Fab Five Freddy

 Fred Brathwaite, who is better known by his stage name Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He was born on August 31, 1959, in Brooklyn, New York. Freddy is regarded as one of the founding figures of the street art movement and is considered an architect of hip hop culture. He emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a graffiti artist.

Freddy was a member of the Brooklyn-based graffiti group the Fabulous 5, known for painting entire New York City subway cars. In 1979, he and fellow Fabulous 5 member Lee Quiñones exhibited in a prestigious gallery in Rome, Italy, Galleria LaMedusa. Freddy became a regular guest on Glenn O'Brien's public access cable show TV Party, and he was a participant in seminal The Times Square Show. Freddy was the bridge between the burgeoning uptown rap scene and the downtown No Wave art scene, bringing the whole music, hip-hop, art, break dancing, and urban cultural thing to the downtown table.

In late 1980, Glenn O'Brien cast Freddy, along with Quiñones, in the film New York Beat, later released as Downtown 81. The film showcased artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in his Lower Manhattan environment and the culture that surrounded it. In early 1981, Freddy made a cameo appearance in the Blondie music video for "Rapture." Freddy painted graffiti art in the background of the video while Debbie Harry rapped that "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly." This was the first hip hop video to be shown on MTV.

Freddy connected with New York underground filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, whom he had met at The Times Square Show, and they began production on the film Wild Style in 1981. The movie was the first film to illustrate hip hop culture and grew from an idea Freddy had to refute the negative depiction of New York City's urban youth and to link for the first time break dancing, rapping, DJing, and graffiti under one umbrella or branches from the same tree. Freddy created the film's original music, co-produced, and ended up in one of the leading roles as the charismatic Bronx hip hop club promoter and former graffiti artist, Phade.

In April 1981, Freddy co-curated with Futura 2000 the graffiti-related art show Beyond Words at the Mudd Club. The show contained their own work along with Basquiat, Rammellzee, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and others. This was the first time the many members of the Bronx hip hop scene had appeared in the downtown New York City art world.

Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking hip-hop music video show Yo! MTV Raps in the late 1980s. On the show, he helped introduce hip hop to mainstream America. Freddy has continued to work as an artist and filmmaker. He has directed music videos for numerous artists, including Nas, Snoop Dogg, and Queen Latifah. He has also directed documentaries, including the acclaimed A$AP Rocky film "SVDDXNLY" (2014). Freddy's artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Tate Liverpool in England.