:24,182 Who you knew walking around with a camera back then? 582 00:31:24,249 --> 00:31:26,918 That was able to get the thugs and generals and all that? 583 00:31:26,985 --> 00:31:29,053 It was like a visual diary of my life. 584 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:31,789 When you look at those pictures, you're looking at seconds of my life-- 585 00:31:31,856 --> 00:31:33,491 People I was just building with back then. 586 00:31:33,558 --> 00:31:35,059 What I would do, I would leave y'all... 587 00:31:35,126 --> 00:31:36,628 in East Flatbush, go to Flatbush, 588 00:31:36,694 --> 00:31:39,831 leave Flatbush, go downtown Brooklyn, go to Manhattan-- 589 00:31:39,898 --> 00:31:42,200 just building with brothers, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights. 590 00:31:42,267 --> 00:31:44,636 All it was is just a diary of my life... 591 00:31:44,702 --> 00:31:46,638 and the different people I had conversations with. 592 00:31:46,704 --> 00:31:48,439 This is a general right here. 593 00:31:48,506 --> 00:31:50,875 Tony, I known this brother for 30 years, 594 00:31:50,942 --> 00:31:52,577 when he was a little kid on the street. 595 00:31:52,644 --> 00:31:55,513 Beautiful brother, a lot of history. True general right here. 596 00:31:55,580 --> 00:32:01,419 Jamel-- Jamel had a vision. He was ahead of a lot of people. 597 00:32:01,486 --> 00:32:03,955 Nobody never knew what his vision was. 598 00:32:04,022 --> 00:32:07,125 He was capturing life. That's what he was doing. 599 00:32:07,191 --> 00:32:12,230 He was capturing life in its purest form, man. While everybody was living. 600 00:32:12,297 --> 00:32:13,798 Nobody knew what he was doing. 601 00:32:13,865 --> 00:32:16,534 Nobody went to a photo shoot... 602 00:32:16,601 --> 00:32:19,404 or knew he was coming out to take pictures, right? 603 00:32:19,470 --> 00:32:21,639 He just was there. He just takin' pictures, man. 604 00:32:23,007 --> 00:32:26,110 Everybody wouldn't let you take their picture like that, 605 00:32:26,177 --> 00:32:29,113 because a lot of people was doing a lot of criminal activities. 606 00:32:29,180 --> 00:32:30,882 That's right. [ Laughing ] 607 00:32:30,949 --> 00:32:34,285 If you got a picture, you was good, know what I'm saying? 608 00:32:34,352 --> 00:32:35,887 That's how that went down. 609 00:32:35,954 --> 00:32:37,622 [ Jamel ] Being a young black man... 610 00:32:37,689 --> 00:32:40,858 working in a prison environment was deep because I was young. 611 00:32:40,925 --> 00:32:43,995 At that time, I had just turned 23. 612 00:32:44,062 --> 00:32:45,830 A lot of the young men I was dealing with, 613 00:32:45,897 --> 00:32:47,398 they were in my same age group. 614 00:32:47,465 --> 00:32:51,069 I had more in common with them than I did with a lot of officers. 615 00:32:51,135 --> 00:32:54,339 So I had to draw this line on how I was gonna move. 616 00:32:54,405 --> 00:32:57,842 It was difficult to see these young men from the neighborhood. 617 00:32:57,909 --> 00:33:00,945 Many of them I grew up with. I knew their parents. 618 00:33:01,012 --> 00:33:05,249 It was deep to see some of the same young men I photographed on the street... 619 00:33:05,316 --> 00:33:06,851 now in the system. 620 00:33:06,918 --> 00:33:10,588 Some of the young guys I grew up with were in the system. 621 00:33:10,655 --> 00:33:14,659 To a great degree, that enabled me to have an easy transition in there, 622 00:33:14,726 --> 00:33:17,862 because I knew some really strong individuals. 623 00:33:17,929 --> 00:33:21,733 My military background enabled me to carry myself in a certain way. 624 00:33:21,799 --> 00:33:24,902 When I needed direction, I would reflect on the drill instructor... 625 00:33:24,969 --> 00:33:27,271 and how he conducted hisself and how he spoke. 626 00:33:27,338 --> 00:33:30,508 I extracted things from those characteristics... 627 00:33:30,575 --> 00:33:33,177 and incorporated within myself-- I became very effective. 628 00:33:33,244 --> 00:33:37,015 Initially, I would not reveal to people that I was a correctional officer... 629 00:33:37,081 --> 00:33:40,585 because I felt they would be taken aback by my position... 630 00:33:40,651 --> 00:33:42,453 and look at me as the police. 631 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,456 That would prevent me from really building with them. 632 00:33:45,523 --> 00:33:48,626 As time passed, the word spread in the community... 633 00:33:48,693 --> 00:33:50,828 that "He is a C.O." 634 00:33:50,895 --> 00:33:55,099 In a sense it was good, because for some reason... 635 00:33:55,166 --> 00:33:56,701 I had a good reputation. 636 00:33:56,768 --> 00:33:59,337 A lot of guys I would encounter in jail were coming home. 637 00:33:59,404 --> 00:34:01,773 The fact that I treated them with respect, 638 00:34:01,839 --> 00:34:04,375 they would pass the word on to other individuals... 639 00:34:04,442 --> 00:34:06,577 and allow me to photograph 'em, to my amazement. 640 00:34:06,644 --> 00:34:08,346 When I would leave work... 641 00:34:08,413 --> 00:34:10,381 I would return right back to the streets again... 642 00:34:10,448 --> 00:34:13,351 and continue to document, uh, young life. 643 00:34:13,418 --> 00:34:15,486 And now I did it with a purpose. 644 00:34:15,553 --> 00:34:19,090 ♪♪ [ Marching Band Drumming ] 645 00:34:21,225 --> 00:34:23,961 I've been retired now for over five years... 646 00:34:24,028 --> 00:34:27,732 after doin' a complete 20 years in the department of corrections. 647 00:34:27,799 --> 00:34:29,600 Going out to the African American Day parade... 648 00:34:29,667 --> 00:34:32,003 enables me to see a lot of my coworkers... 649 00:34:32,070 --> 00:34:35,339 who I served with during my time as a correctional officer. 650 00:34:35,406 --> 00:34:37,375 This is my old steady partner right here. 651 00:34:37,442 --> 00:34:39,777 How you doin'? Nice to meet you. This is my partner, Al. 652 00:34:39,844 --> 00:34:41,345 He's an actor now. Mm-hmm. 653 00:34:41,412 --> 00:34:43,815 [ Laughs ] And doin' that too. 654 00:34:43,881 --> 00:34:46,150 We worked together in jail. 655 00:34:46,217 --> 00:34:47,852 He was my point man. 656 00:34:50,788 --> 00:34:53,458 And she don't say nothin' to me. I'm sorry. Hello. 657 00:34:53,524 --> 00:34:55,993 I just was so shocked when I saw him. 658 00:34:56,060 --> 00:34:57,795 I haven't seen him in so long. 659 00:34:57,862 --> 00:34:59,597 - How you feelin'? - I'm great. How are you? 660 00:34:59,664 --> 00:35:01,165 I'm really good. How's your daughter doing? 661 00:35:01,232 --> 00:35:03,701 - High school? - No, college-- third year. 662 00:35:03,768 --> 00:35:05,970 - Look at the tags. - Yeah. 663 00:35:06,037 --> 00:35:08,406 [ Laughing ] 664 00:35:08,473 --> 00:35:10,842 I was telling somebody-- [ Man ] Way before my time. 665 00:35:10,908 --> 00:35:15,480 No. I was tellin' somebody... when we were growing up... 666 00:35:15,546 --> 00:35:19,217 the gangs were the Tomahawks, the Jolly Stompers-- 667 00:35:19,283 --> 00:35:22,787 You remember that? Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes. 668 00:35:22,854 --> 00:35:25,823 Let me get a picture of y'all. 'Cause I am so proud of y'all. 669 00:35:27,925 --> 00:35:30,895 All right, hats. Let's keep it professional. 670 00:35:30,962 --> 00:35:32,463 Hold this. 671 00:35:32,530 --> 00:35:36,467 All right. Here we go. [ Shutter Clicks ] 672 00:35:36,534 --> 00:35:38,603 Beautiful. Thank you, ladies. 673 00:35:38,669 --> 00:35:40,338 Ladies, take care. Thank you. 674 00:35:40,404 --> 00:35:42,406 [ Woman On PA, Indistinct ] 675 00:35:47,745 --> 00:35:51,816 This is a book that, um, my father had a signed copy of... 676 00:35:51,883 --> 00:35:54,185 when we lived in Brooklyn, in Red Hook. 677 00:35:54,252 --> 00:35:55,753 This book,Black in White America... 678 00:35:55,820 --> 00:36:00,224 was very instrumental in shaping my vision as a young child. 679 00:36:00,291 --> 00:36:02,293 I remember seeing these images. 680 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:03,861 I remember them so vividly. 681 00:36:03,928 --> 00:36:07,532 Each image is telling a story. Every image. 682 00:36:07,598 --> 00:36:10,668 Even to see this image, knowin' my mother was a nurse-- 683 00:36:10,735 --> 00:36:12,670 What appears to be a nursing home or a beauty shop, 684 00:36:12,737 --> 00:36:14,639 but it says white females. 685 00:36:14,705 --> 00:36:19,377 Leonard was able to really capture the feelings of people. 686 00:36:19,443 --> 00:36:25,016 When you look at this work, you feel the passion of the image. 687 00:36:25,082 --> 00:36:28,953 The railroad tracks often served as a divide in the black community. 688 00:36:29,020 --> 00:36:32,790 It was the railroad tracks that separated black from white... 689 00:36:32,857 --> 00:36:36,627 in-in many cities and towns in the South. 690 00:36:36,694 --> 00:36:39,397 Phenomenal. Phenomenal shot. 691 00:36:39,463 --> 00:36:42,300 Uh, one of my favorites in the book. This is, like I said-- 692 00:36:42,366 --> 00:36:45,603 This might be my number one favorite image. 693 00:36:45,670 --> 00:36:49,607 I remember as-- being a young child in Brooklyn. 694 00:36:49,674 --> 00:36:53,277 This was our means of having fun back in the days, the Johnny Pump. 695 00:37:03,254 --> 00:37:06,123 Thousands upon thousands of young people from the community... 696 00:37:06,190 --> 00:37:08,392 got their pictures made on 42nd Street. 697 00:37:08,459 --> 00:37:11,362 This particular brother right here-- I can't remember his name. 698 00:37:11,429 --> 00:37:13,631 But you could tell by his stance... 699 00:37:13,698 --> 00:37:15,700 he is a member of the Five Percent Nation. 700 00:37:15,766 --> 00:37:18,536 He was a very respected photographer out there. 701 00:37:18,603 --> 00:37:22,206 So I salute the street photographers, these Polaroid brothers, 702 00:37:22,273 --> 00:37:23,874 because they got it in. 703 00:37:23,941 --> 00:37:25,876 Louis Mendes is an icon. 704 00:37:25,943 --> 00:37:28,980 He's one of the original Polaroid photographers, you know. 705 00:37:41,459 --> 00:37:43,394 Ooh. 706 00:37:44,996 --> 00:37:46,964 Nice and bright. 707 00:37:48,065 --> 00:37:50,935 Mmm? [ Girl ] I like that one. 708 00:37:51,002 --> 00:37:53,437 [ Woman ] Famous pictures he took with that camera. 709 00:37:53,504 --> 00:37:56,374 - Wow. That looks really nice. - That's really nice. 710 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,809 My name is Louis Mendes. 711 00:37:58,876 --> 00:38:03,180 And I've been out here since 1972 taking pictures. 712 00:38:03,247 --> 00:38:05,850 I used to work on 42nd Street, Times Square, 713 00:38:05,916 --> 00:38:08,552 with the backdrops and the banners, 714 00:38:08,619 --> 00:38:12,290 like, uh, like Jamel Shabazz does with his pictures... 715 00:38:12,356 --> 00:38:16,027 that he has now in his book,Back in the Days. 716 00:38:16,093 --> 00:38:19,430 When I was working in Times Square, 717 00:38:19,497 --> 00:38:22,767 this is from the backdrops we used to use. 718 00:38:24,201 --> 00:38:27,371 That's my youngest daughter and myself. 719 00:38:27,438 --> 00:38:30,074 This was taken about 1990. 720 00:38:30,875 --> 00:38:33,210 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 721 00:38:44,588 --> 00:38:48,592 Uh, yeah, Bobbito Garcia-- Kool Bob Love at Mount Morris Park. 722 00:38:48,659 --> 00:38:51,062 Been coming here since, uh, 1981, 723 00:38:51,128 --> 00:38:54,065 when I was playing the Holcombe Rucker Memorial Tournament. 724 00:38:54,131 --> 00:38:57,134 And, uh, no other park like it in the world, especially in Harlem. 725 00:38:57,201 --> 00:39:00,271 This is Jamel Shabazz's book,Back in the Days. 726 00:39:00,338 --> 00:39:03,674 Nothing says more "New York" than this. 727 00:39:03,741 --> 00:39:06,577 Now, I never ate at the Sizzling Chicken, but, uh-- 728 00:39:06,644 --> 00:39:08,479 You know, what can I say? 729 00:39:08,546 --> 00:39:11,248 Starting with the sneakers, which is my specialty-- 730 00:39:11,315 --> 00:39:13,551 Uh, you got the Puma Clydes here, the Suedes, 731 00:39:13,617 --> 00:39:18,756 which was a sneaker that was introduced in 1972... 732 00:39:18,823 --> 00:39:20,791 by the German company, Puma. 733 00:39:20,858 --> 00:39:26,063 Really changed the whole outlook of sneakers in New York. 734 00:39:26,130 --> 00:39:28,766 The cats started to clean their sneakers and all that. 735 00:39:28,833 --> 00:39:32,002 You can see here, his presentation, a very clean look-- 736 00:39:32,069 --> 00:39:34,572 The green with the green Kangol. 737 00:39:34,638 --> 00:39:36,574 Even his beads match up. 738 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,444 He got the BVD tank. He got the Lee jeans. 739 00:39:40,511 --> 00:39:42,446 He just looking extra correct. 740 00:39:42,513 --> 00:39:44,148 Um, the name belt. 741 00:39:44,215 --> 00:39:47,051 He don't even have name on it, but he got the money sign. 742 00:39:47,118 --> 00:39:50,354 Maybe his nickname was Cash or maybe his nickname was Money. 743 00:39:50,421 --> 00:39:52,757 Probably the most revealing thing for me, personally, 744 00:39:52,823 --> 00:39:56,594 as being a Boricua, Nuyorican, is the flag right here. 745 00:39:56,660 --> 00:39:58,662 This is very bold and beautiful. 746 00:39:58,729 --> 00:40:02,433 The dude on the left, his Puma Clydes look a little choked up. 747 00:40:02,500 --> 00:40:04,101 They don't look that fresh. 748 00:40:04,168 --> 00:40:09,874 The kid on the right, his Pumas look so correct. 749 00:40:09,940 --> 00:40:13,110 They look so correct, like, they're so well done. 750 00:40:13,177 --> 00:40:15,146 Like, the way he's wearing 'em, the way he's rockin' 'em, 751 00:40:15,212 --> 00:40:17,448 the way he got his pant ruffle-- 752 00:40:18,949 --> 00:40:23,187 [ Exhales, Laughs ] This is the photo! 753 00:40:23,254 --> 00:40:26,056 I mean, If there was any photo that sold me on this book, 754 00:40:26,123 --> 00:40:28,793 uh, it would definitely be this one. 755 00:40:28,859 --> 00:40:31,662 You see some ill sneakers in this page. 756 00:40:31,729 --> 00:40:36,700 Jabbars, 1978, I believe, they came out. 757 00:40:36,767 --> 00:40:39,537 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from Dyckman Projects uptown, 758 00:40:39,603 --> 00:40:42,540 New York City legend, all-time leadin' scorer of the NBA. 759 00:40:43,541 --> 00:40:46,777 You see it here at $38.99, 760 00:40:46,844 --> 00:40:49,380 with his face on the tongue-- that's just an ill shoe. 761 00:40:49,447 --> 00:40:53,050 The Shell Toe 41-- the pro model... 762 00:40:53,117 --> 00:40:55,953 the high top of the Shell Toe-- 763 00:40:56,020 --> 00:41:00,024 You got the PRO-Ked 69ers that were ridiculous. 764 00:41:00,090 --> 00:41:02,827 At one point-- They're $17 here. 765 00:41:02,893 --> 00:41:06,864 At one point they were eight, nine dollars, $10, $12. 766 00:41:06,931 --> 00:41:10,267 They kept going up in price, but, uh-- 767 00:41:10,334 --> 00:41:12,870 This just stamps, like, "New York" to me. 768 00:41:12,937 --> 00:41:16,140 [ Shutter Clicks ] You'll appreciate this 20 years from now. 769 00:41:16,207 --> 00:41:17,875 But I appreciate it. Y'all take care of yourselves. 770 00:41:17,942 --> 00:41:20,511 - All right, man. Thank you. - We gotta go. 771 00:41:20,578 --> 00:41:23,914 [ Jamel ] Basically, for us in the '70s, 772 00:41:23,981 --> 00:41:26,817 the style then was long coats, 773 00:41:26,884 --> 00:41:31,088 and it's interesting as I look at Coffy and some of these pimp movies, 774 00:41:31,155 --> 00:41:34,158 that was a popular style in our community in Brooklyn. 775 00:41:34,225 --> 00:41:36,760 So as the '80s start to come, 776 00:41:36,827 --> 00:41:38,562 it started to change. 777 00:41:38,629 --> 00:41:40,865 But in all my images, you see that there's a strength. 778 00:41:40,931 --> 00:41:43,767 There is a certain seriousness. The pose is very important. 779 00:41:43,834 --> 00:41:46,570 Where I come from, you stood with strength. 780 00:41:46,637 --> 00:41:50,274 You stood erect. You stood perpendicular in your square, 781 00:41:50,341 --> 00:41:51,842 which really meant a whole lot. 782 00:41:51,909 --> 00:41:54,578 You had different fraternal organizations. 783 00:41:54,645 --> 00:41:57,348 They had particular stances. People don't really know that. 784 00:41:57,414 --> 00:42:01,318 They look at it as a pose, not realizing it is a stance that means something. 785 00:42:01,385 --> 00:42:04,522 You had the Five Percent Nation that stood in this square. 786 00:42:04,588 --> 00:42:06,457 You look at the way they folded their arms. 787 00:42:06,524 --> 00:42:09,493 It's like it's four points that are being reflected. 788 00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:14,565 There are others that pose-- They put their index finger... 789 00:42:14,632 --> 00:42:18,936 pointing to their brain to represent intelligence. 790 00:42:19,003 --> 00:42:22,473 You find that even in the prison system. The images are the same. 791 00:42:22,540 --> 00:42:25,442 And some people might call it a jailhouse pose, 792 00:42:25,509 --> 00:42:27,611 but the principle is pretty much the same. 793 00:42:27,678 --> 00:42:29,480 In jail, you cannot appear weak. 794 00:42:29,547 --> 00:42:32,483 You would be victimized if you didn't walk correct. 795 00:42:32,550 --> 00:42:34,718 People can actually look at you... 796 00:42:34,785 --> 00:42:36,820 and sense weakness behind your walk. 797 00:42:36,887 --> 00:42:40,090 So the way that you walk, the way that you spoke, 798 00:42:40,157 --> 00:42:42,159 if you were able to make eye contact with a person-- 799 00:42:42,226 --> 00:42:44,495 all these things were very relevant growing up. 800 00:42:44,562 --> 00:42:48,365 Right... now.[ Woman Over PA, Indistinct ] 801 00:42:48,432 --> 00:42:49,967 [ Shutter Clicking ] 802 00:42:50,034 --> 00:42:52,970 [ Indistinct ] 803 00:42:53,037 --> 00:42:55,339 How you doin'? I'm Shabazz. I'm a good friend of Jamel's. 804 00:42:55,406 --> 00:42:58,609 We go way back to the 7th grade in Meyer Levin Junior High School. 805 00:42:58,676 --> 00:43:02,780 Uh, I would say '75, maybe, or a little earlier than that. 806 00:43:02,846 --> 00:43:06,517 And we've been friends since and never stopped being friends. 807 00:43:06,584 --> 00:43:10,754 But the books, man, they're really dear to my heart. 808 00:43:10,821 --> 00:43:13,757 I ride around with them. I see people, and I open up my trunk with them. 809 00:43:13,824 --> 00:43:16,794 "Here, look at the book." 810 00:43:16,860 --> 00:43:19,730 That's when you and your girl used to dress alike-- wear the same thing. 811 00:43:19,797 --> 00:43:22,833 People died for those glasses. Everybody talked about the Cazals-- 812 00:43:22,900 --> 00:43:26,103 That's the Beaver. We used to put baby oil on it to make it smooth. 813 00:43:26,170 --> 00:43:27,805 This is at Tilden at a football game. 814 00:43:27,871 --> 00:43:29,873 And this is the Panamanian crew right here. 815 00:43:29,940 --> 00:43:31,809 He is a detective right now. 816 00:43:31,875 --> 00:43:33,677 We're not really looking at the clothing. 817 00:43:33,744 --> 00:43:36,347 We're looking at the people that are wearing the clothing, 818 00:43:36,413 --> 00:43:38,716 because we know them, and we know what they represent. 819 00:43:38,782 --> 00:43:43,253 This is the guy that Busta Rhymes and all them talk about, in Brownsville. 820 00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:45,756 This guy, he was a Golden Gloves boxer. 821 00:43:45,823 --> 00:43:47,324 This guy had a coalition. 822 00:43:47,391 --> 00:43:50,427 When anybody came up from jail, he had them work construction jobs. 823 00:43:50,494 --> 00:43:53,530 He was real serious in the community, man. 824 00:43:53,597 --> 00:43:55,633 Very serious guy. He got everybody jobs. 825 00:43:55,699 --> 00:43:57,601 If you came home from jail, you had a correctional-- 826 00:43:57,668 --> 00:43:59,570 you had a, um, construction job. 827 00:43:59,637 --> 00:44:00,938 [ Man ] AZ. 828 00:44:01,005 --> 00:44:03,273 - I just called Nev. - Oh, yeah, where Nev at? 829 00:44:03,340 --> 00:44:05,142 - He's coming. - Good. That's AZ right there. 830 00:44:06,343 --> 00:44:08,278 That's AZ, the rapper, right here. 831 00:44:08,345 --> 00:44:11,782 And when I showed him this, I was at the HOT97 with Star and Buc Wild. 832 00:44:11,849 --> 00:44:13,550 He saw it. He was going crazy. 833 00:44:13,617 --> 00:44:15,719 Then he got quiet and he said... 834 00:44:15,786 --> 00:44:18,088 "This guy right here is all drugged out." 835 00:44:18,155 --> 00:44:19,757 He said that was his boy. He's dead. 836 00:44:19,823 --> 00:44:21,458 But he said, "Shabazz, look. 837 00:44:21,525 --> 00:44:24,461 I still was chillin'. I had my rings on. I had my Pumas on." 838 00:44:24,528 --> 00:44:26,363 [ Men Laugh ] That's all he would talk about! 839 00:44:26,430 --> 00:44:30,501 Yeah, that's Big Wise. He was like a brother to me. 840 00:44:30,567 --> 00:44:32,436 When he died, I wasn't here. 841 00:44:32,503 --> 00:44:35,639 All I did was cry, because I wanted to be at the funeral. 842 00:44:35,706 --> 00:44:38,342 He and I were very, very close. Very close. 843 00:44:38,409 --> 00:44:40,577 He'd come sleep in my basement. 844 00:44:40,644 --> 00:44:42,279 Used to try to keep him in line. 845 00:44:42,346 --> 00:44:45,315 Who's this? Oh, damn! 846 00:44:45,382 --> 00:44:47,685 Who's this, Smooth? Come here. You found Smooth! 847 00:44:47,751 --> 00:44:50,254 This guy right here-- Let me tell you something. 848 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,890 When this guy-- See how small he is? 849 00:44:52,956 --> 00:44:54,758 This guy would come in the park and say, 850 00:44:54,825 --> 00:44:58,128 "At 5:00, nobody better not be in this park!" 851 00:44:58,195 --> 00:44:59,863 At 4:00, everybody was gone. 852 00:44:59,930 --> 00:45:03,300 John Davis was killed in a robbery in his house. 853 00:45:03,367 --> 00:45:06,804 John Davis bought a home, and some guys broke in there... 854 00:45:06,870 --> 00:45:09,673 and robbed him, and he died during that robbery. 855 00:45:09,740 --> 00:45:12,176 John Davis-- That's my little brother right there. 856 00:45:13,911 --> 00:45:16,046 John, John-- We grew up right next-- 857 00:45:16,113 --> 00:45:18,882 Our houses were next to each other. We told everybody we were cousins. 858 00:45:18,949 --> 00:45:21,852 When I moved on the block, he's the first one I met. 859 00:45:21,919 --> 00:45:23,854 I came up here from the South. 860 00:45:25,155 --> 00:45:28,225 As I was sayin', this is the home I grew up in. 861 00:45:28,292 --> 00:45:30,461 My parents sold it about two years ago, 862 00:45:30,527 --> 00:45:33,030 but we spent 25 years in this home. 863 00:45:33,097 --> 00:45:35,699 This is where I grew up from an adolescent to a teenager... 864 00:45:35,766 --> 00:45:37,701 to an adult in this home right here. 865 00:45:37,768 --> 00:45:40,137 My next door neighbors were here when I moved here. 866 00:45:40,204 --> 00:45:43,307 There were maybe three black families on this whole entire block, 867 00:45:43,373 --> 00:45:48,846 including this building, so it was a culture change for me. 868 00:45:48,912 --> 00:45:50,514 I came here from the South... 869 00:45:50,581 --> 00:45:54,618 and this is where I end up growing up as an adult. 870 00:45:54,685 --> 00:45:56,286 All my friends would come and see me. 871 00:45:56,353 --> 00:45:57,988 They would knock on the basement window... 872 00:45:58,055 --> 00:46:00,691 so my mom didn't hear them and know I was going outside. 873 00:46:00,758 --> 00:46:02,559 'Cause I was supposed to be on punishment. 874 00:46:02,626 --> 00:46:06,697 Yeah, Jamel-- We all grew up in residential neighborhoods, 875 00:46:06,764 --> 00:46:09,333 and, you know, that's what kinda caught people off guard. 876 00:46:09,399 --> 00:46:11,001 People would try to take advantage of us... 877 00:46:11,068 --> 00:46:15,172 'cause they thought we grew up with a father and mother in the house, 878 00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:17,875 and that, as they would say back then, "You're soft." 879 00:46:17,941 --> 00:46:20,244 But they didn't know we weren't taking any mess either, 880 00:46:20,310 --> 00:46:21,979 so they had to find out the hard way. 881 00:46:22,045 --> 00:46:26,316 Guys would come from the projects, as they would say, and get killed here. 882 00:46:26,383 --> 00:46:29,419 Because they thought we were punks, things would happen to them. 883 00:46:29,486 --> 00:46:33,457 That's when East Flatbush took on a whole different thing. 884 00:46:33,524 --> 00:46:37,561 That's when very infamous guys came from this neighborhood. 885 00:46:37,628 --> 00:46:40,030 Because people tried them. 886 00:46:40,097 --> 00:46:43,700 I think it was because we had parents who had money, 887 00:46:43,767 --> 00:46:45,936 and we knew how to go get weapons. 888 00:46:46,003 --> 00:46:47,504 [ Man ] Mm-hmm. [ Laughs ] 889 00:46:47,571 --> 00:46:49,339 We knew how to use money and go get weapons. 890 00:46:49,406 --> 00:46:50,974 These guys were stealing from each other. 891 00:46:51,041 --> 00:46:52,910 We would buy them ourselves from people, like-- 892 00:46:52,976 --> 00:46:54,478 This was an Italian neighborhood. 893 00:46:54,545 --> 00:46:57,114 Mob guys would sell us weapons with no problem. 894 00:46:58,682 --> 00:47:01,318 Until it became a problem that we were using them out here. 895 00:47:01,385 --> 00:47:04,354 - Yo, let me see that picture. - Okay. 896 00:47:04,421 --> 00:47:05,923 [ Man ] I definitely know who that is. 897 00:47:05,989 --> 00:47:08,158 Let me see that other book, the picture. 898 00:47:08,225 --> 00:47:10,794 Oh, what's her name? Ah-- [ Men Laughing ] 899 00:47:11,795 --> 00:47:14,364 [ Chattering ] 900 00:47:17,634 --> 00:47:19,269 Yes, my name is Kay Born. 901 00:47:19,336 --> 00:47:22,239 I knew Jamel for many years in the streets. 902 00:47:22,306 --> 00:47:24,508 Especially the pictures in the book, I can relate with them... 903 00:47:24,575 --> 00:47:26,076 'cause I came from there. 904 00:47:26,143 --> 00:47:28,078 I understand where he's goin' with them. 905 00:47:28,145 --> 00:47:30,113 And that's time in the making... 906 00:47:30,180 --> 00:47:33,217 because a lot of them things that's in that book is repeating itself. 907 00:47:33,283 --> 00:47:34,785 You know what the best thing was? 908 00:47:34,852 --> 00:47:38,222 You could get away with no shoelaces, no lace in your sneakers... 909 00:47:38,288 --> 00:47:40,123 in those days. And no socks. 910 00:47:40,190 --> 00:47:41,558 [ Men Laughing ] And no socks. 911 00:47:41,625 --> 00:47:43,460 [ Chattering ] Wow. 912 00:47:45,262 --> 00:47:46,997 Lee suits. Good Cazals, man. 913 00:47:47,064 --> 00:47:49,466 But look at the Lee suits, the pants and jacket. 914 00:47:49,533 --> 00:47:52,236 - And they're coming back out. - Yeah, they are. 915 00:47:52,302 --> 00:47:54,538 [ Kay ] How many dudes had a radio on their shoulder? 916 00:47:54,605 --> 00:47:57,441 On the weekends, we used to go to the Deuce, 917 00:47:57,507 --> 00:47:59,710 as you can see in this picture here. 918 00:47:59,776 --> 00:48:01,612 We used to come out of the A train. 919 00:48:01,678 --> 00:48:05,215 When you came out of the A train, you came up into the game room. 920 00:48:05,282 --> 00:48:06,984 After you came into the game room, 921 00:48:07,050 --> 00:48:09,553 you'd play some games, you'd watch the girls. 922 00:48:09,620 --> 00:48:11,889 And there was always a group of girls that come through. 923 00:48:11,955 --> 00:48:14,224 Man, you got to follow them to the movie theater. 924 00:48:14,291 --> 00:48:17,828 - You all had fun that night. - No more beach days. We don't do this too much. 925 00:48:17,895 --> 00:48:19,463 Yeah. I wish I was here. 926 00:48:19,529 --> 00:48:22,833 I still got all my old-school pictures, a lot of 'em. 927 00:48:22,900 --> 00:48:25,802 [ Kay ] So how do you feel about what was goin' on back then? 928 00:48:25,869 --> 00:48:29,006 I miss it. Hanging out with my girls, goin' to-- 929 00:48:29,072 --> 00:48:32,609 My homegirls going to 42nd Street to the movies, 930 00:48:32,676 --> 00:48:36,880 taking pictures, dressing like this. 931 00:48:36,947 --> 00:48:40,250 I miss that. Nobody think-- Everybody thinks that's corny now. 932 00:48:40,317 --> 00:48:43,820 I remember when he first started taking pictures. 933 00:48:43,887 --> 00:48:47,557 He was a knockoff of everybody else. On the Deuce. On the Deuce! 934 00:48:47,624 --> 00:48:49,760 He was a "son"-- He was a knockoff. 935 00:48:49,826 --> 00:48:52,296 He was a "son" to everybody that was makin' money. 936 00:48:52,362 --> 00:48:53,864 And they put him down. 937 00:48:53,931 --> 00:48:56,166 - Easy, nice, brother. - [ Chattering ] 938 00:48:56,233 --> 00:48:59,169 She looks familiar here. [ Chattering ] 939 00:48:59,236 --> 00:49:03,106 - She looks familiar. Who's that? - She's from Ohio. Came up behind me. 940 00:49:03,173 --> 00:49:07,077 - She looks mad familiar. - Justine or somethin', right? 941 00:49:07,144 --> 00:49:09,813 There were still prostitutes in Lincoln Terrace Park. 942 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:14,017 But the pimps was the dreads. When I was coming up... 943 00:49:14,084 --> 00:49:16,820 the Jamaicans had took over the pimping over there. 944 00:49:16,887 --> 00:49:19,656 - Not really us, you know. - This guy right here. 945 00:49:19,723 --> 00:49:22,392 She got out of town. He was doing good, man. 946 00:49:22,459 --> 00:49:25,162 I saw him two years ago. Who you sayin' got dreads now? 947 00:49:25,228 --> 00:49:27,130 Which one is that? Right here. Shorts. 948 00:49:27,197 --> 00:49:30,067 We call him Shorts. Yeah, he got dreads now. 949 00:49:30,133 --> 00:49:34,237 He was out here, but he just passed away earlier this year, yo. 950 00:49:34,304 --> 00:49:36,473 Froggy Kev, man. Wow. 951 00:49:36,540 --> 00:49:40,911 Brian was one of Jamel's-- Jamel used to teach Brian. 952 00:49:40,978 --> 00:49:44,147 He used to teach Brian about being righteous and everything. 953 00:49:44,214 --> 00:49:46,283 So he was, like, one of his first students. 954 00:49:46,350 --> 00:49:48,752 That's why Brian is at the beginning of this book. 955 00:49:48,819 --> 00:49:50,721 Maybe mid-'80s. 956 00:49:50,787 --> 00:49:52,556 I gotta think it was the mid-'80s-- 957 00:49:52,622 --> 00:49:58,462 Brian and another guy, uh, got caught up in a little situation, 958 00:49:58,528 --> 00:50:02,799 and, um, they got involved with a shoot-out... 959 00:50:02,866 --> 00:50:04,835 at somebody's house. 960 00:50:04,901 --> 00:50:08,205 And Brian got shot, and the cops came and arrested him, 961 00:50:08,271 --> 00:50:11,008 put him in the car, and he died at the precinct. 962 00:50:11,074 --> 00:50:12,576 He bled to death. 963 00:50:12,642 --> 00:50:15,479 He got shot in his groin area. Yeah. 964 00:50:15,545 --> 00:50:18,882 And they didn't believe him when he said he was shot. 965 00:50:18,949 --> 00:50:21,685 So he ended up dying at the precinct. 966 00:50:21,752 --> 00:50:24,221 And that was a big thing in the neighborhood. 967 00:50:24,287 --> 00:50:26,223 Now, her, I didn't know that well. 968 00:50:26,289 --> 00:50:29,259 But that was Brian's heart, I know that. 969 00:50:31,595 --> 00:50:35,999 Kay, you know more about her? You say you know who that is? 970 00:50:36,066 --> 00:50:37,401 Tanya? Uh-huh. 971 00:50:37,467 --> 00:50:39,269 I grew up with Tanya. Very good. 972 00:50:39,336 --> 00:50:41,705 Very good people. She has a beautiful daughter by Brian. 973 00:50:41,772 --> 00:50:44,074 - I didn't know they had a kid. - They got a daughter together. 974 00:50:44,141 --> 00:50:47,644 And that picture right there, she sure needs to see that picture. 975 00:50:47,711 --> 00:50:51,481 I know if her daughter sees that picture, she might just be like, "Wow." 976 00:50:51,548 --> 00:50:53,316 Because when you show these pictures right here... 977 00:50:53,383 --> 00:50:54,918 that gives everybody a beginning, 978 00:50:54,985 --> 00:50:57,421 and they be able to look back from where they came from. 979 00:50:58,388 --> 00:50:59,723 [ Shutter Clicks ] 980 00:50:59,790 --> 00:51:01,758 Jamel Shabazz. 981 00:51:01,825 --> 00:51:05,462 He's the reason I went to powerHouse to get this book. 982 00:51:05,529 --> 00:51:07,931 What's up? This is KRS-One. 983 00:51:07,998 --> 00:51:11,468 And I'm talking about Jamel Shabazz's books and work. 984 00:51:11,535 --> 00:51:15,038 This is the importance of Jamel Shabazz's work, 985 00:51:15,105 --> 00:51:18,275 in my opinion as a hip-hop scholar. 986 00:51:19,509 --> 00:51:23,380 I turn to history, not in its written text... 987 00:51:23,447 --> 00:51:27,584 but in its graphic text in photographs. 988 00:51:27,651 --> 00:51:30,287 This right here tells all the stories. 989 00:51:30,353 --> 00:51:34,558 See, we forgot about the bike, the dirt bike. 990 00:51:34,624 --> 00:51:36,893 This is before rims and cars and all of that. 991 00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:40,163 The status symbol of a-- [ Stutters ] 992 00:51:40,230 --> 00:51:44,901 true hip-hopper was one who had a-- 993 00:51:44,968 --> 00:51:47,270 what we used to call 'em-- dirt bikes. 994 00:51:47,337 --> 00:51:51,274 And if you had a dirt bike, you was the cool-- 995 00:51:51,341 --> 00:51:54,611 It wasn't about a car. Nobody even thought they could have a car. 996 00:51:54,678 --> 00:51:56,480 That wasn't even what it was about. 997 00:51:56,546 --> 00:51:59,983 It was about a dirt bike plus-- 998 00:52:00,050 --> 00:52:03,954 These three people are chillin' for their times. 999 00:52:04,020 --> 00:52:06,957 They got a boom box, dirt bike, 1000 00:52:07,023 --> 00:52:11,128 adidas, straight leg jeans. 1001 00:52:11,194 --> 00:52:13,563 These are probably Jordache, Lee, 1002 00:52:13,630 --> 00:52:16,366 Sasson, Levis. 1003 00:52:16,433 --> 00:52:18,535 These jeans in particular. 1004 00:52:18,602 --> 00:52:20,403 Now come up to the jacket. 1005 00:52:20,470 --> 00:52:22,672 Notice the stripes on the jacket. 1006 00:52:22,739 --> 00:52:26,309 Now go to my Criminal Minded album cover, 1007 00:52:26,376 --> 00:52:29,813 and you'll remember these stripes on the jacket, you can see-- 1008 00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:33,717 Just like Run DMC popularized... 1009 00:52:33,783 --> 00:52:38,455 already-going-on fashions in the hood, 1010 00:52:38,522 --> 00:52:40,690 so did we, me and Scott La Rock. 1011 00:52:40,757 --> 00:52:43,927 And you can see this guy rocking a jacket similar... 1012 00:52:43,994 --> 00:52:48,565 to what would become the BDP jackets... 1013 00:52:48,632 --> 00:52:52,035 of Criminal Minded and the videos after that. 1014 00:52:52,102 --> 00:52:54,237 And this is hip-hop. 1015 00:52:54,304 --> 00:52:59,009 And Jamel Shabazz captures the culture, not just in written text. 1016 00:52:59,075 --> 00:53:01,111 Let's open the book up. 1017 00:53:01,178 --> 00:53:03,914 I'm trying to catch the sunlight on it. 1018 00:53:03,980 --> 00:53:06,983 Take a look at these pictures here. 1019 00:53:07,050 --> 00:53:10,921 You have three people here, three young men here. 1020 00:53:10,987 --> 00:53:13,790 How do we know that they're Five Percenters? 1021 00:53:13,857 --> 00:53:16,826 First of all, they're holding a picture... 1022 00:53:16,893 --> 00:53:19,996 of a guy named Clarence 13X. 1023 00:53:20,063 --> 00:53:23,400 Now, Clarence 13X was considered to be... 1024 00:53:23,466 --> 00:53:26,436 the founder of the Five Percenters, 1025 00:53:26,503 --> 00:53:31,541 a group of individuals that-- before you got into Islam... 1026 00:53:31,608 --> 00:53:33,510 there was this other kind of knowledge, 1027 00:53:33,577 --> 00:53:35,812 this kind of street knowledge, 1028 00:53:35,879 --> 00:53:38,615 offshoot of Islam kind of knowledge. 1029 00:53:38,682 --> 00:53:40,684 It was more about self-esteem, 1030 00:53:40,750 --> 00:53:44,421 more about raising you up from your condition... 1031 00:53:44,487 --> 00:53:46,189 that you happened to be in. 1032 00:53:46,256 --> 00:53:49,960 Clarence 13X had a falling out with Malcolm X. 1033 00:53:50,026 --> 00:53:53,830 And Clarence 13X was kicked out of the Nation of Islam. 1034 00:53:53,897 --> 00:53:56,733 But Clarence 13X went on to start a whole movement... 1035 00:53:56,800 --> 00:53:58,902 called the Five Percenters. 1036 00:53:58,969 --> 00:54:01,638 And these Five Percenters would-- 1037 00:54:01,705 --> 00:54:04,074 They were called the Five Percenters because... 1038 00:54:04,140 --> 00:54:07,844 10% of people out there-- 1039 00:54:07,911 --> 00:54:11,881 Whoa. Let me not give that knowledge away on camera like this. 1040 00:54:11,948 --> 00:54:15,118 Google it. Find out what's going on. 1041 00:54:15,185 --> 00:54:19,956 But what I will say though is that the pictures we are looking at... 1042 00:54:20,023 --> 00:54:24,194 is telling all of these stories right now. 1043 00:54:24,261 --> 00:54:26,963 These pictures are telling these stories. 1044 00:54:27,030 --> 00:54:30,200 But you have to be able-- You have to know what you're looking at. 1045 00:54:30,267 --> 00:54:32,569 To somebody else, this is just a regular dude right here, 1046 00:54:32,636 --> 00:54:34,838 doin' it right here, regular dude. 1047 00:54:34,904 --> 00:54:36,640 Three guys standing with pictures. 1048 00:54:36,706 --> 00:54:40,210 We are at the historic Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, 1049 00:54:40,277 --> 00:54:43,980 and we are at an atmosphere or a location... 1050 00:54:44,047 --> 00:54:46,716 where the Nation of Gods and Earths back in the days... 1051 00:54:46,783 --> 00:54:49,419 held their Universal Parliaments. 1052 00:54:49,486 --> 00:54:54,157 So I'm gonna basically give you an idea of the history... 1053 00:54:54,224 --> 00:54:57,093 of the Nation of Gods and Earths from my perspective as a photographer. 1054 00:54:57,160 --> 00:54:59,596 You know, these are three generals, as I see it. 1055 00:54:59,663 --> 00:55:02,966 They were very prominent brothers in the Five Percent Nation. 1056 00:55:03,033 --> 00:55:05,201 Akbar, he was-- 1057 00:55:05,268 --> 00:55:09,105 He came from the era of the Tomahawks in Brownsville, 1058 00:55:09,172 --> 00:55:11,074 and he was a community activist. 1059 00:55:11,141 --> 00:55:14,611 After leaving gang life, he became a member of the Nation of Gods and Earths. 1060 00:55:14,678 --> 00:55:16,680 And he directed his energy in trying to empower... 1061 00:55:16,746 --> 00:55:19,382 young men and women in the Brownsville area. 1062 00:55:19,449 --> 00:55:22,986 He was very instrumental in getting young men jobs in construction. 1063 00:55:23,053 --> 00:55:26,956 Unfortunately, Akbar died a few years ago. 1064 00:55:27,023 --> 00:55:31,461 One of my strongest images I've had of women in the Five Percent Nation-- 1065 00:55:31,528 --> 00:55:33,897 'cause I really loved to document those sisters... 1066 00:55:33,963 --> 00:55:36,866 'cause they were very beautiful, intelligent, refined women. 1067 00:55:36,933 --> 00:55:41,438 They took great pride in themselves and in nurturing children. 1068 00:55:41,504 --> 00:55:44,541 So I took a picture here back in 1985... 1069 00:55:44,607 --> 00:55:48,478 of a group of Five Percent sisters, as they call themselves-- Earths. 1070 00:55:48,545 --> 00:55:51,915 And, um, it's just a group of an older sister, 1071 00:55:51,981 --> 00:55:54,284 and she has a group of younger women with her. 1072 00:55:54,351 --> 00:55:57,087 And she's like their mother. She's guiding them and giving direction. 1073 00:55:57,153 --> 00:55:59,989 I came upon these young men back in 1982... 1074 00:56:00,056 --> 00:56:02,025 I believe it was, on Flatbush Avenue. 1075 00:56:02,092 --> 00:56:03,593 These three young "gods." 1076 00:56:03,660 --> 00:56:07,464 And there was just something powerful about these young men. 1077 00:56:07,530 --> 00:56:09,399 And they had a picture of the founder... 1078 00:56:09,466 --> 00:56:11,901 of the Five Percent Nation, Clarence 13X. 1079 00:56:11,968 --> 00:56:15,905 I knew at that point, "This is a historic shot that needs to be captured." 1080 00:56:15,972 --> 00:56:19,342 And I knew these brothers from the community, seeing them often. 1081 00:56:19,409 --> 00:56:22,112 They allowed me to photograph them, and I shot them in a way... 1082 00:56:22,178 --> 00:56:23,747 that really captured the time. 1083 00:56:23,813 --> 00:56:25,915 'Cause at that particular point in the early '80s, 1084 00:56:25,982 --> 00:56:27,984 the Five Percent Nation was very strong. 1085 00:56:31,087 --> 00:56:34,224 [ Man ] Come on. Do it, brother. 1086 00:56:34,290 --> 00:56:36,626 What's up, man? How you doing? - Good, brother. 1087 00:56:36,693 --> 00:56:38,027 What's up? Lookin' good. 1088 00:56:38,094 --> 00:56:39,963 - Likewise. - Long time. 1089 00:56:40,029 --> 00:56:42,031 - Hold on. Let me get a go. - Come here, man. 1090 00:56:42,098 --> 00:56:44,534 [ Greetings Continue ] 1091 00:56:45,602 --> 00:56:47,604 This is my first book right here. 1092 00:56:47,670 --> 00:56:49,806 I remember the pictures here. I feel good about it. 1093 00:56:49,873 --> 00:56:52,208 It's an opportunity to get it out there. 1094 00:56:52,275 --> 00:56:55,111 'Cause I can't have this work by myself. I've got to get it out there. 1095 00:56:55,178 --> 00:56:58,381 I want to get a camera in your hand again 'cause I want you to shoot again. 1096 00:56:58,448 --> 00:57:00,850 You gave me my first camera. Wow, I did? 1097 00:57:00,917 --> 00:57:03,253 I don't remember that. Yeah, you gave me my first camera. 1098 00:57:03,319 --> 00:57:06,156 I gave you a camera. Yeah, you gave me a 35mm camera. 1099 00:57:06,222 --> 00:57:10,627 Definitely these pictures were the instrument that inspired me... 1100 00:57:10,693 --> 00:57:12,562 to start my own photography career. 1101 00:57:12,629 --> 00:57:16,833 But definitely Jamel, man, you the master. You caught it. 1102 00:57:16,900 --> 00:57:19,102 We used to be on the corner drinking and smoking-- 1103 00:57:19,169 --> 00:57:22,772 Me, Mustafa, Ali, Brother Carl, Tony. 1104 00:57:22,839 --> 00:57:25,775 All of us would be on the corner, and Jamel used to always come by... 1105 00:57:25,842 --> 00:57:28,978 and just build with brothers and give us a good word... 1106 00:57:29,045 --> 00:57:30,547 and point us in a direction. 1107 00:57:30,613 --> 00:57:33,650 And due to that, at least nine brothers from the block... 1108 00:57:33,716 --> 00:57:35,752 ended up going into the Nation of Islam. 1109 00:57:35,819 --> 00:57:37,987 And a lot of those brothers are ministers... 1110 00:57:38,054 --> 00:57:40,690 and, um, security officers... 1111 00:57:40,757 --> 00:57:44,961 and high-ranking X-Men Security and things of that nature today. 1112 00:57:45,028 --> 00:57:49,065 Me, I went in myself, and I stayed in for about two and a half years. 1113 00:57:49,132 --> 00:57:50,767 Then I went into Connecticut, 1114 00:57:50,834 --> 00:57:54,871 and I was incarcerated from about 2000 to 2003, 1115 00:57:54,938 --> 00:58:00,009 then from 2003 to about 34-- precisely 34 days ago. 1116 00:58:00,076 --> 00:58:02,212 And you know it was-- Thirty-four days, wow. 1117 00:58:02,278 --> 00:58:07,150 And I would definitely say that it was due to your words of wisdom... 1118 00:58:07,217 --> 00:58:10,520 that held me tight and strong through a lot of things that I been through... 1119 00:58:10,587 --> 00:58:14,023 that I wouldn't even begin to discuss on the camera right now, 1120 00:58:14,090 --> 00:58:16,226 on the grounds that it might still incriminate me. 1121 00:58:16,292 --> 00:58:18,361 I understand. But through that... 1122 00:58:18,428 --> 00:58:22,765 I've been able to come back, man, with the word, 1123 00:58:22,832 --> 00:58:25,034 and apply that, and I'm here today... 1124 00:58:25,101 --> 00:58:27,103 meeting with my brother after-- How long has it been? 1125 00:58:27,170 --> 00:58:28,805 It's been about 10 years. 1126 00:58:28,872 --> 00:58:32,108 [ Jamel ] Back in those days, the mosque or temple, as they called it-- 1127 00:58:32,175 --> 00:58:34,744 Temple No. 7 was on Utica and Eastern Parkway. 1128 00:58:34,811 --> 00:58:37,080 And I remember getting out of the train station... 1129 00:58:37,146 --> 00:58:41,684 and just seeing hundreds of dignified men... 1130 00:58:41,751 --> 00:58:44,587 in suits and bow ties, and I had to photograph... 1131 00:58:44,654 --> 00:58:48,625 because this is the closest thing I've had to the images of Malcolm X. 1132 00:58:48,691 --> 00:58:51,327 And even in reading his autobiography, 1133 00:58:51,394 --> 00:58:53,863 how the organization was described, 1134 00:58:53,930 --> 00:58:59,235 and just seeing it unfold in front of my eyes in 1980, it just blew me away. 1135 00:58:59,302 --> 00:59:02,839 What was very interesting also in my documentation of the Nation of Islam, 1136 00:59:02,906 --> 00:59:07,443 I would see young men who were under my wing in prison... 1137 00:59:07,510 --> 00:59:11,281 or going back to jail, who would join the ranks of the Nation of Islam, 1138 00:59:11,347 --> 00:59:13,650 and with the respect I gave them in the system, 1139 00:59:13,716 --> 00:59:17,120 they allowed me to document them, and then, like the streets, 1140 00:59:17,186 --> 00:59:19,756 the word would spread that I was a documentarian, 1141 00:59:19,822 --> 00:59:23,059 and people opened their doors to me and allowed me to photograph them. 1142 00:59:23,126 --> 00:59:25,728 And I would-- just like brothers in the street-- 1143 00:59:25,795 --> 00:59:27,830 I would give the brothers copies of their photographs. 1144 00:59:27,897 --> 00:59:29,399 I never charged anybody, 1145 00:59:29,465 --> 00:59:31,968 and I would go on a journey to document that organization. 1146 00:59:32,035 --> 00:59:34,637 It's very interesting when you leave a prison atmosphere... 1147 00:59:34,704 --> 00:59:37,640 or a jail culture, and then you see the Nation of Islam. 1148 00:59:37,707 --> 00:59:40,009 For a lot of young black people, we saw hope. 1149 00:59:40,076 --> 00:59:42,445 We saw transformation, 'cause back then... 1150 00:59:42,512 --> 00:59:44,547 the Nation of Islam was one of the few organizations... 1151 00:59:44,614 --> 00:59:47,850 that was able to transform the lives of young men. 1152 00:59:47,917 --> 00:59:50,219 Many of them who were incarcerated came home changed, 1153 00:59:50,286 --> 00:59:52,255 and they would take on the philosophy, 1154 00:59:52,322 --> 00:59:55,258 the belief of a Muslim or Islam. 1155 00:59:55,325 --> 00:59:57,393 So I wanted to be a part of that. 1156 00:59:57,460 --> 00:59:59,162 And being I came from a community there... 1157 00:59:59,228 --> 01:00:01,764 where the Nation had its number one temple, Mosque No. 7, 1158 01:00:01,831 --> 01:00:04,067 a temple that Malcolm X... 1159 01:00:04,133 --> 01:00:06,135 was very instrumental in developing back in the days. 1160 01:00:06,202 --> 01:00:07,971 It wasn't the original location, 1161 01:00:08,037 --> 01:00:10,540 because the original location was on 116th Street. 1162 01:00:10,607 --> 01:00:13,142 But when Minister Farrakhan brought back the Nation of Islam, 1163 01:00:13,209 --> 01:00:14,811 he brought it to Brooklyn. 1164 01:00:14,877 --> 01:00:18,181 So Temple No. 7 was right in the heart of Brooklyn. 1165 01:00:18,247 --> 01:00:22,885 It was Utica and Eastern Parkway, 1166 01:00:22,952 --> 01:00:25,421 which was close to my home, so in my daily travels... 1167 01:00:25,488 --> 01:00:27,223 I would see members of that organization. 1168 01:00:27,290 --> 01:00:29,659 And a lot of them I met through the street. 1169 01:00:29,726 --> 01:00:33,096 Young men I went to high school with that converted to Islam. 1170 01:00:33,162 --> 01:00:34,664 And I would see them, 1171 01:00:34,731 --> 01:00:38,201 and in my conversations of being a photographer, I would engage them. 1172 01:00:38,267 --> 01:00:41,204 Just like I would photograph brothers in the street, the regular brothers, 1173 01:00:41,270 --> 01:00:43,573 I started to photograph the members of the Nation of Islam. 1174 01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:48,311 It was pretty easy because they were promoting their program. 1175 01:00:48,378 --> 01:00:51,347 A lot of my earlier photographs were pretty much members of the FOI-- 1176 01:00:51,414 --> 01:00:53,650 the Fruit of Islam-- holding up newspapers. 1177 01:00:53,716 --> 01:00:57,553 Seeing them in downtown Brooklyn on the trains, I started to capture them. 1178 01:00:57,620 --> 01:01:00,023 And the Nation really inspired me to be a better photographer, 1179 01:01:00,089 --> 01:01:03,526 because going from straight-up portraiture on the streets, 1180 01:01:03,593 --> 01:01:06,663 the Nation allowed me to do documentary photography for the first time. 1181 01:01:06,729 --> 01:01:10,900 To really focus on shooting the Nation in a very different way. 1182 01:01:10,967 --> 01:01:14,637 I've been privileged to document the Nation of Islam, 1183 01:01:14,704 --> 01:01:18,908 the Five Percent Nation, the Masons, the Eastern Stars, the Shriners. 1184 01:01:18,975 --> 01:01:24,414 And it's very important that I do this here because it's all historic. 1185 01:01:24,480 --> 01:01:26,282 I'm not a Mason. 1186 01:01:26,349 --> 01:01:30,586 I don't belong to any particular organization. I am myself. 1187 01:01:30,653 --> 01:01:34,357 And I think that that has allowed me, again, to travel in different circles, 1188 01:01:34,424 --> 01:01:37,860 because I'm not biased as I approach different groups. 1189 01:01:37,927 --> 01:01:42,465 I'm able to engage them with an open and objective mind. 1190 01:01:42,532 --> 01:01:45,601 So I found that in going to the African American Day Parade, 1191 01:01:45,668 --> 01:01:47,737 it would put me in a position to confront people... 1192 01:01:47,804 --> 01:01:51,841 who really took great pride in themselves and wanted to be photographed. 1193 01:01:51,908 --> 01:01:55,144 What really moves me is to be able to give them their photographs. 1194 01:01:57,280 --> 01:01:59,048 I'm kinda curious-- A lot of young brothers... 1195 01:01:59,115 --> 01:02:01,384 are not joining the Masons in this day and time, is that true? 1196 01:02:01,451 --> 01:02:04,854 A lot don't know what it's all about. Okay? 1197 01:02:04,921 --> 01:02:06,923 This is why a lot of 'em are not. 1198 01:02:06,989 --> 01:02:10,326 A lot of 'em, like he say-- You work in the prison system. 1199 01:02:10,393 --> 01:02:12,495 And a lot of us-- Young brothers, 1200 01:02:12,562 --> 01:02:15,331 when we ask them about joining the Masonic, 1201 01:02:15,398 --> 01:02:19,435 and we tell 'em what the priorities happen to be, 1202 01:02:19,502 --> 01:02:21,604 and what they need, when you walk away, 1203 01:02:21,671 --> 01:02:24,974 they say, "Well, I can't join because I've been arrested or something." 1204 01:02:25,041 --> 01:02:26,876 You know. And that's what makes it so bad. 1205 01:02:26,943 --> 01:02:31,347 You got all the young guys is in the-- incarcerated. 1206 01:02:31,414 --> 01:02:34,951 I'm walking down the block today, and a police officer told a guy-- 1207 01:02:35,017 --> 01:02:37,520 He said, "Why they blocking the block off?" 1208 01:02:37,587 --> 01:02:39,756 He said, "Oh, we are having an African Day Parade." 1209 01:02:39,822 --> 01:02:41,924 He said, "When are they having it?" Mmm. 1210 01:02:41,991 --> 01:02:44,594 And I'm saying, "Wait a minute, brother. Where you been?" 1211 01:02:44,660 --> 01:02:46,629 You know. That's what it is, man. 1212 01:02:46,696 --> 01:02:48,731 See, these are things that people don't know about, 1213 01:02:48,798 --> 01:02:53,035 because right now, this parade here has not been advertised at all. 1214 01:02:53,102 --> 01:02:55,972 I haven't heard anything about it. - It was in the Daily News. 1215 01:02:56,038 --> 01:03:00,209 The thing about it-- I was talking to a couple people the other day. 1216 01:03:00,276 --> 01:03:01,778 "What are you doing on Sunday?" 1217 01:03:01,844 --> 01:03:04,580 I said, "I'm going to march in the African American Day Parade." 1218 01:03:04,647 --> 01:03:06,649 "Oh, when is that?" "It's on Sunday." 1219 01:03:06,716 --> 01:03:09,285 "Where is it located at?" "Seventh Avenue and-- 1220 01:03:09,352 --> 01:03:12,822 It starts from 112th Street all the way down to 141st Street." 1221 01:03:12,889 --> 01:03:15,124 I said, "You need to come out there, take a look." 1222 01:03:15,191 --> 01:03:16,793 [ Whistle Blows ] 1223 01:03:16,859 --> 01:03:20,930 ♪♪ [ Drumming ] 1224 01:03:20,997 --> 01:03:25,268 [ Man Shouts ] [ Band Shouts In Response ] 1225 01:03:28,271 --> 01:03:31,440 ♪♪ [ Continues ] 1226 01:03:38,881 --> 01:03:42,218 [ Whistle Blowing Rhythmically ] 1227 01:04:28,130 --> 01:04:30,366 ♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ] 1228 01:04:42,945 --> 01:04:47,917 We did a show in the Adidas store in Berlin. 1229 01:04:47,984 --> 01:04:50,753 I'm looking at the date. It was 2002. 1230 01:04:50,820 --> 01:04:54,991 And, uh, I deejayed the party. 1231 01:04:55,057 --> 01:04:58,728 And it was a nice night, because a lot of the people from, 1232 01:04:58,794 --> 01:05:00,463 you know, I don't know-- 1233 01:05:00,529 --> 01:05:04,100 The German hipsters came out, and it just-- it connected. 1234 01:05:04,166 --> 01:05:08,604 And they really appreciated his work. 1235 01:05:08,671 --> 01:05:11,874 Clearly, for the sneaker company it was a like a windfall, 1236 01:05:11,941 --> 01:05:16,078 because they were desperately trying to make this connection... 1237 01:05:16,145 --> 01:05:19,849 between, um, you know, 1238 01:05:19,916 --> 01:05:23,686 whatever was retro and whatever they were trying to do at the present. 1239 01:05:23,753 --> 01:05:28,491 We had curated a show, um, 1240 01:05:28,557 --> 01:05:31,761 in a museum in Rouen, which is Northern France. 1241 01:05:31,827 --> 01:05:33,663 It's kind of close to Lille. 1242 01:05:33,729 --> 01:05:38,100 And this was probably about seven or eight years ago. 1243 01:05:38,167 --> 01:05:42,772 And he had spent some time with the young people there... 1244 01:05:42,838 --> 01:05:47,743 and photographed a lot of the young kids in that particular area. 1245 01:05:47,810 --> 01:05:50,246 And Rouen was kind of, like-- It's a little ghetto. 1246 01:05:50,313 --> 01:05:54,750 So I think he was able to relate to that... 1247 01:05:54,817 --> 01:05:58,988 because it was representative of something he was familiar with. 1248 01:05:59,055 --> 01:06:02,191 You know, France is the second biggest consumer... 1249 01:06:02,258 --> 01:06:05,861 of rap music in the world, after America. 1250 01:06:05,928 --> 01:06:09,465 [ Rapping ] ♪ Zulu Nation, Korea, Jazzy Ivy ♪ 1251 01:06:09,532 --> 01:06:11,500 ♪ And it goes somethin' like this ♪ 1252 01:06:11,567 --> 01:06:14,337 ♪ Throughout the days of my life I get many inspiration ♪ 1253 01:06:14,403 --> 01:06:17,540 ♪ And many motivation through deep concentration ♪ 1254 01:06:17,606 --> 01:06:20,309 ♪ Tracing back to roots Yes, you know my D-N-A ♪ 1255 01:06:20,376 --> 01:06:22,645 ♪ It didn't only happen in this E-R-A ♪ 1256 01:06:22,712 --> 01:06:25,982 ♪ Let's see, Grandmaster Flash through Grandmaster Caz ♪ 1257 01:06:26,048 --> 01:06:28,651 ♪ The history is alive through Jamel Shabazz ♪ 1258 01:06:28,718 --> 01:06:31,187 ♪♪ [ Rapping In Korean ] 1259 01:06:53,075 --> 01:06:54,977 ♪ Jamel Shabazz, you're my man ♪ 1260 01:06:55,044 --> 01:06:57,847 ♪ Keep on the planet rock Uno ♪♪ 1261 01:06:57,913 --> 01:07:01,550 My first experience with the Back in the Days was 2005. 1262 01:07:01,617 --> 01:07:06,155 I got introduced through my friend, one of my greatest friends in Korea. 1263 01:07:06,222 --> 01:07:09,025 He's a deejay and old-school. 1264 01:07:09,091 --> 01:07:11,327 We were just, like, crazy about old school. 1265 01:07:11,394 --> 01:07:15,498 We were students, and first seeing thisBack in the Days-- 1266 01:07:15,564 --> 01:07:17,466 Um, it blew my mind. 1267 01:07:17,533 --> 01:07:20,403 The whole concept, the whole visuals. 1268 01:07:20,469 --> 01:07:23,272 The people's posture, the face expression. 1269 01:07:23,339 --> 01:07:27,109 And the whole scenery, like, how Mr. Jamel Shabazz... 1270 01:07:27,176 --> 01:07:29,512 put in the Cazal glasses stores, 1271 01:07:29,578 --> 01:07:32,014 and the Superstar Adidas shouts... 1272 01:07:32,081 --> 01:07:34,984 were all over there with the price tags on. 1273 01:07:35,051 --> 01:07:38,587 And the sisters doing their lock pose, 1274 01:07:38,654 --> 01:07:40,289 showing the whole signs, 1275 01:07:40,356 --> 01:07:43,059 and brothers just doing their lock pose, 1276 01:07:43,125 --> 01:07:45,161 really, like, in a great structure. 1277 01:07:45,227 --> 01:07:48,197 Nowadays you don't see nobody doing poses... 1278 01:07:48,264 --> 01:07:51,700 all together, making these old-school shapes. 1279 01:07:51,767 --> 01:07:54,070 This photograph happened from Seoul, Korea, 1280 01:07:54,136 --> 01:07:57,706 when Jamel Shabazz made a visit to Seoul. 1281 01:07:57,773 --> 01:07:59,675 It was in 2008, just last year, 1282 01:07:59,742 --> 01:08:02,244 and it was my event called Seoul City Rockers. 1283 01:08:02,311 --> 01:08:04,280 As you can see in this picture, 1284 01:08:04,346 --> 01:08:07,516 we all have the collective group of Korean hip-hop. 1285 01:08:07,583 --> 01:08:10,152 This shows the whole aspect of it, 1286 01:08:10,219 --> 01:08:14,090 'cause we got myself emceeing, we got the beatboxer, the B-boys, 1287 01:08:14,156 --> 01:08:17,960 we got the hip-hop dancer, we got the street designer... 1288 01:08:18,027 --> 01:08:21,063 and the locker-- Everybody's all together in this picture. 1289 01:08:21,130 --> 01:08:25,701 It's amazing to see this 'cause it's not just one segment of hip-hop, 1290 01:08:25,768 --> 01:08:30,473 but we're all together, and we're doing the same pose at the same time. 1291 01:08:30,539 --> 01:08:34,410 As you see, everybody's emotionless. Nobody is laughing. 1292 01:08:34,477 --> 01:08:39,448 That shows, like, they fully understand what the cool pose is about. 1293 01:08:39,515 --> 01:08:43,752 The real cool pose was pride, 1294 01:08:43,819 --> 01:08:46,822 control and strength-- dignity. 1295 01:08:46,889 --> 01:08:50,192 Jamel Shabazz taught us so many stuff that-- 1296 01:08:50,259 --> 01:08:53,996 People actually in this picture knew what cool pose was about. 1297 01:08:54,063 --> 01:08:57,800 Back in the Days is the forever classic of my life, 1298 01:08:57,867 --> 01:09:00,603 as a hip-hop book and just as a-- 1299 01:09:00,669 --> 01:09:04,106 just as a life statement that it shows. 1300 01:09:04,173 --> 01:09:07,877 The whole thing is my inspiration. This is it. 1301 01:09:10,479 --> 01:09:13,349 [ Jamel ] When I look at them, I actually see their fathers... 1302 01:09:13,415 --> 01:09:15,584 I shot maybe 20, 30 years ago. 1303 01:09:15,651 --> 01:09:18,020 This is Miami. This is South Beach. 1304 01:09:18,087 --> 01:09:21,657 I just thought he was rather interesting with his gold fronts. 1305 01:09:21,724 --> 01:09:23,425 I love my young brothers. 1306 01:09:23,492 --> 01:09:25,828 It's just something about them. They are warriors. 1307 01:09:25,895 --> 01:09:27,696 And I see so much strength in them. 1308 01:09:27,763 --> 01:09:32,168 I was invited to the BC One B-boy competition in Seoul, Korea. 1309 01:09:32,234 --> 01:09:35,271 This is a respected group out of France called Pokemon. 1310 01:09:35,337 --> 01:09:38,607 This is at a national Saviours' Day convention... 1311 01:09:38,674 --> 01:09:40,976 in Rosemont, Chicago, 1312 01:09:41,043 --> 01:09:44,914 where the Nation of Islam holds their convention every year, February 26th. 1313 01:09:44,980 --> 01:09:48,083 I've been documenting the Nation of Islam for a good 30 years now, 1314 01:09:48,150 --> 01:09:50,686 inspired greatly by the work of Gordon Parks... 1315 01:09:50,753 --> 01:09:54,823 and his early documentation of the Nation back in the 1960s. 1316 01:09:54,890 --> 01:09:57,293 I saw this young man in Harlem. 1317 01:09:57,359 --> 01:10:01,263 And he knew me. He knew me well. He knew me from jail. 1318 01:10:01,330 --> 01:10:03,299 I asked him, "Where do you know me from, brother?" 1319 01:10:03,365 --> 01:10:06,202 He said, "You don't remember me? You know, I was-- 1320 01:10:06,268 --> 01:10:08,637 I was with you on Rikers Island back in the '80s, 1321 01:10:08,704 --> 01:10:10,539 and I used to be in your housing area." 1322 01:10:10,606 --> 01:10:12,508 When he approached me I said, "Here we go. 1323 01:10:12,575 --> 01:10:14,677 He's going to ask me for money." 1324 01:10:14,743 --> 01:10:17,913 Seeing him in his red, I recognized that he was a Blood. 1325 01:10:17,980 --> 01:10:20,049 He was shocked that I didn't know him. 1326 01:10:20,115 --> 01:10:23,686 He said, "You used to give me books to read on George Jackson, 1327 01:10:23,752 --> 01:10:27,022 on the struggle, and you encouraged me-- you got me a job." 1328 01:10:27,089 --> 01:10:31,327 When I first saw him I assumed, here goes another person soliciting money. 1329 01:10:31,393 --> 01:10:34,196 And here this is an angel that reminded me... 1330 01:10:34,263 --> 01:10:37,499 of the impact that I had on the lives of other people. 1331 01:10:37,566 --> 01:10:39,068 And also not to judge. 1332 01:10:39,134 --> 01:10:42,338 He just gave me a whole greater sense of not judging. 1333 01:10:42,404 --> 01:10:44,139 ♪♪ [ Marching Band Drumming ] 1334 01:10:44,206 --> 01:10:46,008 [ Whistle Blowing ] 1335 01:10:49,278 --> 01:10:51,313 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1336 01:10:53,983 --> 01:10:56,518 ♪♪ [ Continues ] 1337 01:10:58,821 --> 01:11:00,356 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1338 01:11:00,422 --> 01:11:02,391 Back in the Days, boy! 1339 01:11:02,458 --> 01:11:04,159 Willie! Him-- 1340 01:11:05,461 --> 01:11:07,730 Oh, shazam. [ Laughs ] 1341 01:11:07,796 --> 01:11:10,799 It's around the way. - It gets better, brother. Enjoy that. 1342 01:11:10,866 --> 01:11:14,236 I want you to take it. There's a lot of pictures in there. - Get out! 1343 01:11:14,303 --> 01:11:17,539 ♪♪ [ Continues ] Get out! 1344 01:11:17,606 --> 01:11:19,408 I don't believe this, man. 1345 01:11:19,475 --> 01:11:21,010 Yeah, well, I've been doing my thing. 1346 01:11:21,076 --> 01:11:24,013 Jamel, I mean, you are on the money, man. 1347 01:11:24,079 --> 01:11:25,714 This is Back in the Days, son. 1348 01:11:25,781 --> 01:11:28,284 ♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ] 1349 01:11:42,264 --> 01:11:44,266 ♪♪ [ Continues ] 1350 01:11:52,308 --> 01:11:53,809 ♪♪ [ Fades ] 1351 01:11:53,876 --> 01:11:57,746 See, I'm also a collector and fan of photography. 1352 01:11:57,813 --> 01:12:01,984 And I also was like, "Hey, man, I'd like to own some of those images." 1353 01:12:02,051 --> 01:12:05,954 So this is just four brothers in Brooklyn, 1354 01:12:06,021 --> 01:12:11,593 but that style and that attitude is something I'd know very well. 1355 01:12:11,660 --> 01:12:14,563 One of the things also, along with being good friends with Jamel, 1356 01:12:14,630 --> 01:12:16,799 and having looked at hundreds and hundreds of images, 1357 01:12:16,865 --> 01:12:21,637 because, you know, he invited me to his home several times. 1358 01:12:21,704 --> 01:12:25,841 And he just really would like, "Fab, I--" He wanted to show me pictures. 1359 01:12:25,908 --> 01:12:29,445 And when this brother begins to pull out work, 1360 01:12:29,511 --> 01:12:31,747 it is overwhelming. 1361 01:12:31,814 --> 01:12:36,885 I mean, there are thousands and thousands of pictures... 1362 01:12:36,952 --> 01:12:39,388 that each deal with certain genres, 1363 01:12:39,455 --> 01:12:41,724 like cool guys on the street. 1364 01:12:41,790 --> 01:12:46,061 Once again, it's just one of numerous categories of subjects... 1365 01:12:46,128 --> 01:12:50,099 that he's covered over the years. 1366 01:12:50,165 --> 01:12:53,669 Hookers on the streets. Pimps and players. 1367 01:12:53,736 --> 01:12:56,238 He's got a social activist type of work, 1368 01:12:56,305 --> 01:13:00,809 where he'll compose images that speak to the issues of the time. 1369 01:13:00,876 --> 01:13:03,178 [ Jamel ] Here we go, troops. 1370 01:13:03,245 --> 01:13:05,147 I still need a little bit-- crouch down. 1371 01:13:05,214 --> 01:13:07,583 If I could get a few crouched down. That's the shot! 1372 01:13:07,649 --> 01:13:09,218 There you go, a little old-school. 1373 01:13:09,284 --> 01:13:11,186 Here we go. Here we go. 1374 01:13:11,253 --> 01:13:12,588 All right. 1375 01:13:15,691 --> 01:13:17,926 [ Soldier ] We already been there. Wow, just-- Fallujah? 1376 01:13:17,993 --> 01:13:19,995 We're gettin' ready to go back. This is my book here. 1377 01:13:20,062 --> 01:13:23,832 - The old-school. I shot in the '80s. - That's you? I read that book. 1378 01:13:23,899 --> 01:13:26,802 A couple of these people in here, my mom knew. 1379 01:13:26,869 --> 01:13:28,370 - Park Hill? - Yeah. 1380 01:13:28,437 --> 01:13:29,938 - 280 Park Hill? - Yeah, around there. 1381 01:13:30,005 --> 01:13:32,007 - You know Phil Harris? - You know Porgy? 1382 01:13:32,074 --> 01:13:35,711 I don't know Porgy, but I was in the service with Phil Harris in 1977. 1383 01:13:35,778 --> 01:13:38,313 [ Chattering ] Dominicans are black too? 1384 01:13:39,648 --> 01:13:42,718 [ Jamel ] We all family. - Dominicans back in the days. 1385 01:13:42,785 --> 01:13:47,356 The Dominicans! - They got a Puerto Rican over here. 1386 01:13:49,858 --> 01:13:54,396 I'm gonna go give this guy his picture. He deserves it. World War I veteran. 1387 01:13:54,463 --> 01:13:57,833 - Do I have to pay for this? - No, no, that's for you. You deserve it. 1388 01:13:57,900 --> 01:13:59,868 - God bless you. - God bless you also. 1389 01:13:59,935 --> 01:14:04,206 [ Man ] Thank you. Great. 1390 01:14:05,441 --> 01:14:09,278 ♪♪ [ Marching Band, Jazz Beat ] 1391 01:14:14,817 --> 01:14:17,453 Take one more. I'll give you my business card. You gotta call me. 1392 01:14:17,519 --> 01:14:20,789 'Cause I got a bad shot of you I took in your dress blues... 1393 01:14:20,856 --> 01:14:23,158 about maybe eight years ago. 1394 01:14:23,225 --> 01:14:26,028 [ Jamel ] Understand. Dude, I fight in a war. 1395 01:14:26,094 --> 01:14:29,531 It's the most honorable thing you ever could do in America. 1396 01:14:29,598 --> 01:14:31,967 [ Jamel ] Hmm. I got a paper coming out. 1397 01:14:32,034 --> 01:14:33,969 My paper comes out next week. 1398 01:14:34,036 --> 01:14:37,773 The name of it is "The Raping of America's Veterans." 1399 01:14:37,840 --> 01:14:39,675 [ Jamel ] Mmm. I'm gettin' ready to attack. 1400 01:14:39,741 --> 01:14:42,544 This parade, regardless what people think about it, 1401 01:14:42,611 --> 01:14:44,480 it's a very important part of history. 1402 01:14:44,546 --> 01:14:49,218 And the veterans, the black veterans, to me, 1403 01:14:49,284 --> 01:14:53,288 they helped to shape the foundation for a lot of our communities. 1404 01:14:53,355 --> 01:14:55,524 When a lot of men didn't find employment, 1405 01:14:55,591 --> 01:14:58,927 they went into the service, and they were able to come home... 1406 01:14:58,994 --> 01:15:01,396 and-and use those benefits, 1407 01:15:01,463 --> 01:15:04,700 and try to build an economic system for themselves. 1408 01:15:04,766 --> 01:15:06,835 Some of them went to war, got wounded, 1409 01:15:06,902 --> 01:15:09,972 mentally, psychologically, and they're still suffering today. 1410 01:15:10,038 --> 01:15:13,509 But for me as a photographer, I still find that it's necessary... 1411 01:15:13,575 --> 01:15:16,078 to document the lives of these men that went to war. 1412 01:15:16,144 --> 01:15:17,913 Whether I agree with the war or not, 1413 01:15:17,980 --> 01:15:20,415 the fact that they were put in situations where they were in war, 1414 01:15:20,482 --> 01:15:22,317 I just feel it's necessary to document. 1415 01:15:22,384 --> 01:15:25,521 The next year, you come to the parade and you show their picture... 1416 01:15:25,587 --> 01:15:28,624 to some of the soldiers, and you find that that soldier died. 1417 01:15:28,690 --> 01:15:31,827 So I find that to be really interesting as well. 1418 01:15:31,894 --> 01:15:34,162 And it makes me understand my purpose even more, 1419 01:15:34,229 --> 01:15:37,766 to have caught that very last picture of that person at that parade, 1420 01:15:37,833 --> 01:15:41,303 and to know that he's no longer here, so it's like it keeps that person alive. 1421 01:15:41,370 --> 01:15:43,238 Yeah, I remember. I remember that. - All right, guys. 1422 01:15:43,305 --> 01:15:45,607 - How you doing? - I gotta make a copy for all you guys. 1423 01:15:45,674 --> 01:15:49,511 That's history right there. - Oh, man! 1424 01:15:49,578 --> 01:15:53,148 Oh, yeah, that would be great. When did he take this, man? 1425 01:15:53,215 --> 01:15:55,250 [ Man ] Uh, two years ago. - About three years ago. 1426 01:15:55,317 --> 01:15:56,885 Two or three years ago. - Because-- 1427 01:15:56,952 --> 01:16:00,489 - Yeah, 'cause what's-her-name has been gone three years, two years. 1428 01:16:00,556 --> 01:16:03,692 It had to be three years ago. - It had to be about three years ago. 1429 01:16:03,759 --> 01:16:05,260 Turn halfway, baby. 1430 01:16:05,327 --> 01:16:07,496 [ Jamel ] Ladies and gentlemen, let's go. Chests out, stomachs in. 1431 01:16:08,297 --> 01:16:09,965 How you doing? 1432 01:16:10,032 --> 01:16:13,468 My name is Specialist Duckson for the 445th Quartermaster Battalion. 1433 01:16:14,469 --> 01:16:15,971 Where are you guys located at? 1434 01:16:16,038 --> 01:16:17,806 Fort Dix, New Jersey. Fort Dix! Very good. 1435 01:16:17,873 --> 01:16:19,741 Hi. 1436 01:16:19,808 --> 01:16:23,378 I can't believe I met her. [ Stutters ] I can't believe it. 1437 01:16:23,445 --> 01:16:25,314 They are gonna love you at Fort Dix here. 1438 01:16:25,380 --> 01:16:28,383 This is incredible. You don't know. I'm looking at you-- 1439 01:16:28,450 --> 01:16:31,653 I was looking like, "He looks familiar. I could have sworn-- I know him." 1440 01:16:31,720 --> 01:16:33,488 So have you been to Iraq yet? 1441 01:16:33,555 --> 01:16:36,825 No. Actually, I was lucky. - Okay. 1442 01:16:36,892 --> 01:16:39,461 Two days before we were supposed to had went out, we didn't go. 1443 01:16:39,528 --> 01:16:42,397 - All right. - But now I'm hearing we might be going out there. 1444 01:16:43,165 --> 01:16:45,100 ♪♪ [ Marching Band ] 1445 01:16:47,135 --> 01:16:51,139 ♪♪ [ Drumming ] [ Shouts ] 1446 01:17:02,551 --> 01:17:06,121 The pictures take on... 1447 01:17:06,188 --> 01:17:09,291 a much greater sense of importance... 1448 01:17:09,358 --> 01:17:13,195 because he's documenting... 1449 01:17:13,261 --> 01:17:14,930 aspects of urban life... 1450 01:17:14,997 --> 01:17:19,134 that, ultimately, cease to exist, 1451 01:17:19,201 --> 01:17:23,372 because as times change, we lose a lot of people to the struggle. 1452 01:17:23,438 --> 01:17:28,276 And it's like forgotten postcards of your youth. 1453 01:17:28,343 --> 01:17:31,847 [ Jamel ] Tragically, in a lot of my images, a lot of people have died. 1454 01:17:31,913 --> 01:17:35,150 So I want to just give homage to those who've passed away. 1455 01:17:43,458 --> 01:17:45,994 I want to show how women looked back then, 1456 01:17:46,061 --> 01:17:47,896 before the crack epidemic hit. 1457 01:17:47,963 --> 01:17:50,098 Tragically, a lot of the women fell victim to crack. 1458 01:17:50,165 --> 01:17:52,000 They were hit the hardest. 1459 01:17:54,036 --> 01:17:56,738 The prison population increased drastically... 1460 01:17:56,805 --> 01:17:58,807 throughout America behind crack. 1461 01:17:58,874 --> 01:18:03,111 As a correctional officer working on Rikers Island back in the early '80s, 1462 01:18:03,178 --> 01:18:06,314 I saw the whole transformation take place. 1463 01:18:06,381 --> 01:18:10,952 I want to just show that innocence at that time, 1464 01:18:11,019 --> 01:18:14,623 when love was the order of the day, when peace really meant something. 1465 01:18:14,690 --> 01:18:16,258 It just wasn't a slogan, 1466 01:18:16,324 --> 01:18:19,528 but it was something that was meant from the heart. 1467 01:18:19,594 --> 01:18:23,331 With Jamel Shabazz's photos, you get to see the root. 1468 01:18:23,398 --> 01:18:25,667 You get to see, like, this is where it comes from. 1469 01:18:25,734 --> 01:18:29,571 And these are just average everyday guys on the street. 1470 01:18:29,638 --> 01:18:32,507 And he photographed them with so much dignity. 1471 01:18:32,574 --> 01:18:36,578 And, you know, kind of blessed them with a kind of a royalty-- 1472 01:18:36,645 --> 01:18:40,782 almost gave some of the images a mythic quality. 1473 01:18:40,849 --> 01:18:45,721 These images had a-- It was like a tsunami effect. 1474 01:18:45,787 --> 01:18:51,460 Now with 20 plus years of hindsight, when I look back, 1475 01:18:51,526 --> 01:18:55,897 especially with the understanding of how huge and impactful... 1476 01:18:55,964 --> 01:18:58,033 hip-hop culture has been around-- 1477 01:18:58,100 --> 01:19:00,402 and still continues to be around the planet, 1478 01:19:00,469 --> 01:19:04,239 he's just one of those first kind of stepping-stones, 1479 01:19:04,306 --> 01:19:08,877 building blocks that we now have to look at and study, 1480 01:19:08,944 --> 01:19:11,913 and, like, get a sense of that life and that style. 1481 01:19:11,980 --> 01:19:15,450 It's just something that will luckily now live on for a long time. 1482 01:19:15,517 --> 01:19:19,121 [ Chattering ] 1483 01:19:20,021 --> 01:19:22,491 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1484 01:19:31,366 --> 01:19:33,368 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1485 01:19:33,435 --> 01:19:35,470 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1486 01:19:39,674 --> 01:19:42,911 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1487 01:19:42,978 --> 01:19:47,048 [ No Audible Dialogue ] Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my man. 1488 01:19:51,453 --> 01:19:53,488 [ No Audible Dialogue ] 1489 01:20:16,278 --> 01:20:18,280 [ Woman Over PA, Indistinct ] 1490 01:20:22,717 --> 01:20:25,253 That's Kor-Rock! [ Exclaims ] 1491 01:20:25,320 --> 01:20:29,424 You got Kor-Rock up in here! Oh, no! You got all the cats, man. 1492 01:20:29,491 --> 01:20:32,861 - Let me show you this here. Damn, let me get a copy of that. 1493 01:20:32,928 --> 01:20:35,096 Wow. Okay. [ Woman ] That's a nice man who bought it too. 1494 01:20:35,163 --> 01:20:38,133 Back in the Days. Look at that, brother. 1495 01:20:38,200 --> 01:20:39,935 I am, I am. Peace. We gotta build, brother. 1496 01:20:40,001 --> 01:20:42,437 If there's one thing I do, I'm gonna call you tonight, for real. 1497 01:20:42,504 --> 01:20:44,039 - All right, peace. - Peace out, man. 1498 01:20:44,105 --> 01:20:45,640 - Peace out. - Peace, brother. 1499 01:20:45,707 --> 01:20:47,309 Take it easy. Indeed. 1500 01:20:50,545 --> 01:20:55,116 ♪♪ [ Drumming ] 1501 01:20:56,785 --> 01:21:00,188 Closed-Captioned by Captions, Inc., Burbank, CA 1502 01:21:06,895 --> 01:21:08,897 ♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ] 1503 01:21:22,277 --> 01:21:25,447 [ Whistle Blows ] ♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ] 1504 01:21:30,752 --> 01:21:32,487 ♪♪ [ Ends ]