BIO
Fred Brathwaite pka, Fab 5 Freddy emerged in the late 1970’s as a New York City graffiti artist who was one of the first to exhibit his paintings internationally. Along with friends and contemporaries, Futura 2000, Keith Haring, Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fab was a key player in New York’s 1980’s downtown cultural scene instrumental in elevating graffiti into a disruptive movement that would eventually give birth to street art. His early art work was recently on exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in a show titled, “Writing The Future: Basquiat & The Hip Hop Generation. Born in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn New York his introduction to pop culture came courtesy of a name check on new wave group Blondie’s 1980’s pop hit, “Rapture”. In addition to his visual art, Fab co-produced, starred in and composed the music for the cult classic film, Wild Style and went on to direct music videos for numerous Hip Hop stars like Snoop, Nas, Queen Latifah and others. From the late 1980’s into the mid 90’s he was the original host of YO! MTV Raps, the groundbreaking TV show that took hip hop culture global. Today he continues to make and exhibit his visual art and produce and direct projects for film and television. His recent film released in 2019 is a feature length documentary he produced and directed for Netflix titled, “Grass is Greener” that examines the history of cannabis, music and criminal justice in America. Inspired by all he learned making that film he developed a social equity cannabis brand that went on sale in July of 2021 called,
B NOBLE which is now available in ten states.