Fab Five Freddy

Fred Braithwaite, aka Fab Five Freddy, has a career that spans the sudden rise of hip hop culture. Braithwaite even has a cameo as the man from Mars in the pathbreaking Blondie video 'Rapture.'

The original host of Yo! MTV Raps, Fab Five was, in many ways, one of the avatars of hip hop's current cultural dominance. Fab was the initial "connector" who brought hip hop from the 'hood into the 'burbs'.

"I only use Apple products, as a matter of fact. There is no better way for a player to get his mac on than with a Mac! I would like to talk with the executives there about my ideas to help take their brand to new degrees of urban coolness. Apple is the only brand in computing that speaks to my sense of who I am. I feel I'm kindred spiritually with Apple products. Seriously."

No one would doubt Fab Five's seriousness about Macs. Fab has been using Apple products to put together his new eclectic web-based program:

"The show is available daily (Monday - Friday) with fresh segments in the various categories updated weekly. It is kinda like how the New York Times has special supplements every day like the sports section on Monday, the Home Section on Thursday, etc."

When not working on his G3 Powerbook, Fab has even made time for movie cameos, like the role he played in New Jack City. When we asked Fab what has changed about his old employer MTV, he said:

"In my opinion, in the beginning MTV was the TV equivalent of Apartheid. I had a love-hate relationship with them back then. I mean, I'm a big fan of pop culture and enjoyed watching the channel, but with the exception of Prince or Michael Jackson, black people (urban) culture and music, the root of all true American culture -- were shamefully excluded from the programming. That wasn't cool.

"It was a big surprise to me when I was allowed to come in and be the face of real change as far as their programming was concerned. Still, (the show was) a strange and amazingly pivotal occurrence in the story of hip hop. Yo! MTV Raps was not only the first nationally broadcast television show to deal exclusively with the then developing hip hop culture in America, but was the only MTV program that was broadcast on MTV all around the world.

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"So, following that and the force of the form itself, the walls came tumbling down. Now (hip hop is) deeply integrated into the channels and fabric of life, not just the play list. The gate keepers that were standing guard have been bum rushed and beaten back ... Hip hop is now a dominant global culture that generates billions of dollars in revenue. Economic clout and the will of the people created the change."

The combination of parts making up the Fab 5 Freddy Show is ambitious. Fab intends to do nothing less than create a sort of underground multimedia network -- comparable to, say, urban radio, BET, and urban web sites all combined. There will be in-studio segments and on-location interviews, music video clips, animation, special reports, an in-house DJ, live video chats and real time viewer participation. When asked how he got this multimedia idea, Fab was, typically, candid:

"Actually, the ideas for the show grew out of the fact that Executive Producer Aahmek Richards and I are both fascinated and excited by the realities and possibilities of the internet and have a deep love for hip hop culture. When we first met, I had just gotten a new Mac G3 PowerBook and I said to myself, 'I'd like to get this hot new computer customized, detailed, and supercharged, like a fly luxury sports car'. I jokingly told that to Aahmek and he 'got it' right away. I knew then that we would put our heads together and make some digital things jump off.

"I was waiting for a cat to come along that was flavorful and deep into computers, the web, and understanding everything inside and out, plus could design and program with all the coolest software. 'Let's re-mix this hip hop street flavor and take it to the Internet', we decided. I took him to a taping of 88hip hop.com, they were doing a salute to the legends of the culture like DJ Kool Herc and Crazy Legs from the Rock Steady Crew. They were the coolest hip hop site online at the time and a big influence on us and the scene."

From graffiti to the canvas to television and film, and now, finally, online, Fab Five Freddy has come full circle. As Apple increasingly gains mind share as the digital entertainment hub, the Mac-friendly Fab Five Freddy Show is poised to stand as a practical online example of how Steve Jobs' vision of how Apple will shape the next era. And that, as Martha Stewart might say, is a good thing.