Fab Five Freddy

Fred Brathwaite (born August 31, 1959), more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, TV personality, author and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the street art movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a graffiti artist. He was the bridge between the burgeoning uptown rap scene and the downtown No Wave art scene. He gained wider recognition in 1981 when Debbie Harry rapped "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly" on the Blondie song "Rapture". In the late 1980s, Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking hip-hop music video show Yo! MTV Raps. In 2026, Brathwaite released his memoir, Everybody is Fly: A Life of Art, Music and Changing the Culture, which chronicles his role as a "cultural synthesizer" between the street, art, and music scenes of New York City.