HIP! HOP! POP! POP! CULTURE!
'Ripped ( t shirts from the underground)' Two recent books have been published outlining the influence of street culture in the 1970's and 1980's, No two items summed up Punk Rock, then Hip Hop, more than the t-shirt and the boombox. They became the glue that held two movements together but at the same time gave a sense of individuality to it's owner, who customized through whatever means available, paint, words and shiny metallic objects. In Among many of the World's rarest and iconic t-shirts, there is the infamous and extremely rare Ramones t-shirt given away to the first 1500 people to buy the 12" single release of 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' in the UK in 1977. Created by three art students from Watford College of Art, Martin 'Cally' Callomon, Peter Barrett and Nick Egan, while still in the first year of their Graphic Design Course. The design was done in the true spirit of DIY, whilst traveling on a train from St.Albans to London's St. Pancras Station and then. at later date, individually hand splashed with paint in a warehouse in Putney.
In'The Boombox Project (the machines, the music and the urban underground)' we see the rise of the Boombox as a key part of the birth of Hip Hop in NYC and the individuality and customization as decoration. This instrument of urban culture was depicted as a mix of graffiti art and global tribal symbolism with the boombox on the classic album cover 'Duck Rock' by Malcolm McLaren. Artist and designer of that cover, Nick Egan, is quoted throughout the book.
