Everybody's Fly

A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture

By: Fab 5 Freddy, Mark Rozzo

An electrifying memoir from the pioneering cultural icon The New Yorker called “the coolest person in New York,” whose fearless creativity reshaped the worlds of art, music, and style

Fab 5 Freddy doesn’t just have a great story—he is the story. Name a seismic cultural shift, and chances are, he wasn’t just there—he was helping to make it happen. He’s among the first graffiti artists to turn subway tags into fine art, the visionary behind the first hip-hop movie, the bridge between Jean-Michel Basquiat and the downtown new wave scene, the first person to take rap global on MTV, and the opening rhyme of Blondie’s number-one smash hit “Rapture”—“Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody’s fly”—the song that propelled hip-hop from the New York streets to mainstream culture. With a spirit of joyful creativity and a deep capacity for connecting with kindred spirits (Basquiat, Haring, Lee, Flash, Warhol, and the Clash, to name a few), he shattered racial and artistic boundaries, bridging worlds and raising underground movements to pop culture dominance.

Everybody’s Fly is a fast-moving, all-access pass to Fred’s extraordinary life—one that begins in a book- and jazz-filled Brooklyn home and takes us deep into New York’s creative explosions from the 1970s into the 1990s. He didn’t just shape culture, he synthesized it—from highbrow to street, the Bronx to the East Village, punk to rap, Warhol to Wild Style. Whether he’s skipping school to wander New York City’s museums, painting subway cars that became moving masterpieces, or bringing hip-hop to downtown clubs for the first time, Fred’s genius has always been in seeing what others couldn’t—until he made them see it too.

Vibrant, rhapsodic, and compulsively readable, Everybody’s Fly is at once an intimate memoir and panoramic cultural history. It is a love letter to the art of seeing, a fascinating account of an inimitable creative life, and a celebration of what it means to shape culture.

Critic reviews

“Read Freddy’s book. You might become smarter, sexier, cooler, hipper, more stylish, and get more out of life—if you’re lucky!”
—Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie and author of Face It

“Fab 5 Freddy comes out of Brooklyn at a pivotal moment for art, politics, music, and culture. From Blondie’s ‘Rapture’ to Wild Style and the birth of loud sound systems, new DJs, and new genres, he had a front-row seat—and was involved. He’s a father of the art form, a pure artist, pioneer, and historian who helped shape, cultivate, and nurture it all in hip-hop, from graffiti to movies and television. He’s better than a myth—he’s real. Let’s all appreciate his story.”
—Nas, rapper and entrepreneur

“If you trace the arc of hip-hop, rock, visual art, television, and performance across the decades, Fab 5 Freddy has figured in all of it: He is a connector, a luminous, ever-present character. In his smart, thoughtful memoir, he brings the reader along as he centers himself in the thick of popular culture as both participant and observer. The book is an engrossing, intimate portrait of a fascinating man and of an indelible cultural moment.”
—Susan Orlean, author of Joyride

“Fred is like a wise old oak whose leaves absorbed the light and sounds of New York’s gritty streets and then chlorophylled the city with his art, music, cinema, and boundless energy. Everybody’s Fly is proof that the influence he has on our culture is rooted everywhere you look.”
—Griffin Dunne, actor, director, and author of The Friday Afternoon Club

“The man who lived it right and exact has taken the time to give it back. Fab 5 Freddy has served as one of our cultural pillars for hip-hop and the art scene for decades. An early pioneer of blending both of these cultures in their infancy, his memoir shines a light on how adventurous aspiration and diverse inspirations can lead to images and voices that help evolve a generation.”
—RZA, producer, director, and founding member of Wu-Tang Clan

“In the world of art, music, and style, Everybody’s Fly is a sonic sign of life. The groove here is that Fred was the thread and needle of Even Lower Manhattan.”
—Richard Prince, fine artist

“A crucial figure in hip-hop’s development recalls its (and his) evolution. . . . A fine snapshot of a pivotal moment for street—and American—culture. A rich, gritty remembrance of an artist’s journey.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review