Fab 5 Freddy Interview: A Hip-Hop Pioneer

One of rap and hip-hop earliest breakthrough artists, Fab 5 Freddy was born in New York’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood at a time when its reputation was that of a community of crime-ridden quicksand from which there was no escape. Fab 5 Freddy (nee Fred Brathwaite) shatters that myth. The son of an accountant and a nurse, Freddy began dreaming of his own future as an artist at an early age. His godfather, bebop pioneer drummer and composer Max Roach, turned young Freddy’s home into a gathering place for jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. On this episode of The Thread, you’ll meet the multi-talented groundbreaking visual artist (think the most beautiful subway art you’ve ever seen), filmmaker and a man dubbed the “hip-hop architect,” the extraordinary Fab 5 Freddy. You’re in for a real treat.