I love Italian food. Pizza, pasta, prosciutto, salami, garlic bread — you name it. So, my ideal dinner would undoubtedly be Italian cuisine. I’d probably eat pasta bolognese with a good baguette and some pesto on the side. But the food is not nearly as important as who I am eating it with.
If I could choose three famous people from history, alive or dead, to sit down and have a meal and conversation with, I would choose the Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB) of the Wu-Tang Clan, pioneer skateboarder Mark Gonzales, and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. This legendary group of individuals would undoubtedly create a great conversation about how visual art, hip-hop, and skateboarding culture went hand-in-hand throughout the 80s and 90s and morphed into the culture we have today
ODB was virtually unrivaled in the personality department, being one of the most colorful personalities in hip-hop both back in his day in the 90s and early 2000s. His eccentric character remained an essential part of his persona until his tragic death in 2004. He would bring a much-needed spice to the table; encouraging the rest of us to let loose and show our true selves along with him. Mark Gonzales, not only a skater but also a painter and artist himself, would be at the forefront of an insightful conversation about the bridge between art and skateboarding culture and how skating has been heavily influenced by artists of all mediums throughout time. Jean-Michel Basquiat, although he passed away at a very young age in 1988, could add a personal anecdote on the development of his art and its comments on society throughout the 1980s. A lot of Basquiat’s work was representative of social and political rebellion, which is something in common both with hip-hop and skateboarding.