Fab Five Freddy
Fab 5 Freddy, born Fred Brathwaite on August 31, 1959, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer from Brooklyn, New York. He is seen as one of the early architects of the street art movement and a bridge between different New York scenes: uptown graffiti, the downtown No Wave art world, and the growing hip hop culture.
Freddy started as a graffiti artist in the late 1970s and joined the Brooklyn-based group the Fabulous 5, known for painting subway cars. He helped move graffiti toward the art world, and in 1979 he and his fellow writers exhibited in Rome at Galleria LaMedusa. In 1980, he painted a subway car inspired by Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans. He also became a regular on Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party and was part of the Times Square Show, linking the uptown graffiti scene with the downtown art and music scenes.
In 1981, Freddy helped launch the film project that would become Wild Style, a movie that showcased hip hop culture, including breakdancing, rapping, DJing, and graffiti. The same year, Debbie Harry of Blondie rapped “Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody’s fly” on the hit song “Rapture,” which brought Freddy wider recognition. He also appeared in Blondie’s “Rapture” video, which was the first hip hop video shown on MTV.
Freddy worked closely with artist and filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, and together they created Wild Style (released in 1983). The film is a landmark that brought together the Bronx hip hop scene and the downtown art world. Freddy co-curated Beyond Words, a graffiti-themed show at the Mudd Club in 1981 with Futura 2000, featuring artists like Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf.
In 1982, the single Change the Beat, produced by Bill Laswell, featured Freddy rapping in English and French. The B-side later featured French rapping by Beside of Time Zone, and a famous line from the track—“Ahh, this stuff is really fresh”—became one of hip hop’s most-sampled phrases. Freddy also helped bring European tours of New York City rap to life in 1982.
Other notable work includes co-producing and performing in the 1983 punk-hip hop collaboration Hip Hop Bommi Bop with Die Toten Hosen, and becoming the first hip hop VJ when he hosted Yo! MTV Raps in 1988. He later contributed to New Jack City (1991) as an associate producer and actor, and was the subject of a New Yorker profile by Susan Orlean.
Freddy has directed music videos, such as Nas’s “One Love” (1994), and has appeared in films and TV shows including Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2007), American Gangster (2007), Rachel Getting Married (2008), and Blue Bloods (2016).
In 2017, an animated version of Freddy appeared in a Google Doodle celebrating the birthday of DJ Kool Herc. In 2019, around the Netflix film Grass Is Greener, he served as creative director for the Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop exhibition in Los Angeles, a show exploring hip hop photography and culture. He has participated in many panels and discussions about hip hop’s history and influence.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 10:19 (CET).