Here's two classic shots from my film archive. Both were taken in 1999, over a decade ago.
The first one is of pre-megastar Jay-Z with Method Man and Redman on a Manhattan street. Meth was actually the bigger star at this time. They had just exited a smoke filled black SUV as I was passing by and they granted me this quick set up. I spent alot of time around Jay-Z in the years ahead. This was one of the few times he would ever let down his guard enough to pose for me - or many other photographers, for that matter.
The second shot was a chance photo op of Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots fame, meeting neo-soul heartthrob Deangelo for the first time. It was at the entrance to a Honey magazine launch party at Canteen in SOHO. There were several photogs snapping pix until the weird looking white boy with cornrows showed up. He had been having alot of issues with cops & drugs and hadn't been making much music around this time. Most of the photogs were there primarily to capture the Hip Hop and R&B artists. Lucky for me, none of them recognized Weiland. I believe this photo ran in VIBE magazine that year. This is when celeb street photography(Paparazzi) garnered much larger cash sums than today's shooters get. It was also from a time when it took days to edit your film and rush it to the mags on foot.
