'05 Artist's statement.

It's the music that drives me; like the bass line is the heartbeat of hip-hop, it's the hip-hop that I love. I played the bass drum in the marching band in high school and I realized that the bass drum goes from whistle to whistle it's the heartbeat of the marching band, the foundation, and the life source. If the bass stops the band has nothing to follow. This is the same principle that hip-hop follows, it starts with the bass line.It's the music that drives me, but it's the honesty that I love. It is the way we as a generation communicate, with each other, with others, with the outside world. It is the backbone of a culture, the CNN of the hood, not to say the news is as honest as hip-hop is, but the analogy fits. The music is what it is, and it has evolved into an economical giant that drives the American economy whether those that matter like it or not. And it's more than the music now, but it is the music that drives me. I fell in love with hip-hop from the moment I could feel it's heartbeat, cause it kinda mimicked mine. You know the rhythm of the drums that causes many people to dance in ways our parents find repulsive or impossible, depending on the way you look at it. But I never learned to dance that well, so I paint. I paint because, the language of the brushstroke can be translated easily into many tongues, without hesitation or misinterpretation. And I got a story to tell, I got a story to tell about how fun it is to grow up in love with hip-hop. I got a story to tell about the stories we tell, and so I paint. I paint about the bright side and the light side, I paint about the wrong side and the right side. I paint about what I saw growing up in love wiith hip-hop. I got a story to tell about being raised by hip-hop, and she taught me how to walk like this and talk like this, so it's the only way I know how to do it. Like the bass line is the heartbeat of a generation, I promise if you listen for the heartbeat you can follow my story. And so it begins with a paintbrush and a canvas. And on this canvas I paint a story it is a story of a culture born out of the music...it's a story that begins with b-boys and spray paint cans in subways in Brooklyn and we still writing it on the streets of Atlanta, Los Angeles, and even Fifth Avenue in New York. It's a story that tells you it is more than the music, it's more than what you hear on the radio and see on the music channels on your televisions. It's a way of life, it's a culture that has raised doctors and lawyers, businessmen and teachers, thugs and actors, entrepreneurs and leaders. You will see them in your workplace at your doctors offices, and you will know who they are cause they walk like me and talk like me, feet moving simultaneously with the heartbeat of hip hop. So I paint their story, my story, I paint a story that was once only seen passing by on rail cars of the MTA in New York. I paint a story about hip-hop on the walls of the galleries cause hip-hop raised a few artists too. Not in the street poet sense, or the graffiti writing sense, but in the true tradition of what art is, in the tradition of what Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine. He painted a story about something his culture believed in, and so I pick up my brush and I paint, I paint because hip hop changes with the wind, but a brushstroke, a brushstroke is there for generations to come. And if this culture ever dies, I want people who want learn about it to be able to read my story the story about hip-hop, I want them to be able to follow the brushstroke and feel the heartbeat, the heartbeat of a generation. I paint because I want those on the outside looking in to know what it is we love so much about what it is that we love so much. I want them to look past the flashy cars, the jewelry, the dancing, and the clubs, and see into the soul of a generation. I want them to close their eyes for a moment and relax and listen to the heartbeat, and then I want them to tell me what they think about hip-hop. I want them to understand that hip-hop is a documentary, it's the story of a generation. Tupac Shakur once said "People don't have guns cause we talk about them, we talk about guns cause people have them." And that's what I want people to understand, the hood is what it is, I picked up a paintbrush so you can hear my story. I am a young black man, I am a father, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a teacher, I am a friend, and I am an artist. And I have a story to tell, It's he story of a generation raised by the music. It's the story of a man that was raised by hip-hop, She taught me how to walk like this and talk like this, so it's the only way I know how. -DaCre8iveOne '05