Black Awards Shows

Yesterday, my daughter brought a stack of 4x6 prints to me that she had stored in her room. I’m still looking through them as I write this because they bring back so many memories. Most of the images are of Black celebrities in the late nineties when I was covering tons of Black events. Two of those images are posted here.

The first image was taken at the Brotherhood Crusade office. I had gone there with my friend and fellow photographer, Michael Riddick. At the time, he was the photographer for Brotherhood. Whenever he had a big job, I would help him and he would in turn help me when I had some big event.


The whole Death Row Records family was coming to the Brotherhood office that day and he wanted to be ready in the event that Danny Bakewell, CEO of the Brotherhood Crusade, wanted to take portraits. I had brought along my studio lights and backdrop and set up everything in Mr. Bakewell’s office.

What a day! Tupac, Snoop, M.C. Hammer, Daz, Michel'le and of course big Shug… the whole Death Row crew was there. The late L.A. gang peacemaker Darren 'Bo' Taylor was also there with a whole group of ex-gang members from his group Unity One. They were all there for a press conference to announce a benefit concert. It would be kind of like WattStax and it would take place that year in September at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

After the press conference, at least 50 people were crowded into Mr. Bakewell’s office for a meeting between Death Row and Unity One that was extremely heated at times. Tupac was the smallest dude in the room, but talked the most ish. Some of the ex-gang members were bigger than Shug. The situation grew more tense with every Tupac word. I was expecting something to jump off at any minute. At that point, most of my studio and camera gear was on the other side of the room. I credit 'Bo' Taylor with keeping things cool that day and for making it possible for me to leave with all of my equipment in working order.

Maybe two months later, Tupac was dead. What’s extra strange; Tupac wore that same white suit in the "I Ain't Mad at Cha" video where he raps from heaven. The planned concert never happened.

The second image was taken at the Soul Train Awards. Luther and Whitney… man those were good times! This was long before WireImage. At that time, publicists at every Black awards show made sure that Ebony/Jet photographer Bill Jones had a front row seat. So if you happened to be sitting there, you had to move. In all honesty, most white photographers only covered our awards shows if our biggest stars came out. Getting in Jet was special then. So every A-list Black talent stopped for Bill. Black talent really had a special relationship with black media back then.


These two images are connected in a way. I really think that the death of Tupac, and later Notorious BIG, changed how mainstream media covered Black events. Before their untimely deaths, most mainstream—White photographers stayed in the press room at Black awards shows for that shot of Whitney, Janet, Halle or Denzel. Afterward it seemed that White photographers were bumping Black photographers from the press room so that they could build their archives of Black rappers or anybody that might show up on a police blotter.

I do miss the Soul Train Awards. Most of those shows were taped for later broadcast. So you knew that in covering the event, you were in for a very long night. But I loved seeing the parade of beautiful, talented Blackness. Thanks Mr. Cornelius for the memories.