Interview: Chi Modu Tells Photo Shoot Stories About Biggie, 2Pac, Snoop, Wu-Tang & More

The renowned photographer talks about taking classic pics of artists like Eazy-E, Method Man, Kool Herc, and many more.

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Image via Complex Original
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Intro

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2pac

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2Pac

Chi Modu: "You know what’s wild about photographs? Once you see a photograph it triggers things. When I see the photograph, I can damn near tell you the airline I flew in on—just from looking at the photograph.


 

Tupac calls me in the back, he was like “Chi let me show you something.” We go to his bedroom, he shows me his whole gun collection—his AK, his Glock, everything, right? Then he moves a picture on the wall to the side and there’s a bullet hole


 

"Like even some of that Tupac stuff where he’s tying his bandana—Rob Marriott was with me that day in Atlanta. And that was actually the first cover story Pac did. And I remember that because it was the only time I had to send Tupac home.

"My equipment malfunctioned, and I was like, Shit—whatever town you’re gonna be in I’ll fly out and meet you there and do it there. And he was like, “No I’ll come back tomorrow.” The second day he came early, sat and waited patiently, and we did the shoot.

"After we were done he was like, everybody come back to my house let’s go hang out. And in his house he calls me in the back, he was like “Chi let me show you something.” We go to his bedroom, he shows me his whole gun collection—his AK, his Glock, everything, right?

"Then he moves a picture on the wall to the side and there’s a bullet hole. He was like, “Yeah I’ve been on probation, you know—so I just let off a shot in my bedroom.” I was like “You’re an idiot” and we both started laughing."

Geto Boys

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Geto Boys

Chi Modu: "That photograph was taken in the 5th ward, which is the hood in Houston. They run that part of Houston. I wanted to do something kinda country, you know? So I was like, let’s go to the hood. And then we found that house and stood in front of it.

"When we were there, there’s a crowd behind me of about 90 people who are just moving with us as we walk around, cause they’re so happy to see their famous family members basically. It was the first time they’d actually gotten together. Cause they’d broken up for a while.

"Scarface doesn’t smile much. But him and I over the years are close—when we see each other—so that helps it a lot. But my approach, I don’t really become their friends—if you understand that, cause it’s a professional relationship. But there’s a respect so they like me, even if I’m not coming home for dinner. So I kinda keep it that way cause it allows me to do my job."

The Notorious B.I.G.

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The Notorious B.I.G.

Chi Modu: "We wanted to show Biggie as the King of New York. So what better way than getting the twin towers in the background? Being a Jersey guy I know the view from over there, so I was like, Why don’t we do it at Liberty State Park? It’s perfect.

"Getting the permits from the park was pretty easy to do. But getting Big, you know, that was something else. I went to get Biggie the first time, and I saw Faith at the door. It wasn’t his original place with his mother. He and Faith had an apartment in Brooklyn. And you know, they met at my photo shoot.

"It was funny because it got rewritten in the movie Notorious. They made it a photo studio, but it was actually a Burger King that we converted to look like a McDonald’s for the Big/Mack promo—you know, the Craig Mack and Biggie when Bad Boy was just starting out. So that was where Biggie and Faith met, in a Burger King right near 42nd Street.

"But anyway, when I went to their place, Faith said Biggie was asleep. So I go to Biggie’s bedroom, and I’m shaking him. And he’s like “Oh Chi, come on—I’m tired. I’ve been on the road.” So I said, “All right. I’ll postpone it.” We had a location vehicle outside and everything, but I just went by the feel. I was like, you know what? Not a good day.

"Then one other time he was out of town. So finally by the third take, we were able to do it. This was long after he did that song where he says “time to get paid, blow up like the world trade.” By this time Pac was dead. It was really sort of a dark period in hip-hop.

"People were still making music but they didn’t know how to feel. And then the era got finally capped with Biggie’s death. Now both Biggie and the Towers are gone, so it really captures a moment in time.

"But after all that, they went with an alternate picture for the Source cover when I was out of the office. They did this Photoshopped thing with him standing next to the towers. So they had this photograph—and then they went that route. It’s just hilarious."

Method Man

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Method Man

Chi Modu: "Wu-Tang Clan used to hang out at The Source when they were coming up. So I was close with the Wu, and I was even closer with Method Man. I didn’t get called in for the Wu-Tang album, cause that was by committee. But when it came down to Tical, Meth wanted me to shoot his album cover.


 

That’s another one for the missed opportunities file. But in the end, what always exonerates my position is when you look at the photographs.


 

"He was with Def Jam at that point. And the record label creative department doesn’t always like being told who to use. And that’s what happens, cause I’m usually brought in by the artists. I’m rarely hired by the label. Artists say “that’s my guy, I want him to do it.” So there was a little bit of conflict there.

"I shot Tical, but it didn’t go too well with the creative director. I personally would have just run this shot full-size on the album jacket or CD cover and just left it at that. I wouldn’t have darkened it and done all that stuff. That’s kind of the downside sometimes when you’re not on the same page with the creative team.

"That’s another one for the missed opportunities file. But in the end, what always exonerates my position is when you look at the photographs. And I think ultimately you can look back and say, he actually knew what he was doing."

Eazy-E

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Eazy-E

Chi Modu: "Eazy was always pretty cool. I met him the first time two or three years prior to this shoot. We met at Jerry Heller’s office—remember when Jerry Heller was running things with him? So we met out there. And he had the first V12 Benz I’ve ever seen in hip hop. That was the first S600. I remember it very well. Some people were still driving MPVs, so we hadn’t gotten to where we are today.

"We got along well when I met him, and then I had to go back out to shoot another magazine cover. That picture of Easy on the car, that issue of The Source is the one Biggie holds up in the “Juicy” video when he says his mom “smiles every time my face is up in The Source.”

"When I did that shoot, Eazy played a demo tape for me of this group from Cleveland. And he said, “What do you think?” I was like, Well—they’re a little sing-songy, you know, but they seem all right. He was like yeah, I think I wanna sign em. And I said well you know better than me. And it was Bone Thugz.

"I saw them a year later after Eazy E had passed, and I told Bone Thugz the story about how he played that demo for me. And now they’re like 10 times platinum. And that’s why I’m not an A&R [Laughs]."

Snoop Dogg

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Snoop Dogg

Chi Modu: "I first shot Snoop for a Rap Pages cover about a year or so earlier. [Editor-In-Chief] Sheena Lester called me and said, “Hey do you want to shoot Snoop? I can’t pay you anything, but if you can get out here you can do it.” So I was like, all right—I got a buddy pass.

"I had like 60 or 80 bucks in my pocket, a friend of mine had a room at the Mondrian. And he actually had a clothing line. I was like, all right, I’m gonna stay on your couch. I have to do this magazine cover shoot and you can come with me, and we’ll put something from your line on him.


 

As you know from his song “Deep Cover,” 187 is police code for homicide. So Snoop and them knew about this sign and wanted to find it and take a photo. They told me about it and I was like “Let’s go!”


 

"So basically we went out there, hung out with Snoop, shot that cover. And Snoop said, when it’s time to do my album I want you to come out. So when Doggystyle is being cracked up, I get a call like “Yo Snoop wants you to do his album. So you need to fly out—let us know the details."

"So he kept his word. I’m a New York/New Jersey guy but I got a lot of love from Death Row camp. I shot Dogg Pound, Snoop, Nate. I actually got along with them for some reason.

"As you know from his song “Deep Cover,” 187 is police code for homicide. So Snoop and them knew about this sign and wanted to find it and take a photo. They told me about it and I was like “Let’s go!” And we caught that late afternoon California sun on his face.

"During that shoot we had a little gang member off to the side, fully armed and loaded, just standing guard. Because back then everywhere you went there were guns. Snoop always had two .380s everywhere he went. When I see him today, it’s remarkable. I knew he had it in him, so I’m not surprised by it. But that was the life and the world he was in.

"All the guns never fazed me as a photographer—but I think maybe I’m just kind of stupid that way. Because it probably should have. Like, there’s a picture of Snoop pointing his gun at my camera. Whenever there’s a gun on my set I’ll take it, open it, clear it, look down the barrel, and then hand it back. You know? So it’s like I know enough about weapons to do that.

"And it’s funny, whenever I do that, they’ll be like, “Okay you know what you’re doing.” And I’m like, Yeah—I’m not gonna have you pointing a gun in my direction not knowing it’s cleared. So that kind of breaks the ice." 

Ol’ Dirty Bastard

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Ol’ Dirty Bastard

Chi Modu: "I knew those guys early on. I’ve been to Staten Island a number of times when they were still out on the block. Before the Wu really took off they were local sensations and we knew they were going somewhere but it hadn’t happened yet. So at that point in their careers, we were just hanging out together.


 

ODB would never show up for anything. He was a good dude, but he had an aversion to being anywhere he was supposed to be. You could have a photo shoot—they could all be there—5 hours later, he still wouldn’t be there.


 

"We were gonna do a series of portraits of all the Wu, and make a nine-person grid. So I had them all stand in front of my camera one by one. Sometimes you don’t know how good a photo is until later. That’s just a straight-up shot of ODB’s face, and there aren’t a whole lot of them. So I’m glad I have it. But do you know how hard it was to pin that guy down?

"He would never show up for anything. It was the weirdest thing. He was actually a good dude, but he had an aversion to being anywhere he was supposed to be. So it was not easy. You could have a photo shoot—they could all be there—5 hours later, he still wouldn’t be there. Out of all of them, he would be the one. You know? It’s sort of ironic that he’s the one who’s gone now."

The Hit Squad

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The Hit Squad

Chi Modu: "You’re looking at Redman, K-Solo, EPMD, and Das EFX. That was the Hit Squad. Remember when they were bubbling? The Hit Squad was the crew to take out all crews. And then infighting had their reign end within a year. Within a year. They were a crew like we’ve never seen before, and then boom—they’re at war, hiding out with guns near their beds.

"It was the craziest thing. I went to K-Solo’s place in the Catskill Mountains for an interview. The guy was almost like in a fortress, armed and on guard with his family there. But on this day they were still together. They were down doing a Yo MTV Raps! shoot, and I was just tagging along.

"This photo also captures that Jersey thing of looking across the water. It’s the feeling of “the view from the other side.”

Mobb Deep

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Mobb Deep

Chi Modu: "I got to know Mobb Deep and them around my friends at Loud Records and we were always cool. I did this as part of the shoot for their first album cover. Mobb Deep means a crew, so I wanted to have their whole crew in there somehow, but still have the focus on the two stars.

"This shot was taken on the rooftop of the Queensbridge Projects. I had spent time over there with Nas when Nas was 18, so I’m pretty familiar with that neighborhood. But it’s not somewhere I go without letting people know I’m coming. You know—one of those areas.


 

What I learned that day in QB, which was pretty remarkable, was that I didn’t really see any adults around. I felt the same thing with Nas. I can’t call them kids—they weren’t really kids anymore—but it felt like kids who were raising themselves.


 

"So we went up to the rooftop, and back then they had housing police. So when I’m up there the housing police roll up on us—as the police often do at photo shoots. They don’t quite know what’s going on, and they’re a little nervous.

"I didn’t have a location vehicle and a rack of clothing, so it almost looked like we were all sorta hanging out together. Except for my camera—when they see the camera, that tends to be the one thing that gives it away. You wouldn’t have that kind of camera if you were just wilding out. So finally they let us stay and finish up our shoot.

"What I learned that day in QB, which was pretty remarkable, was that I didn’t really see any adults around. I felt the same thing with Nas. I can’t call them kids—they weren’t really kids anymore—but it felt like kids who were raising themselves.

"So when I was looking at what they were writing, and the genius of what they were seeing and saying, I was blown away. And here I am the college guy, like I’m the one who’s been trained, and I’m not putting together the language to that level. So for me it was a bit of a whoah! You’ve gotta be a little bit humble, cause these guys are for real."

Grandmaster Flash

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Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, & Kool Herc

Chi Modu: "This was a cover shoot for the 50th issue of The Source. At the time those guys weren’t really being celebrated. I’ll give credit to [editor-in-chief John] Schecter, that issue really mattered to him.

"It was interesting to see the three of them together, because they were actually quite humble. They were sort of grateful that people were remembering. A few years after that, some of that humility faded a little bit. There was some success coming in but also a bit of bitterness due to—I’m still struggling, like, “If I am the father of hip hop, why am I still struggling?” And you can understand that sentiment.

"I got to see some of that even when I was doing my shoot. I could sort of feel that, they’re not living like some of these other people I’m shooting, who they are the precursors for. But that’s the business. DiMaggio said the same thing, right?"

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