The pics of your favorite rappers are shot by Hajar Benjida

Hajar Benjida has spent the XXII century in advanced mode through the portrait of a new generation with its polaroids of rappers and grime artists that are killing the scene, as well as its memes account @youngthugaspaintings: a project initially school that has come to become a neo-gallery of viral art.

Hajar Benjida revolutionizes the scene with her photography.

The dutch artist is known for shooting in analog format sequences of the hip hop scene between backstages and concerts, through very Tumblr codes. Playboi Carti, Yung Lean, Bloody Osiris, Migos, Skepta, Lil Yachty, Cardi B, Princess Nokia, Rich The Kid or Tyler The Creator are in that universe that Benjida began to create when she was only 22 years old in a concert by Joey BadaSS (2015).

15 photos

Thus the photographer has managed to fix a showcase of polaroids of most of the most famous rappers who have passed through Amsterdam in recent years: a project that began to form accessing the dressing rooms without a pass, only her and her camera. Later on, she went from photographing these people behind the scenes to creating a bond of friendship and making them in their home towns, both in the street and in the studio.

But beyond all these images, Hajar’s highlight was his project for the school, which ended up being viral. @youngthugaspaintings -with almost 70K- captures images of Young Thug and assimilates them to classic, surrealist and renaissance paintings that already exist, such as one in which Thug leaves the catwalk at the VFiles Runway 7 Show to retouch the styling of a model while smoking a blunt -one of the most iconic moments of his career, and of fashion. In it, Benjida makes the meme with the painting ‘Desdemona Retiring to her Bed by Théodore Chassériau’ (1849) in which one of the women adjusts the dress of the other in an almost identical position.

Another of the most outstanding is that of ‘Blossom by Erik Thor Sandberg’ in which Thug’s face multiplies, as well as that of the artist’s surrealist painting in which various facets/personalities of each being are shown.

But the climax of that IG account came when the artist was awarded for ‘Young Thug As Paintings – A Retrospective’, at SCOPE Art Basel Miami in 2018 with the help of 300 Entertainment and Young Thug Life record, in which the same rapper collaborated. From this account other similar ones have been reproduced such as @artlexachung in which the iconic model and designer became the artistic axis, generating the simile with contemporary paintings. Many other designers/artists inject the same concept of photography and painting, both in Instagram and in fashion and that new generation of streetwear firms that connect the Renaissance with today in the same creative idea.

The complete work of the artist can be found at: hajarbenjida.tumblr.com – @hajarbenji