FAB FIVE FREDDY

Fab 5 Freddy emerged in the late 1970’s as a New York City graffiti artist

who became 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. 

Born Fred Brathwaite in the Bed Stuy section of Brooklyn his introduction to

pop culture came courtesy of a name check on new wave group Blondies 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

ground-breaking TV show that took hip hop culture global. Today he

continues to make visual art and produce and direct projects for film

and television. 

His recent film is a feature length documentary he produced, directed and narrated for Netflix titled, “Grass is Greener” which was released globally on 4/20/2019. The film examines the history of cannabis, music and criminal justice in America and to date it has been viewed more than twenty-five million times.