Ricky Powell at APT A.

Ricky Powell is a preserver of one of contemporary society’s most important cultural moments: the proverbial Golden Age of hip-hop. Powell’s ascendancy into hip-hop occurred as the culture was in its rebellious youth, born from his impulsive backstage raid of Run DMC and the Beastie Boys’ Raising Hell tour in 1986. As fate would have it, the Beastie Boys would bring Powell along to photograph their 1987 License to Ill tour shortly thereafter. It was then that Powell was first exposed to the wild underground universe of hip-hop superstardom that he has continued to document with unparalleled candor and sarcasm on film.

Indeed, Powell’s Apt. A collection presents a rare opportunity to look into the lives of hip hop’s original luminaries before the culture was being taken seriously enough to merit coverage in mainstream media. Having shot everyone from Slick Rick to Eazy E at their most candid and simultaneously histrionic, Powell has gone on to publish several books of his photography, launch a TV program and partner with Lush Life’s Ryan Sikorski to further immortalize his work through a streetwear brand that reeks of New York authenticity. Though his work has since taken him around the world several times, Powell remains aesthetically rooted in the streets of New York, anchored firmly to the environment that introduced him as a photographer back in the 1980s.

Apt.A is the jump-off to the Ricky Powell world tour. 2009 tour dates are being confirmed for Tokyo and London.


October7th -December 7th

SugarHead Quarters
174 Rivington St.
NY, NY 10002