This afternoon, I was brunching with the ladies when I noticed this post on Instagram. If you didn’t hear, Jay Z and Beyoncé famously (and privately) toured the Louvre last week, and were photographed in front of the Mona Lisa. Thanks to a fine Photoshop job, my recently completed Nucky Thompson was framed and boom — meta. To answer many hot questions in one shot — Hip Hop’s Royal Couple did not acquire Nucky…
Rewind to December, 2010. I recall pondering a portrait series, but found I had 99 problems and picking a portrait subject was one. As fate would have it, I decided to paint Jay Z, which lead to a series of hip hop stars nearly identical to Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s Cash Kings.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK, NY – April 2, 2012 — Creator of the #KingsOfHipHop and Time Out Magazine’s Most Creative New Yorker, Borbay, is now showcasing four prints in the Major League Baseball Fan Cave. Located at the former home of the iconic Tower Records on 4th Street & Broadway in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the Fan Cave will host a concert series, celebrity appearances and, quite notably, 9 Cave Dwellers who will watch every game of the 2012 MLB season.
2011 began true and proper with HOV… a work of art, a Warhol (already). He was both the first of my #KingsOfHipHop, and the first painting of the year.
At first, he went by Dr. J — inspired by his basketball hero, Julius Erving (my Dad played high school ball against him). After receiving a Masters in Mixology, Andre Young became a Doctor.
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (aka, Slim Shady, aka, Eminem) tried to kill himself. Surviving, he went on to place second at the 1997 Rap Olympics which lead to a demo request at the hands of Jimmy Iovine, CEO of Interscope Records. He shared it with DRE. A year later, The Source featured Eminem in its “Unsigned Hype” column.
Anyone who has listened to hip hop since the early 90’s probably has a complex set of feelings about Snoop Dogg, even if they don’t know it. It wasn’t until I threw down the paint that I realized this to be true. From the monster classic Gin and Juice, to the lesser known, dark tracks like my favorite I Can’t Swim, to some Huggy Bear, Old School cameo ish.
Diddy is a businessman, he is a business, man. He’s been Made. Diddy was Puffy. Puff Daddy. P-Diddy (still is in Europe.) Sean Combs. He may change his name more frequently than NYC cops cuff a weed head, but his hip-hop watermark is indelible.
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