For hip-hop heads, the 1990s was a formative period. It was the era when hip-hop went mainstream and the term “Ghetto Fabulous,” which refers to the luxury lifestyle adopted by the poor urban community, was born. And Jamil GS happened to be in the middle of it all.
As a photographer, Jamil didn’t just embrace the Ghetto Fabulous style; he basically pioneered the look. Since the beginning of his career, Jamil has been known for seamlessly blending the boundaries between art, music and fashion in the hip-hop scene. Today, more than two decades later, his photographs of hip-hop legends—Jay-Z, Outkast, Mary J. Blige, Chuck D, Diddy and many more—remain as influential and generation-defining as ever. Last year, Jamil also collaborated on a week-long analog shoot with Drake to much critical acclaim.
A selection of his iconic photos made its debut in American Royalty exhibition that opened in Jamil’s home, Copenhagen, in 2017. The exhibition landed in Asia for the first time in 2018 at the HG Street festival in New Delhi, India, before traveling to Globetrotter’s own G360 Live in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In New Delhi, we met up with him for a sit-down interview, where he talked about connecting to a new audience in Asia through his photos, the influence of his music to his works and more.
Watch the full interview above.
