When Notorious B.I.G. dropped “Juicy” in 1995, he took a generation back to their roots with the iconic bars: “It was all a dream / I used to read Word Up! magazine / Salt ‘N’ Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine”. Long before hip hop went pop, it was an underground scene shaped by local artists like Chicago photographer Raymond Boyd.
Growing up, Boyd used to page through Black-owned magazines like Ebony and Jet, marveling at pictures of the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, and Diana Ross – whose songs were sampled by hip hop artists he would later photograph. Reading their stories, Boyd was enthralled by tales of struggle and triumph against the odds. “It wasn’t so much gossip,” Boyd recalls. “You read about how they grew up, built their careers, artists who inspired them, how they set up their rehearsals and stage performances. That helped me to learn about them.”
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oyd took up photography after his mother gave him a Kodak pocket camera when he graduated high school. Drawn to the local music scene, Boyd frequented local clubs and concerts, making photographs. His enthusiasm caught the eye of Earl Calloway, fine art editor of the Chicago Defender newspaper, who gave Boyd a shot, and helped nurture the young talent into a photojournalist.
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“Seeing the live shows just blew me away. Being in the pit in front of the stage that close the artists could look right down at you, point, and pose – that was real cool,” says Boyd. “I also got a chance to sit in front of the artists, listen to them tell their story, get a better understanding of what they went through, and watch how their facial features would change when they talked about how far they’ve come from where they first started. But once the red light goes off on the recorder, the best part of the interview comes.”
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