During the preparations for my Hip Hop Inspired Architecture exhibit at the AIA Convention, I worked with professionals including hip hop artist, architects and photographers from all around the country to put on a successful show. The commonality amongst these professionals is the love of hip hop. I must say that their love for hip hop is deeper than the superficial infatuation with pop culture, these professionals, just as I, can easily profess "I AM HIP HOP"!
We, the constituents of the culture, who are derogatorily defined as hip hop are simultaneously working to define hip hop. Read that line again, it's deeper than you think.
I have to send a thank you to Detroit artist Terrance (GB Cortez) McGhee. Normally GB's day would consist of any of the following items, filming and producing promotional videos and tracks for internationally known hip hop artist and nationally syndicated radio shows, being the photographer for the likes of the vixen Deelishis or the videographer of Diddy's Making the Band group, Day 26, or filming interviews with the hottest artists and celebrities in the game as they visit Detroit's Hot 107.5
A few months before my exhibit, GB took his love of hip hop and his keen eye to capture a series of compelling photographs of the demolition of the "Brewster Projects" located in Detroit, which are the nations' first publicly funded housing development for African Americans.
Come back to see more of GB's photography and learn how the Brewster's unbeknownst to its designers and the American government, would serve as the foreshadowed, initial blow to inner cities which necessitated the birth of hip hop culture.
