Nov 5, 2018

Wtf

 

Nov 5, 2018

Really cool read and a lot more content and images on the actual page. Highly recommend.

source: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/10/entertainment/hip-hop-portraits-cnnphotos/

Apparently it is a book with these images and their stories; scroll down on this page (https://www.contacthighproject.com/) for a huge gallery of iconic hip hop images

Here is a preview of some of the pictures and excerpts presumably found in the book


Every hip-hop fan knows the images: The Notorious B.I.G. rocking the "King of New York" crown, Tupac Shakur with the double-finger salute, Jay-Z peeking through his hands as he throws his diamond up.

Now, journalist Vikki Tobak wants to share the stories behind these images as recalled through the words – and the lenses – of the photographers who shot them. The result is “Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop.”


If Eminem bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex DeLarge in “A Clockwork Orange,” you’re onto something.
The 1998 Stress magazine cover shot by Jus Ske Salguero was not just an homage to Stanley Kubrick, however. It was also a dis to one of Em’s rivals, the rapper Cage, who had a song at the time titled “Agent Orange.”



Jay-Z was not always the megastar fans know today. For his first photo s---t in 1995, his friends picked up photographer Jamil GS in a Lexus.
Hova had a custom-made nameplate put on one of the Lexuses used in the s---t, and Jamil GS juxtaposed the up-and-coming rapper with symbols of wealth, including a yacht and the World Trade Center.



Hoping to capitalize on an up-and-coming Chicago rapper, Nabil Elderkin bought kanyewest.com in 2003, only to trade it for a photo s---t when Ye’s label offered to buy it.
The cover was shot at a Harlem community center, and photographer Danny Clinch says, “I got the sense that he really wanted to take a chance with this debut.”



Barron Claiborne wasn’t exactly known for shooting rappers when Biggie showed up at his studio near Wall Street for a Rap Pages magazine s---t. He felt images of rappers had been cliché, and Claiborne “wasn’t interested in stereotypical negative imagery of black people,” he writes.

To him, the rapper was “a big West African king,” and he wanted him portrayed as regal in the photos. The idea was almost derailed by Puff Daddy, who owned Bad Boy Entertainment, Biggie’s label. Puff thought the crown made Biggie look like Burger King, but Biggie convinced Puff it was “a cool concept,” Claiborne writes.

"This photo is about hip-hop, but it's also beyond that. This was simply about photographing Biggie as the King of New York. He is depicted as an almost saint-like figure. This shot is the shot and it's iconic. I still have the crown, too,” Claiborne says, adding he was honored to hear that mourners carried the image during the rapper’s funeral procession days later.




Always a fashionisto, Andre 3000 impressed Janette Beckman, who took the Salt-N-Pepa photos, with his style, and “the poses that Andre threw that day were incredible.”


here are some of the other images included in the wonderful gallery

Spoiler