He did a lot of innovations with spray cans as a teen that is still being represented around the world today. I’m using the term aerosol artists because he hates being called a graffiti artist but Phase 2 was one of the most important figures in hip-hop culture. Were there any other creatives that helped you to discover your own artistic voice and vision? So my interest in graffiti also had a heavy hand in wanting to tell stories on a larger level. I took my interest in publishing my little zine and that led me to publish other things. When I was 16, I published a zine when I was a graffiti artist in New York. I was lucky to be exposed to a lot of art and culture at an early age. So I would say my biggest influences were my parents.
When you’re a filmmaker, you tell a story. Sacha Jenkins: Well, my mom is a painter and my father was a filmmaker and television producer so the arts have always been in my blood. When did you first discover that you had a knack or a passion for being a storyteller? Okayplayer caught up with Sacha and we spoke about the power of storytelling, helming the Mass Appeal’s #HipHop50 initiative on Showtime, and the importance of documenting hip-hop culture. He directed the highly-acclaimed Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, a four-part doc series that covers 25 years of one the most iconic groups in hip-hop history and the 2021 documentary Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James detailing the life and times of the funk legend. In 2017, he directed Burn Motherfucker, Burn!, which chronicles the Los Angeles uprising of 1992. In 2012, he joined Mass Appeal brands as Chief Creative Officer, releasing Fresh Dressed, which tells the story of hip-hop fashion. Over the last decade, Jenkins adjusted the format of his storytelling - he zeroed in on documentaries. In 1994, Jenkins founded ego trip and would go on to produce two books that would become crowning achievements: ego trip’s Book of Rap Lists and ego trip’s Big Book of Racism. By age 20, he co-founded Beat Down, the first-ever hip-hop newspaper. As a teenager, he published his first magazine, Graphic Scenes & X-Plicit Language, a ‘zine about the graffiti subculture. Sacha Jenkins has spent his life documenting hip-hop. Photo Credit: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images We caught up with Sacha Jenkins and spoke about the power of storytelling, helming the Mass Appeal’s #HipHop50 initiative on Showtime, and the importance of documenting hip-hop culture.
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