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About the Magazine:
Jocks & Nerds is a UK-based men’s quarterly magazine dedicated to style, history, and culture.
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Miss Rosen’s Contributions:
Miss Rosen wrote profiles of pioneering African-American figures in music, photography, and fashion for Jocks & Nerds.
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Excerpt from feature on Afrika Bamabaataa: Master of Records (Winter 2013)
“I am older than the sun, moon, and stars and as young as a newborn flower,” states Afrika Bambaataa, the man recognized as the Godfather of Hip Hop Culture and the Father of the Electro Funk Sound. Due to his early use and mixing of drum machines and computer sounds, Bambaataa crested signature beats (such as his first widely popular single, “Planet Rock” of 1982, which is the most sampled record in Hip Hop). Bambaataa’s singular sound helped fuel the development of other musical genres such as Freestyle, Miami Bass, Electronica, House, Hip House, and Early Techno.
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Always a music enthusiast (taking up trumpet and piano for a short time at Adlai E. Stevenson High School), Bambaataa was always a serious record collector, who collected everything from R&B to Rock & Roll. By 1970 he was DJing at house parties. Bambaataa became more interested in DJing in 1973 when he first heard Kool DJ Dee and Kool DJ Herc, both of the Bronx. That same year, Bambaataa formed a performing group that was built out of what had remained of the Black Spades, a Bronx street gang, where he had been a warlord. As the gang began to die out, from its ashes arose the Universal Zulu Nation, which continues to stand strong.
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The Universal Zulu Nation is an organization that uses music to bring the people together for political and spiritual progress, uniting people together in the principles of Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Freedom, Justice, Equality, Peace, Unity, Love, Respect, Work, Fun, Overcoming Negativity, Economics, Mathematics, Science, Life, Truth, Facts, Faith, and The Oneness of God.
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The Universal Zulu Nation, which celebrates its 40 anniversary, is a tribute to the power and vision of one man to unite and uplift the people—and from this Hip Hop was born. We return then, to the place where it all began, to the DJ, the Master of Records, as Bambaataa is known.
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Excerpt from the feature on Jamel Shabazz: Urban Beach Week (Spring 2014)
Urban Beach Week happens every Memorial Day weekend in Miami’s South Beach. An annual Hip-Hop festival held in the tradition of the legendary Freaknik festivities of the 1990s, Urban Beach Week has become the spot for people to show out. The weeklong events attract a wide mix of balers and babes, who spend five days partying in private villas and clubs along the luxurious South Beach. Celebrating the start of summer, Urban Beach Week attracts upwards of a quart of a million people every year ready for some fun in the sun and sex on the beach, in a shot glass of course. Headlining performers have included Flo Rida, Twista, Mr. Vegas, Shaggy, Bow Wow, Funkmaster Flex, Fat Joe, and Pitbull, among others.
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Since 2004, photographer Jamel Shabazz has brought his camera down to Urban Beach Week, making the annual pilgrimage five times, each time with the same generosity of spirit the imbues his work with a pride and a humility that is at once exuberant, sexy, and effortlessly charming. The Urban Beach Week photographs are well-situated in Shabazz’s larger body of work, nuzzling comfortably between the fiery energies of his West Indian Parade portraits and his New York City street portraits made famous in his blockbuster monograph, Back in the Days (powerHouse Books).
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Shabazz, a native of Brooklyn, describes the Urban Beach Week series as, “A continuation of my 1980 and 1990s work, to show how life was, the culture, the style, the personality. In the 90s, I was documenting Greekfest at Jones Beach [New York]. I had been doing that for five years; it had the same type of energy: the cops, the music, the bikes, the fashion, the women. This is why they go down to Urban Beach Week.
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Excerpt from the feature on Dapper Dan (Summer 2014)
Janette Beckman and I meet Dapper Dan in his brownstone in Harlem on a sunny day in April. We are in the sitting room; the wood is dark, the ceilings are tall, that art is African. On a bench laid before us is a child’s suit in red and white leather, boasting the name ERIKA. Beside it, red and gold cap is perched, with the double FF logo of the great Italian fashion house Fendi prominently displayed. The cap is an inverted trapezoid, in the style made famous by 80s emcee Just-Ice. The gold F shines bright, catching my eye over and over again, until Dapper Dan enters the room and commands my full attention. Dap wears a long sleeve shirt, vest, and slacks with spats all in shades of cream and brown; against a skin of rich mahogany, Dap carries the look effortlessly, befitting a man of his stature and renown.
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For those in the know, Dapper Dan is a name of distinction. It stands for quality and style. It stands for a way of living that is equal parts art and business. It is the name that defined the sartorial style of uptown in the 1980s. Dapper Dan is Harlem, from his cap to his spats to the way he stands straight. Dapper Dan is the man who Africanized Europe’s luxury brands. Gucci. MCM. Louis Vuitton. These were the logos and insignias he silkscreened on skins in the studio above his shop, which was open 24/7 on 125 Street for ten years.
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After printing the skins himself, Dapper Dan employed a team of Senegalese to create custom apparel for the body, as well as for the car. A haberdasher to the stars of Harlem World, everyone from the streets came calling, whether hustlers, gangsters, Hip Hop artists, athletes, or simply those with an eye for the flyest, freshest, most cutting-edge styles. Dapper Dan’s work was worn by everyone from Mike Tyson, Run-DMC, and Bobby Brown to LL Cool J, Salt N’ Pepa, and Eric B. & Rakim. Paid in Full, indeed, ‘cause Dap gave no discounts whatsoever on the merchandise.
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Artwork courtesy of Jocks & Nerds