Ben Saren Photography

A few months ago Shepard Fairey was to DJ at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art to kick off his exhibition there. He was late to the venue however – by about five months. Unfortunately he was arrested on his way to the venue on two outstanding warrants for vandalizing public space (the charges we’re ultimately dropped). Finally, after several months, hundreds of his fans got to attend a very similar event at the ICA, but you might even say it was better – with DJ Z-Trip rockin’ the 1s and 2s and even more impressive, long time Public Enemy MC, the man himself, the rhyme animal, the incredible, Chuck D.

The event took place this past Friday night and I was fortunate enough to be one of a couple ICA house photographers allowed to shoot the performance. And what a performance it was!

Shepard was a class act – kind and warm to the throngs of fans who lined up to see him and talk to him. He laughed at their jokes, most genuinely, and kept himself within arms length of everyone – a man of the people, not an artist who seems at all pretentious or out of touch. In fact, Shepard is perhaps the epitome of the artist who must remain in touch to do his best work. Shepard, also a DJ, rocked the casbah with some old school hip-hop beats, riffs and vocals ranging from early 80’s punk and heavy metal to house music from today – and did so rockin’ a The Clash’s London Calling t-shirt.

Everything about Shepard Fairey seems approachable, real, authentic. And that is made more clear by the people he has accompany him on stage, including Z-Trip, an amazing turntablist and beat maker and the legendary Chuck D.

It’s hard to explain what Z-Trip was able to do to the ICA that night, mostly transforming what at first seemed like a room full of uptight white people into a raucous crowd spilling drinks on each other and quoting lyrics from a whole range of music being mixed by DJ Z-Trip. Before I knew it, women in tight dresses were boogying down to hard beats and rhymes from Boogie Down Productions, and over-the-hill men in expensive suits were throwing their hands in their to Led Zeppelin riffs and melodies – all mixed with a steady tempo and time from DJ Z-Trip’s tables and sampler.

When Chuck D took the stage, I almost forgot I was there to take pictures. Having been a Public Enemy fan going back to the days when, well, to the days when my friends made fun of me for listening to this new music. I’d listen to PE on my way to school, in school, after school, in my bedroom, in the car with my folks when driving places. PE was simply a part of my life, for many years. As I grew up, inevitably so did Public Enemy and their members. Chuck D remained at the forefront of hip-hop and political activism. And here he was, twenty years later a mere 10 feet from me, talking to the crowd about his birthday (it was that night), about Z-Trip, Shepard, and about art and culture’s place in society.

I’m still speechless.

Unfortunately the pictures don’t do the night justice, at least not for me. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy them!

Despite some challenges with working with what seemed like two dozen other photographers, and some challenges with an overdose of red and pink lighting, I think I was able to get what I was hoping, even if only for my own memories. Enjoy!

The Obey Experiment Redux by Ben Saren, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Tags: boston, chuck d, Hip hop, ica, institute of contemporary art, obey, shepard fairey, z-trip