As hip-hop culture was bubbling underground in the streets of New York City during the late 1970s, one young man saw the value of visually documenting the fledgling movement. Brother Ernie Paniccioli has been an integral aspect of the Bronx-bred culture’s growth by photographing it from the street perspective before and after it went mainstream.
“I saw young brothers and sisters who had no formal training yet had so much talent, creativity and originality, and I fell in love with it,” recalled the Bed-Stuy native about flicking up graffiti pieces in his ’hood during the culture’s formative years. “Through them I met the rappers, DJs, and b-boys.”
Around this same time he was capturing the local club scene, frequenting spots like The Roxy and Disco Fever, where he got acquainted with hip-hoppers like “Crazy Legs and Rock Steady Crew, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Scorpio, Grandmaster Flash, Cold Crush Brothers.“ These legendary artists were some of the first he documented. As the Universal Zulu Nations Supreme Minister of Culture, he also covered their events.
“Hip-hop is a tool for upliftment and education and not just people getting paid,” he notes before describing how as Word Up! magazine’s chief photographer for over 25 years, he built many relationships.
“It was an exchange between me and the artists. I would take their picture and put it in a magazine and they would get more famous, and in turn they would give me more access,” he explains. “Jay Z, KRS, Chuck D, they always gave me access to their shows and to themselves.”
He mentioned Dougie Fresh, Salt-N-Pepa, X Clan, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Ralph McDaniels, Method Man, Common, Immortal Technique, and Mos Def, as some of his favorites.
Ernie has several books which exclusively feature his photos, including “Who Shot Ya?” and “Hip-Hop At The End Of The World”. He also considers some of his other works, including “freedom books for the serious hip-hop heads”, which can be found on Lulu.com.
“You have to understand the concept of hip-hop and the black mirror. If we are weak, hip-hop is gonna be weak. A lot of self-hating forms of music have evolved because it’s a reflection of life. The deeper you get—if you’re a person of knowledge, someone who understands the power of language, economics, the concept of unity—then the music will reflect that.”
Adding, “I’m doing what I have to do as a man on this planet at this time for the benefit of my people. That’s why I have the reputation I have. I can walk in any community in the world and be respected. Unlike those with nice clean studios and management, I’m out there in the streets, the subway,” he explains. “Joe Conzo, Jamel Shabazz, we are from the streets. If you’re from the jungle, you’re comfortable in the jungle. We can do that pretty studio stuff, but that is boring and runs against our natural rhythm. It’s essential you have real people with their cameras who love doing this.”
He concludes, “I’m gonna continue doing what I’ve been doing on a broader scale. It was my duty to get the images, and that’s what I did. If by sharing information I uplifted hip-hop, then that’s an honor. I’m grateful and that means I respected the creator by being a poor righteous teacher.”