From Rags to Riches

Born into a rough-and-tumble life at the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn - this rap mogul hustled his way up to a penthouse in Tribeca, Manhattan. As a young man, he sold crack. But these days, he sings a very different tune. Jay Z's songs sell everything from Burberry to Hermes. It's a true rags to riches story.

Detail of Jay Z portrait

This is part of a new series of portraits called frabic, and it measures 16" by 20".
Please visit again soon.

"I keep you workin' at Hermes,
Burkin bag 
Manolo Blahnik Tim's,
 aviator lens
 600 drops, Mercedes Benz
The only time you wear Burberry to swim

And I don't have to worry, only worry is him."

- Jay Z  (lyrics from Bonnie and Clyde)

You can view a big gallery of my personal projects here!

Hip-Hop Name-Changes

I'm fascinated by the streamlining of corporate names. For example, International Business Machines morphed neatly into the iconic IBM.  Or, Bavarian Motor Works slimmed down to the sleek BMW.  Something similar occurs in the world of hip hop. Recently, I read that Jay-Z was removing the hyphen in his name, so he'd simply be known as Jay Z. Another rap mogul dieted down from Puff Daddy to P Diddy, and eventually to just Diddy.  I tried an experiment - integrating these artist's images with their name changes. Eminem once said that 'words are like puzzles'. I like to play with words and images - to see how they all fit together.

Another artist started his career with the fun-loving moniker, Snoop Doggy Dogg. With fame, he became known simply as Snoop Dogg. Upon discovering the Rastafarian religion,  he transformed into reggae artist, Snoop Lion. This may be the first case where a dog was successfully re-branded into a cat.

My apologies to Snoopy. I'm not sure how a beloved Peanuts character got into this drawing.

"When I'm not longer rapping, I want to open up 

an ice cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg."
~ Snoop Dogg