For nearly the past decade I have created a body of illustrations drawn from the lyrics of songs by one of the greatest Hip Hop groups of all time: Wu-Tang Clan. Their debut album Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) dropped in late 1993 and in the subsequent 31 years since, the nine original members have released various solo albums as well as a cache of Wu affiliate projects- and I’ve ingested it ALL. Wu-Tang’s wordplay has always been extremely witty, vivid and all encompassing of the Black experience. Food analogies, references to historical Black figures, stories of police brutality and neighborhood violence, sexual innuendo, jokes & insults, heartbreak, hope and love flowed freely in the lyrics pouring into my headphones. Hip Hop as a musical genre has always deeply engaged me from its inception, mostly through relatability and sometimes through curiosity. 

Hip Hop is not the only outlier mode of expression that informs my work. Black film and vernacular as well as everyday experiences of members of the community permeate these works on paper & canvas. While wide ranging in subject matter, there is a certain unspoken understanding needed for context while viewing my work. When creating the series of Wu-Tang illustrations I understood that not everyone would appreciate the series because it’s drawn specifically from the lyrics of one group. Explaining the verse and my interpretation of it, why I illustrated a specific piece in the way that I did takes away from the “aha!” moment a viewer who’s a fan of Wu-Tang will have when they understand the context. “What’s understood doesn’t need to be explained.”