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♪♪ [ Marching Band Drumming ]

♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ]

♪♪ [ Whistle Blows ]

All right!

Come on, come on, come on!
Come on. Where everybody at?

Showtime, ladies, showtime.
Showtime, showtime.

Come on. Come on. Come on.
There we go.

Here we go. Here we go.
Here we go.

♪♪ [ Continues ]
Hold it!

[ Chattering ]

Over here. Come on.

♪♪ [ Continues ]
[ Whistle Blows ]

[ Girl Shouting ]
Get behind!

♪♪ [ Record Scratching ]

Jamel--
Jamel had a vision.

He was ahead of
a lot of people, man.

And nobody ever knew
what his vision was.

He was capturing life.
That's what he was doing.

He was capturing life
in its purest form, man.

♪♪ [ Drumming ]

♪♪ [ Record Scratches ]

Back in the fall of 1980...

I had just returned home
from doin' my
three-year tour of duty...

over in the military in Germany.

This is one of the very first
pictures I took...

upon my arrival
back home to Flatbush.

It is one of the rare pictures
of myself coming home
from the military.

So I was very much prime
at that point.

It was deep. It was
something about that train,

walking car to car,
looking for somebody.

Sometimes I'd get off a train...

and get on another train
that was more crowded...

or had greater light in hopes
of finding that subject matter.

I never had a location
in mind to go to.
I would just go.

Oftentimes--
It might be Manhattan.

'Cause Manhattan
was the nucleus
of a lot of activity.

There's a particular shot
I have of my four partners
on 42nd Street.

I saw these cats.
They were photographers.

And they had hats on.

I said, "Okay.
This is a deep shot."
They are on 42nd Street.

"Let me put them behind
this backdrop of a hat store."

When I look through my lens,
that's the picture
I'm looking for.

♪♪ [ Light R & B ]

And I'll never forget
the first day of school...

I was up at Tilden
documenting people.

They was fly, and that point...

I realized that people
wanted to be photographed.

They felt that they looked good.
Style was booming back
in the '80s.

The students at Tilden
allowed me--

Those were my first models
up at Tilden High School.

And once school
would be completed
up at Tilden,

I had so much energy in me,
I would continue on...

and travel throughout Brooklyn,
looking for more shots.

Oftentimes, if it was
raining outside or it was cold,
I took to the subways.

That's why I have so many
images of the subway.

Not because I just like
the subways, but because
the lighting is good,

and then you out of the cold
and rain, the elements.

The subways is like
my galleries.

I love the subway.
There's never a dull moment
on the subway.

This guy.

[ Tone Sounds ]

This is the train
I grew up on, right here.
The F train is a bad train.

This is the train we took
to go out to Coney Island
back in the '70s.

This is our train--
Last stop Coney Island.

Then we take it opposite way
uptown to Manhattan,

it would take us to 42nd Street.

♪♪ [ Synthesizer Rhythm ]

♪♪ [ Record Scratches ]

My name is Fab 5 Freddy.

Um, I'm here to talk about
my good friend, Jamel Shabazz,

a great photographer
whose work I own.

Um, and I'm proud
to have been involved
in his career, his first book.

We're from different parts
of Brooklyn.

I'm from
the Bedford-Stuyvesant section.

He's from that Crown Heights,
Flatbush area.

But we basically had experienced
a lot of the same things.

We witnessed,
listened to the same music,
danced the same dances.

We were wearing
what the cool styles were.

The right hats, the right pants.

All those things that,
before rap made them large,

all those little details,

the Cazal glasses,
the Kangol caps,
the sneakers and stuff--

Way before those things
were, uh, mythologized in rap,

in the numerous videos,

Jamel had captured it.

These were the heroes.

These were the style icons.

These were the cool cats
on the corner, on the street,

that every major rapper, uh,
was trying to emulate--

was trying to give voice to,

was trying to paint
the pictures of the lifestyles
that these guys lived.

When you first saw
Run-DMC real strong,

chilling on the corner
in a B-boy stance.

What that was about,
how you stood,

how you posed,
how you kept your grill--

A lot of those things come
from the kind of people...

that Jamel just brilliantly,
uh, captured for eternity.

♪♪ [ Record Scratches ]

[ Jamel ]
This picture was taken
in 1975...

at Meyer Levin
Junior High School
in East Flatbush.

These were three popular girls
from that day and time,
very beautiful girls.

I was in love with some Keisha.
Keisha was fine.
She's the one in the middle.

In this particular photograph...

I was about 15 years old
with my peers.

And as a pastime,
we would go to Coffey Park...

and indulge in drinking quarts
of Olde English.

Fortunately for me,
a-a-a Muslim brother...

came by and approached us,
me in particular,

and told us the importance
of putting the right ingredients
in our body.

And he told me to replace
a bad habit with a good habit,

and turned me
on to Tropicana orange juice.

From that point on I stopped
drinking Olde English...

and started drinking
orange juice.

I went on a mission
to encourage people
to get off the malt liquor.

This is in front of my building.
This is 167 Bush Street.

These is three
real cool individuals.

This is a picture
taken back in 1975
of me and Val.

This is taken
in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

This represents
the time period...

when I first started rollin'
with my camera every day.

This is Wolf and Tyrone.

What's deep
about Wolf and Tyrone
is that we were the same age.

And real cool cats
but both-- both of them
lost their brothers.

Tyrone on the right
with the Quarterfield on--

That coat is a Quarterfield--

His brother, Brian,
was murdered.

Ray, on the left--

His brother, Mustafa,
he died at a young age.

I think he might have
even died in 1978.

He died. He had got shot
in the neighborhood.

This is my first
major group shot.

This picture
was taken directly behind
Tilden High School.

This is a picture taken
of my father back in 1955.

He was a crewman aboard the
USS Intrepid aircraft carrier.

I had this painting done
right after he had passed away.

The actual image itself
was taken approximately...

1955, when he was in the Navy.

My father was a trained
combat photographer...

who was assigned to the
USS Intrepid aircraft carrier.

During his, I believe,
eight years in the military,

it enabled him to travel
throughout the Mediterranean...

taking pictures.

This picture here was
probably taken around 1964.

This is a shot
my father took of me
getting my hair cut...

out there in Red Hook, Brooklyn,
back in the days.

Prior to his passing,
he gave this picture to me
as a gift.

When I started, um, showing
an interest in photography,

my father made it a point,
mainly, when I came home
from the military--

He saw my desire to learn.
I had a Canon camera.

He basically gave me
the fundamental principles
of photography,

the mechanics, which were
extremely important back then.

My father never really
understood my compassion...

a-and empathy for that type
of social conditions.

I remember bringing
those images home to him,

and he just would be
somewhat disgusted
in my wasting the film.

He never saw the purpose in it.

♪♪ [ Drumming ]
[ Chattering ]

[ Whistle Blows ]
Harlem!

[ Jamel ]
All right. Showtime!

Right here!

All right. Here we go!
Hold that pose.

♪♪ [ Marching Band Continues ]

[ Whistle Blowing ]

I had read Malcolm X's
autobiography,

and it was something
about his character
that really inspired me.

Malcolm in particular.
The nation of Islam as a whole--

But they went after
the downtrodden people.

They went after
the prostitutes and the pimps
and the drug dealers.

And they were able
to inspire them
to transform their lives.

I first became
a correctional officer
in 1983.

And it was a very interesting
challenge for me.

It was my first time ever being
in a correctional institution.

My first duty assignment was
working with adolescents--

ages, at that time, 16 to 21,

at the notorious C74,
as they called it back then,

where I spent quite a few years
for the most part.

That's where I got
my basic training development,

working with
what were considered
the worst of the worst inmates.

It was said if you
could work in C74,
you could work anywhere.

The system itself was not
designed to rehabilitate them.

It was interesting. We even
called it gladiator school.

Where you had these people
in the system--
really no education.

There wasn't a lot
of social programs to help them
readjust to society.

It was just violence.

Oftentimes, the incidents
will explode in the mess hall.

We were told back then--
What happened
in the mess hall is--

You'd have all
these housing areas,

about four housing areas
any given day...

going into the mess hall to eat.

You'd have two housing areas in.
You'd have one half-out.

You'd have two
housing areas in the hallway.

That was an opportunity
to set things off.

In the mess hall...

you might be in a situation
where anything can go down.

You could have beef
with somebody on the street.

Could be a person
that might've murdered you.

This could be your co-defendant
that flipped on you.

Now you see him
in the mess hall.

That hatred is
so deeply rooted in you.

When you see that person,
you are going to shank him.

Back then, it was about warfare.

You improvise.
You made weapons.

Straight razors were common.
Uh, razors--

Weapons made out of toothbrushes
sharpened on the edges.

You brought that. Sometimes
you can detect these things.

If you saw an enemy,
you're going to bring it
regardless of the consequences.

There was times
in which these riots would
ensue inside the mess hall,

and the doors would be closed,
and it would be all-out chaos.

Wussup? I'm Sharp.
[ Laughs ]

The first time that I ever saw
Jamel Shabazz's work...

was in a art exhibition...

which was curated
by Claude Grunitzky,

who is the head honcho
over there at Trace magazine.

I saw these photos, uh,

that were portraits of people
standing in subway cars.

And in the photo were
signatures inside the trains,

some of which I knew
when they had taken place...

because I was with the person
when the tags were made.

This particular picture
is really interesting too,

just because it looks like
they are in the last car.

They are about to smoke a joint.
They got a radio.

Know what I mean?
People don't smoke weed
in the subway anymore,

much less listen to music.

And if you didn't
want to get robbed,
you didn't go back there.

You stayed in the fifth car,
next to the conductor's booth.

My name is Claude Grunitzky.

I'm the editor and founder
of Trace magazine,

which has been around
since the late '90s.

In the late '90s--
Actually, in 1999,

um, one day Jamel Shabazz
walked into our office.

But he came with a portfolio...

that had these
hundreds of photographs
from his archives.

For someone like me who grew up
as a hip-hop kid...

in Paris in the '80s,

longing for that
New York experience,

that discovery
was absolutely amazing,

because I could see
that Jamel was the witness.

He was the guy who had a camera.

In that fall of 1999,
in this specific issue,

we then cleared
a few pages for Jamel...

and published his portfolio
which is called...

"Not Just Another Date."

And I started
seeing these people...

in situations wearing
these old-school pants,
old-school sneakers,

and seeing
these old boom boxes and--

The music was everywhere. I was
wondering who these people were.

Just seeing a couple in love
like that--

There was something that felt
very natural and hopeful,

and I was really moved
when I saw it.

So, we decided
to exhibit his work
in a gallery in Paris,

the Galerie Beaurepaire.

I was thinking of it from
a French person's perspective.

I wanted his point of view
as an American, as a New Yorker.

This photograph is one
of my most precious possessions.

It is a photograph
that was taken by Jamel...

in my family apartment in Paris.

My father ended up
passing away...

a couple months after
this photograph was taken.

I remember that Jamel could tell
that my father was ill,

and he wanted to capture
that moment with a photograph.

I'm so grateful to him
for having done that.

This is actually
the last photograph...

that was ever taken
of my father and I,

probably the last picture that
was ever taken of my father,
period.

[ Woman On PA ]
If you see
a suspicious package...

or activity on the platform
or train, do not keep it
to yourself.

Tell a police officer
or MTA employee.

Remain alert and have a safe--

How you doin'?
I am David Villorente,

better known as Dave "Chino"
or by my tag, Chino BYI.

I worked for The Source magazine
between 1994 and 2005.

I was an editor of the Graf Flix
section of the magazine...

which eventually becameBomb Shelter.

So, uh, sometime around
the tail end of '97,

while we were working
on The Source magazine's
100th anniversary issue,

our then photo director
Janene Outlaw
came into the office...

and tapped me on the shoulder
and said,

"I've got something
you should check out.
You might appreciate this."

She was sitting on
Jamel Shabazz's portfolios.

Um, prior to this he
hadn't had any of his work
published anywhere.

So this stuff was
absolutely mind-blowing.

We were sitting there in awe,

checking out guys
with bell Kangols...

and leather Double Gooses
and Three-quarter Gooses...

and fat dookie ropes
and three finger rings
and gold fronts.

What really stood out
to me was...

that a majority
of these pictures
were taken in Brooklyn...

or in my Fort Greene
neighborhood.

When I started getting
my feet wet in graffiti,

sometime around the time
I was 11,

there was an art store
on Fulton Street.

I met Willie in front
of the art store.

He asked me what I wrote,
and I made up a tag.

I told him I wrote "OE."
I just made it up on the spot,

not realizing
there was an old-school
"OE" from Brooklyn.

He was the first guy
to be like,

"Listen, there's someone
that writes that name.

That's not a very original tag."

These guys are from
a Brooklyn graffiti crew
known as the "XMEN."

That's Tattoo XMEN standing here
with the white shorts on.

This is OB XMEN.

Some of their more prominent
members of their crew...

were SO XMEN, DJ NO, TES.

NO and TES are
the first two guys credited
for the graffiti sticker trend.

They were local graffiti artists
that I grew up looking up to.

OB was one of
the first established
graffiti writers I had ever met.

I was probably
about 11 at the time.

Me and OB remained friends...

up until he passed away
about two years ago.

Back in the Days
and Time Before Crack,

I recognize so many
of the locations,
so many of the people.

These two photos here
were taken near the Fulton Mall.

You can tell this is the Dime
Savings Bank next to Juniors,

and left of the bank
is where the Albee Square Mall
used to stand.

Many people are familiar
with the Albee Square Mall...

from the BizMarkie track...

"My House
is the Albee Square Mall".

The two gentlemen are standing
in front of a HEC 398 tag.

HEC 398 was from
a crew called CW--
Crazy Writers.

This guy in particular,
we knew as Pipo growing up.

He was kind of, like,
dabbled with gangs.

You can see on his sleeve here,
they've written 1369,

which was a gang symbol
with a swastika in the middle.

He's got FTW which stood
for "fuck the world" on his arm.

Pipo, he was older than us
at the time.

He was really big for
telling us these tall tales
every time we saw him.

One day,
I could probably tell my kids,

"You want to see
where I grew up,
the faces I grew up around?"

I can just pick up
one of these two books.

Back in the spring of 2000,
there was a knock at the door.

There was just myself,
Sara Rosen in the office,

and the third
of powerHouse Books,
Daniel, wasn't there.

So I said,
"Sir, what's your name?"

He said,
"My name is Jamel Shabazz."

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Because I had seen
a small catalog
from a show he did in Paris...

that Trace magazine organized.

And, I had wanted to see more
of that work for about a year,

and there he was,
just standing in my office.

I had never seen a book
like Back in the Days before.

And we still thought
it was an artist's book.

It wasn't until
the book was released--

We only printed 4,000 copies.

Before the book arrived,
we had sold out.

So we placed our reprint order
for 5,000 copies...

as the boat arrived
with the 4,000.

And... eight printings later,Back in the Days...

is the cornerstone
of the hip-hop culture book.

♪♪ [ Record Scratches ]

All right, showtime.

We here at
Samuel J. Tilden High School...

in East Flatbush, Brooklyn,

the school I attended
back in 1975.

It's a joy to be here
after so many years.

I'm looking forward
to having an opportunity...

to photograph the students
very much like I did
30 years ago.

[ Shutter Clicks ]
[ Laughing, Chattering ]

Let me get the whole posse,
here.
Come on.

Let me get some hard--
Chicken head!

Okay.
This my boo!

This is Brooklyn, baby.
Come on. This Brooklyn.

Right now. Take one more.

Don't let me find out
you're all visitin' from Jersey.
[ Laughs ]

All right. You stop, son.
I got to get you.

A'ight. You're makin' me
feel like a celebrity though.

No doubt.
Feel like a celebrity.

Got smooth skin,
got one earring in the ear.

- That's the tomb status.
There you go.
- So light.

If I could get y'all...
right.

This gate is good.
This is old-school gate.

Tilden--
That's my man right here.

You got that hard-core look.

Come on. We got
the blacks in the middle.

Two blacks, let me
get you here in the front.

Let me get you crouched down,
girl. See, let me
get you crouched down.

My man,
you come right there.

That's the picture right there.
That's old school!

That's the shot!
Just like this.

That's it. That's the love.

And...
beautiful picture.
[ Shutter Clicks ]

The key element
to taking pictures, you got
to find who the general is.

Once you find that alpha male
or that dominant male
in the group,

you make him feel good.

You show him love.

Once you could captivate him,
all the troops will follow.

I'm Kevin Stukes.

I grew up in this area over here
with Jamel Shabazz.

We all went
to junior high school together
and high school and, um--

Listen, this was Nazareth Park
right here.

Tilden High School-- This was
our stomping grounds right here.

This is where we did everything.

We played ball in here
in the mornin' times,
on Saturday mornings.

Used to have
the big block parties.

Inside, the guys
used to bring out the DJ,
a guy named Magic.

Jimmy would be playing music
over here.

Don't forget.
We used to have a hell
of a lot of good dice games.

I'm talking about
40 to 50 people
in a dice game.

Right here in this park.

Jamel would come take pictures,
but he wouldn't gamble.

This is in front
of Tilden High School,

which, some kinda way,
we all wound up at.

They are in front of Tilden,
right?
In front of Tilden.

That's Mark. That's, uh, Craig.
That's José.

All these little kids
is right here.
All of them are still around.

This is a picture
of the hat store...

which was on Saratoga
and Pitkin Avenue,

where we all used to get
our Beavers from.

At that time,
Beavers and Panamas
were the hats you mostly wore.

This is me right here--
1979.

We was what you would call
early gangsters.

We thought we were
early gangsters.

This is a homey here, Chico.

Chico from Brooklyn.

- [ Jamel ]
Chico got 40 years.
- Forty years?

Got 40 years.
He's been down now about 17.

Damn!

Ronald Williams.
Ronald Wayde.

I forgot his name.

Actually, he used to go
with my wife back in the days.
[ Laughs ]

The girl I'm married to now,
he used to go with her...

until I ran him out of town.

Then the nigga had the nerve to
ask me why did I take his girl?

You did!
Nigga, was my girl first!

How you going to tell me that?

Ced!
[ Imitates Karate Yell ]

What you call this brother?
Karate expert.
Karate and no socks.

I'm tellin' you.
That was Cedric, man.

[ Shouts, Chuckles ]

Yeah, I remember that used
to be my barber back in the day.

Tell him about your waves.

You don't got your waves
no more?
No waves.

[ Man ]
That's one thing about Jamel--
In the first book--

Is that the first one?
In the first book...

there's pictures of everybody
who was deceased in the back.

Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

[ Stukes ]
You have Trev here who used
to live on Ralph Avenue...

between Synder and Tilden.

You have Just-God here
who grew up on--
lived on 51st Street.

A great guy who also was
a photographer. He was murdered.

You have another guy, Isaac,
who was mysteriously found dead.

I mean,
Jamel just captured
all these pictures...

of all these individuals
prior to their death.

Oh, look at the outfits.
I remember that.

[ Man, Indistinct ]
[ Laughs ]

[ Woman ]
This was
my best friend's brother.

He got killed in, um, '86.

[ Girl ]
By what?
That was his girlfriend.

Um, gunshot, you should say.

- Is she still alive?
- Mm-hmm. Remember?
We saw her.

You would not know her though.
You wasn't even there.

See how he educates people
through his books?

That's one thing
you knew about him back then.

- He was an educator then.
- Oh, definitely. Definitely.

He was my educator
to the Nation of Islam.

That's true.
When I looked at the images...

and sat down
to write the introduction,

one of the things that hit me...

that he captured, um, is...

"cool."

I thought to myself,
well, you know,

"cool" is a word we throw
around rather loosely,

very much a part of our
American English lexicon.

But I wanted to go deep
into the origins of cool.

And, um,
I had to do some research,
believe it or not.

[ Chuckles ]
Me? Nah.

I had to really delve in,
peel the covers back
on what "cool" is.

And, um,
a great academic thinker,

um, and scholar,
Robert Farris Thompson,

in a book calledFlash of the Spirit,

who has done extensive research
into African cultures
in the Diaspora,

and is able to interpret
and break things down,

traced "cool", the word,
back to the 15th,
16th century...

in Nigeria,

in a word, I think, Oshun,

that actually translates
into "cool" as a concept.

Um, he basically
has documented...

where this word began,
if you will,
as a concept...

that we were conscious of.

It's something
that moves through
the African experience,

obviously through
the adversity...

of all the things
people of African descent...

have had to go through--

Being cool--
[ Chuckles ]
is a big part of that, man.

Because keeping
that cool pose,

that cool face, that demeanor,
that attitude, that style,

has been like an armor...

for many people of color
here in America
and in other places.

But specifically,
what I know about here--

I think our music has been
an extension...

and an interpretation of that.

So when you
really kind of get
a sense of what that is...

and how it's one of those
inner things that's in us--

Jamel Shabazz's pictures,
I think, an inherent aspect
of what he does,

has done, is captured cool...

within the individuals
and the settings...

and in how he composes
his shot.

The point, the millisecond,
that he decides to...

press that shutter down--

Hey baby, that's it. Cool.
[ Cameraman Chuckles ]

♪ Cool
'cause I don't get upset ♪

♪ I kick a hole in the speaker,
pull the plug and I jet ♪

♪ Back to the lab, my man, Rakim
Without a mike to grab ♪♪

Rakim, cool!

[ Man ]
He's comin'. I was trying
to get you to come.

I was excited.
I was like, "Jamel is coming!
Jamel is coming!"

We're going to do big things.

When you first
called my name, I said,
"Damn, this sounds like static."

The way you called my name,
it's like, "Damn.

I got to throw down
with this kid."
What did I say?

You said, "Jamel Shabazz!"
Then you got into
a fighting stance.

I said, "Damn.
I ain't came here to fight."

It's too early--
Too many women in here.

[ Buzzing ]

My man right here,
I've been knowin' him
for a long time.

Break it down, brother.
I want to hear the history.

You say some
really deep things to me.
They won't believe me, man.

What about the beef
that happened out there?

That's what really gets me.

The way I was rolling
was interesting...

'cause I knew everybody.

When you start breaking down
to me, Pringle,
and all the beef,

the conflict that was going on--

We don't want that in here.
Not to talk about it but--

I never knew there were
so many enemies back then.

Listen, tell them how much
murders they had out here.

[ Man ]
Oh, yeah.
Whoo.

[ Man ]
Every time you turned around.
Goddamn, it was bad out here.

That's when--
That's the first time--
When I came home--

When I came home,
that was the first time
I seen crack.

I didn't know nothing
about no crack.

I was walking down the street,
and I thought that
people had a parade.

And people threw
these confetti tops up,

because the whole street
was full of red, yellow, green.

Those were the capsules
to the bags.

You know, the tops
they used to put the crack in.

They had--
Right, John?

They had that shit
all over the street.

You could be walking
down the street,
tops everywhere.

What the hell is going on?

I didn't know
nothing about that.
Mmm.

If you come home,
you know nothin' about that.

But that was--
That was the crack,
you know?

[ Buzzing ]

If Carroll was alive today,

I could have the same
conversation with him.

I didn't even know
Carroll was dead.

I kept lookin' at that picture,
like, "I know this guy
from somewhere."

...we are talking about are
really interesting individuals,
because I speak about--

These are the younger brothers
to my partners.

All of my partners
had younger brothers...

about two, three years
younger than us.

The people we are discussing
are basically them.

Tony's generation
is actually that generation.

He was one of the survivors,
but Brian Davis, Mustafa,
Naquan--

These is three guys
that I knew their brothers
very well,

and they all died violently.

You spent time back--
You were there in the '70s?

[ Man ]
Uh, sure.
That sounds accurate.

Hold on. Let me show you
this picture of my partner.

Yeah, brother Cedric,
Larry--
- I've seen him before. Yeah.

Malik. He was born and raised--
You remember this brother,
right?

Cedric's brother?
Wild-ass karate Cedric?

That's my man!

Cedric had on
a whole karate suit.
[ Laughs ]

That's Ced.
Listen, kid.
Like Bruce Lee.

Whatever the karate dudes do,
he'd do the same shit. Water.

He'd take buckets of water--

[ Laughing ]

And put it on his back...
and walk with--

Take buckets--
The water, with towels,
put it on his head...

and put the other two--
[ Imitates Blows ]

You think I'm joking?
Without it falling.

I seen all the photographs
in The Source magazine.

[ Jamel ]
Yeah.
I was like, "Oh, shit!

That looks like a Jamel Shabazz.
I know these people right here."

That magazine actually opened up
the door for me to do my book.

'Cause people
loved those images.

No one was able to get shots
like that back in the days.

Who you knew walking around
with a camera back then?

That was able to get the thugs
and generals and all that?

It was like
a visual diary of my life.

When you look at those pictures,
you're looking at seconds
of my life--

People I was just
building with back then.

What I would do,
I would leave y'all...

in East Flatbush,
go to Flatbush,

leave Flatbush,
go downtown Brooklyn,
go to Manhattan--

just building with brothers,
Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights.

All it was is just
a diary of my life...

and the different people
I had conversations with.

This is a general right here.

Tony, I known this brother
for 30 years,

when he was a little kid
on the street.

Beautiful brother,
a lot of history.
True general right here.

Jamel-- Jamel had a vision.
He was ahead of a lot of people.

Nobody never knew
what his vision was.

He was capturing life.
That's what he was doing.

He was capturing life
in its purest form, man.
While everybody was living.

Nobody knew
what he was doing.

Nobody went to a photo shoot...

or knew he was coming out
to take pictures, right?

He just was there.
He just takin' pictures, man.

Everybody wouldn't let you
take their picture like that,

because a lot of people
was doing a lot of criminal
activities.

That's right.
[ Laughing ]

If you got a picture,
you was good,
know what I'm saying?

That's how that went down.

[ Jamel ]
Being a young black man...

working in a prison environment
was deep because I was young.

At that time,
I had just turned 23.

A lot of the young men
I was dealing with,

they were in my same age group.

I had more in common
with them than I did
with a lot of officers.

So I had to draw this line
on how I was gonna move.

It was difficult to see these
young men from the neighborhood.

Many of them I grew up with.
I knew their parents.

It was deep to see
some of the same young men
I photographed on the street...

now in the system.

Some of the young guys
I grew up with
were in the system.

To a great degree,
that enabled me to have
an easy transition in there,

because I knew some
really strong individuals.

My military background
enabled me to carry myself
in a certain way.

When I needed direction,
I would reflect on
the drill instructor...

and how he conducted hisself
and how he spoke.

I extracted things
from those characteristics...

and incorporated within myself--
I became very effective.

Initially, I would not reveal
to people that I was
a correctional officer...

because I felt they would
be taken aback by my position...

and look at me as the police.

That would prevent me
from really building with them.

As time passed, the word
spread in the community...

that "He is a C.O."

In a sense it was good,
because for some reason...

I had a good reputation.

A lot of guys I would encounter
in jail were coming home.

The fact that I treated
them with respect,

they would pass the word on
to other individuals...

and allow me to photograph 'em,
to my amazement.

When I would leave work...

I would return right back
to the streets again...

and continue to document,
uh, young life.

And now I did it with a purpose.

♪♪ [ Marching Band Drumming ]

I've been retired now
for over five years...

after doin' a complete
20 years in the department
of corrections.

Going out to the
African American Day parade...

enables me to see
a lot of my coworkers...

who I served with
during my time
as a correctional officer.

This is my old steady partner
right here.

How you doin'?
Nice to meet you.
This is my partner, Al.

He's an actor now.
Mm-hmm.

[ Laughs ]
And doin' that too.

We worked together in jail.

He was my point man.

And she don't
say nothin' to me.
I'm sorry. Hello.

I just was so shocked
when I saw him.

I haven't seen him
in so long.

- How you feelin'?
- I'm great. How are you?

I'm really good.
How's your daughter doing?

- High school?
- No, college--
third year.

- Look at the tags.
- Yeah.

[ Laughing ]

I was telling somebody--
[ Man ]
Way before my time.

No.
I was tellin' somebody...
when we were growing up...

the gangs were the Tomahawks,
the Jolly Stompers--

You remember that?
Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Let me get a picture of y'all.
'Cause I am so proud of y'all.

All right, hats.
Let's keep it professional.

Hold this.

All right. Here we go.
[ Shutter Clicks ]

Beautiful.
Thank you, ladies.

Ladies, take care.
Thank you.

[ Woman On PA, Indistinct ]

This is a book that,
um, my father had
a signed copy of...

when we lived in Brooklyn,
in Red Hook.

This book,Black in White America...

was very instrumental in shaping
my vision as a young child.

I remember seeing these images.

I remember them so vividly.

Each image is telling a story.
Every image.

Even to see this image,
knowin' my mother was a nurse--

What appears to be
a nursing home
or a beauty shop,

but it says white females.

Leonard was able to really
capture the feelings of people.

When you look at this work,
you feel the passion
of the image.

The railroad tracks
often served as a divide
in the black community.

It was the railroad tracks
that separated black
from white...

in-in many cities and towns
in the South.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal shot.

Uh, one of my favorites
in the book.
This is, like I said--

This might be my number one
favorite image.

I remember as--
being a young child in Brooklyn.

This was our means
of having fun back
in the days, the Johnny Pump.

Thousands upon thousands
of young people
from the community...

got their pictures made
on 42nd Street.

This particular brother
right here--
I can't remember his name.

But you could tell
by his stance...

he is a member
of the Five Percent Nation.

He was a very respected
photographer out there.

So I salute
the street photographers,
these Polaroid brothers,

because they got it in.

Louis Mendes is an icon.

He's one of the original
Polaroid photographers,
you know.

Ooh.

Nice and bright.

Mmm?
[ Girl ]
I like that one.

[ Woman ]
Famous pictures
he took with that camera.

- Wow. That looks really nice.
- That's really nice.

My name is Louis Mendes.

And I've been out here
since 1972 taking pictures.

I used to work on 42nd Street,
Times Square,

with the backdrops
and the banners,

like, uh,
like Jamel Shabazz does
with his pictures...

that he has now in his book,Back in the Days.

When I was working
in Times Square,

this is from the backdrops
we used to use.

That's my youngest daughter
and myself.

This was taken about 1990.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Uh, yeah, Bobbito Garcia--
Kool Bob Love
at Mount Morris Park.

Been coming here since,
uh, 1981,

when I was playing
the Holcombe Rucker
Memorial Tournament.

And, uh, no other park
like it in the world,
especially in Harlem.

This is Jamel Shabazz's book,Back in the Days.

Nothing says
more "New York" than this.

Now, I never ate
at the Sizzling Chicken,
but, uh--

You know, what can I say?

Starting with the sneakers,
which is my specialty--

Uh, you got the Puma Clydes
here, the Suedes,

which was a sneaker
that was introduced in 1972...

by the German company, Puma.

Really changed the whole
outlook of sneakers in New York.

The cats started to clean
their sneakers and all that.

You can see here,
his presentation,
a very clean look--

The green with the green Kangol.

Even his beads match up.

He got the BVD tank.
He got the Lee jeans.

He just looking extra correct.

Um, the name belt.

He don't even have name on it,
but he got the money sign.

Maybe his nickname was Cash
or maybe his nickname was Money.

Probably the most revealing
thing for me, personally,

as being a Boricua, Nuyorican,
is the flag right here.

This is very bold and beautiful.

The dude on the left,
his Puma Clydes
look a little choked up.

They don't look that fresh.

The kid on the right,
his Pumas look so correct.

They look so correct,
like, they're so well done.

Like, the way he's wearing 'em,
the way he's rockin' 'em,

the way he got his pant ruffle--

[ Exhales, Laughs ]
This is the photo!

I mean, If there was any photo
that sold me on this book,

uh, it would
definitely be this one.

You see some ill sneakers
in this page.

Jabbars, 1978,
I believe,
they came out.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
from Dyckman Projects uptown,

New York City legend, all-time
leadin' scorer of the NBA.

You see it here at $38.99,

with his face on the tongue--
that's just an ill shoe.

The Shell Toe 41--
the pro model...

the high top of the Shell Toe--

You got the PRO-Ked 69ers
that were ridiculous.

At one point--
They're $17 here.

At one point they were
eight, nine dollars,
$10, $12.

They kept going up in price,
but, uh--

This just stamps, like,
"New York" to me.

[ Shutter Clicks ]
You'll appreciate this
20 years from now.

But I appreciate it.
Y'all take care of yourselves.

- All right, man. Thank you.
- We gotta go.

[ Jamel ]
Basically, for us in the '70s,

the style then was long coats,

and it's interesting
as I look at Coffy
and some of these pimp movies,

that was a popular style
in our community in Brooklyn.

So as the '80s start to come,

it started to change.

But in all my images,
you see that there's a strength.

There is a certain seriousness.
The pose is very important.

Where I come from,
you stood with strength.

You stood erect. You stood
perpendicular in your square,

which really meant a whole lot.

You had different
fraternal organizations.

They had particular stances.
People don't really know that.

They look at it as a pose,
not realizing it is
a stance that means something.

You had the Five Percent Nation
that stood in this square.

You look at the way
they folded their arms.

It's like it's four points
that are being reflected.

There are others that pose--
They put their index finger...

pointing to their brain
to represent intelligence.

You find that even
in the prison system.
The images are the same.

And some people might
call it a jailhouse pose,

but the principle
is pretty much the same.

In jail, you cannot appear weak.

You would be victimized
if you didn't walk correct.

People can actually
look at you...

and sense weakness
behind your walk.

So the way that you walk,
the way that you spoke,

if you were able
to make eye contact
with a person--

all these things
were very relevant growing up.

Right... now.[ Woman Over PA, Indistinct ]

[ Shutter Clicking ]

[ Indistinct ]

How you doin'? I'm Shabazz.
I'm a good friend of Jamel's.

We go way back
to the 7th grade in
Meyer Levin Junior High School.

Uh, I would say '75, maybe,
or a little earlier than that.

And we've been friends since
and never stopped being friends.

But the books, man,
they're really dear to my heart.

I ride around with them.
I see people, and I
open up my trunk with them.

"Here, look at the book."

That's when you
and your girl used to dress
alike-- wear the same thing.

People died for those glasses.
Everybody talked
about the Cazals--

That's the Beaver.
We used to put baby oil
on it to make it smooth.

This is at Tilden
at a football game.

And this is
the Panamanian crew right here.

He is a detective right now.

We're not really looking
at the clothing.

We're looking at the people
that are wearing the clothing,

because we know them,
and we know what they represent.

This is the guy
that Busta Rhymes and all them
talk about, in Brownsville.

This guy,
he was a Golden Gloves boxer.

This guy had a coalition.

When anybody came up from jail,
he had them work
construction jobs.

He was real serious
in the community, man.

Very serious guy.
He got everybody jobs.

If you came home from jail,
you had a correctional--

you had a, um, construction job.

[ Man ]
AZ.

- I just called Nev.
- Oh, yeah, where Nev at?

- He's coming.
- Good. That's AZ right there.

That's AZ, the rapper,
right here.

And when I showed him this,
I was at the HOT97
with Star & Buc Wild.

He saw it. He was going crazy.

Then he got quiet and he said...

"This guy right here
is all drugged out."

He said that was his boy.
He's dead.

But he said, "Shabazz, look.

I still was chillin'.
I had my rings on.
I had my Pumas on."

[ Men Laugh ]
That's all he would talk about!

Yeah, that's Big Wise.
He was like a brother to me.

When he died, I wasn't here.

All I did was cry,
because I wanted to be
at the funeral.

He and I were very, very close.
Very close.

He'd come sleep in my basement.

Used to try to keep him in line.

Who's this?
Oh, damn!

Who's this, Smooth? Come here.
You found Smooth!

This guy right here--
Let me tell you something.

When this guy--
See how small he is?

This guy would come
in the park and say,

"At 5:00,
nobody better not be
in this park!"

At 4:00, everybody was gone.

John Davis was killed
in a robbery in his house.

John Davis bought a home,
and some guys broke in there...

and robbed him,
and he died during that robbery.

John Davis--
That's my little brother
right there.

John, John--
We grew up right next--

Our houses were next
to each other. We told
everybody we were cousins.

When I moved on the block,
he's the first one I met.

I came up here from the South.

As I was sayin',
this is the home I grew up in.

My parents sold it
about two years ago,

but we spent
25 years in this home.

This is where I grew up
from an adolescent
to a teenager...

to an adult in this home
right here.

My next door neighbors were here
when I moved here.

There were maybe
three black families
on this whole entire block,

including this building,
so it was a culture change
for me.

I came here from the South...

and this is where
I end up growing up as an adult.

All my friends
would come and see me.

They would knock
on the basement window...

so my mom didn't hear them
and know I was going outside.

'Cause I was supposed
to be on punishment.

Yeah, Jamel-- We all grew up
in residential neighborhoods,

and, you know, that's what
kinda caught people off guard.

People would try
to take advantage of us...

'cause they thought
we grew up with a father
and mother in the house,

and that, as they would say
back then, "You're soft."

But they didn't know
we weren't taking
any mess either,

so they had to find out
the hard way.

Guys would come from
the projects, as they would say,
and get killed here.

Because they thought
we were punks,
things would happen to them.

That's when East Flatbush
took on a whole different thing.

That's when very infamous guys
came from this neighborhood.

Because people tried them.

I think it was because
we had parents who had money,

and we knew how
to go get weapons.

[ Man ]
Mm-hmm.
[ Laughs ]

We knew how to use money
and go get weapons.

These guys were stealing
from each other.

We would buy them ourselves
from people, like--

This was
an Italian neighborhood.

Mob guys would sell us
weapons with no problem.

Until it became a problem
that we were using them
out here.

- Yo, let me see that picture.
- Okay.

[ Man ]
I definitely know
who that is.

Let me see that other book,
the picture.

Oh, what's her name? Ah--
[ Men Laughing ]

[ Chattering ]

Yes, my name is Kay Born.

I knew Jamel for many years
in the streets.

Especially the pictures
in the book,
I can relate with them...

'cause I came from there.

I understand
where he's goin' with them.

And that's time in the making...

because a lot of them things
that's in that book
is repeating itself.

You know what
the best thing was?

You could get away
with no shoelaces,
no lace in your sneakers...

in those days.
And no socks.

[ Men Laughing ]
And no socks.

[ Chattering ]
Wow.

Lee suits.
Good Cazals, man.

But look at the Lee suits,
the pants and jacket.

- And they're coming back out.
- Yeah, they are.

[ Kay ]
How many dudes
had a radio on their shoulder?

On the weekends,
we used to go to the Deuce,

as you can see
in this picture here.

We used to come out
of the A train.

When you came out
of the A train,
you came up into the game room.

After you came
into the game room,

you'd play some games,
you'd watch the girls.

And there was always
a group of girls
that come through.

Man, you got to follow them
to the movie theater.

- You all had fun that night.
- No more beach days.
We don't do this too much.

Yeah. I wish I was here.

I still got
all my old-school pictures,
a lot of 'em.

[ Kay ]
So how do you feel about
what was goin' on back then?

I miss it. Hanging out
with my girls, goin' to--

My homegirls
going to 42nd Street
to the movies,

taking pictures,
dressing like this.

I miss that. Nobody think--
Everybody thinks
that's corny now.

I remember when he
first started taking pictures.

He was a knockoff
of everybody else.
On the Deuce. On the Deuce!

He was a "son"--
He was a knockoff.

He was a "son" to everybody
that was makin' money.

And they put him down.

- Easy, nice, brother.
- [ Chattering ]

She looks familiar here.
[ Chattering ]

- She looks familiar. Who's that?
- She's from Ohio.
Came up behind me.

- She looks mad familiar.
- Justine or somethin', right?

There were still prostitutes
in Lincoln Terrace Park.

But the pimps was the dreads.
When I was coming up...

the Jamaicans had took over
the pimping over there.

- Not really us, you know.
- This guy right here.

She got out of town.
He was doing good, man.

I saw him two years ago.
Who you sayin' got dreads now?

Which one is that?
Right here. Shorts.

We call him Shorts.
Yeah, he got dreads now.

He was out here,
but he just passed away
earlier this year, yo.

Froggy Kev, man. Wow.

Brian was one of Jamel's--
Jamel used to teach Brian.

He used to teach Brian
about being righteous
and everything.

So he was, like,
one of his first students.

That's why Brian is
at the beginning of this book.

Maybe mid-'80s.

I gotta think
it was the mid-'80s--

Brian and another guy,
uh, got caught up
in a little situation,

and, um, they got involved
with a shoot-out...

at somebody's house.

And Brian got shot,
and the cops came
and arrested him,

put him in the car,
and he died at the precinct.

He bled to death.

He got shot in
his groin area.
Yeah.

And they didn't believe him
when he said he was shot.

So he ended up dying
at the precinct.

And that was a big thing
in the neighborhood.

Now, her,
I didn't know that well.

But that was Brian's heart,
I know that.

Kay, you know more about her?
You say you know who that is?

Tanya?
Uh-huh.

I grew up with Tanya.
Very good.

Very good people.
She has a beautiful daughter
by Brian.

- I didn't know they had a kid.
- They got a daughter together.

And that picture right there,
she sure needs
to see that picture.

I know if her daughter sees that
picture, she might just be like,
"Wow."

Because when you show
these pictures right here...

that gives everybody
a beginning,

and they be able to look back
from where they came from.

[ Shutter Clicks ]

Jamel Shabazz.

He's the reason I went
to powerHouse to get this book.

What's up? This is KRS-One.

And I'm talking about
Jamel Shabazz's books and work.

This is the importance
of Jamel Shabazz's work,

in my opinion
as a hip-hop scholar.

I turn to history,
not in its written text...

but in its graphic text
in photographs.

This right here
tells all the stories.

See, we forgot about the bike,
the dirt bike.

This is before rims
and cars and all of that.

The status symbol of a--
[ Stutters ]

true hip-hopper
was one who had a--

what we used to call 'em--
dirt bikes.

And if you had a dirt bike,
you was the cool--

It wasn't about a car.
Nobody even thought
they could have a car.

That wasn't even
what it was about.

It was about a dirt bike plus--

These three people
are chillin' for their times.

They got a boom box,
dirt bike,

adidas, straight leg jeans.

These are probably
Jordache, Lee,

Sasson, Levis.

These jeans in particular.

Now come up to the jacket.

Notice the stripes
on the jacket.

Now go to my Criminal Minded
album cover,

and you'll remember
these stripes on the jacket,
you can see--

Just like Run DMC popularized...

already-going-on
fashions in the hood,

so did we, me and Scott La Rock.

And you can see this guy
rocking a jacket similar...

to what would become
the BDP jackets...

of Criminal Minded
and the videos after that.

And this is hip-hop.

And Jamel Shabazz
captures the culture,
not just in written text.

Let's open the book up.

I'm trying to catch
the sunlight on it.

Take a look at
these pictures here.

You have three people here,
three young men here.

How do we know
that they're Five Percenters?

First of all,
they're holding a picture...

of a guy named Clarence 13X.

Now, Clarence 13X
was considered to be...

the founder
of the Five Percenters,

a group of individuals that--
before you got into Islam...

there was this other kind
of knowledge,

this kind of street knowledge,

offshoot of Islam
kind of knowledge.

It was more about self-esteem,

more about raising you up
from your condition...

that you happened to be in.

Clarence 13X had
a falling out with Malcolm X.

And Clarence 13X was kicked out
of the Nation of Islam.

But Clarence 13X went on
to start a whole movement...

called the Five Percenters.

And these Five Percenters
would--

They were called
the Five Percenters because...

10% of people out there--

Whoa. Let me not give
that knowledge away
on camera like this.

Google it.
Find out what's going on.

But what I will say though
is that the pictures
we are looking at...

is telling all of these
stories right now.

These pictures
are telling these stories.

But you have to be able--
You have to know
what you're looking at.

To somebody else, this is just
a regular dude right here,

doin' it right here,
regular dude.

Three guys
standing with pictures.

We are at the historic
Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn,

and we are at an atmosphere
or a location...

where the Nation
of Gods and Earths
back in the days...

held their
Universal Parliaments.

So I'm gonna basically give you
an idea of the history...

of the Nation
of Gods and Earths from my
perspective as a photographer.

You know, these are
three generals, as I see it.

They were very
prominent brothers
in the Five Percent Nation.

Akbar, he was--

He came from the era
of the Tomahawks
in Brownsville,

and he was a community activist.

After leaving gang life,
he became a member of
the Nation of Gods and Earths.

And he directed his energy
in trying to empower...

young men and women
in the Brownsville area.

He was very instrumental
in getting young men
jobs in construction.

Unfortunately, Akbar died
a few years ago.

One of my strongest images
I've had of women
in the Five Percent Nation--

'cause I really loved
to document those sisters...

'cause they were very beautiful,
intelligent, refined women.

They took great pride
in themselves
and in nurturing children.

So I took a picture here
back in 1985...

of a group of
Five Percent sisters, as they
call themselves-- Earths.

And, um, it's just a group
of an older sister,

and she has a group
of younger women with her.

And she's like their mother.
She's guiding them
and giving direction.

I came upon these young men
back in 1982...

I believe it was,
on Flatbush Avenue.

These three young "gods."

And there was just something
powerful about these young men.

And they had a picture
of the founder...

of the Five Percent Nation,
Clarence 13X.

I knew at that point,
"This is a historic shot
that needs to be captured."

And I knew these brothers
from the community,
seeing them often.

They allowed me
to photograph them,
and I shot them in a way...

that really captured the time.

'Cause at that particular point
in the early '80s,

the Five Percent Nation
was very strong.

[ Man ]
Come on. Do it, brother.

What's up, man?
How you doing?
- Good, brother.

What's up?
Lookin' good.

- Likewise.
- Long time.

- Hold on. Let me get a go.
- Come here, man.

[ Greetings Continue ]

This is my first book
right here.

I remember the pictures here.
I feel good about it.

It's an opportunity
to get it out there.

'Cause I can't have
this work by myself.
I've got to get it out there.

I want to get a camera
in your hand again 'cause
I want you to shoot again.

You gave me my first camera.
Wow, I did?

I don't remember that.
Yeah, you gave me
my first camera.

I gave you a camera.
Yeah, you gave me
a 35mm camera.

Definitely these pictures
were the instrument
that inspired me...

to start my own
photography career.

But definitely Jamel, man,
you the master. You caught it.

We used to be
on the corner
drinking and smoking--

Me, Mustafa, Ali,
Brother Carl, Tony.

All of us would be
on the corner, and Jamel
used to always come by...

and just build with brothers
and give us a good word...

and point us in a direction.

And due to that,
at least nine brothers
from the block...

ended up going into
the Nation of Islam.

And a lot of those brothers
are ministers...

and, um, security officers...

and high-ranking X-Men Security
and things of that nature today.

Me, I went in myself,
and I stayed in for about
two and a half years.

Then I went into Connecticut,

and I was incarcerated
from about 2000 to 2003,

then from 2003 to about 34--
precisely 34 days ago.

And you know it was--
Thirty-four days, wow.

And I would definitely say
that it was due
to your words of wisdom...

that held me tight and strong
through a lot of things
that I been through...

that I wouldn't even begin
to discuss on the camera
right now,

on the grounds that it might
still incriminate me.

I understand.
But through that...

I've been able to come back,
man, with the word,

and apply that,
and I'm here today...

meeting with my brother after--
How long has it been?

It's been about 10 years.

[ Jamel ]
Back in those days, the mosque
or temple, as they called it--

Temple No. 7 was on
Utica and Eastern Parkway.

And I remember getting out
of the train station...

and just seeing
hundreds of dignified men...

in suits and bow ties,
and I had to photograph...

because this is
the closest thing I've had
to the images of Malcolm X.

And even in reading
his autobiography,

how the organization
was described,

and just seeing it unfold
in front of my eyes in 1980,
it just blew me away.

What was very interesting also
in my documentation
of the Nation of Islam,

I would see young men who
were under my wing in prison...

or going back to jail,
who would join the ranks
of the Nation of Islam,

and with the respect
I gave them in the system,

they allowed me
to document them,
and then, like the streets,

the word would spread
that I was
a documentarian,

and people opened their doors
to me and allowed me
to photograph them.

And I would--
just like brothers
in the street--

I would give the brothers
copies of their photographs.

I never charged anybody,

and I would go on a journey
to document that organization.

It's very interesting
when you leave
a prison atmosphere...

or a jail culture,
and then you see
the Nation of Islam.

For a lot of young black people,
we saw hope.

We saw transformation,
'cause back then...

the Nation of Islam
was one of the few
organizations...

that was able to transform
the lives of young men.

Many of them
who were incarcerated
came home changed,

and they would take on
the philosophy,

the belief
of a Muslim or Islam.

So I wanted to be
a part of that.

And being I came
from a community there...

where the Nation
had its number one temple,
Mosque No. 7,

a temple that Malcolm X...

was very instrumental
in developing back in the days.

It wasn't the original location,

because the original location
was on 116th Street.

But when Minister Farrakhan
brought back
the Nation of Islam,

he brought it to Brooklyn.

So Temple No. 7
was right in the heart
of Brooklyn.

It was Utica
and Eastern Parkway,

which was close to my home,
so in my daily travels...

I would see members
of that organization.

And a lot of them
I met through the street.

Young men I went
to high school with
that converted to Islam.

And I would see them,

and in my conversations
of being a photographer,
I would engage them.

Just like I would photograph
brothers in the street,
the regular brothers,

I started to photograph
the members of
the Nation of Islam.

It was pretty easy because they
were promoting their program.

A lot of my earlier photographs
were pretty much
members of the FOI--

the Fruit of Islam--
holding up newspapers.

Seeing them in downtown
Brooklyn on the trains,
I started to capture them.

And the Nation
really inspired me
to be a better photographer,

because going from straight-up
portraiture on the streets,

the Nation allowed me
to do documentary photography
for the first time.

To really focus on
shooting the Nation
in a very different way.

I've been privileged
to document the Nation of Islam,

the Five Percent Nation,
the Masons, the Eastern Stars,
the Shriners.

And it's very important
that I do this here
because it's all historic.

I'm not a Mason.

I don't belong to any
particular organization.
I am myself.

And I think that that
has allowed me, again,
to travel in different circles,

because I'm not biased
as I approach different groups.

I'm able to engage them with
an open and objective mind.

So I found that in going to
the African American Day Parade,

it would put me in a position
to confront people...

who really took
great pride in themselves
and wanted to be photographed.

What really moves me
is to be able to give them
their photographs.

I'm kinda curious--
A lot of young brothers...

are not joining the Masons
in this day and time,
is that true?

A lot don't know
what it's all about.
Okay?

This is why
a lot of 'em are not.

A lot of 'em, like he say--
You work in the prison system.

And a lot of us--
Young brothers,

when we ask them
about joining the Masonic,

and we tell 'em
what the priorities
happen to be,

and what they need,
when you walk away,

they say, "Well,
I can't join because I've
been arrested or something."

You know. And that's
what makes it so bad.

You got all the young guys
is in the-- incarcerated.

I'm walking down the block
today, and a police officer
told a guy--

He said, "Why they
blocking the block off?"

He said, "Oh, we are having
an African Day Parade."

He said,
"When are they having it?"
Mmm.

And I'm saying, "Wait a minute,
brother. Where you been?"

You know.
That's what it is, man.

See, these are things
that people don't know about,

because right now,
this parade here
has not been advertised at all.

I haven't heard
anything about it.
- It was in the Daily News.

The thing about it--
I was talking to
a couple people the other day.

"What are you doing on Sunday?"

I said, "I'm going to march
in the African American Day
Parade."

"Oh, when is that?"
"It's on Sunday."

"Where is it located at?"
"Seventh Avenue and--

It starts from 112th Street
all the way down
to 141st Street."

I said,
"You need to come out there,
take a look."

[ Whistle Blows ]

♪♪ [ Drumming ]

[ Man Shouts ]
[ Band Shouts In Response ]

♪♪ [ Continues ]

[ Whistle Blowing Rhythmically ]

♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ]

We did a show
in the Adidas store in Berlin.

I'm looking at the date.
It was 2002.

And, uh, I deejayed the party.

And it was a nice night,
because a lot of
the people from,

you know, I don't know--

The German hipsters came out,
and it just-- it connected.

And they really appreciated
his work.

Clearly, for the sneaker company
it was a like a windfall,

because they were
desperately trying
to make this connection...

between, um, you know,

whatever was retro
and whatever they were
trying to do at the present.

We had curated a show, um,

in a museum in Rouen,
which is Northern France.

It's kind of close to Lille.

And this was probably about
seven or eight years ago.

And he had spent some time
with the young people there...

and photographed
a lot of the young kids
in that particular area.

And Rouen was kind of, like--
It's a little ghetto.

So I think he was able
to relate to that...

because it was representative
of something he was
familiar with.

You know, France is
the second biggest consumer...

of rap music in the world,
after America.

[ Rapping ]
♪ Zulu Nation,
Korea, Jazzy Ivy ♪

♪ And it goes
somethin' like this ♪

♪ Throughout the days of my life
I get many inspiration ♪

♪ And many motivation
through deep concentration ♪

♪ Tracing back to roots
Yes, you know my D-N-A ♪

♪ It didn't only happen
in this E-R-A ♪

♪ Let's see, Grandmaster Flash
through Grandmaster Caz ♪

♪ The history is alive
through Jamel Shabazz ♪

♪♪ [ Rapping In Korean ]

♪ Jamel Shabazz, you're my man ♪

♪ Keep on the planet rock
Uno ♪♪

My first experience with
the Back in the Days was 2005.

I got introduced through
my friend, one of my
greatest friends in Korea.

He's a deejay and old-school.

We were just, like,
crazy about old school.

We were students,
and first seeing thisBack in the Days--

Um, it blew my mind.

The whole concept,
the whole visuals.

The people's posture,
the face expression.

And the whole scenery,
like, how Mr. Jamel Shabazz...

put in the Cazal glasses stores,

and the Superstar
Adidas shouts...

were all over there
with the price tags on.

And the sisters
doing their lock pose,

showing the whole signs,

and brothers just doing
their lock pose,

really, like,
in a great structure.

Nowadays you don't see
nobody doing poses...

all together,
making these old-school shapes.

This photograph
happened from Seoul, Korea,

when Jamel Shabazz
made a visit to Seoul.

It was in 2008,
just last year,

and it was my event
called Seoul City Rockers.

As you can see
in this picture,

we all have the collective group
of Korean hip-hop.

This shows the whole
aspect of it,

'cause we got myself emceeing,
we got the beatboxer,
the B-boys,

we got the hip-hop dancer,
we got the street designer...

and the locker-- Everybody's
all together in this picture.

It's amazing to see this
'cause it's not just
one segment of hip-hop,

but we're all together,
and we're doing
the same pose at the same time.

As you see,
everybody's emotionless.
Nobody is laughing.

That shows, like,
they fully understand
what the cool pose is about.

The real cool pose was pride,

control and strength-- dignity.

Jamel Shabazz taught us
so many stuff that--

People actually in this picture
knew what cool pose was about.

Back in the Days
is the forever classic
of my life,

as a hip-hop book
and just as a--

just as a life statement
that it shows.

The whole thing
is my inspiration.
This is it.

[ Jamel ]
When I look at them,
I actually see their fathers...

I shot maybe 20, 30 years ago.

This is Miami.
This is South Beach.

I just thought
he was rather interesting
with his gold fronts.

I love my young brothers.

It's just something about them.
They are warriors.

And I see so much
strength in them.

I was invited to
the BC One B-boy competition
in Seoul, Korea.

This is a respected group
out of France called Pokemon.

This is at a national
Saviours' Day convention...

in Rosemont, Chicago,

where the Nation of Islam
holds their convention
every year, February 26th.

I've been documenting
the Nation of Islam
for a good 30 years now,

inspired greatly
by the work of Gordon Parks...

and his early documentation
of the Nation back in the 1960s.

I saw this young man in Harlem.

And he knew me. He knew me well.
He knew me from jail.

I asked him, "Where do you
know me from, brother?"

He said, "You don't remember me?
You know, I was--

I was with you on Rikers Island
back in the '80s,

and I used to be
in your housing area."

When he approached me
I said, "Here we go.

He's going to ask me for money."

Seeing him in his red,
I recognized that
he was a Blood.

He was shocked
that I didn't know him.

He said, "You used to give me
books to read on George Jackson,

on the struggle,
and you encouraged me--
you got me a job."

When I first saw him I assumed,
here goes another person
soliciting money.

And here this is an angel
that reminded me...

of the impact that I had
on the lives of other people.

And also not to judge.

He just gave me a whole
greater sense of not judging.

♪♪ [ Marching Band Drumming ]

[ Whistle Blowing ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

♪♪ [ Continues ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

Back in the Days, boy!

Willie! Him--

Oh, shazam.
[ Laughs ]

It's around the way.
- It gets better, brother.
Enjoy that.

I want you to take it. There's
a lot of pictures in there.
- Get out!

♪♪ [ Continues ]
Get out!

I don't believe this, man.

Yeah, well,
I've been doing my thing.

Jamel, I mean,
you are on the money, man.

This is Back in the Days, son.

♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ]

♪♪ [ Continues ]

♪♪ [ Fades ]

See, I'm also a collector
and fan of photography.

And I also was like,
"Hey, man, I'd like
to own some of those images."

So this is just
four brothers in Brooklyn,

but that style and that attitude
is something I'd know very well.

One of the things also,
along with being
good friends with Jamel,

and having looked at hundreds
and hundreds of images,

because, you know, he invited me
to his home several times.

And he just really would like,
"Fab, I--"
He wanted to show me pictures.

And when this brother
begins to pull out work,

it is overwhelming.

I mean, there are thousands
and thousands of pictures...

that each deal
with certain genres,

like cool guys on the street.

Once again, it's just
one of numerous categories
of subjects...

that he's covered
over the years.

Hookers on the streets.
Pimps and players.

He's got a social activist
type of work,

where he'll compose images
that speak to the issues
of the time.

[ Jamel ]
Here we go, troops.

I still need a little bit--
crouch down.

If I could get
a few crouched down.
That's the shot!

There you go,
a little old-school.

Here we go.
Here we go.

All right.

[ Soldier ]
We already been there.
Wow, just-- Fallujah?

We're gettin' ready
to go back.
This is my book here.

- The old-school.
I shot in the '80s.
- That's you? I read that book.

A couple of these people
in here, my mom knew.

- Park Hill?
- Yeah.

- 280 Park Hill?
- Yeah, around there.

- You know Phil Harris?
- You know Porgy?

I don't know Porgy,
but I was in the service
with Phil Harris in 1977.

[ Chattering ]
Dominicans are black too?

[ Jamel ]
We all family.
- Dominicans back in the days.

The Dominicans!
- They got a Puerto Rican
over here.

I'm gonna go give this guy
his picture. He deserves it.
World War I veteran.

- Do I have to pay for this?
- No, no, that's for you.
You deserve it.

- God bless you.
- God bless you also.

[ Man ]
Thank you. Great.

♪♪ [ Marching Band, Jazz Beat ]

Take one more.
I'll give you my business card.
You gotta call me.

'Cause I got a bad shot of you
I took in your dress blues...

about maybe eight years ago.

[ Jamel ]
Understand.
Dude, I fight in a war.

It's the most honorable thing
you ever could do in America.

[ Jamel ]
Hmm.
I got a paper coming out.

My paper comes out next week.

The name of it is "The Raping
of America's Veterans."

[ Jamel ]
Mmm.
I'm gettin' ready to attack.

This parade, regardless
what people think about it,

it's a very important
part of history.

And the veterans,
the black veterans, to me,

they helped to shape
the foundation for
a lot of our communities.

When a lot of men
didn't find employment,

they went into the service,
and they were able
to come home...

and-and use those benefits,

and try to build
an economic system
for themselves.

Some of them went to war,
got wounded,

mentally, psychologically,
and they're still suffering
today.

But for me as a photographer,
I still find
that it's necessary...

to document the lives
of these men that went to war.

Whether I agree
with the war or not,

the fact that they
were put in situations
where they were in war,

I just feel it's necessary
to document.

The next year,
you come to the parade
and you show their picture...

to some of the soldiers,
and you find that
that soldier died.

So I find that to be
really interesting as well.

And it makes me understand
my purpose even more,

to have caught
that very last picture
of that person at that parade,

and to know that he's
no longer here, so it's like
it keeps that person alive.

Yeah, I remember.
I remember that.
- All right, guys.

- How you doing?
- I gotta make a copy
for all you guys.

That's history right there.
- Oh, man!

Oh, yeah, that would be great.
When did he take this, man?

[ Man ]
Uh, two years ago.
- About three years ago.

Two or three years ago.
- Because--

- Yeah, 'cause what's-her-name
has been gone three years,
two years.

It had to be three years ago.
- It had to be about
three years ago.

Turn halfway, baby.

[ Jamel ]
Ladies and gentlemen, let's go.
Chests out, stomachs in.

How you doing?

My name is Specialist Duckson
for the 445th Quartermaster
Battalion.

Where are you guys located at?

Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Fort Dix! Very good.

Hi.

I can't believe I met her.
[ Stutters ] I can't believe it.

They are gonna love you
at Fort Dix here.

This is incredible.
You don't know.
I'm looking at you--

I was looking like,
"He looks familiar. I could have
sworn-- I know him."

So have you been to Iraq yet?

No. Actually,
I was lucky.
- Okay.

Two days before
we were supposed to
had went out, we didn't go.

- All right.
- But now I'm hearing
we might be going out there.

♪♪ [ Marching Band ]

♪♪ [ Drumming ]
[ Shouts ]

The pictures take on...

a much greater
sense of importance...

because he's documenting...

aspects of urban life...

that, ultimately,
cease to exist,

because as times change,
we lose a lot of people
to the struggle.

And it's like
forgotten postcards
of your youth.

[ Jamel ] Tragically,
in a lot of my images,
a lot of people have died.

So I want to just give homage
to those who've passed away.

I want to show how women
looked back then,

before the crack epidemic hit.

Tragically, a lot of the women
fell victim to crack.

They were hit the hardest.

The prison population
increased drastically...

throughout America behind crack.

As a correctional officer
working on Rikers Island
back in the early '80s,

I saw the whole
transformation take place.

I want to just show
that innocence at that time,

when love was the order
of the day, when peace
really meant something.

It just wasn't a slogan,

but it was something
that was meant from the heart.

With Jamel Shabazz's photos,
you get to see the root.

You get to see, like,
this is where it comes from.

And these are just average
everyday guys on the street.

And he photographed them
with so much dignity.

And, you know,
kind of blessed them
with a kind of a royalty--

almost gave some of the images
a mythic quality.

These images had a--
It was like a tsunami effect.

Now with 20 plus years
of hindsight,
when I look back,

especially with
the understanding
of how huge and impactful...

hip-hop culture
has been around--

and still continues to be
around the planet,

he's just one of those
first kind of stepping-stones,

building blocks that
we now have to look at
and study,

and, like, get a sense
of that life and that style.

It's just something
that will luckily now
live on for a long time.

[ Chattering ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's my man.

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

[ Woman Over PA, Indistinct ]

That's Kor-Rock!
[ Exclaims ]

You got Kor-Rock up in here!
Oh, no! You got all the cats,
man.

- Let me show you this here.
Damn, let me get
a copy of that.

Wow. Okay.
[ Woman ] That's a nice man
who bought it too.

Back in the Days.
Look at that, brother.

I am, I am.
Peace.
We gotta build, brother.

If there's one thing I do,
I'm gonna call you tonight,
for real.

- All right, peace.
- Peace out, man.

- Peace out.
- Peace, brother.

Take it easy.
Indeed.

♪♪ [ Drumming ]

Closed-Captioned by
Captions, Inc., Burbank, CA

♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ]

[ Whistle Blows ]
♪♪ [ Drumming Continues ]

♪♪ [ Ends ]