Charlie Ahearn: Yes Yes Y’all: The Birth of Hip Hop

Monique Meloche is pleased to present a historic show of photos by Charlie Ahearn and other pioneers of hip and hop and graff photography to celebrate the release of Yes Yes Y’all, the Experience Music Project oral history of Hip-Hop’s first decade (edited by EMP curator Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn, director the seminal hip-hop film Wild Style that just celebrated it’s 20th anniversary. The 300-page book published by Da Capo Press contains photos shot by Ahearn in the Bronx “…documenting the music’s many phases before Run or DMC ever grabbed the mike. Witnesses such as Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc — as well as many more-obscure players — shed light on everything from the gang culture that gave way to early hip-hop crews to the commingling of uptown’s B-boys and downtown’s art scenesters to the eventual marginalization of DJs and break dancers in favor or rappers.” Jon Caramanica Rolling Stone Magazine November 28, 2002.

This traveling exhibition is generously sponsored by the Experience Music Project and has taken on quite a different flavor at each venue. The show opened at Deitch Projects in Williamsburg (Nov 2002), SandroniRey Gallery in LA (Dec 2002), moniquemeloche in Chicago (Jan 2003), Punch Gallery in San Francisco (March 2003), and finally at EMP in Seattle.