Brooklyn Arts Award<\/a> for his numerous
and continuing contributions to the culture. It was a momentous occasion, as the Council was celebrating its 60th
year of operation in helping artists and art educators achieve their creative goals, in addition to the timing as Fab 5 Freddy\u2019s highly anticipated memoir, Everybody\u2019s Fly: A Life of Art, Music and Changing The Future, was newly released. CassiusLife had the honor of speaking with the legendary artist to gain more insight about the impact of the memoir and his take on receiving the Brooklyn Arts Award.<\/p>\nThis interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
CassiusLife: What was the experience like for you, being honored by the Brooklyn Arts Council in the borough that raised you and made you, for your massive contributions to the culture?
Fab 5 Freddy: Man, listen\u2026it was really special. I\u2019ve been wrapping up my book tour, which I\u2019ve been on for the last couple of months, if you will. But to see the energy, seeing all those artists come out\u2026I wasn\u2019t aware of the incredible work going on and the facility that they\u2019re based in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was all very impressive. Everybody was incredible, all the people, the board members, and Rasu, of course. And it was a big event. I didn\u2019t understand it all in the context of it, people who had been like this is the biggest that they\u2019ve ever seen, and all the people that came out. So it was overwhelmingly impressive, and I was super happy to be a part of it.<\/p>\n
The timing of the honor is supreme, as you\u2019ve just released your aforementioned memoir, Everybody\u2019s Fly. Quick confession: I\u2019ve read it about seven times already.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh sh-t, [laughs] thank you. Wow.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s been one thing that people have told you has resonated with them after they\u2019ve read it?
You know, a lot of people kind of were aware of some of the things I was involved in, most famously, I guess, Yo! MTV Raps. But a lot of people maybe knew a little bit about my background as a visual artist, but didn\u2019t know all the pieces of that puzzle, as well as other things I\u2019ve done. That\u2019s why I always was like, \u2018I can\u2019t wait to tell people, to let them get a sense of my whole story and see the journey that I\u2019ve been on.\u2019 So it\u2019s been a lot of people who\u2019ve been like, \u2018Yo, there\u2019s things I knew, but a lot that I didn\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n
And a lot of people have said that while reading it, they\u2019ve been hitting YouTube and Google \u2019cause there were little things they didn\u2019t know, but when you click, it all comes right there. Like, here\u2019s these little underground things I was involved in the beginning. And then they can see those things that they didn\u2019t hear about or see before. So YouTube is great for that as well as Google, of course. It\u2019s all there somewhere. [Laughs]<\/p>\n
That actually ties me into my next question, going back to your connection with the Brooklyn Arts Council and working with Rasu. Having been honored, and now we\u2019re with a mayor that is pretty much prioritizing the artist, do you think this new creative energy is taking a stronger foothold in New York City? And what do you want to contribute to that?
Well, I think it\u2019s good having people in the administration that are big supporters of the arts and making it known on a loud and proactive basis at a time, particularly when nationally, a lot has been cut from various programs that support artists. So it\u2019s really especially significant and a statement, if you will, that we have an administration that is really stepping up in that regard and putting positive and progressive people in positions to make moves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s great, but it\u2019s still based on the current situation. People are under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, and a lot of anxiety who\u2019ve done similar kinds of things. Similar organizations have lost funding coast to coast. So when you get the national picture, it\u2019s horrific. It\u2019s great that we\u2019ve got some support in the hometown focused on that, when everybody else is under extreme stress and problems. I\u2019m sure the national funding that Brooklyn Arts would\u2019ve gotten has probably been big, feeling the pressures and the cuts like everybody else.<\/p>\n
Circling back to the book and its impact, along with your impact as a cultural pioneer, what do you feel is the one thing that you would tell somebody who, at any level of artistry, is feeling stuck?
Oh, boy. [Laughs] Feeling stuck. I don\u2019t know \u2013 creative people have blocks, like,\u00a0writers have writer\u2019s block. You can have painter\u2019s block, if you will, as a creative. I guess if you keep doing it, like watching what the Knicks are doing, this phenomenal run\u2026take from what these athletes do, how they talk\u2026 I heard one cat in one of the post-game interviews last night, it was Jeremy Lin.<\/p>\n
I had a buddy that used to hook me, get me tickets. He worked for the NBA. It just so happened that the game we had tickets for was when the Lakers came to play the Knicks, and Jeremy Lin had just went on this incredible tear. It was Linsanity. So he was on ESPN, breaking down what was going on, and he talked about when athletes get tired. How do they get over that hump?<\/p>\n
He talked about the muscle memory of when you have a great coach and great practice, and you do get tired, the muscle memory kicks in, where you\u2019re just doing these things that you\u2019ve done a million times. And so when you are creative and you develop that muscle memory, even in times when it\u2019s not flowing, you can still get it moving. You know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n
And then you\u2019ll get over the hump because that\u2019s what happens. It doesn\u2019t come out 100% nonstop every single minute, but if you\u2019re aware of that and your confidence is there, you\u2019ll go, \u2018Let me pause this right now. Let me take a breather. Let me walk away and come back and get it popping like it\u2019s supposed to be.\u2019 I mean, that\u2019s what I do. [Laughs]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Al Pereira \/ Getty When you understand that the culture of Hip-Hop, as it was born out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-267388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Wesley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/17815271096494.jpg\")
Source: Al Pereira \/ Getty<\/p>\n