Shawn Setaro
[Legendary hip-hop photographer Janette Beckman recently sat down with hip-hop personality Shawn Setaro on his popular “The Cipher” podcast. Listen to the full interview and check out five gems Janette dropped during the Q&A.]
On a particularly eccentric landlord she had as a student in 1970s London:
“The guy was really crazy. He had a nudist camp in his back garden where he lived out in Reading, and all of us art students, he used to get us there to go there and cut the grass for him. We used to have to cut the grass in the nude. We were all pot smoking, we didn’t care. We were all out there in the English summer, cutting the grass and having a good time.”
On hanging out with the Sex Pistols:
“They were like kids messing around. [It was a] ‘what can we do to be naughty?’ kind of thing. ‘Oh, let’s go and push that boy off of his bicycle.’ It was as crazy as that.”
On her reaction to seeing the very first overseas hip-hop show, 1982’s New York City Rap Tour:
“I went to the show in the evening, and it was mind-blowing. It had breakdancing, double-Dutch, DJs scratching, graffiti. Everything was going on on this one stage, and I’d never seen anything like it before.”
On how she almost ended up on an NWA song:
“Eazy really liked my British accent. He said, ‘Could you come in and read something for our new album?’ I’m all excited. And he gives me this piece of paper, and on it is a lurid description of how to give the perfect blowjob. Suffice to say, I didn’t do it, but someone else probably did. I sort of wish I had, now.”
On how hip-hop changed once big money entered the game:
“In the early 90s, big record labels started to take over and dictate the way it should be, and [even] what artists should wear. It was more about making money than making art.”
To hear the whole interview, click here or listen below.
