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I took this portrait for the cover of the New York Rocker in 1981. It was right about the time that the uptown and downtown music scenes were starting to discover each other and there was a magical musical cross-pollination in the air. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz’s new band, Tom Tom Club, had just released their first album, which included rap and hip-hop beats. Tina and Flash had never met before, and they immediately hit it off, trading records, dancing and doing the bump as their boom boxes blared in front of a playground handball wall done by graffiti artist Lee Quinones (just a few blocks from where I grew up). Years later, Tina told me that after this session, she invited Flash back to the studio where Talking Heads were mixing their new album, Speaking in Tongues. Within months, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had done a cover of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” with their own hit version called "It’s Nasty (Genius of Love).” It’s a thrill to know that a musical connection came out of this shoot.

Yes, you mf you deserve it

Eventually