Everybodys Fly – Fab 5 Freddy

I still felt off, but I was coming back to earth. And Keith, he had been with me every step of the way, making sure I was good. Keith kept returning to Paradise Garage and eventually got tight with the crew that ran the place. Before long, he painted a bunch of his signature characters in the club’s entry lounge.

You could see the influence the Garage had on him—dancing figures, pulsing with energy, began showing up in his work. He started hitting the subways with white chalk, drawing on the black paper that covered unsold ad panels. It was graffiti-inspired, but entirely his own. Keith had found his voice—and he never looked back. — hadn’t seen Chris and Debbie in a while. They had been out in Los Angeles working on new music. Then one day they called me up and said they were back in town.

They asked me to come by and listen to some things they’d been working on. So I went up to their place on Fifty-Eighth Street, and they played a cassette with a few of the new tracks. I was feeling it immediately. The songs were fresh, with a vibe that was still Blondie but looser, dancier. I remembered them saying they wanted to make music you could really move to.

Then Chris held up another cassette. “This one is something different,” he said. The moment it started playing, I could feel the beat in my chest. It had this massive, throbbing groove, kind of like Chic meets David Bowie. Debbie’s vocals were so dreamy, hypnotic. I was loving it. And then…she started rapping.

What??? I couldn’t believe it. And not just rapping—she was rapping about us. “Fab Five Freddy told me everybody’s fly…” Then came the “man from Mars” line—a throwback to the rap I had done for her, and a perfect nod to Chris’s obsession with old B movies. She was referencing TV Party, Flash being fast, all these details from our world, things I shared with her, layered into this wild, futuristic track.

To me, it sounded like something they’d put together as a goof while recording their new album: a fun one-off, just for me. Whatever it was, I loved it. I was floored, touched, flattered, blown away. Not long after, around Thanksgiving, I met up with Richard Goldstein from The Village Voice.

Copyright © 2026 by Fred Brathwaite, Inc. Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.

VIKING and VIKING ship colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Image credits may be found on this page. Cover design: Colin Webber Cover photograph: Marcia Resnick / Getty Images designed by meighan cavanaugh, adapted for ebook by molly jeszke library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Names: Fab 5 Freddy, 1959– author | Rozzo, Mark author Title: Everybody’s fly : a life of art, music, and changing the culture / Fab 5 Freddy with Mark Rozzo.

Description: New York, NY : Viking, [2026] Identifiers: LCCN 2025037043 (print) | LCCN 2025037044 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593834909 hardcover | ISBN 9780593834916 ebook Subjects: LCSH: Fab 5 Freddy, 1959– | Artists—United States—Biography | LCGFT: Biographies | Autobiographies Classification: LCC NX512.F33 A2 2026 (print) | LCC NX512.F33 (ebook) | DDC 700.92 [B]—dc23/eng/20251203 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025037043 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025037044 Ebook ISBN 9780593834916 The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland, https://eu- contact.penguin.ie.

prhid_prh_7.4_155332772_c0_r0 OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS CONTENTS Dedication Prologue: December 1979 Phase 1 THE COME UP 1. May I please speak with Thelonious Monk? 2. Where they jammin’ at? 3. Many will come, but few will be chosen 4. Fuck it, let’s move this to galleries Phase 2 UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN 5. Be resolute, fear no sacrifice, and surmount every difficulty 6. This is what’s popping now 7. Yo, Fred, I just saw your train!

8. I was born and raised on planet Mars 9. Man, I thought you two were the po-po! 10. A whole new art world ready to replace the old one 11. It’s about time we got some publicity for this goddam rap shit Phase 3 ANY MEANS NECESSARY 12. This stuff is really fresh! 13. Who the hell is on this plane?

14. His wig will glow and then people will know it’s a wig 15. I met Gene Kelly! I hung out with him! 16.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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