VH1 Hip Hop Honors

by Jonene Lee

I'm so envious of people who can think of things to write about easily. The writers of the world ... I am not that ... at least I don't fancy myself a "writer". I write blog posts and long involved instagram captions about my life, but for some reason ... I don't consider myself a "writer".

Blog post topics. Uuuuuuugggggg just another thing for me to make a decision about which, if I think too hard on, I'll get overwhelmed and not do it. These blog posts originated because I wanted to be like those artsy websites that have deep insightful facts, opinions and stories about art. I thought that, if I could get the artists to write essays about their work and process, eventually, I'd have the most sought after blog.

Not the case.

I quickly found out other artists like to write just as much as I do ... they don't. Well some do ... some artists have a knack for writing beautiful stories about their work, while others, like me, would rather just produce the work and not get into a long involved blog post about it. BUT ... this business and brand that I'm building isn't just about what I want to do ... so I started writing more blog posts about personal stuff.

Only coming up with topics is sometimes hard, BUT...

I woke up this morning with an idea - why don't I just pick random folders in my hard drives and write about the photos in them? I have 4 hard drives full of photos. Folders upon folders of photos of how I've viewed the hip hop culture throughout my life.

The VH1 Hip Hop Honors Rehearsal

It was October of 2008. I had just taken the photo of all the Philly DJs in September so I was riding high (figuratively and literally on percocets) on the fact that I was this super cool hip hop photographer. In reality, I had no idea what I was doing and I was high as shit on opioids. So just to be clear ... I really don't remember most of this day, because I was high. Opioids are great for numbing emotional pain but that means your memory kind of goes numb too. Thank God for photos, am I right? Bad joke? :)

Questlove called or texted ... not sure what we were doing back then ... and asked if I wanted to go. I do remember that we took the Accela train and got to NYC in what seemed like 5 minutes. I was used to taking NJ transit. The rest of the day was a blur really.

I remember James Poyser had a family emergency and had to leave and I cried over it (I'm a cryer).

I sure as hell remember this photo because ... who wouldn't

Q Tip, me and Yasiin Bey

I remember wondering why Busta Rhymes was carrying around a stuffed animal

This is one of my favorite photos that I've ever taken. I took it as we were walking past one another.

Yasiin Bey

Below are the rest of the photos from that day.

Yes, I had a website that I took down about 2 years ago. I was no longer shooting, so the page just got stale in my opinion. I hadn't come up with the idea to start a blog and write about them in this way so I guess it all works out for us, huh? Yes ... yes it does :)

I hope you enjoyed this folder and I can't wait for you to see the next one!