Janette Beckman on capturing some of early hip-hop's most iconic photos
The British photographer shares the stories behind a few of her legendary portraits
Janette Beckman has captured some of the most iconic photos in hip-hop history, from LL Cool J holding a boombox to Run-D.M.C. on the streets of Hollis, Queens.
She got her start in the London punk scene working at the British music magazines The Face and Melody Maker from 1976 to 1982.
One day in a meeting at Melody Maker, she volunteered to take photos for its New York rap review, though hip-hop was still an emerging genre that she knew little about.
"I ran around and took pictures of everybody, even though I didn't really know who they were," Beckman says in an interview with Q's Tom Power.
"I find out years later that I photographed some of the godfathers and godmothers of the genre [including graffiti artists Futura and Dondi, hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy and DJ Afrika Bambaataa]."
For the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, we asked Beckman to take us behind the scenes of some of her most well-known portraits. Here's a bit of what she had to say.
For the full discussion, listen to and follow Q with Tom Power wherever you get your podcasts.
Slick Rick, 1989
One of Beckman's most famous shots is of rapper Slick Rick holding a champagne bottle in one hand and grabbing his crotch with the other.
The portrait was part of a press photoshoot Beckman did for Def Jam, which at the time was just a small record company.
"Slick Rick came around to my studio. I didn't know who he was, but I was like, 'Sure, I'll take pictures of him,'" she says. "He's dressed in a Ralph Lauren Polo suit and he's wearing a thin tie, he's wearing a kangol, he's got sunglasses on and cloth shoes. I mean, it's so iconic now, the way he's dressed.
"We were hanging out just drinking champagne, and Slick Rick is from the U.K. originally, so we were drinking, we were playing music and then I'm like, 'OK, let's take some pictures.' And I had my camera set up and he just walked onto my set, put his bag down on the floor, grabbed his crotch, and I took the picture. And I think it is a kind of legendary picture at this point. I sell it in galleries and it's been shown around the world."
LL Cool J, 1985
Beckman took LL Cool J's photo when the rapper was just 17 years old.
"That was another one I actually was doing for a press picture for Def Jam — it was literally his first press picture," she says.
"LL just knew what to do. You could tell that he was a star from the moment he walked in…. He's still using that picture on T-shirts — his merch — today. In fact, I was at Rock the Bells, which is a big festival that is organized by LL Cool J and it's so funny, there he is, years later, and there's the T-shirt. It's a kind of crazy thing that these artists are still using my images — and I love that."
Salt-N-Pepa, 1987
Beckman says the most unlikely place she's ever seen her work was in Cortona, a medieval town in Tuscany.
"They had blown up my Salt-N-Pepa picture, my Slick Rick picture — I mean, wall-size — I think they're about 12-foot-high," she tells Power. "It was at a photo festival…. It's pretty fabulous."
N.W.A, 1990
In 1990, Beckman was working on her first book with music writer Bill Adler. She wanted to get some shots of West Coast artists, so she flew to California to meet with N.W.A at the group's recording studio.
"I got an individual picture of everybody: Dr. Dre — so young — Eazy-E, everybody in this little alley," recalls Beckman. "There was a police car coming down the street, and for some crazy reason I jumped out in the middle of the road and hailed this police car … and he stopped the car and I was like, 'Excuse me, officer, would you mind if I took a picture of this pop group in front of your car?' And he was like, 'Oh, no, that's cool.' So they stood in front of the car and I got my shot — took about three minutes.
"This was the time when their record F–k Tha Police was out. They were one of the most hated groups by the LAPD, for sure. And here I got this picture of them standing in front of a police car in the middle of a hood. I mean, it was a very funny story."
Big Daddy Kane, 1990
"Due to Instagram I keep digging in my archives and putting pictures up," says Beckman. "I recently put a photo of Big Daddy Kane up on my Instagram and he just said something like, 'That's the best photo I've ever had taken of me.' And I thought that was pretty nice."
Run-D.M.C. and posse, 1984
"When I photographed Run-D.M.C., it was for a British paper called The Face, which was a pretty fabulous magazine in 1984," she says.
"I didn't know who they were and I got this picture that now, supposedly, is some iconic picture of them standing on the street with a bunch of friends. And we just didn't know where it was going. You know, hip-hop was a small marinating culture, came from the streets, and I think it had time to literally marinate and become something really incredible. I don't think anybody knew where it was going and [that] it would be this big. I'm glad to have played a small part in it."
The full interview with Janette Beckman is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Janette Beckman produced by Vanessa Nigro.
For more stories about the 50th anniversary of hip-hop — including Tom Power's conversations with some of the artists who witnessed and shaped the genre — check out Hip-Hop at 50 here.
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