S2 - Episode 12

One of rap and hip-hop earliest breakthrough artists, Fab Five 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 Five Freddy (need Fred Braithwaite) 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 Five Freddy.  You’re in for a real treat.