Downloaded from YTS.MX
[crowd cheering]
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[crowd chanting] Beastie Boys, Beastie Boys!
[cheering]
[cheering] Ricky!
[cheering]
[man VO] Could you explain to me what is the meaning of life?
Could you break down the understanding of life?
I'm trying to figure it out myself, man.
You're trying to figure it out?
Look around you.
Can you see clearly now?
[glitching and static]
[man on radio] News time, 4:23.
The Bridge and Tunnel update.
[man on radio] We have delays in the outbound Lincoln and
Holland Tunnels at 30 minutes a piece,
we have delays on the West Side from the 70s up through the 140s
and up to the outbound GWB.
The East Side delay's 40s on up through 96th street and again
from the 140s to the GWB.
New Jersey Transit, limited service between New Brunswick
and Trenton, but n--
[Ricky] Shut up.
"Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" by Bobby Bland
Ain't no love in the heart of the city
Ain't no love in the heart of town
Ain't no love, and it's sure 'nuff a pity
Ain't no love 'cause you ain't around
When you were mine, oh, I was feeling so good
'Cause your love lit up this old neighborhood
But now that you're gone
You know the sun don't shine
From the city hall to the county line
And that's why I said
Ain't no love in the heart of the city
Ain't no love in the heart of town
Ain't no love, and it sure is a pity...
[Ricky VO] I'm really just a fucking regular Joe jerk-off
from the neighborhood.
uptempo music
And like, I'm a bummy-ass motherfucker but my photography
happens to be highfalutin.'
[Kaves VO] Legendary Ricky Powell, right?
The unfiltered camera, unfiltered mouth.
You don't get it purer than Ricky Powell.
Whatever comes through that point-n-click is that straight
New York shit.
Ricky caught that last great essence,
that last great period of that realness flowing up and down
those streets.
[Ricky] Oh, shit, posse, wassup?!
[LL VO] The downtown scene and the uptown scene.
The hip-hop scene and the art world.
He was part of what was going on.
He captured an era.
He's crazy as a fuck, but he's a genius.
Ricky made us look like hip-hop gods,
all in a [snaps] natural, quick snap.
[Mike VO] Ricky did have this incredible access.
I'll rock the house with my speeches tonight.
That is beautiful!
[giggling]
[man] Oh!
[Bobbito VO] He rolls with the Beastie Boys,
Run DMC, Def Jam.
Yo, this dude is prolific!
[LL VO] He understood the culture, he understood the
language.
He caught the beauty in what we were doing.
I was like, "Fuck, I wanna fucking do that in front of the
Eiffel Tower."
He had a finger on the pulse of culture.
[Ricky] Vin Diesel!
-[man VO] And his TV show... -What up, what up, baby pop?
Rappin' with the Rickster!
Compton's in the house.
Ricky's show. [laughs]
[Ricky] Ah, yeah!
[Laurence VO] You'd see him everywhere.
He was a fuckin' shutterbug, man.
He needed to take pictures.
He's got an amazing archive.
I mean, that's quintessential fucking peak Laurence Fishburne.
How is this one guy around all these different people that were
all doing incredible things?
[man VO] Futura, Kenny Scharf, Keith Haring, Madonna.
That picture with me and Ad-Rock,
with me standing there with that leather jacket.
He sees compassion, he sees urbanness,
he sees detail.
You know, he bumps into Warhol and Basquiat on the street and
takes a snap that turns out to be an iconic snap.
It's good to be the king.
[man] Go Ricky, go Ricky, go Ricky!
[laughter]
You wanna talk about real artists, like, come on.
It ain't always gonna be sweet and gentle.
There's the dark side that comes with true greatness and madness.
It all goes hand-in-hand.
[Freddy VO] Sometimes, he would go off of the deep end.
And I'd be like, "Rick, you better be careful.
Don't go too far over that edge...
that you don't come back."
mellow jazzy music
I'm kind of a...
a famous bum.
Ooh, sorry.
-You all right? -No problem.
[Natasha VO] There is one word that can describe Ricky Powell
and it's "unique."
[Darryl VO] I've never met anybody like him.
He's his own entity, his own personality.
[Natasha VO] Always up to antics.
I don't know if music is playing when he's walking around,
but in my mind, when I think back to it,
there's music on.
Man, they got a lot of characters out here today.
Whoo!
Where are these fucking squirrels?
[Zephyr VO] He's just a very strange creature, you know?
He seems very dysfunctional and yet highly functional.
He's kinda like the Dude-- [laughs] in,
um, The Big Lebowski.
He's simply living in his own private Idaho.
[Ricky] Check out this song.
Oh, shit, ready?
upbeat jazzy music
[Ricky VO] I'm known as the lazy hustler,
the illy funkster, Uncle Doinky, Uncle Slappy,
Porkmaster Funk.
I'm uncategorizable.
Whoo!
He's that crazy hip-hop Oscar Madison,
the hood Hugh Hefner, he's the guy that's coming to the party
with the party favors.
He's a mad scientist...
fueled by some otherworldly forces.
Ricky's a whole 'nother level from a whole 'nother generation,
a whole 'nother universe, a whole 'nother dimension.
Like, real characters do exist.
[groaning] Ohh.
[Chuck VO] Number one, Ricky Powell's New York City.
Totally, thorough New York City.
Manhattanite white kid.
[Ricky] First of all, you're in my neighborhood.
It ain't your neighborhood, man.
[Ricky] Yeah, I grew up here.
Yo, I used to play here when I was 10.
This guy doesn't know what's up.
[man] You a hustler.
I spy motherfucker, man.
Ricky's a village kid, and that's a very specific thing.
[Ricky VO] Growing up with a single mom,
we moved down to the village -- Union Square -- in 1968.
I was, you know, a little rascal.
I was the only child, so my mom brought me up by herself and she
was very eccentric.
She was a beatnik hippy hipster swinger.
I called her by her first name as soon as I can remember --
Ruth.
She lived her life, I lived mine.
I constantly went out by myself, playing in Union Square Park,
playing catch with junkies and pimps,
riding my bike around the block.
I liked going on my own, and I really liked that area.
My mother, she was a schoolteacher in the daytime;
at night, she hung out at the bars and the clubs.
She used to go to Max's Kansas City all the time,
and she would drag me along and sit me next to the jukebox.
She hung out with all these fuckin' kooks.
I'd just sit there by myself and look at the freakshow.
I grew up quick, dude.
Fast.
People would say to me, "Oh, yo, your mom is so cool,"
and I was like, "Yeah, you don't live with her."
She would cook, like, steak and rice,
chicken and rice, all these dishes for her dogs,
and she'd give me two dollars and say,
you know, "Go to Blimpie's."
Yeah, they were living like kings.
They always stayed in my room, [laughing] all the stray dogs,
so I was, like, living kind of in the jungle.
I don't mean to be shitting, but I think my mom just got pregnant
with me and just manned up and had me.
I could've been easily aborted, I believe.
Whenever me and Ricky get together,
there's always a point where we talk about New York back in the
days or how it used to be on 14th Street.
[Debi VO] New York had a very different energy in the '70s.
Everybody was out, people were in the streets,
there were sex clubs, porn.
[Freddy VO] You had a much more textured,
a more real, a much more complex New York.
8th Avenue was a disaster, 9th Avenue was all hookers.
The old gangs, the old graffiti writers.
And it was the coolest period in New York because it was raw.
[Ricky VO] I loved that time period anyway.
Just everything was cool, man.
The Knicks were cool...
music, culture.
I remember getting up on Saturday mornings to watch
Soul Train.
[sighs] So dope.
[Ricky] Oh!
Whoo!
Sick!
My man!
-How are you? -Good, how are you, man?
[Ricky] Good!
You know, a lot of people, they don't get to see where they grew
up.
Like, they move away and they never see it again.
I see it every day.
Here we are at one of the places I grew up.
I lived here the second half of the '70s and the first half of
the '80s.
That was a good time, man.
Between me, you, and the lamppost,
this is where I discovered discreet older ladies.
They used to give me the goo-goo eyes in the elevator,
and I noticed when the elevator hit their floor,
they'd look at me and I'd just follow them out the door.
[Ricky VO] I was a hot monkey.
I actually was kinda Black, the way I walked,
talked, dressed.
[LL VO] I was never sure that Ricky was white.
He had shades on, he had his hat backwards,
he was movin' around.
I wasn't sure if he was a light-skinned Black guy.
[Ricky VO] I had a little, you know,
Blackness in my game on the court.
I was nice.
I remember one time, I was playing ball at Thompson Street
Park and the Italians said, "Yo, you play like you're fuckin'
Black," and I was like, "Jealous?"
I went to LaGuardia Community College,
I got an AA in Liberal Arts, and then I went to Hunter College
for Phys Ed.
I was gonna be a gym teacher.
So...
I'm in the phys ed department, I'm minding my own business.
You know, I'd come in with a hangover,
sloppy food stains on my sweatpants.
A lot of teachers thought I was a fuckin' lazy bum and the
triathlon came.
I said, "Oh, okay, let me-- let me check this shit out,"
'cause I was in pretty good shape.
I rocked it, I won, it was a big upset,
you know, people were like, "Oh, shit,
that dude won?"
I was like, "Yeah, that's right, bitch.
Fall back."
Two days later, it was my birthday.
So that night, I had some champipple,
had a little toot, a little cocaine...
and some quaaludes.
And I went nightclub-hopping on my bicycle.
[Ricky] Whoo!
[Ricky VO] I loved gettin' nice; it's fun!
And I was getting to Danceteria and I hit the curb...
flew over the handlebars, smacked my face on the sidewalk
in front of everybody.
It was like a Friday night.
[Ricky] Ah, fuck!
[Ricky VO] Two days later, on the 22nd,
I got my picture taken for the Hunter College newspaper.
I got, like, all, like, black and blue,
stitches, and it looks like it happened in the race,
but it actually happened from...
you know...
gettin' buck-nutty.
[Freddy VO] I actually knew Ricky before he became a
photographer.
He was this cool guy hanging around,
great personality.
He was always on the sidelines, kinda grooving with his little
hat.
"Yo, Deb, what's up?"
Ricky is one of many that made New York so special in the early
'80s.
Hip-hop was new, graffiti was coming off of the trains and
into the galleries.
It's the arrival of different cultures meeting up.
[Debi VO] Art was exploding.
[Vin VO] Madonna was discovered, Run DMC had just hit.
Ricky was present at a critical time when music and culture was
changing.
[Lyor VO] We're talking about a club scene that is unrivaled.
Encore, the Roxy, Danceteria.
Roxy's on a Friday night was the fuckin' place to go.
And if you wanted to know what was going on,
you could always go, "Rick, what's up?"
And he'd be like, "Oh, have you heard about blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah?"
And for sure, it would always be hip.
Ah.
The fuck's wrong with this thing?
Damn, bitch, it won't forward!
[Ricky VO] I never had an interest in taking pictures or
anything with cameras or photography or nothing.
[camera snaps]
[Ricky] Beautiful.
That's the crew right there.
[Ricky VO] Until this one day, I met this fucking freakazoid at
Danceteria.
She was a artist, dude.
Kook.
A real kook, out-there.
Painting, film, everything you can imagine.
And Ricky, he was like an authentic street kid,
you know, with the sneakers, with the walk,
with the way, the talk.
Like, he's charming, he's super charming,
and we were just kinda inseparable.
[Ricky VO] She'd bring her little cameras with her and,
you know, I had no artistic ambitions.
[Ricky] Ooh, can I take a picture of you two?
Aw, man!
Nice.
One time, we were at Roxy's and I say,
"Yo, can I borrow the camera and can I try shooting...
some of these pe-- these-- I like some of these couples in
the booths."
She goes, "Okay," so I go over, "Hey,
you mind if I take your picture?
You look like a nice couple."
And pshh.
I remember, like, I loved that feeling of it -- pshh.
[camera snaps]
[Amie VO] He was really into, like,
who was famous and he could recognize people on the street.
I was in love with Ricky.
Like, I used to tell him we were gonna get married and all kinds
of things.
[female announcer] The L train will depart in approximately...
[Ricky VO] We went out for two years.
She ditched me for this dude with tie-dye yoga pants and
crystals and all this shit.
I did kind of just switch boyfriends. [laughs]
And, um, I think it was-- it was...
pretty damaging for-- for Ricky.
smooth jazzy music
[Ricky VO] Just kinda, like, discarded me.
And I was like, "Damn.
Oh, it's like that?
All right."
So, I'm cleaning my room and I find a bag with some clothes,
and I recognize, "Oh, it's some of her shit."
And I see a little camera in there.
And I took it and I said...
"I'm gonna make this bitch sorry she did me like a fuckin' soggy
cannoli.
I'm gonna fuckin' use this instrument and become something
with it."
And came into this fuckin' light.
Photography was just perfect for me.
I was exploring with it.
Boom, boom, boom.
Everything just fucking clicked.
[Freddy VO] He was just like a homie that had a camera who was
in the mix.
He was the guy that we knew that seemed to just be taking a photo
here and there.
[Ricky VO] I was a fan of interesting people.
Just went all over the place, you know,
art gallery openings, Keith Haring openings.
Yo, everyone showed up.
And nightclubs, everyone showed up at those.
The Fun Gallery, that was the fuckin' Museum of Modern Art of
graffiti.
The paparazzi-type guy didn't really exist in that scene,
and if it did, it was Rick.
[Laurence VO] He had a serious presence all over the city.
He was not an outsider looking in.
You know, he wasn't like some anthropological thief;
he was a part of what was happening here.
And he was smart enough to document it,
capturing gorgeous photography not from a learned standpoint,
but just from a...
an access.
These kind of seminal shots that you don't even realize are
kind of woven into the fabric of sort of how we see especially
"New York cool."
I'm telling you, that camera and my personality,
together, we made moves, dude.
I went from Joe Shnook to "the Rickster,
downtown photographer extraordinaire."
upbeat funky music
I knew graffiti artists, I knew some big-timers.
[Ricky] What's up?
What's up, Rickyrack?
[Ricky VO] Don D, Zephyr, Revolt,
Seen...
they were like stars.
There's your hat there, Rickster.
[Ricky] Seen, you are the mango.
Okay!
[Ricky VO] Futura was like a god.
Graffiti writer, legend, artist, down with the Clash,
just crazy style.
He was down with everything that was cool.
And that summer of '85, invited me to be on his neighborhood
softball team, The East Village [inaudible].
[Futura VO] I was really impressed with Rick.
We was always ar-- you know, Ricky was always around,
so he could kinda-- he was dependable.
He wasn't the best player on the squad.
[Ricky VO] Matt Dillon was on the team,
Fab 5 Freddy, so it was a really interesting concoction of
colorful characters.
[Freddy VO] We didn't have the greatest record,
but we were the hottest, coolest softball team, bar none.
[laughs]
You know, our rival teams hated us because their girlfriends
would be clamoring to get a better look at Matt Dillon.
One of the guys on the team also was this guy David
Hershkovitz who just started this magazine called "Paper."
You know, they say, "Hey, why don't you,
you know, shoot pictures for our 'cultural sushi' section?"
And that's the nightclub section.
[camera snapping]
Ricky was a perfect match for what Paper was doing because we
were like a community paper for downtown,
which was a much smaller world than it is today,
and he was of that world, so he was kind of like the local paper
photographer.
He's in the magazine himself, he was in the ads,
he was just one of our guys.
For me, it was always about potential,
not really looking for the fully-polished work,
more for, like, the raw energy and snapshots.
Our whole thing was like if you're covering a culture,
you send someone to cover it who's in that culture.
And Rickster, he just had, like, a cool crowd around him always.
Send him up to the South Bronx and he would hang with hip-hop
people.
Parties on the street.
Whatever he was into, then we would let him shoot that.
[Ricky] What's up?
Yo, Ricky!
[laughter]
Oh, here we go, here we go.
[laughter]
[Freddy VO] He'd create a kind of a very warm rapport very
instantly.
You didn't see him as, like, "Oh,
this guy's heavy-duty, serious photographer."
With camera in-hand.
[man] That was some funny shit right there!
[Ricky] You know what?
Yo, can you all go back-to-back like in a circle?
Uh, you know what?
You have the biggest hair.
Could you get over there on the left?
[man] Yes, I do.
[Freddy VO] Ricky has a very engaging yet humorous,
slightly pranksterish personality.
[man] Ricky, get off your own dick.
There are no [inaudible].
And he was like wise guy, he was like making you laugh.
[all] Rickster!
[Ricky] That's me, that's me.
Ricky was a boy with a camera, and he had a cool way of just
getting the picture.
[Ricky] I like it.
Okay, let me rock this.
[man] That's the 35mm with flash.
I've been one of Ricky's muses.
And Ricky captured me as the quintessential downtown New York
girl.
With style, with edge.
We were just kids, we were New York City kids,
we've been to the clubs together,
we've roamed the village together,
we've rode bicycles together, we've smoked joints together.
I could call him at midnight and be like,
"I'm breaking up with a boyfriend" or whatever and he
would always, like, come out of his apartment -- which I never
went inside [laughs] 'cause Ricky's always been,
like, a little bit secretive about it.
I didn't bring too many people over 'cause my mom was,
like, so fuckin' crazed, like, I was embarrassed to bring anyone
over.
So I was always kind of, like, amazed that,
like, this, like, young, like, kinda,
like, rough-around-the-edges white boy,
his mother lived on 5th, lower 5th.
bluesy guitar
[sighs] Dude, I don't-- I don't-- I have no idea what,
like...
I don't know anything about their relationship.
Yeah, I knew Ruth.
Like, I don't know that Ruth knew me.
I just remember her with, like, these big sunglasses that would
be, like, perched, kinda defying physics.
It was definitely not a normal upbringing to be with...
um...
[sighs] I don't even know [laughing] how to describe this.
She was pretty out-of-it.
[Kim VO] She would, like, be walking down the street talking
to herself.
You could see, she was, like-- she wasn't a homeless person,
but you see almost she could become one.
So it'd always been kind of a mystery around his father and we
heard that he was Mexican.
[Ricky VO] I have no recollection of my father.
I have no idea if he's alive or dead.
I remember meeting some family in a nice house in Mexico City.
That's all I remember; I don't remember meeting him.
I was, like, six.
I just have this one picture of me and my first dog, Chico.
We never talked about him.
She ran the shit and that's how it went.
I mean, who knows what kinda aspirations she had for me,
but she came to a couple of my shows.
I mean, she liked going out anyway and checking the scene.
[man] I didn't know that was your mom over there.
[Ricky] Yeah, that's my mom.
You recognize her from the neighborhood?
[Ricky VO] But I always would hope that she wouldn't fuckin'
come in a crazy, outlandish look,
just come properly-attired, so I could be like...
[sighs]
'Cause my mom used to dress crazy,
like be all disheveled and shit.
That's why I'd be so embarrassed.
I consider my look comfortable.
Um, I'm not disheveled.
These pants, though!
These pants are terrible!
I broke the top button.
Oh no, I didn't break it.
[groans] They don't fit.
I use these straps, these built-in...
but they don't work.
upbeat music
[Ricky VO] The Frozade job was my first job after I finished
college, 'cause I cannot work a regular job.
I can't; I can't be a caged lion.
I brought my radio with the double deck,
had a bottle of rum in case someone wanted a shot of rum in
their Frozade; it'd be another buck.
And then, I, you know, had the camera with me,
so that was part of the experience: taking pictures.
Which I put in a category of mine of like dope shots I shot
while I was working a bullshit job,
such as bike messenger, afterschool recreation
counselor, substitute teacher, dog walker,
and I took some of my most famous shots from the Frozade
stand.
That's where I shot the Basquiat photo.
He was a big deal.
Superstar art world.
He came up to my cart and he'd be like,
"Hey, what's up?
I'd be like, "Yo, what up, Gene?!"
And he always used to roll his eyes and be like,
"It's 'Jean.'"
I was like, "Oh, sorry, Duke.
I'm bad with exotic names."
So he goes, "Can I get one?"
I go, "Yeah."
He gives me a hundred dollar bill,
and I'm like, "Pshh, come on, Dukes.
You ain't got something smaller?"
So when he's reaching in his pocket,
I take the one picture of him.
So I called that one "Loose Change."
And then, I asked him to look at me for one shot if he would,
and he gave me an intense look.
[laughter and chatter]
It wasn't like a big thing to him,
it was just like, "Hey, man, mind if I get a flick?"
[Ricky] Whoo!
Get naked!
[blows raspberry]
[Cheryl VO] He is a participatory photographer,
he's about having a day.
[Ricky] Hey, Ray!
It's great to see you, brother...
[Cheryl VO] The photograph is this, like,
sneak attack that comes in,
but it's really the experience that he's having with this
person.
You can't will yourself to be a good street photographer,
you just have to be there.
And it's luck, it's timing, but you gotta be there.
smooth hip-hop beat
[beep]
[Revolt on recording] Yo yo yo, what's up, Rickster?
Dr. Revolt calling.
It's about 1:30, I'm in my crib.
What's the deal for tonight?
Guess, uh, I'll talk to you later.
Peace, bye.
[Zephyr VO] In September of 1985,
Tony Shafrazi Gallery in Soho exhibited the extraordinary
collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
One of the most historic art collaborations in the history of
modern art.
That day, Revolt and I and Ricky,
we were hanging out across the street from Shafrazi Gallery.
Zephyr and Revolt, to me, that combo felt like I was hanging
out with graffiti royalty when I was
hanging out with them.
So I just took a couple of casual shots of them on the
stoop.
It was the opening, and so you had these people that were
already in Shafrazi, but Warhol and Basquiat,
they came out of a cab together with no entourage at
all, just the two of them.
And I was like, "Oh, shit."
And I scooted diagonally across the street and plopped myself in
front of Basquiat and Warhol.
I was like, "Hey, Gene!"
And Warhol's looking at me like, "Who in tarnations is this guy?"
[laughs]
Jean said, "He's cool," and they paused for me.
[woman VO] It's so direct and it's so captivating,
the way they're just standing there very static.
It's so powerful because the two guys in it are really engaged in
the picture, and there's an emotional reaction there.
[Cheryl VO] That is the quintessential incredible street
photo.
Just instinct; not even thinking,
just like-- pshh.
Just like the camera is just, like,
part of his right hand -- if he's a righty; I'm not sure.
You know, like, instinctual, physical street fuckin' dance.
[Ricky VO] That was kinda like hitting a grand slam in your
first at-bat in the major leagues.
Yeah, I was good, I guess.
[Ricky] Yo!
Oh, whoa!
Rickster!
[applause and whistling] What's up, Rick?!
[Ricky] What's up, man?
How you doin'?
[man] It's the Rickster!
Ah!
[Ricky] Yo, what's up, bro?
-[MCA] How's it going, bro? -[Ricky] How you feelin'?
All right, we're just watching Saturday Night Fever, man.
What's up with these shades, Rick?
[man] Rick, watch the traffic.
Yo!
[Ricky] Whoa...
smooth lounge music
Yo, taxi!
Taxi!
[Cey] The Beasties had a crew of people in their entourage.
I was one of those people and Ricky Powell was one of those
people.
It wasn't so much about what he was there to do,
he was just a part of their crew.
What are you wasting the film on me for?
Funky karma.
[Ricky] Aw, shit!
Well, I thought he was one of the Beastie Boys.
[laughs]
Ricky had that swagger a lot of the white dudes started to have
when they started to really know and follow rap.
But it was natural, though.
And Ricky was one of the first to actually freeze the moment,
capturing that essence of hip-hop and rap music.
cool hip-hop beat
And that was significant, man.
[LL VO] He understood the culture, he understood the
language, and he was bi-cultural.
You know, Ricky was the right guy at the right time.
This white kid who's, like, deeply steeped in hip-hop when
hip-hop is in its infancy.
[Mike VO] Run DMC, Raising Hell, Public Enemy,
Nation of Millions.
He managed to capture really incredible moments in time that
are gonna, like, be important cultural moments forever.
It was almost like this whole hip-hop,
Run DMC, Beastie Boy thing was created for him,
not for us, which is crazy.
How the hell did he end up with the Beastie Boys?
Yo, let me tell you, though.
Wait, don't tape this, though.
-Stop! -[man] All right, I'll stop.
[Ricky VO] So, check it: you know how the whole thing
started.
I had known Ad-Rock growing up in the schoolyard of PS 41 in
the '70s.
[Ricky] Adam!
Made a new friend?
I used to look at him from afar, like,
"Yo, that kid has got some funky fresh flavor."
This guy, he's got everything--
I had that, I don't have it anymore.
He only has like four records in his whole collection.
He doesn't have any records.
I had that, I don't have it anymore.
[Ricky VO] So September of '85 and I say,
"Let me go check out this kid Adam's band,
the Beastie Boys."
So I go to the Cat Club; it's packed.
[cheering and applause]
And then, I'll never forget, the fuckin' 808 bass drum sound --
the Def Jam signature -- dropped.
Boom!
Beastie boys music
I was just like, "Wow.
They're magnificent."
So I went backstage and I was like,
"Yo, Adam, that shit was dope."
He was like, "Oh, shit," you know,
"What up, Rick?
Let me introduce you to the fellas."
And I don't know, I just started hanging out with them that fall
of '85 and recording it with a camera.
They started bringing me to gigs,
like saying, "Oh, yo, we got a gig in DC or Boston.
You wanna come with us?"
[beep]
[Mike on recording] Ricky!
It's Adam and Mike.
[Adam on recording] Hello, Rick.
It's your boy, Adam.
You've got to come by because you know...
When you're 19 and you're stoned and you're making this
new album and you think, like, "Aw, this shit's dope.
We need somebody to take pictures."
Ricky was just documenting everything.
And the guys were very excited about Ricky because he was a
character.
[Ricky] The new flavor!
Come on, Cey!
Did you hear me?
[Cey VO] He was one of those guys that would just charm the
pants off of you.
[Ricky] Hey, ya hooligan.
[Mike VO] We were comfortable around him.
You wanna say something on your show about how your brakes don't
work?
[Ricky] I fixed it!
-Check the right front brake, G! -[kid] You fixed it yourself?
[Mike VO] He had this innate positivity.
His, like, kind of saying or mantra for the time was
something like "If it's nice outside,
be happy, and if it's not, light up."
[man on recording] Yo, Ricky, what's up?!
It's your friend, the Beasties.
What's up? [laughs]
We're at the studio.
smooth hip-hop beat
[man on recording] Here's pianist and composer,
[inaudible].
This is so embarrassing.
Hey, hey, hey!
Old hippy chicks, they dig me.
Okay, you see this lamppost?
This is where I did my first official band shoot.
This actually became the cover for the East Village Eye
magazine.
Right here.
Well, to tell you the truth, if we didn't know that he already
had a connection with the Beastie Boys,
we would have used somebody else.
I took a chance on Ricky 'cause that was a very important story
for us.
This one, I call "The Charles Street Shuffle."
They were like this.
[camera snaps]
Shot one roll and said, "You know,
just stand here, stand there."
It took about a half-hour.
You know, had some laughs.
They had this-- this rapport with the photographer,
with the camera, and you see it in the pictures.
East Village Eye, Paper Magazine,
those were the publications that we read that meant stuff on our
scene.
But his breakout moment is when he goes on tour and you saw the
classic combination of early hip-hop stars.
And you go, "Dawg, you is really doing it.
I see what you were saying.
This is important stuff."
[slide advances]
[Ricky] Oh, I love this one!
You got, uh, Russell and the Beasties;
the manager and the group.
[slide advances]
Oh, that's a good one; Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen.
Russell was in charge of Def Jam Records,
Lyor Cohen was in charge of Rush Productions,
which was management.
I was very fortunate that Def Jam brought me into the fam.
They were like the coolest record label of hip-hop.
[slide advances]
Wow, these are great images.
Will Smith was coming to Rush to get a record deal,
and Daddy-O was just hanging out.
Yeah, this is a good example of me putting people together for
pictures.
I was very good at that.
Ah, I haven't seen this shot in a while.
Chuck D, very cool dude, 1988 on the Def Jam tour.
That's a very, uh, fashionable look.
Next!
[slide advances]
What?!
Oh, dip!
That's me on the Raising Hell tour.
That was a wild day.
Oh, shit.
Can I tell you what happened?
It was summer of '86.
I'm working my Frozade shift and it is fucking hot out.
Nobody's out.
So I get a copy of USA Today, I open up to the entertainment
section and it's a double spread: "Raising Hell Tour!
Run DMC!
Beastie Boys!
LL Cool J!"
And I looked at it and I'm just like,
"Yo, I need to be there.
Yo, fuck this job."
I rolled my cart to the garage...
call somebody and say, "Where they at tonight?"
They said, "St. Petersburg."
I get a bag together, got on a plane,
and I flew down there.
Now, I'm in St. Petersburg, there's nothing going on,
I'm asking people, "Yo, where's the arena where the Run DMC show
is?"
Someone says, "It's in Tampa," and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, it's not around here."
So I go into this bar.
It's like all these fucking hillbillies.
[record scratch]
Everyone stopped and looked at me.
And I threw all my money on the bar -- mostly change,
like $20.
I was like, "Can someone give me a lift to Tampa?"
So these two dudes, who had checkered shirts and beards,
they say, "We'll give you a lift."
Took me into their pickup and I sit in the middle,
and we're driving on the highway.
upbeat music
Then, they veer off and take a dirt road,
and I was like, "Yo, what?
What the fuck have I gotten myself into?"
And I start thinking of the movie Deliverance.
[pig squealing]
Just when I start to fuckin' get panicky,
I see in the distance the top of the Tampa Dome.
They actually brought me.
They drop me off, I'm like, "Yo, thanks, fellas!"
I go to the back entrance and a security guard comes out?
"Yeah?
What you want?"
"Yo, tell Ad-Rock from the Beasties the Rickster's out
here."
Five minutes later, Adam comes out.
He's like, "Oh, shit!
Yo!
What are you doin' out here?"
I'm like, "Ah, I was in the neighborhood."
Let's go, Ricky!
Let's go, man!
[Ricky VO] And then the Beasties,
they gave me a bunk on the tour bus.
It was sick.
Sick!
[Ricky] Yee-haw!
[Ricky VO] I was experiencing the lifestyle, you know?
I thought to myself, "Oh, my God,
this is the Big Time."
[honking] Hey!
First of all, it was baptism by fire performing with Run DMC
every night.
They were at the height of their powers,
and I mean they were just bombing on everything.
When I met Ricky, I remember him saying,
"Don't mind me, I'ma be taking a couple of flickeroonis."
[camera snaps]
[Ricky VO] This is, like, my second day being on the Raising
Hell tour.
Tallahasee, Florida, the Beasties with Lyor Cohen.
That was the first motel that we were able to afford that
actually had a pool.
We felt like we had arrived, and for him to have captured that
photo -- I don't ever remember having Speedos -- it's kind of
embarrassing but it's like looking back in memories;
it's beautiful.
[Ricky] Oh, shit!
LL Cool J, New Orleans, 1986.
It's crazy.
Yo...
man, it's the chunky dookie ropes,
it's the chains, the Kangols, the vibes.
[Hurricane] He'd take a picture without you noticing.
You would be sitting here and Ricky was sitting there taking a
picture.
You're like, "Ricky, what are you doing?"
Hey, you hiding something there?
You hiding something?
I've always seen Ricky doing this...
[whispering] Click.
Click.
"Oh, yo yo yo, let's get a shot real quick,
come on, we gotta get a shot!"
And you'd just turn around to take the shot...
and he's off.
[Darryl VO] He caught everything in real time.
"Cane!"
And you'd turn around.
Click, click!
By the time you turned around, he's clickin' it.
And that's what made him different than everybody else:
he just did it.
I remember one time, he was trying to take a picture and I
was kicking Ricky to go.
"Go, get back!"
He still had the camera.
"Get back, Ricky!"
And I'm kicking him, he's still trying to take the picture.
I'm like, "Oh, this guy won't stop."
[Ricky VO] I liked being part of the crew,
just hanging, you know, the "entourage,"
per se.
But also taking relevant pictures simultaneously.
And I think you have to get a degree in humanistic behaviors
before you can master the two together.
So Ricky, you think moving around a lot'll make me digest
faster or I should just chill out 'til the show?
[Ricky] Yeah, try to chill out before.
You don't want the Hersey squirts when you're performing.
Nah, that's not a good thing.
Yo, the light's not on, Rick.
It's not-- it's not recording.
Back then, it was like nobody had cameras all the time,
they didn't have the phones and all that stuff,
so somebody doing something goofy or stupid and then,
he'd be the first one to, like, "Oh,
hold it, hold it, hold it!"
And, you know, "Lemme get a snap!"
[LL VO] There can be photographers,
they feel like the tag on your undershirt.
There's a little bit of that... [makes rubbing sound]
You just wanna... [makes tearing sound]
You know what I mean?
But not Rick; Rick was cool.
The personal relationship with the photographers was important,
'cause number one, I don't really like being seen;
I like being heard.
I'm like, "Yo, you got five seconds, dude."
[beep]
Ricky says, "Lemme get that five seconds" and boom,
boom, boom, and then you felt that it was cool,
I can give him more.
He's capturing that moment of permission,
you know what I'm saying?
He worked in that area of permission.
License to Ill tour.
[LL VO] I mean, we were doing it on every level, man.
Yeah, yeah, that's my Benz.
That was my Benz.
Lemme see that?
Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, that's crazy.
[woman over speaker] We will be taxiing for a few moments.
[Ricky] You see, this is what I do: luggage.
I'm in charge of the luggage.
I'm integral to the Beastie Boys organization.
Whether it was the United States,
whether it was Europe, Ricky went everywhere with us and the
Beasties.
[Ricky] Uh-oh.
This guy is gettin' pissed.
Fellas, how you doing?
We're all okay?
So imagine that; imagine the guy that was there as a homeboy.
He got to see everything in a way that nobody else could.
upbeat hip-hop beat
Ricky's work had a certain, uh...
you know, capturing-the-moment look to it that was different
from other photographers.
[Sue VO] They were very human, kind of loving pictures.
To me, you know, these images were amazing,
like the photo of Jam Master Jay with the Pan Am plane behind
him.
You knew Ricky was there, but you didn't really feel like
there was a person there; there was just this image as if you
were there.
[Janette VO] One of my favorite images that he ever took was Run
DMC and the Beastie Boys on a tour bus.
It's not a posed photo, it's very unposed,
and I love that about Ricky's pictures;
they're very casual and they're very backstage,
behind-the-sceney.
He's not a photographer that's gonna sit there and take a
static portrait.
He really shows you the energy and the emotion,
and you wanna be there.
It was just always those spur-of-the-moment,
not typical, not the usual mundane,
ordinary photoshoots.
But the most iconic pictures of us by Ricky is the Paris
pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the back,
'cause that showed the world,
"Yo, we global."
Like, everybody global now, we've been global.
They look like, wow, they're hip-hop gods,
man, in this picture.
They are gods!
[LL VO] It was like "Look how far we've come."
It wasn't just a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower,
it was guys that were standing on the corner drinking 40 ounces
of Old English...
with the same outfits on that they wore in the hood,
but now, they're in front of the Eiffel Tower.
That's a big deal.
That's a really big deal.
That's special.
What up, man?
[cheering and hollering]
What up, Ricky?!
Kinky!
[snorting]
[Ricky] Hey, what's going on in here?!
Hey, hey!
[laughs] Fantastic!
[Max] Let me outta here!
[Ricky] What?
[Max] Hey!
Let me outta here!
We need to present you.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, introducing...
Max!
[laughs] Oh, shit!
Maxie!
I love this fuckin' shot.
It's my man, Max Perlich.
Max, I met through the Beasties in LA and just was very cordial
and accommodating and open right from the jump-off.
[Max] What's up, Rick?
Ah!
[Max] [laughs]
Come on, bitch!
[Max VO] Ricky really was part of the fabric of the Beastie
Boys' identity, their look.
I was intrigued by the energy -- this uncontrollable...
like you could get hurt or you could get an award,
you know?
For-- for-- for just being a part of the-- the troupe.
These guys all had that sort of draw;
Ricky was part of their act.
He was like the-- the-- the hype man.
[Ricky] Okay, go.
Whoo!
[Max VO] The guy that was there egging 'em on.
[bulb bursts]
[man] Oh, shit!
Oh, shit!
[Ricky] [laughing] Oh, shit, sorry.
You all right?
[screaming]
[Max VO] The guy that would cause trouble.
What are you doin', Ricky?!
And you needed him. [chuckles]
[Cey VO] Ricky and I were roommates on the License to Ill
tour; that's how I really got to know him.
And you learn a lot about people when you share a room with them.
Do it, do it, do it 'til you're satisfied
You know, that's staying right there.
I'm not going one more line in.
[laughs]
Do it, do it 'til you're satisfied (Whatever it is)
Do it, do it 'til you're satisfied...
[man] Do you like parties?
Yeah.
[man] We can invite all our friends and have soda and pie!
Yeah!
Ricky!
Yo, this is a orgy!
Fuck yeah!
[firework whistling]
[man] Oh!
Oh, I'm gonna fuck this dude up!
[all shouting]
[Ricky] Can we get fucking busy?
[crowd cheering]
Everybody knows what they'd like to do
Whatever it is, do it, as long as it pleases you
Just take some time and relax your mind
And do it, do it, do it 'til you're satisfied
[man] Ricky Powell, represent!
-Are you Ricky Powell? -[Ricky] Yes, ma'am.
-Everybody get Ricky! -No!
Everybody get Ricky!
I'm shrooming and just having a goof.
Let's get stupid!
[crowd cheering]
guitar solo playing from radio
Pshh.
Everything that you could imagine in the life of sex,
drugs, and rock n' roll, I saw it manifest with Ricky,
you know what I'm saying?
We had our groupies, Ricky had his groupies.
[Hurricane] Ricky, he was supposed to be the roadie,
supposed to do roadie things, but he wasn't doing the roadie
stuff.
You know, he was just supposed to be getting the bags and
bringing them upstairs to the room,
but Rick is just like-- he's doing him.
"Car Thief" by Beastie Boys
Homeboy, throw in the towel
[crowd] Your girl got dicked by Ricky Powell!
The Godfather of Soul is in the belly of the beast
Smoking that dust at St. Anthony's Feast...
And somehow, with the joint hanging off the side of his
mouth and, like, the drink almost spilling,
he managed to capture this frame and get these real moments.
smooth jazzy music
[Lynn VO] Rickster was giving away his pictures.
He was making them out of love and sharing them out of love.
Yet it costs money to buy food, pay rent,
pay for film and processing.
There's a lot of costs involved.
You can't just give it away.
Lynn Goldsmith, she taught me everything in the photography
business, and she was no-nonsense,
servicing pictures to all the magazines.
Lynn taught me the art of the hustle,
which she doesn't like me saying -- "hustle."
She's very fucking anal.
I'm Jewish and bossy.
You know, she liked me right off the bat,
loved that I was down with the Beasties,
loved saying "Rickster!"
[Lynn VO] When I saw Rickster's pictures -- I saw some
underwater pictures -- I felt he had such potential.
However, his pictures -- many of them were not good.
They were sloppy.
And he took my criticism and tightened up those photo skills.
She got in my face a couple of times.
She was tough.
Ricky wanted to be around the people who were really
interesting to him, and it didn't have to be the hip-hop
world.
[Patrick VO] As a photographer, he's on it.
I appreciate the artistry of access,
the artistry of getting it.
Like there's a great picture he has of Cindy Crawford where she
looks a little bit like, you know,
not disheveled but there's a realness.
You expect that he's gonna have the ill photo of Run DMC,
the ill photo of the Beasties, but when you see,
like, Andy Warhol and Cindy Crawford that he's just
capturing like...
this ain't a photoshoot, he wasn't commissioned,
he's just like, "Yo, I got you."
Boom.
upbeat hip-hop beat
Celebrity or some sense of celebrity is so important to any
photographer's work because that's the kind of stuff that
people go, "Oh, wow!
Is that Laurence Fishburne?!"
[Laurence VO] It's pretty badass.
[laughing] It's a pretty badass photo.
It captures me in a way that only people that know me,
that hung out with me, that grew up with me,
like, they know, "Oh, yeah, that's Fish,
that's Fish."
[Kaves VO] Those photographs are time capsules, man.
You wish you were him, you know?
You wish you were hanging out with Sofia Coppola but that--
that cocksucker's hanging out with Sofia Coppola.
That shot of Sandra Bernhard, Debi Mazar,
and Madonna together, you're like,
"Holy shit."
You're wrapped into what it really felt like to be there in
a way that's just significantly cooler because of the kind of
person he is and the kind of eye that he therefore has.
I think it's that he always seems a little bit absent.
You know, I'm not sure of, like, what he's up to that's creating
that sensation, but it makes you think that it's not really a
witness you should be too worried about,
you know what I mean?
'Cause maybe the picture's not even gonna be in focus,
and therein lies the great sort of,
uh, wisdom and artform of Ricky Powell,
which is "Oh, you better believe that shit's deep in focus."
[Ricky] What a day.
Okay, special guest today: the one and only,
the beautiful Sandra Bernhard.
Hi.
Hi, you guys.
We're hangin.'
Hangin' with the homeboy.
All right, let's go take some flicks.
-Okay. -Dope.
Oh, shit.
Getting some sun.
[Ricky] Yes, absorb those rays.
[Cheryl VO] The fisheye lens was Ricky Powell's signature
style.
I mean, it was undeniable.
You saw a picture like that, you knew that Ricky Powell took it.
Ricky was able to use something like the fisheye lens and kinda
define a moment.
You know, it's very distinctive, has a more arty feel to it.
[Cheryl VO] It was just fun and playful.
The fisheye lens was a big thing for us,
'cause we grew up as kids, like, reading these skate magazines
where the fisheye lens was a staple.
All those Check Your Head fisheye shots just,
like, instantly come to mind.
They, like, brought you into a whole different world and I was
totally transfixed.
[Cheryl VO] Portraiture in fisheye,
it's so associated with him.
mellow jazzy music
[Ricky] I've got a lot of classic slides just laying
around [laughs] and it's ridiculous.
I've got shots from Check Your Head tour just layin' around
here.
It's amazing how my shit is just around the place.
Oh, my God, shocking, isn't it?
[cat meows]
[Ricky] Okay.
Does he still live on that block,
the house that's cluttered with-- like-- like he's a
hoarder?
He's still in that place?
[Ricky] This is gonna be fun unearthing shit.
Oh, man, I've been looking for this shot!
Damn!
I'm gonna make a little necklace out of this,
a pendant -- the old New York token.
These are my Peggy Guggenheim sunglasses.
Oh, I found my pipe!
Two of the legs broke off.
[inhales]
It works.
[Freddy VO] He kept his apartment in this historic
context.
There's a certain aesthetic where it's like anything goes,
just throw shit anywhere, it's everywhere,
it's all scattered.
It becomes like a human collage, which could also be translated
as a lot of junk scattered around.
Oh, there goes John Sacks.
I gotta bring him back.
You could maybe use the bathroom there or roll a joint
there, but, like, you don't want to actually,
like, put any of your bare skin on any surfaces.
Is that a little harsh?
Oh, look what I just found: my old Pistol Pete jersey.
I don't know how he even walked around that place.
I couldn't believe he was living in there.
I felt sorry when I left.
[Bobbito] I mean, he's got such rare archives!
I'd be like, "Yo, Ricky, I need this photo."
And it's like, oh, man...
came to the wrong place.
"Yo, Bobbito!
Yo, yo, I got you, kid.
Yo, but yo, I got this, um-- I got this transistor radio.
Yo, you wanna hear it?"
[Ricky] humming
How dope do I look right now?
"Yo, Ricky, so you think you got that photo of the kid?"
Whoo-wee!
"Yeah, yo, I think-- I think it's s--" [laughs]
I don't smoke weed, yo.
So going to Ricky's crib is like,
fuck, it's everywhere.
This dude had so much weed, and I was like,
"Yo, the motherfucking cops can smell this sh-- like,
what the hell you doing?"
But "Yeah..."
You know, he didn't care.
Ricky had the best weed before people even knew what good weed
was.
Ricky had the chronic before Dr. Dre made The Chronic.
[exhales]
Ricky had the skunk before anybody knew what skunk was.
Everybody wanted it.
Everybody wanted Rick's weed.
[Ricky] You never know what you could find in here.
This is 27 years of stuff.
Anyway, right now, my place is bad as it's ever been,
but we're gonna bring it up again.
And, um, I think I'm gonna have some new revelations.
Yeah, you know, maybe I could revive my talkshow,
Rappin' with the Rickster.
Ugh...
[Ricky] All right, fellas!
Are we filming?
[indistinct chatter]
Dude, what's up?
Um, I'm just doing a photoshoot with Run DMC.
And, uh...
this is what it's always like.
Dude, let's-- let's come rap over here.
I'm being the first one in history to do a photoshoot and a
talk show at the same time, and you're a part of it.
I believe that this man is a complete dick with a television
show.
Oh, my God.
Rappin' with the Rickster, what's up?
Hangin' in Washington Square Park,
you know, smokin' a bowl.
I can remember just turning on my TV,
man, and clicking around the dial and there's Rappin' with
the Rickster, and I'd be like, "Yo,
that's my boy Ricky Powell right there."
Can you get that?
What a han-- what a cool dog.
I think channel 1 was like public access,
and Ricky was able to segue himself into the lineup of
[laughing] bizarre handmade shows.
Welcome back to Rappin' with the Rickster.
How he hustled a public access show just blew my mind,
really, 'cause I was like...
"How do you hustle that?"
I mean, I would've loved to have hustled that.
[Ricky] Vin Diesel!
What's up, G?
-Chillin'? -[Ricky] How you doin'?
Chillin', man.
What's up, you're catching me while I'm...?
[Ricky] Yeah, yo, you're on, uh,
Rappin' with the Rickster.
Oh, word?
[Ricky] You got any jams comin' up?
Not yet, I was just thinking about that.
I just got back from Florida, man.
I need to make some cash.
[Laurence VO] This is where we were all sort of growing up and
making our bones.
[Ricky] What up, Spike?
-What's up? -[Ricky] How you doin'?
He had a sense of what he was in the middle of and that there
was something worth documenting, something worth preserving.
I have the expertise, I have the know-how,
all I lack is the money.
-But I have heart. -[laughs]
It's very important to have heart, see.
-So I have the heart, so there. -[Ricky] I hear you.
That and a token will get you places.
You see what I'm sayin'?
[laughter]
[Darryl VO] Clearly an extension of his photography and the fact
that he's got a broad palate and broad tastes in different stuff.
Oh snap, it's Ariane and my man Futura 2000!
Yo, yo, what's up?
This is Faith Evans and I'm chillin' right here with my man,
the Rickster!
[cheering]
[Ricky] Excuse me, can I ask you a question?
Yeah.
[Ricky] Are you the legendary Bill Cunningham?
Oh, Jesus.
My name's Bill Cunningham but I'm not legendary.
[Ricky] You're legendary.
No, baloney!
[Ricky] I've seen you on 57th and 5th since I was a kid.
[drumming]
I was like, "Wow, the Beastie Boys are playing these
instruments, they're playing these funk jams,
this is fucking cool, and, like, who's this guy talking to them?"
Like, everything about it was so underground and raw.
[Mike VO] I still have VHS tapes of Rappin' with the Rickster.
That was maybe peak Ricky Powell in a certain way, right?
Because he had all this access from people that are making
really important rap records and hip-hop records and put that
together in a show that was very,
like, Ricky Powell.
So Mike D is our guest filmmaker today on the back of
the bike, so we'll see what's up.
My hands aren't very steady, though.
You know, I had years of abuse so...
[laughter]
[screaming and laughter]
Eazy, check it out, check this out.
Here, hold that there.
Check that out.
I'm in Midtown with a special guest from the West Coast.
His name is Eazy-E.
-Throwin' down. -What's up?
Ah, let me put on my [inaudible], man.
[Ricky] [laughs]
You caught me without the [inaudible].
[Ricky] Ahh.
Yo, what's up?
Compton's in the house.
[Ricky] What's up?
Oh, my goodness, what is this?
Yo, is this chocolate rolling paper?
[Eazy] That's licorice paper.
Ahh!
Yo, this is such an incredible honor.
I don't know what to say, I'm overwhelmed.
Stay tuned for the Rickster.
He'll be back.
smooth hip-hop beat
I loved it.
What's up, my mellow?
How you been?
Oh, I know I'm getting paid for this. [laughs]
What?
[Sue VO] I just loved how it recorded his wanderings around
town.
[Ricky] Excuse me, ladies?
It seemed like a natural progression for him.
What do you think of Vanilla Ice versus MC Hammer?
Good.
[Ricky VO] Rappin' with the Rickster,
those were some good years.
Yeah, kinda killed it, if I may pontificate slightly.
[Ricky] Don't you know who I am?
The raparazzo of the village?
Nah.
All right.
[cheering]
[man] To the 17 videos that Ricky shot!
Yeah, I'll drink to that!
[Ricky VO] I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.
Thanks a lot for having me.
Dude, no, the pleasure was all mine.
No, thank you.
Really, Rickster.
Hey, look, you wanna throw down or what?
Yo, my mellow, it ain't even like that, man.
I'ma step off, all right?
All right.
I-- I just...
I guess I was living the dream.
[Ricky] Thank you, Mike.
Thank you guys.
Get one three of us.
[Ricky] Thank you guys.
bittersweet piano music
[sighs]
As time goes on, relationships, they change,
people change...
indistinct singing
[Ricky VO] You know, MCA got spiritual.
It wasn't like License to Ill, for sure.
It got mature.
So they did what they did, but I still stayed me,
had a good time.
And it kinda ran its course after the '95 tour.
And that was the last tour I went on with them.
There was a bit of more consciousness on things,
especially after the Tibetan thing,
and it didn't seem quite as appropriate to have,
you know, Ricky dickin' around.
[Mike VO] Well, it's basically people growing up and maturing.
You know, as a band, we, in a lot of ways, did.
That doesn't mean that Ricky's necessarily gonna be in-step,
uh, with that, and fair enough, right?
Why should he be?
[Ricky VO] I know nothing lasts forever,
and regardless, I have a lot of fond memories.
Oh, dip!
I forgot about that.
Oh, shit, this is a heavy picture.
This is, uh, after a recording session for Paul's Boutique,
1988, Los Angeles.
MCA afterwards.
Beautiful soul.
What they were doing for music could be visually had,
and I think what he did for them was give a aspect that was,
you know, beyond all the noise.
It just-- it was a silent, like, image.
When he stopped documenting it, it stopped happening through his
eyes.
That perspective was lost.
So that died.
And part of him dies.
[crow caws]
melancholy music
Suddenly, he's having to wake up in a different time.
And, like, gaining a bunch of weight.
Losing some hair.
Being more reflective and doubting his confidence,
which you never see out of Ricky Powell.
[Ricky VO] I was disgusted with how things turned out.
Disenchanted with shit, you know,
life is changing, the complexion of the neighborhoods,
the people, the gentrification.
I was just like, "Yo, what the fuck has become of New York
City, my neighborhood?"
All these fuckin' New Jack jerk-offs comin' in here and...
"I got an 8:30 res at Dorsea.
Sea urchin ceviche."
Ugh!
I started hearing all kinds of shit about me,
getting funny looks.
Bullshit perpetrators said I sponged off the Beasties.
And I was like, "Fuck you, who do you fuckin' think you are
fuckin' judging me?"
So I was kinda getting spanked on the back end of all the good
shit, and that was kinda like the dark side of everything.
And I kinda became a hermit.
I didn't really go out as much, started getting into ordering
escorts out of the back of the Village Voice.
We don't have intercourse, we get zooted in the nude and we
talk.
And this one chick broke out this glass contraption,
and I was like, "What in tarnations is that?"
[exhale]
And she said, "Oh, this is candy."
And I took a hit and I was like...
"Wow."
[trippy sounds]
[sighs]
Uh, just, I guess, then, it got out of control.
I was like, I really liked it and I was spending all my money
on it and...
the girls that came with it, and it just became a little,
uh...
I became a little consumed with it,
and I lost control.
[eerie trippy sounds]
[Freddy VO] He would talk about going on a bender on some rather
hard drugs.
I'd be like, "All right, baby, watch yourself now.
You know, don't go too far."
But then, after a period, I heard it was getting a little
more hectic for him.
[Futura VO] You would see Ricky trashed at stuff and,
you know, that's been an ongoing story.
It never makes me feel good, obviously,
because, you know, these are people you care about.
I would run into Ricky at a function and he would act like a
total asshole after he's already donated a piece,
insulting people, starting fights.
[indistinct slurring]
[Cey VO] And then, they'd have to whisk him out of there before
he gets thrown out.
[Max VO] He changed.
In a way, he got resentful towards people that he had once
been fond of.
I would call Rick up.
It was like, "Yo, we wanna use a picture for something that..."
He always-- you know, he'd wanna play stick-up games,
he wants to charge me a zillion dollars,
he's not available, it's not happening.
You know, he pissed me off, he told me to,
you know...
He told me to kiss his ass a few times,
and I didn't love it.
[Ricky VO] I was wilding so much that my perceptions were
not fully on.
[coughing]
Smooth.
[beep]
[man on recording] Yo, Ricky, what's up?
This is Reed.
Called you once today, phone just kept ringing.
[man on recording] Rickster, mon.
Wake up, mon.
Are yous asleep, mon?
[beep]
[man on recording] Rickster.
Ricky.
Rick, Rick.
[woman on recording] You are being such a dick!
[man on recording] Where you at?
[woman on recording] Fuckin' asshole.
[beep]
[Freddy] "Ricky, I was trying to reach you for the past week
or two weeks or so.
What happened?"
And, uh, you'd get concerned sometimes because you've seen
friends that are gone and you will never see again.
[Futura] Merry Christmas, Rick.
[Ricky] Yo, say "Happy holidays from Futura 2000."
Happy holidays from Futura 2000.
Oh, this one's fuckin' ripped.
If someone were to call me up one day or you get an email from
a friend that says, "Oh, man, did you hear the news?"
and something bad happened to Ricky,
it'd be another one of those type people that you wouldn't be
too surprised.
This is Ricky Powell, reporting from the Waldorf Astoria.
How you doing, Ricky?
[Ricky] All right, how you doin'?
-Good, good to see you, man. -[Ricky] Good to see you.
Doin' great.
He would call me; at his deepest,
darkest hour, he would call me.
I'm like, "Are you all right?"
Oh shit, people are probably looking at us, man.
He said, "Max...
don't listen to what they're saying.
Am I-- am I fucked up because I'm sad?"
[Ricky VO] In certain ways, I sometimes think I'm played out
or people don't care for me anymore.
When you're in a delicate state of mind,
it hits hard.
I've done shit that just made me go,
like...
"Duke, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
Yeah, one time, I breezed through like 75,000 in like
three months, ordering in girls and drugs and...
just kept doing it; I couldn't stop.
Ricky is like kind of like a hardship...
dude.
Like, he hasn't always had his life together and the community
has held him down whenever we can...
My man, Ricky.
[Bobbito VO] And whenever he needs.
You know, it's-- it's difficult to see Ricky struggle.
[Ricky] [groans]
[Ricky VO] Yeah, it's my own fault.
Whoo.
I hate that shit.
It unbelievable to me that I spent money the way I did,
have done.
Unbelievable.
You know, that's the worst part.
After I-- you know, 'cause sometimes,
you're wilding, you can't-- you know,
you can't stop, you wanna keep it going,
and you spend more money and...
then, when it's finished, then-- oh man,
then the fucking guilt kicks in, the shame.
You know, "Oh, my God, how can I replenish that money?"
And it's horribe, dude, it's terrible.
It's a nightmare, it's a living nightmare.
You know, you just feel like a fuckin' piece of shit.
mellow jazzy music
New York has been home to many an intense creative that has
danced and flirted close to the edge.
It's just synonymous with underground,
cutting-edge culture.
We don't want him to die and then,
we say, "Yo, he's magn-- he's a artist!
He's a art-tist."
Ricky's identity, that whole "Rickster" thing,
that's how he sees himself: as a hustler.
And a hustler lives on the edge.
[Cey VO] When you meet him and you spend time with him,
you fall in love with him.
It's happened with all these people present-day,
they just don't have another version of him to compare it to.
I have another version, and it's that guy from the '80s.
I'm here with my brother, soul brother, Cey.
I never say things about what people should've done or what
they could've done, their potential,
they could've been this, they could've been that.
Life is not that way.
Listen, it hits me hard 'cause I love the guy.
And, uh, I think addiction is an illness and I think people with
these monkeys on their backs should try to deal with it.
[Ricky] [coughing]
[Kaves VO] We're all human beings, right?
And we got-- we got flaws.
There's ups and downs and there-- there are dark periods
and there are dark times.
I mean, what artist doesn't?
It's also sort of a lonely man's journey where,
like, "Is it real that I'm feeling this way,
like I don't know how to participate in my own life
anymore?
What's happening to me?"
[Ricky VO] Honestly, I was just kinda done with life.
I had a good run but shit is whack;
I'm not enjoying this-- this...
how life is.
mellow jazzy music
I thought about stepping in front of a bus...
or I would smoke so much drugs that I was hoping I'd fucking go
out in a blaze.
And there was a night I just did,
like, a three-day binge wilding out and this pain came,
and I was like, "Oh, shit.
I don't think Asprin's gonna fucking help this shit."
I figured I'd just drop dead right there.
[sirens]
When I heard Rick had a heart attack,
the first thing I asked was, "Yo, is he okay?"
You know what I'm saying?
A heart attack's not a joke.
And they said, "Yeah, yeah, he's okay,
he's not really doing great."
[groans] Oh, man.
I mean, well, it was not profoundly surprising.
Psh, if you didn't see it coming,
then you don't-- you weren't in touch with Ricky.
Ricky's fuckin'...
asking for that shit, dying for it,
begging for this shit.
"Please, hello?!"
[Ricky VO] Was I afraid to die?
No.
I was, like, ready for whatever.
[man] I hear a little bit of phlegm in there.
Uh-huh.
Take some deep breaths from an open mouth.
[exhales deeply]
He's a grown-up and I'm not his father,
but I am his friend, and we all, in New York City,
lost too many friends from that shit.
And I don't wanna lose another one.
[sniffles] I...
See?
I'm getting emotional.
I know.
There's a fuse...
and eventually, it burns out and blows up.
[sniffles]
mellow lounge music
Look how cute that is.
[clicks tongue]
I think I'm turning into one of those old kooks,
but I don't mind.
GT, come on.
[clicks tongue]
I fear that someone like him will end up really alone,
and I think you can see his, like,
hurt soul.
I don't know how to explain it, but I've always felt that
there's another Ricky in there, wanting to be loved.
[Ricky VO] Has it been hard not having a real family?
Perhaps, I don't know.
My shit was crazy, that's all.
It is what it was.
I had girlfriends where their families embraced me,
so I had these short-term...
step-families.
And also, yeah, when I was on tour,
that was a family.
[Ricky] See this?
This is where they named a burrito after me.
[Ricky VO] The best thing is to be around people that are a
positive force that you get along with.
[Ricky] What's up, Dukes?
If you wanna call those people "family,"
fine.
[Ricky] Hey, fellas, how are you?
[Max VO] I didn't know Ricky's family situation 'til I met
Ruth.
Ruth was not like the mother that most of us had that was
like, "Hey, did you get enough to eat?"
No, she was the kind of mom that would be like,
"Don't contact me for a few months,"
and like, you know, "You owe me $15."
upbeat music
You're always hollerin' 'bout where I've been
Thank you, sir.
You're always screamin' 'bout the money I spend
What's buggin' you?
[can tab pops]
Ah, seltzer: Jewish champagne.
Love it.
Sorry.
Oh, shit.
Oh, my God.
My mother just walked in.
No, you can go film it!
No, I don't wanna be there.
She's gonna hate me, dude!
Ugh...
[man] Did she not see you?
No, I saw her coming in, I was like--
[man] Kismet.
Ricky, things happen for a reason.
What are the chances?
[sighs] All right.
Ugh, fff...
Yup, that's her.
I can see she's just waiting for her take-out order.
[Ricky VO] Well, as you know already,
it's very unconventional.
We've been on-and-off for years, and we're off again right now.
Yeah.
Just, you know...
it's not good.
She thinks, you know, she doesn't like how I am.
Whatever, man.
She just thinks I'm irresponsible;
she's always thought that.
It's very complicated, dude.
You know, I've got issues myself.
I had a really bugged-out childhood
being a only child with her.
See this dude?
He's probably walking with his mom right here.
Whenever I see that kind of thing,
it makes me think, like, "What am I gonna do,
just let her live out her years, she dies,
and that's it?"
[sighs]
Oh.
Ruth!
Ruth.
I wanna talk to you.
Ruth.
Ruth!
Oh, man, she gave me the death look.
Well, I tried.
I'm not endearing to everybody, including my mother,
and that's, uh, so be it.
[Ricky VO] It's just the way she looks at me, dude.
I hate the look.
You know, maybe she's happy without me in her life,
so if she's happy, good.
It doesn't matter at this point.
It's just not pleasant for me.
She makes me miserable.
mellow groovy music
We all have to, at some point, make peace with the boogymen of
our own psyches, let go of the old shit that's just causing
suffering to kind of figure out what round two is gonna look
like.
[Ricky VO] You know, I had a lot of looking in the mirror...
I was just like, "Ugh," I was disgusted.
One day, I just fuckin' had it and I said,
"All right, I'm changing shit up."
[pop]
[exhales]
upbeat funky music
Change.
Reinvent yourself.
Sick, bitch!
Be all you can, you know, be your potential.
This is it, this is it.
If I don't do it now, that's it, and I know that,
and I don't wanna go back.
I don't.
I feel fortunate that I'm here, been through what I've been
through, my head is nice and clear.
You look gorgeous.
That's why I kinda feel like a survivor in a certain way;
I've been through all that shit, now I just feel like I'm ready
to fuckin'...
Like I have a clean slate.
Sick!
Whoo!
Whoo.
You...
da...
man, Gringo.
Yeah, hell yeah.
[Ricky] I coined that term.
mellow jazzy music
[Ricky VO] Tono is a big part of my resurgence.
I call him "the quiet guy on the side."
He's very talented in many ways, and he's such a great guy.
He's a great, great-- he's great for my soul.
[Tono VO] A lot of people think I'm the manager or I'm this,
I'm that.
Really, I'm just somebody that works with Ricky.
The title is not important.
If I have to fill a manager's shoes for a day,
then that's what it is.
You know, I'm a professional photography assistant.
I have been for many, many years.
It's a ying-yang situation, and in every ying-yang,
there needs to be balance.
And I feel like I bring that-- a lot of that for Ricky.
[Ricky] Whoo!
[coughs]
humming along to radio
Ooh.
That's hot.
[Tono] A lot of negatives.
So Ricky, we're gonna move this shelf in there?
Is that the-- that's the deal, right?
[Ricky] Well--
[Tono] I think it is the move.
[Ricky] I do too.
We're just gonna have to find a way to find shit for that clump
-of shit right there. -[Tono] Right.
Can you do it yourself or you need me?
I think I'm gonna just do it.
I'm gonna just bulldog this right here.
Okay, bulldoze.
[Tono] Okay.
Thank you.
I appreciate you.
[Tono] Yes, sir.
[Ricky] I don't know how you do it.
[Tono] The fun begins.
[Tono VO] Working with any artist can be challenging.
Working with Ricky, uh, has its own challenges.
[Tono] That real estate you got here.
Ay yai yai.
[Tono VO] I realized there was a lot of repair that needed to
be done.
[groans]
[Tono VO] There were deals that fell through,
there were apologies that needed to be made.
Can I get this guy in another head,
in another place?
All right, so we got that, there's a pile of clothing here.
I don't know, he saw things in me where he felt he could come
in and, uh, help me out and, you know,
maybe we could, uh, make some beautiful music together.
He's the perfect compliment to me.
He likes cleaning and he likes going through my shit,
but most of all, he likes helping me keep the apartment
clean for my spirit.
I'm just a fuckin' lazy, sloppy motherfucker.
I will not clean.
I don't know what it-- it's despicable.
[Tono] Just trying to keep the environment healthy,
really.
[Ricky] You're fucking out of your mind.
I love it, but it's weird.
[Tono VO] Ricky came to me one day and said,
"Tono, I need a book."
And I noticed that there were slides and negatives all over
the apartment.
Doink.
Thank you, man, thank you for unearthing that one.
[Tono VO] I systematically just started organizing,
gathering photos from under his bed,
from in the corners, and there's a lot more.
It's almost like urban archaeology.
I'm breaking the surface here.
[Ricky VO] He took time to scan everything,
design the book, design the cover.
[Ricky] This is a decent picture of Don D but too dark.
Oh, shit, Bobby Byrd.
I love most of these.
Love them.
[Tono VO] He wants to live with this book and feel good
about it.
He's not difficult.
For me, it's just a rhythm that you have to get in with somebody
who's different.
Lady Pink, I like that.
[Tono VO] We can be creative together and it's very easy.
[Ricky] Whoo!
suspenseful electronic tones
[button clicks]
[Ruth on recording] Hello.
If this is Ricky, this is Ruth.
Uh, I would appreciate it if you would try to get in touch with
me.
I would really appreciate hearing from you or seeing you.
Okay?
Here's hoping you will contact me.
Okay, hoping to see you, bye.
Wew.
Wew, that's heavy.
I never heard her sound like that.
[clears throat]
She, uh...
Wow, sounds like she's, um...
going out.
She sounds, uh, weak, frail, yeah.
I'm gonna call her today-- [clears throat]
I'm gonna call her today and, uh,
I'll go see her tomorrow 'cause I'm not feeling well today.
[Ricky VO] Crazy how life unfolds day by day.
I'm gonna try to keep it short and,
uh, show good will.
I don't like dramatic, big, long anythings.
languid saxophone
[Ruth VO] I was never big on mothering.
It was bothersome because it put a lot of limits on my
activities.
But I reached out to tell him, you know,
"We have to be in touch with each other,
that I care about you."
[Ricky] [groans]
[Ruth VO] I regret almost everything I did,
I regret not showing affection.
My life was all involved with the animals.
Everything was about animals.
I cared more about the animals than Ricky.
It was true.
[Ricky] Hey, Ruth!
How are you?
Looking good.
[sighs]
Oh, wow.
Where do you like to sit?
[Ruth] There.
[Ricky] Okay.
Wew, this used to be my room.
My bed was here...
uh, desk, TV...
whatevers.
Ugh, shoo, so the place looks good.
-You look good. -Thank you.
You look the same.
Yeah?
Except this.
-This? -Yeah.
Yeah, this is my Isaac Asimov look.
Your what?
Isaac Asimov.
Oh. [laughs]
You don't like this?
-No. -No?
It makes you look too old.
-Really? -Yeah.
Yeah, I don't like that.
That doesn't look good.
Oof, okay.
[Ruth VO] I never told him how much I cared about him and loved
him.
I should have, but I never said that.
I'm thrilled to see you.
Okay, good.
-Yeah. -Likewise.
Anything you need or want...
Thank you, I appreciate that.
I'm-- I'm good, I'm good, but thank you.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm good, I'm good.
I'm glad you got to see me.
I'm glad I got to see you.
Yeah, good.
[Ruth VO] If I had a chance to make up for everything I missed,
I would do it.
I regret putting the blame on him instead of myself.
It was my own fault, not his fault.
[Ricky VO] She's, you know, looking forward to a fresh
start.
All these things I never thought I'd hear from her. [laughs]
Good to see you.
Anything you need.
I know, thank you.
Thank you.
Get rid of this.
I will. [laughs]
Okay.
See you soon, Ruth!
upbeat beats
[Ricky VO] You know, listen, I'm a lone wolf,
I like how I live, I got my nice little studio.
Got my futon, got my big color TV.
Now, I have cable TV.
I got it made.
Hey, what's up?
[Ricky VO] Yo, listen, there's no guarantees in life.
I've seen lots of people come and go,
and here I am, all these years later,
looking very handsome, if I may, very sharp.
I'm fucking thriving right now.
Yo.
Stick with me, baby.
No more of this struggling artist shit.
It's played out.
My time has come!
[people cheering]
The book has been incredible.
My work speaks for itself, and gigs come at me.
[man over mic] Ricky Powell!
His work is iconic, and I think to see him out there,
showing his artwork, doing shows,
he's got so much to give.
[Ricky VO] I do my live slideshow,
where I tell anecdotes of the pictures.
This is where it all started, baby.
Yo, dude was like... [laughter]
[Ricky VO] There's no one else that does it like me.
I did Italy and Sweden this year,
Dublin, San Francisco, Japan.
It's the Japanese Ricky Powell right here.
He's an important documentarian of an important time in this
town.
And that we can look at these pictures of early LL Cool J,
of early Run DMC, of early everybody.
Now, that's the photograph for me.
Yo, this is famous.
To make yourself available to everything that's going on...
[laughter]
Gives you kind of an edge that most people don't have.
Whoo!
What?
[laughs]
I feel very priviledged and, uh,
fortunate.
Thank you.
I cannot put it into words, as Ottis Redding would say,
how much love I feel and I want to transcend it back.
[Chuck VO] Ricky Powell is a god in his artistry himself.
He is just as important as the art,
as the artist, because he is the artist.
He had this talent for going into your world and capture
those genuine moments.
[Kaves VO] Those photos are everything.
Those are my heroes, those are my superheroes.
[whistling and cheering]
Happy birthday, Ricky!
[cheering]
[LL VO] He's an OG in the game.
He really was there, it's true.
It's definitely official.
Ricky's body of work speaks to what the streets of New York
are.
It is those celebrities, it is the bum on the street,
it is the crazy lady with the birds on her shoulder,
it's everything.
[Hurricane VO] Ricky's still License to Ill.
Like, you can see Ricky and say, "Man,
Ricky ain't changed a bit."
I feel like I'm tripping on mushrooms.
I'm just bugging out on mushrooms.
It's not like he was a showbiz pop star that was a constructed
idea; he's very much, you know, what you see is what you get.
[Darryl VO] He's one of the greatest photographers in
history that should be celebrated,
is a one-of-a-kind, he's in his own lane.
He's fuckin' Ricky Powell.
gentle uplifting music
[Ricky VO] There has to be a movie about me,
seriously.
The essence of bummy sophisticatedness.
Oh, fuck!
What?
What, who wants some?
Oh, fuck.
[laughs]
No, don't tell me you f--
[laughter]
Oh, my God.
I still look dope.
Unemployment at a record high
People coming, people going, people born to die
Don't ask me, because I don't know why
But it's like that, and that's the way it is
People in the world try to make ends meet
You try to ride car, train, bus, or feet
I said you got to work hard to want to compete
It's like that, and that's the way it is
Huh!
Money is the key to end all your woes
Your ups and your downs, your highs and your lows
Won't you tell me last time that love bought you clothes?
It's like that, and that's the way it is
Bills fly higher every day
We receive much lower pay
I'd rather stay young, go out and play
It's like that, and that's the way it is
Huh!
War's going on across the sea
Street soldiers killing the elderly
What ever happened to unity?
It's like that, and that that's the way it is
Disillusion is the word...