It’s always a treat talking to and/or being around quintessential New Yorker Ricky Powell, his stories are consistently funny and interesting.
Whether you’re in the audience at a RockSteady Anniversary party, a gallery opening or a book signing, the Brooklyn-Jewish-Mexican-Italian keeps you in stitches with his content and delivery.
PHOTOS: Def Jam 25th Anniversary Private Dinner!
We spoke to the fourth Beastie Boy last week a few days after the official Def Jam photographer turned the big Five-0 and he had us cracking up on the phone.
50 is a big deal in hip-hop!
After all, there’s only a handful of people who can say they were there and witnessed it from the get-go. But Powell is more than just a watcher and participant of some of the greatest American-originated artists in history, this son of a single mom, author, publisher, curator, photographer and documentarian, is also a chronicler of some of the most important artists and art happenings around our fair city.
He’s photographed Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Dondi, Basquiat, Laurence Fishburne, the aforementioned Beasties, Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin, LL Cool J, everybody associated with Def Jam and 1980s contemporary art.
And you know what? He’s had a great time doing it.
Ladies and Gents: Herrrrrrrrrrrrrre’s Ricky!!!
GlobalGrind: Happy birthday, man!
Ricky Powell: Oh, thank you! You heard about that?
Yeah. A little birdie told us you turned the big 5-0.
I am still recouping after going buck-nutty for 10 days.
How incredible is it you’re turning 50? You’re older than hip-hop! How does it feel?
How does it feel to be older than hip-hop? I don’t know, how does it feel to be younger than the boogaloo and f**king Al Jolson? It’s a state of mind, it depends on life and experience. With me, it depends on my mind and mood. It depends on where my head is at. It changes, it can’t just stay in one place. I’m here getting pick-up from my local Chinese restaurant for struggling artists. I got to go home and get my weed though, I need to do interviews while I’m on Huckleberry, but I’ll take a detour, let’s get some of this. What is your magazine called, Gay Wigger?
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Russell Simmons’ GlobalGrind.
That motherf**ker! Tell him that he still owes me $40 from 1987 and I don’t want to hear it. He sold me some bunk weed! That sh*t was wack. Anyway, what can I do for you? You reached out, you inquired about me?
We wanted to know how you were planning on celebrating turning 50 and about a couple of projects. You had a show at Ms. Lily’s, right?
Yeah, I did! They were opening up their little spot on the corner called Variety. It was a fancy juice bar, a DJ record store and they’re going to have an internet radio show there — this is a little spot we are talking about, real small — and it has a nice little makeshift gallery. It’s nice, with track lights and it’s dim, I really liked it. I christened it with my photos I did and I had some dope DJs there.
I had a surprise out of nowhere: Jam Master Jay’s son TJ Myzell was there. Some luminaries came through: Jeanette Beckman, David Herskovitz, my old friend Mikey Avedon. Our complimentary Oriental escorts rolled through and we had a really nice time. We ate at Miss Lily’s afterwards and then we went to The Box and had it packed with the whole posse. We had champagne flowing, or as they say now, bottles poppin’. We were poppin’ bottles and Slick Rick sang a 10 minute set that was a Happy Birthday to me. That was a great night, that Tuesday night. It was my best birthday I’ve had in the last decade. I was just staying in and ordering in, if you know what I mean.
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Yeah, we got you.
Fung Wah, and I ain’t talking lo mein! I’m talking f**kin’ exotic pies. Anyway, don’t let me get derailed.
This year I was like, ‘Oh sh*t I’m going to be 50, I got to do something! I got to get out of the house even if I put up a photo in the local deli and just have my own little opening in the deli!’
And then it started progressing and I thought, let me put together the f*cking All Stars I have been dreaming to do, bugging my fellow photographers like Joe Conzo and Jamel Shabazz and Martha Cooper that I was going to make it happen one day. So, we went through some sh*t and I got called in to Milk on some other sh*t. They wanted to publish my next book and all of that, and I said, ‘Yo! I got this All Stars show in my pocket, dude!’ They looked at the lineup and they were like, ‘We want that show, we must have that show!’ So it just worked out. It opens in two weeks and I’m titling the show the Rickford Institute All Stars Classics.
You’ve got some heavyweights there. You’ve got Jamel, Martha Cooper, Charile Ahearn, Joe Conzo!
Clayton Patterson, Cheryl Dunn, a couple of new jacks, well not new jacks, but dudes that I like who are current, Mel B Cole, Angela Boatwright, 13th Witness, Jay Maldonado, my home girl Sue Kwon, Estevan Oriol!
This is a show that can’t be missed.
That is kind of how I envisioned it: historic. I tell young people that are coming up, you have to learn how to transcend your resources, your visions, your whatever, dude. I just did it. I turned my 50th birthday into a f*cking whatever you want to call it, an extravaganza, so it’s good! I like putting on new people in my sh*t and bringing them up! It is very rewarding with the new ones coming up. I got one rookie named Mikey Avedon, his grandfather is the legendary you-know-who Richard Avedon; he is a great kid. That’s the thing: everyone in my lineup is good people. There are no arrogant jerk offs because in photography you get a lot of jerk offs.
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You know what we were reading the other day? We were reading Grand Royal magazine.
Oh, man that rubbish I used to write for? Actually I shouldn’t say that, that’s where I got my start writing.
Those issues are funny man, those are classic issues!
Alright, I like to know I’m funny. Chicks dig that.
We still got my pictures of you with the Rock Steady Crew in ’99 wearing Puerto Rican socks on the stage!
Oh sh*t! I had on some get-up that day. I had the old bummy ass, red Converse with the two stripes and the star in the middle. That’s the kind of sneaker that bums made famous in the ’90s. Bums don’t get enough credit for the whole throwback sneaker thing in the early ’90s. I had a yellow Cub Scout hankie around my head so I could be like Tupac with my Classic Sports Network hat and my IND shirt. I still have pictures of me and Bonz Malone hamming it up. That was a great day! I was the co-host of the Rock Steady Anniversary show in ’99, it was the 22nd one.
And Sue Kwon was there taking pictures backstage.
I love Sue Kwon, I want to eat her up! Don’t tell her husband I said that. She’s yummy man, she is yummy all the way around inside and out. She’s a goof! I to
ld her- we had a talk today because she is in my show – I told her to get me a hi-res of the image for my show and she be goofin’ on me. That’s the thing I love about her: she’s mad gorgeous but she’s like a homeboy with titty-balls. She is dope! I’m excited! I didn’t want to do a thing focused just on me and my 50th, I wanted to make it a conglomerate energy. This whole thing I’m putting together is going to be great.
We are going out there to cover it.
Whaaaaatttttttttttt! Don’t pull any stink bombs though, that’s played out. That’s my sh*t.
The Rickford Institute’s All Star Classic group photography exhibit launches at MILK on December 17. Be there or don’t be.
Above: Powell with Andy Warhol in 1980s NYC
