It was during the Eighties, when Bill Adler was the director of publicity at Def Jam Recordings, that he first began working with a number of talented photographers who were then documenting Hip Hop in all its forms. “Something about the culture’s astonishing vitality and visual appeal began catching the eyes of these photographers in the Seventies, even before anybody began making rap records,” he says. “And the quality of those images ultimately played a huge role in the promotion of Hip Hop globally.”
In 2003, Bill doubled down on his longstanding appreciation of that work by establishing the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, which was devoted to Hip Hop photography. And in 2015, some eight years after the closing of the gallery, The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture acquired 400 Eyejammie photo prints by 59 different photographers.
Beginning on March 22, 2025, The Art of Hip Hop in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District will be bringing a selection of these photographs back to the light in a new immersive and interactive way that has never been done before. “We need to teach the next generation about history in a way they want to learn it – in an environment that authentically conveys important cultural information that also looks cool on their TikTok page,” said Allison Freidin, co-founder of The Art of Hip Hop. Immersive elements to the show include rare ephemera such as a white 1986 Mercedes, reminiscent of rapper Rakim’s iconic “Benzeeto” that he posed with in 1988 during a photoshoot with Michael Benabib in the heart of New York City’s Bleeker Street.
With the exception of the work of Janette Beckman, The Art of Hip Hop’s lead curator Alan Ket selected images from photographers whose works have never been exhibited in Miami or the exhibition’s other pop ups in Austin, TX and Seoul, Korea. Iconic images will include vintage portraits of hip-hop immortals like Sylvia Robinson, Run-DMC, Flavor Flav, Bun B, Cypress Hill, Eazy E, Dondi White, Slick Rick, T.I., Pitbull, Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dogg, and David Banner, as well some of the reggae greats whose work preceded and was influential to hip-hoppers, starting with Lee “Scratch” Perry. The celebrated photographers who created these portraits include Harry Allen, Michael Benabib, Adrian Boot, Julia Beverly, Brian Cross, Al Pereira, Sebastian Piras, Ricky Powell, Peter Rickards, Jack Thompson, Val Wilmer, and, as noted, Ms. Beckman.
