Fab 5 Freddy’s 'Everybody’s Fly' is a backstage pass to NYC’s new wave hip hop scene

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Fred Brathwaite — aka ‘Fab 5 Freddy’ — is a pioneering multimedia artist credited with bringing hip hop to the mainstream in the 1980s. His new memoir Everybody’s Fly looks back at Brathwaite’s life in New York, beginning when art forms like rap, graffiti, breakdance, and DJ remained mostly underground. In today’s episode, Brathwaite joins NPR’s Adrian Ma to discuss his inspiration behind the memoir, and how his widespread artistic collaborations throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s synthesized culture and propelled it forward.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Tinbit Eremias, and this is NPR's Book of the Day. I have a deep love for hip-hop.
0:10.6	Some of my earliest memories involve me dancing to music videos on shows like Yo MTV Raps.
0:16.5	So I was very excited to learn that one of the hosts of that program, Fab Five Freddie, has a new memoir out.
0:23.9	It's called Everybody's Fly.
0:26.3	Fab Five Freddy is a pioneer of hip-hop, having put his stamp on nearly all aspects of the culture.
0:31.9	He was a teenager when the genre got its start and was a key part of helping make it mainstream.
0:38.3	Fat Five Freddy spoke with Adrian Ma on all things considered about his life, hip-hop,
0:44.0	and the artistic vision he brings to his work.
0:47.8	As a young man in 1979, New York City, Fred Brathwaite dreamed of making his mark on the world, or more specifically,
0:56.7	on the side of a subway car.
0:58.4	New York graffiti was a thing that had been going on and developing, and the subways were one
1:04.2	of the major platforms, if you will, no pun intended.
1:07.8	Part of that time and a part of that like just crazy explosion of teenage energy
1:15.4	is at the core of it. So one December night, he and a friend snuck into the yard where the subway
1:20.6	trains were parked. And on the side of one car, they spray painted several giant Campbell's soup cans,
1:26.9	an homage to one of Fred's favorite artists, Andy Warhol.
1:30.3	It was sort of a manifesto as a way to explain and show people that we are artists and we are aware of the history of art and this connection to pop art.
1:40.4	Now, that piece was short-lived, washed away by the Metropolitan Transit Authority,
1:45.1	but that crazy explosion of teenage energy, that stuck around. And Fred Brathwaite,
1:51.0	better known today as Fab Five Freddy, he played a huge role in bringing this budding culture
1:56.3	to new audiences. And that's even before it became collectively known as hip-hop.
2:01.8	He connected creative people of all sorts.
	...

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