When hip-hop became commercial, how did things change on the photography scene?
Around the time things became commercial, like in the early ‘80’s, the Cold Crush were pretty much becoming commercial themselves. I had started dibbing and dabbing into drugs, so my photography wasn’t as extensive as it was in the beginning. The photography scene changed a lot. It wasn’t being done for the passion and love for hip-hop. It was being done because “we’re putting an album out. We have to get on the radio and we have to sell this record.” Russell Simmons said that the Cold Crush could have been the greatest hip-hop group ever if they had just stuck to their game. Their game was being the raw, tough, harmonizing group. But when they became commercial with punk rock and rap and changed their appearance, things got different. Things changed. My photography was pretty much coming to an end in terms of documenting the culture of hip-hop around ’83 and ’84 when I started getting heavy into drugs. Looking back on your drug problem, is that something you had to go through or do yo
