6. Fab Five Freddy
Before he brought hip-hop into the bedrooms of young suburbanites in the late ’80s as the host of Yo! MTV Raps (and the director of some of the era’s most significant videos), Fab Five Freddy, who is of Barbadian and Guyanese descent, was the primary figure responsible for bringing hip-hop culture into the mix of New York’s art/downtown scene. Hip-hop’s first true renaissance man, the promoter, artist and occasional rapper (his “Change the Beat” is likely the first rap record delivered in French) curated the first graffiti art show “Beyond Words” with Futura 2000 at New York’s Mudd Club and, and, as director Charlie Ahearn’s co-producer, co-star and chief talent scout, enabled the making of the original hip-hop movie, Wild Style.