Futura 2000

Doran, John and Goldman, Vivien. “Parisian Interzone: The History of Celluloid Records.” The Quietus. February 28, 2013. https://thequietus.com/articles/11470-celluloid-records-review-essay.

Greene, Jayson. “Change the Beat: The Celluloid Records Story 1980 – 1987.” Review of Change the Beat: The Celluloid Records Story 1980 – 1987, by Various Artists. Released February 2013. Pitchfork, March 20, 2013. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17495-change-the-beat-the-celluloid-records-story-1980-1987/.

Released simultaneously in 1982, Celluloid Records’ five-single “New York City Rap” collection represents an irreplicable moment in the history of American music. These five records and their accompanying European live tour would introduce the emerging genre of Hip Hop to the international market, and by the end of ’82, would solidify Hip Hop in the public imaginary as the meteoric, multi-disciplinary youth movement it was in its early days. While these five tracks weren’t the first in the genre to receive international attention, these records intentionally linked movement (represented by break dancing and double dutch), rap music, and graffiti art as the golden trifecta that made up early Hip Hop culture for the non-American public.

Key to making this translation of Hip Hop to the world such a success was Celluloid’s unprecedented decision to select not only emerging emcee's like GrandMixer D.ST and Tribe II to cut tracks for this series, but graffiti writers as well. As they tapped rising stars Phase II, Fab 5 Freddy, and Futura 2000 (now, FUTURA) to record 3 out of 5 of the series’ singles, they also commissioned Futura to create the pentaptych work that serves as back cover art for all five vinyls.

Foreshadowing viral social media marketing campaigns of the 21^st century, Celluloid created a “collect-them-all” style hype around the New York City Rap singles through the consumer promise of owning your own Futura original if you simply bought all five that made these singles even more on demand. The line “Ahhhhh, this stuff is really fresh” that appears towards the end of Fab 5 Freddy’s “Change the Beat” would go on to make the track one of the most sampled songs in music history.

Individually sourced over the course of years—the present lot assembles these five singles into a new life as a mixed-media work. Lot 15 shadowboxes each of these Celluloid releases into the original pentaptych design, transforming each from a 12” vinyl to a 12”x12” panel of a 5-piece Futura work, framed and matted under glass. Aerosol mists of true blue, teal, yellow and green bleed into darker magenta, navy, eggplant shades as the work moves linearly, concluding in bursts of blue and green at the far right edge. This cosmic plane is speckled with a rainbow of aerosol dots that would become a defining feature of Futura’s particular abstraction and marked with fluid thin “breaks” (linear strokes) that were unique to his technical skill with the paint can. The design does not include Futura’s full tag, but a lone “2000” does appear on the panel that served as the back cover for the artists’ own single in the Celluloid series—“Futura 2000 and His Escapades.” To finalize the transition from vinyl art to official Futura work, this lot has been tagged “Futura” by its original creator in dripping black paint, with the tag being pressed under an additional custom plexiglass plan for conservation.

Before putting together the New York City Rap series, Celluloid Records was a tiny yet successful independent importer running out of a cramped office at the edge of Paris’ 20^th arrondissement. Tri-owned by Jean [Georga]Karakos, Gilbert Castro and Jean-François Bizot, the original Celluloid curated an eclectic mix of new, international and underground alternative sounds for an eager French audience. Celluloid continued to focus on cornering the French “branche” market until tri-founder Karakos visited New York City in 1980. There, Karakos met the young musician and future Celluloid producer, Bill Laswell whose conversations about the stagnant and segregated mainstream American music industry would inspire Karakos to split off from the Celluloid he built in Paris to join the ranks of subcultural explosions taking over the five boroughs. Egged on by French expatriate and journalist Bernard Zekri—Karakos’ longtime friend who had long since left their home country to embroil himself in Manhattan’s downtown art scene—Karakos landed stateside in 1981.

1981, the year era-defining feature films Wild Style and Downtown 81 both began production. In 1981, a young graffiti painter FUTURA 2000 (now Futura) creates the cover art for the notorious “This Is Radio Clash” album after meeting the eponymous punk band during their historic shows at Bonds International Casino. In 1981, new wave’s first lady Debbie Harry shouts out graffiti artist and Hip Hop ambassador Fab 5 Freddy in Blondie’s “Rapture”— “Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly”—and Freddy performs a cameo in the music video for the track, the first Hip Hop video to appear on mainstream stalwart MTV. MoMA PS1’s landmark exhibition, “New York / New Wave” that brought together Futura, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rammelzee, and DONDI opened in February of this same year. 1981 was a moment in NYC arts where these new movements—downtown’s “no wave” and uptown’s “Hip Hop”—weren’t just developing at fantastic speeds, they were colliding and producing spectacular new forms in those encounters. This is the New York that welcomed Celluloid’s Karakos—a city abuzz with the possibilities of cross-genre, cross-medium experimentation across art movements.

The New York City Rap collection came out of this spirit of artistic alliance that permeated the city. Through Zekri, Karakos and now-producer Bill Laswell connected with Kool Lady Blue—promoter at the Roxy and manager of the Rock Steady Crew—as she planned her “New York City Rap Tour.” While Blue put together the now-iconic line-up of b-boys, double dutch girls, DJs, early “MCees,” and graffiti writers, the Celluloid team devised their series of five, simultaneously released singles by lineup featured artists with a continuous mural designed by Futura 2000 as their back cover art. See "special thanks" to Blue and Zekri listed in the credits for The Roxy and The GrandMixer Cuts It Up. Altogether, the present lot epitomizes a moment in time—artifacts of the very first mingling of the subcultures that revolutionized NYC in the early 80s, reunited and given new life almost 40 years later.