How artists and influencers set the stage for hip-hop's global rise | WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte's NPR News Source

Then Holman read a short blurb in The Village Voice. Fred Brathwaite, who served as an informal spokesperson for the Fabulous 5 graffiti crew, put out a call for readers to hire them to

create custom burners at their businesses or homes, priced by the square foot. Intrigued, Holman called Fab 5 Freddy and invited him to hang out.

Later that year Fab 5 Freddy and Lee Quinones of the Fabulous 5 showed their graffiti on canvas at a gallery in Rome. Then in 1980, Freddy painted an eye-catching, Warhol-inspired mural on a

New York City subway car— a string of soup cans that doubled as an announcement of his arrival as a significant creative catalyst.

As Freddy's influence grew, it expanded beyond visual art. He brought DJs Afrika Bambaataa and Jazzy Jay downtown to perform at the Mudd Club, and took Chris Stein and Debbie Harry up to the

Bronx to see Grandmaster Flash — an exchange commemorated in Blondie's No. 1 hit song "Rapture." Harry then introduced the rappers Funky 4 + 1 when they performed at The Kitchen in SoHo,

and brought them along as co-musical guests on "Saturday Night Live," where rap had its national television debut.

Photographer Janette Beckman was on assignment from Melody Maker to cover the London show. At the time she had been shooting two or three bands a week, mostly punk acts in small clubs. "It

would be dark and, you know, people would be pogoing, spitting and shouting," she recalls. Beckman had never encountered artists scratching, rapping, breaking, making graffiti art, or doing

double dutch — let alone at the same time. Nor had she seen the audience responding with such rapt attention.