>> BOWEN: I'm Jared Bowen, coming up on Open Studio: Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the hip-hop generation that grabbed hold of the art world.

Plus, improv, musical theater, and Hamilton.

What's not to love in the show Freestyle Love Supreme?

Then Hype Man, a play that asks, when should art become political?

It's all now on Open Studio.

♪ ♪ With this year marking 50 years of hip-hop, we're bringing you a special episode of the show featuring the global influences, the national artists, and local creatives who have shaped, adapted, and built on this artistic force from beatboxing to brush strokes.

First up, in the late 1970s and early '80s, a group of artists moved from the streets of New York, where their canvases were brick walls and subway cars, to the swanky scene of exclusive art galleries.

An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts charted the course of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the hip-hop generation.

We bring you our trip through the MFA and Basquiat's creative universe, which we took in 2020.

Blazing off the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts, the massive paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

He was a New York street artist of the 1970s and '80s who became a darling of the art world.

Three years ago, one of his paintings sold for more than $100 million at auction.

Legend, icon, maverick: he wore all the crowns so frequently depicted in his work before his young, untimely death.

>> He often gets described as the kind of sole Black genius, artistically, of the time, and what we're trying to show is that he absolutely was an incredibly genius artist, but he was surrounded by his peers who were on a similar journey with him.

>> BOWEN: This new exhibition at the MFA is the first to examine Basquiat and his fellow artists in the hip-hop generation who changed the chemistry and sound of New York.

(old-school hip-hop playing) Rammellzee, Fab 5 Freddy, Basquiat: they were among a crop of fresh-faced art world outsiders from marginalized communities.

But they made New York theirs, says co-curator Liz Munsell.

>> They came from many different boroughs-- Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx-- and then they began to converge downtown.

They were getting a little bit older and they saw this incredible scene of 1980s creatives, people like Madonna around.

And they became part of this club scene.

>> BOWEN: But before that, they were labeled graffiti artists, pursued by police for tagging buildings and a most prized canvas, the New York City subway.

Painting subway cars guaranteed their work would be seen by thousands of people as trains raced throughout the city.

>> There's a lot of chaos for the eye to see every day.

>> BOWEN: Writer and musician Greg Tate is the show's co-curator.

He knew most of the artists featured here when they all began to mix with performers, filmmakers, and musicians in New York's downtown scene.

(club music playing) >> This is a youth movement.

And in America, youth is everything.

So whoever is leading that charge is going to win.

>> BOWEN: What the outsiders called graffiti, the artists simply called writing-- a form Basquiat noted had dated to ancient times, and what artist Lady Pink said was like calligraphy.

But it was all a language the artists shared.

>> Abstracting it, coding it, crossing it out.

They really, um, in the vein of hip-hop music, are incorporating really whatever they can get their hands on and very freely, in an unfiltered way, getting all of that into their canvases.

>> BOWEN: But these artists wanted off the streets and into the galleries.

They demanded they be heard and seen.

The art world took notice, and in the U.S., two of them, Keith Haring and Basquiat, rocketed into the stratosphere.

>> I could see the handwriting on the wall.

It was mine.

I've made my mark in the world, and it's made its mark on me.

>> BOWEN: Basquiat's work was fueled by his interest in history, not to mention the years of museum visits he'd made with his mother while growing up.

He charted his thoughts in notebooks.

>> I went to a party, went to one party at his house once, and, um, you know, walked to, um, walked past his, you know, bedroom on the way to the, to the loo.

I saw there was, like, a video of Super Fly that was on, and then, um, you know, and then all these art books stacked up.

So when he wasn't painting, you know, he was in there just, you know, studying the artists he liked.

>> BOWEN: Basquiat's work is also often populated by random bits of anatomy.

When he was seven, he was hospitalized after a car accident and developed a fascination with the book Gray's Anatomy.

But it's this crown that is most ubiquitous in his work.

>> He said, "My, my work is about three things: royalty, heroism, and the streets," right?

So he was also, as someone who had gone to all the major galleries and museums and didn't see any Black people represented there, he's letting you know that, um, you know, his royalty is the street royalty.

>> BOWEN: That reign would extend into the art world, where Basquiat achieved superstardom.

But in 1988, he died of a drug overdose.

He was only 27, but he'd managed to see his community of artists get their due.

And beyond that, says Liz Munsell, they began to influence the A-List artists they worked to be alongside.

>> Frank Stella, you can, you can see his referencing.

And he also, he also notes that he was looking at graffiti and trying to find a different surface for his painting in his late '80s works.

>> BOWEN: It was a hard-fought acceptance.

And for it, this singular group of artists hang together still.

♪ ♪ Next, hip-hop very much shaped Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

So we continue a look at hip-hop's influence by way of Freestyle Love Supreme.

It's an "anything goes" show he co-created, mixing improv, hip-hop, and musical theater.

We caught up with the cast last March, when they crowded into a Zoom session ahead of their show at the Emerson Colonial Theatre.

Chris Sullivan, Aneesa Folds, Andrew Bancroft, thank you so much for being on the show.

>> Yeah, thanks for having us.

>> Thanks.

Appreciate it.

>> BOWEN: So Chris, what was it like in those early days when it seems that something really magical was coming together here?

>> Yeah, I'm Chris Sullivan, A.K.A.

Shockwave.

You'll hear me called that both ways.

It's my stage name.

And I've been in the group since probably their second, second or third show.

It's funny, because the magic continues to happen.

But in the very beginning, it started through the rehearsal process of In the Heights, where Lin-Manuel Miranda was taking it to New York, and they were workshopping it with the Backhouse Productions in the basement of the Drama Book Shop.

And part of Backhouse Productions was Anthony Veneziale and Tommy Kail.

And they were just kind of playing.

So in between rehearsals, they would just freestyle around a piano, and just kind of make things up there and then, just to kind of get loose and to have some fun.

And then they decided to put it on its feet in front of a, in front of a crowd.

>> The last word is fracking.

>> ♪ The last word is fracking and I am attacking this beat ♪ ♪ Because it's sweet to be back on this street ♪ ♪ Broadway ♪ ♪ Ever since I was a little kid, this was my only dream ♪ ♪ The only (bleep) I ever wanted to did ♪ ♪ Or do I mean do ♪ ♪ I don't know, I like it ♪ ♪ Jesus, guys, I am so fracking excited ♪ (cheers and applause) >> BOWEN: Aneesa, what has it been like for you?

I mean, because there are so many elements here.

There is the musical theater, there is improv.

So there's all the, the actor history training that you bring to bear here.

How does it all coalesce?

>> Yeah, it's, it's really cool.

I'm from a musical theater background-- singer first.

I would freestyle kind of as a joke in high school and I never really took it seriously.

I mean, we're still just playing around and making our friends laugh on stage, so it, it tracks.

But it's awesome to have all of these experiences and to bring it to the show.

And I think that's what really, what's really cool about the show is that we all have these different perspectives, and different talents, and different generations, and different knowledge of different things.

And there, there is that person in the audience that's going to get that one joke or the person in the audience that understands that one musical theater reference.

And we are able to throw all of that in there.

And so the show is very well-rounded because we're all coming from different backgrounds.

We all have different things to add to it.

>> BOWEN: So, Andrew, how fresh is this every night?

Is there any formula?

Is there anything you, every night on stage you're building from, or even playing field every night?

>> Yeah, it's a great question.

We have a structure that we work with, because we do, you know... All of the lyrics, all of the music, all of the beats, all of that is made up and inspired by the audience.

But to make sure that the audience has a good experience and it's not just all one note, there is an architecture that has been built over the years.

And then also just taking each person's talents in the group, giving moments for, "Oh, what happens if we give the beatboxer a word and let them solo with it for a while?"

"What happens when we meet our two people playing keys and let them explore?"

>> ♪ R... ♪ >> ♪ Rawr, dungeon, dragon ♪ ♪ Hang with your girl when your pants are saggin' ♪ ♪ Know when you see I'd like to do with this time ♪ ♪ I'm not busta, I'm thrusta when I rhyme ♪ >> BOWEN: Chris, I'm wondering from you what the athleticism is involved for beatboxing.

I know you've been doing it for a very long time, but do you have to... What do you do to be able to keep doing this?

>> There's a lot of technical stuff that goes on, really, in here and in here.

A lot of that is also practice.

That takes a long time to accomplish.

A lot of it also is instilled in my, my musical training.

I grew up in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Stephen Massey was our music director there.

The Foxborough music program is fantastic.

In fact, any arts program in any school is fantastic and should be very well-funded, because, look at, here we are.

(all laughing) But, you know, there's a lot of, everything from, like, maintaining the saliva in your mouth and, like...

Sometimes you use it as a tool and sometimes you got to get rid of it.

There's keeping your lips wet, there's breathing.

There's sometimes using an inhale breath-- (makes percussive sound)-- as a sound while you're actually breathing to, to maintain your being alive on stage at the same time.

>> So it's a lot grosser than we thought.

>> Seriously.

>> A lot grosser.

>> And beyond being our entire percussion section, essentially, you, you are also creating the landscape, the soundscape.

You know, he's improvising the sounds that add to the stories that we're building.

>> (beatboxing rapid rhythm) >> BOWEN: Okay, so, I have a lot of questions about process.

So now let me just toss out the questions, everybody can jump in.

Obviously, you're good at all doing that.

So number one, the scary factor, is there still a scary factor?

Or do you...

There is?

>> Yes.

>> Yeah.

>> Absolutely.

>> Yeah, totally.

It's, you know, it's stepping out into the unknown.

It's tightrope walking, to a degree, but I think there is a certain point for me...

I used to enter rap battles in Oakland, which were terrifying, because you were doing this cr... You have to make everything up and you're in a battle with somebody, and somebody is just going to make fun of you.

At least, on this stage, we are just there to help each other and lift each other up.

That's the thing that makes it... Takes it from fear and makes it exciting.

>> Safe.

>> I'm, like, "Oh, I get to play with my friends."

It's safe.

All we're trying to do is build something great for people in the audience to, like, live out their wildest theater dreams.

>> We really do have each other's backs.

And if someone falls, we're going to pick you up or we'll make it the through-line of the show, because the mistake becomes a pattern and the pattern becomes an inside joke and then it gets on a T-shirt.

(all laughing) >> ♪ That's what happens when, that's what happens... ♪ >> BOWEN: Chris mentioned it takes years to get the rhyming.

What does it take to get to that level?

>> Practice.

>> We're still learning.

>> Yeah, practice, for sure.

You know, I mean, it is pretty cool that your brain will build new synaptic pathways to putting rhymes together, to the point where we're, we're doing this enough, like last night for me, I could not go to bed.

I was just rhyming in my head.

I don't know why, the word... >> Just rhymed just now.

>> The word "caffeine" came up, and I tried to come up with all the different rhymes for caffeine.

And... >> Kathleen.

>> Yeah, Kathleen caffeine.

So, and it was keeping me up at night.

But those pathways have built over, over years and getting to do it.

And also, you know, if you listen, if you love hip-hop, or if you're into...

Some of the members of the group are more into musical theater.

You know, it's just like rhyme schemes.

We grew up with them, from Dr. Seuss to everything that we listen to in music now.

So it's out there.

>> BOWEN: It's funny that you mention the brain, because I was wondering, it must, can you... Not that you can feel what's happening in your brain, necessarily, but do you feel channels opening up?

Does the...

When you hit the stage, and you have the adrenaline and you know that you have to meet that moment, do you feel that happening?

>> Yeah.

(laughs) I mean, I think that we all have our different ways of doing it and different ways of approaching certain games, but for me, if I hear a word, I have, what, 0.2 seconds to remember or try to figure out every single word that rhymes with that word so I can kind of throw it in.

That's where my brain goes automatically.

But I know everyone else approaches it from a different way.

And you can start that way.

But at a certain point, you, you have to make up the rest of it.

And I think that's the muscle that we're, we're flexing all the time.

>> ♪ Young niece on my three ♪ ♪ A lot of queens and a bunch of nudes ♪ ♪ I hope that you don't go chucking on your food ♪ ♪ Don't be rude ♪ ♪ You see, I'm going to go in and I'm sick ♪ ♪ I'm going to have to give your brains a brick... ♪ >> BOWEN: The show is called Freestyle Love Supreme.

Where does love come into this show?

>> It's a great point.

We actually bring it up a couple of times.

Like, for, for us, we really, I think, do try to spread love wherever we go.

And we need that right now.

We're missing being with each other in a room, we're missing having people listen to us.

And like the love I have for the people I'm performing with... >> (chuckles) >> Appreciate it.

>> ...it is, it is very much a family, so... >> Yeah, we love each other so much.

And I think that a lot of comments we usually get from the audience is, "We can see that y'all are having so much fun on stage, and that joy is infectious."

And we just want to make people feel good.

I think that the world needs more of that and that's what we aim to do.

We're just sending that energy out, and we're receiving it back in real time.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> And then we're sending it out again and we're sending those people out into, into the world, having experienced this beautiful thing and hoping that they take that and put it out there.

>> BOWEN: Well, we all look forward to seeing it, and Chris, welcome home when you're here.

>> Can't wait.

I can't wait.

>> BOWEN: Well, thank you so much.

>> Thank you.

>> Thanks.

>> Bye-bye.

♪ ♪ Finally, we take one more look-- and listen-- to hip-hop with Hype Man.

In 2018, Company One Theatre had a world premiere, presenting the drama about three friends who were about to get their big break with an appearance on The Tonight Show.

But the group is divided over whether they should use the moment to get political.

The cast joined us, performing music from the hip-hop-infused play.

♪ ♪ >> Yeah, what's good, Boston?

How you doin'?

I see you shinin'.

You see me shinin'?

Who else is shinin'?

I know who's shinin'.

Pinnacle!

>> ♪ I came up dirty, they ain't want me to shine.

♪ >> ♪ No, no, no.

♪ >> ♪ No pot to piss in ♪ ♪ They ain't want me to shine.

♪ >> ♪ Uh-uh, uh-uh.

♪ >> ♪ They trying to stop me, but ♪ >> ♪ But what?

♪ >> ♪ It's my time ♪ ♪ 'Cause I grind hard ♪ >> BOWEN: Kadahj Bennett, as we just saw, you are Verb.

>> Yes, I am.

>> BOWEN: And Shawn LaCount, you are the director of Hype Man.

Thank you both for joining us.

Shawn, I'll start with you.

So, to get straight to the plot, you have these artists who have... just as they're about to go have their big break on The Tonight Show, they learned about the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager shot 18 times, and they have to decide whether or not to use The Tonight Show as their platform to address this.

What is the central issue being mined here?

>> First of all, it's a play with music.

It exists in this Break Beat Play cycle that Idris has created, Idris Goodwin.

The, um, the central issue, I think, has everything to do with the Black Lives Matters movement.

Issues and concepts of allyship, and who's responsible to step up and say what.

Um, who has that responsibility, those loyalties, I think that's a big part of what I think the piece is about.

>> BOWEN: Kadahj, you are an artist.

I mean, how do you look at this?

Is, as... because there is division among the group, we see in the piece, about whether or not you use this moment to address this or you take the moment to simply be the artists that you are.

>> Yeah, I think it's really interesting, um, especially in the times that we live in now, right?

Your art can be about whether or not you want to use it to build a community, or if you want to build your brand, right?

If you want to get money, or if you want to make change.

And I feel like, uh, this play, it's very... powerful, how it plays around with that concept of, like, where do you draw the line between doing art and making sure it's a vessel for positive change, or doing art to make sure you can feed yourself and have clothes on your back?

>> BOWEN: So, how do you begin to...

I won't say...

I won't ask you for the answer, but how do you begin to answer that question?

>> I don't know.

I feel like it depends on where you stand in the community, and how close you feel to a situation, right?

I feel like Verb is very, very close to it, because he's a member of the streets.

He's very about people, he's about the movement, about action and doing it, right?

Whereas the idea of Pinnacle, I feel like it's climbing up and making sure we're hitting the right benchmarks, and I want to be successful, and I got to shine, and everybody's been doubting me this entire time, right?

So there's not anything wrong with either one of those stances, but when, when it hits ground zero, it's, like, how are you going to react if it's close to you?

>> BOWEN: Shawn, in your capacity, in... as leadership of Company One Theatre, how do you look at where and when artists should weigh in?

And there are people who say that artists should just do what they're good at.

That they shouldn't, as I think Idris has said, swerve into the political lane.

>> Right-- the Company One Theatre, we really sit at kind of that intersection of social change and art, and it's my opinion that the artist's point of view is, should be, really, a vehicle for change.

For me, the entertainment piece of it is important, but it's secondary to what we can do with the opportunity, with an audience, with that live dialogue.

>> BOWEN: How do you look at what these artists have to do if they don't stand up?

I mean, are they just doing what they should do, in taking their career to the next level, by appearing on The Tonight Show?

Does it have to come with making a statement?

>> I personally, I agree with Verb, right?

And the choice that he makes.

It's nothing verbal, necessarily, they're not saying anything when they do the performance.

It's just, like, an act.

And I feel like sometimes, change or protest or progress, it takes time, and it can be something little, right?

So when, when you are using that platform to go up there, if you are wearing a pin, or if you are doing something that does spread awareness, to allow the conversation to happen, that's... that's just as good as actually saying something.

If you have this platform and you don't address anything, then, that... you're just as bad as the people who are, like, hurting people, I feel.

>> BOWEN: Do you know if Idris Goodwin-- again, the playwright-- looked at other celebrities, other artists, and what they have or haven't done in the last few years in creating this piece?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

That was part of our conversations in the development of the play.

Um, he looked very specifically at a white rapper, right?

That's an important piece of the puzzle, a white rapper, a Black hype man, and a mixed-race DJ, female DJ.

And I think it was, uh, a B.E.T.

episode, after...

I think it was an awards show, after Trayvon Martin?

>> Yeah.

>> And someone stepped up and just basically said, "Are any of the white rappers going to step up and say anything," right?

And there are a handful of white rappers who are deeply engaged in conversations around race, around music... >> And who are like, protesting and doing things of that nature.

But there are others who, like, you ask them the same question, and they're, like "It's... That's not... that's not my thing."

>> Right.

>> BOWEN: Well, I was thinking about this, too.

If you have a really high profile, like you're Beyonce, or Brad Pitt, you know, anybody of that level, because both have been very vocal about different social issues, you almost have only a little bit of time in your career where you can speak out, where people listen without thinking you're coming from a place of privilege, and therefore your message has less resonance.

>> I feel like that... it's timely, too.

I feel like Eminem just recently released an album, and a lot of it is very, uh, socially charged about the situations of today, but people feel like, since he's been silent for so long, he's kind of, like, missing the swing with it now, because so many people have already stepped up and said something, so, is this really how you're feeling personally, or is this, like, a commercial grab?

>> BOWEN: How is hip-hop the backdrop here?

>> It's the music of the culture, right?

And, like, even right now, hip-hop is the most popular music in America.

It's our top pop music, right?

So I feel like that's really where it needs to come from, and that's where it stems from.

Originally, hip-hop was about the people speaking up about injustices, right?

And so I feel like it's a great way for the play to tackle that, to talk about the roots of hip-hop, and how it might have evolved today, and how can we go back and return to those roots to use that to help out the present situation?

>> BOWEN: And where is hip-hop today?

I mean, it's not fresh anymore.

It's not... it's not... it's not the little fledgling.

It is...

It's fully grown.

It's an adult, it is... it's an institution.

>> Yeah, and with that, there are so many different branches on the tree of hip-hop, right?

And there are so many different communities and genres of hip-hop.

So, like, it's...

I feel like the more time goes on, it's harder to try to put a giant blanket over the genre itself.

Because there is, like, trap music, there is boom bop, there is conscious rap, there is hip-hop in China that is, like, going on, where all these, like...

So every culture is absorbing it, and putting their own spin on it.

So I feel like hip-hop is just a global thing for the people now.

It depends on how use that as your vessel for change.

>> BOWEN: Well, it seems in light of that, that there are so many branches, that one of the themes in the show, as well, is, when is it culture versus a cultural product now?

Again, by virtue of the fact that it has matured.

>> Yeah.

>> BOWEN: How do you... how do you address that, Shawn?

>> When is it culture or when is it product?

That's interesting.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's that whole question of what is authentic, right, in any medium?

I think that one of the things Idris does beautifully here... and this is the whole Break Beat Play cycle, which is made up of three plays, and it's similar to August Wilson's play cycle.

Different times, different time periods in American culture, all through the lens of hip-hop.

Years ago we did a play called How We Got On of his.

And it really broke down, like, how beats and the music of hip-hop was made.

This play does a very similar thing in terms of rhymes and the actual role of the hype man, right?

What does it mean for those flourishes?

It compares it to James Brown's hype man, Bobby Byrd, right?

It compares it to those orchestra musicians who, you know, they just hit those cymbals twice at the end, right?

And they're... you can't finish the song without them, right?

And so that kind of authenticity is what we're talking about.

>> BOWEN: What is the hype man?

>> The hype man is... it's the energy.

Like, it's the tour guide for the song, or for the culture, or for the experience.

So you help people, and you lead them in, you tell them when to chant, how to figure out the words, when to feel free to dance and move, how to enjoy themselves.

I feel like it's... it's a celebration of the music, it's a celebration of life, it's a celebration of, like, the situation.

>> BOWEN: This is a play with music.

>> Yeah.

>> BOWEN: What does that mean?

>> It's funny you ask that.

I said that to our marketing department, and I said... he said, like, "Like Amadeus?"

I said, "Well, yeah, kind of like Amadeus."

And in many ways we... you know, Company One Theatre, a lot of what we're trying to do is actually to redefine how we see the genre, and who it's for, and who it's with.

And so in many ways, yeah, just like Amadeus, you come and you get to experience characters making music, right?

Same idea.

>> BOWEN: But not a musical.

>> But not a musical, right?

So it's not... we don't hit an emotional moment that turns into song for emotional impact.

There's value to that, but that's not what this is.

This is actually almost looking at it like a... A documentary is not the right word, but looking in a window at a musical process.

I think it's more like that, you know?

And, and to that effect, you know, we're blessed to hear a few songs, a few moments where there's freestyle experiments.

It's great, yeah.

>> BOWEN: All right, well, Shawn Lacount, Kadahj Bennett, thank you so much.

>> Thank you, Jared.

>> ♪ I came up dirty, they ain't want me to shine.

♪ >> Yeah, tell 'em.

>> ♪ Was livin' grimy, now your boy he do shine ♪ >> That's right, now.

>> ♪ Yeah, I made it, your boy he do shine ♪ ♪ I said I shine, shine, shine, shine, P!

♪ ♪ ♪ And that is all for this edition of Open Studio.

As always, you can visit us online at GBH.org/OpenStudio.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter, @OpenStudioGBH.

I'm @TheJaredBowen.

And you can see us first on YouTube.com/GBHNews.

We hope to see you here next week.

Until then, I'm Jared Bowen.

Thanks for joining us.

♪ Now that boy he do shine.

♪ >> ♪ Tell 'em, tell 'em.

♪ >> ♪ Yeah, I made it, this boy, he do shine ♪ ♪ I said I ♪ >> ♪ Shine ♪ >> ♪ Shine ♪ >> ♪ Shine ♪ >> ♪ Shine ♪ >> ♪ Shine ♪ >> ♪ Shine ♪ >> ♪ Yo!

♪ >> ♪ I'm outchea like oxygen, turn the club up ♪ ♪ Party never end, no drama here, just Belvedere ♪ ♪ Order up shots and they disappear ♪ ♪ Premium brand, don't drink beer ♪ ♪ I see you smiling from ear to ear ♪ ♪ You up in the club, getting the love ♪ ♪ Stars up in this atmosphere ♪ ♪ We skipped the line, they know us.

♪ ♪ These other dudes in here?

Bogus!

♪ ♪ Swarm around you like locusts ♪ ♪ We ain't like them ♪ >> ♪ Jokers.

♪ >> ♪ My team get booked by promoters ♪ ♪ 'Cause I flow so ferocious ♪ ♪ I'm so focused, 'bout to shine.

♪ >> ♪ Shine, shine, shine, shine.

♪ >> ♪ Supernova!

♪ ♪ I came up dirty, they ain't want me to shine.

♪ >> ♪ No, no, no.

♪ >> ♪ Pissin', they ain't want me to shine.

♪ >> ♪ Just tell 'em, tell 'em.

♪ >> ♪ Trying to stop me, but ♪ >> ♪ But what?

♪ >> ♪ It's my time ♪