Many hip hop fans know Harry Allen as the "Media Assassin" name-checked by Chuck D on Public Enemy's 1988 anthem "Don't Believe the Hype." Others know him as a beacon of excellence in hip hop journalism, whether writing for publications like VIBE,
The Source, and the
Village Voice, or being quoted as an expert everywhere from
The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio to MTV, VH-1, and CNN. But there is another important side to Harry Allen's work within hip hop culture that has gone mostly unknown until now.
In the early 1980s, Harry Allen was a student at Adelphi University, documenting the scene around the campus radio station, WBAU 90.3 FM. Students and others from the "Strong Island" scene would gather on Monday nights for Bill Stephney's three-hour "Mr. Bill Show" at 10 pm. Flavor Flav would man the phones as Chuckie Dee of Spectrum City mobile djs - later known as Public Enemy's Chuck D - took over the last hour of the show, playing self-produced recordings of Spectrum and neighboring groups, with a few commercially available tracks thrown in the mix. Besides Stephney, Chuck and Flav, most of the crew that would come to be known as the Bomb Squad were regulars at the station: Hank and Keith Shocklee (known then as Wizard K-Jee), Terminator X (who went by DJ Mellow Dee), and Eric Sadler, as well as Andre "Doctor Dre" Brown, who would later achieve prominence alongside Ed Lover as the host of
Yo! MTV Raps.
"Chuck was not the person who introduced me to hip-hop culture," Allen recalls. "It wasn't the kind of thing like I was a college student who didn't know anything about hip hop and I met Chuck D and we got along and he introduced me to the world of hip hop. I loved the culture up to that point, and in a time period where the common wisdom was that rap was a fad that was gonna to go away, they were the first people I ever met that took it utterly seriously. They didn't see it as a way to get paid or make money, but as a pursuit. Kind of like the ideal pursuit if you will. . . like a grand quest."
Allen's travels and spot with Spectrum positioned him to document the likes of Dana Dane, Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC and LL Cool J. As "the only guy with a camera" at many broadcasts and rap shows, Allen began documenting the emerging street culture. Armed with his Canon TX manual camera, he would snap a few black and white photos here and there and later join his friends for some burgers at White Castle. "I only wish that I had shot a lot more," he says now. Little did any of them know that the Spectrum show would catch the ear of Def Jam's Rick Rubin and eventually spark the rise of Public Enemy, thus leading to Allen's career as PE's "Media Assassin" and "Director of Enemy Relations."
Shortly after Allen transferred to Brooklyn College, however, he put down his camera "because I simply could not figure out how to make a living as a photographer." By then he'd discovered his talent for journalism and a new career was opening up. Writing has been Allen's primary focus for the past 20 years, but he says he's contemplated returning to photography - as long as he's shooting black and white film. "I'm very attached to the permanence of the medium," he says.
While some of Allen's photographs were reproduced on VH-1's
Behind The Music and
Driven, many have never been seen - or even printed - before. His exhibition at Eyejammie in New York will present some of the best of Allen's surviving pictures of rap legends, shedding light on hip hop's remarkable rise as a musical and cultural force.
"Part of The Permanent Record: Photos from the Previous Century By Harry Allen" is on view at EYEJAMMIE FINE ARTS GALLERY, located at 516 East 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in New York City. After an opening reception on Friday, June 28th, the show is open to the public until Thursday, August 16 from 2 to 6 p.m. For more information visit Eyejammie.
Run-DMC & Doctor Dre, outside of WBAU 90.3FM:
c. Harry Allen
Allen: "Jay was the coolest one of the three. He was the one with the most style, I guess is what you'd say - both personally and the way he dressed and the way he carried himself. D was kind of quiet and Run was kind of like exuberant, almost like a cartoon character. But Jay was very cool, and this image I think captures that."
Grandmaster Flash live:
c. Harry Allen
Allen: "Grandmaster Flash is on stage and there in the background you see Raheim from the Furious Five on the mic. But Flash is kind of like, standing in a defiant pose."
T La Rock in the basement of Benjamin Franklin H.S., South Bronx, 1984:
c. Harry Allen
Allen: "He has the T La Rock belt buckle wrapped around him diagonally, almost like a military thing... and of course he has a dollar-bill belt buckle around his waist."
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