Coffee Talk: Photographer Mike Schreiber Takes Us Through His New Book "True Hip-Hop"

Mike Schreiber is a New York photographer who has spent over a decade documenting some of rap music's most legendary artists, from early Nas, Dipset, and Wu-Tang to Cash Money and Jeezy. His new book, True Hip-Hop, is a collection of his work, a who's-who and a when's-when of our world. We caught up with Mike and had him tell us the stories behind his most memorable shots from the book. Keep clicking to check them out. If you live in the Miami area, you can see a gallery version of True Hip Hop, which went on display last night at AE Art District.

“I was kind of crushing on this girl at the time, and she had this place in Brooklyn and wanted me to come over and shoot. I was supposed to shoot M.I.A. the next day, so we went there. The chick ended up having this boombox in her living room, so we brought it up to the roof. M.I.A.'s publicist kept trying to wrap us up because she had other shoots to go to, but we kept shooting for a while.”

“We were shooting down on Avenue D in the Lower East Side in NYC for this, and Biz wasn’t really sure if he wanted to shoot with the truck. But then I told him he could have all the ice cream he wanted. After that, he was down, he was excited, and he ate a ton of ice cream."

“This was a photo shoot we did for Vibe. We were shooting up in Harlem and this one crackhead decided he was going to be security for us. He kinda held everyone back so we could shoot. When I was done, all the kids went up and got Meth's autograph.”

“I shot Nas at my friend's place in Chinatown. It was right when the track with his dad first came out. I wanted to shoot something classic and like those old jazz photos from the ’50s and ’60s. He was real cool.”

“This was at the Calliope Projects in New Orleans. It was for the first feature I’d done for XXL. C-Murder knew exactly how he wanted to shoot—sitting like that with the dogs was all him. We just did it, and afterwards he took me to a block party nearby.”

“This was at my assistant's apartment in Brooklyn. Common was getting touched up before a shoot we were about to do for URB. I was just shooting around, and this is what we got.”

“I shot this for Jim's Life In The Fast Lane. The chick is one of the models from the shoot. It’s really not one of my personal favorites, but it’s one of those that gets a good response.”

“I always wanted to shoot someone in front of the Keith Haring 'Crack Is Wack' mural in Harlem. Juelz is from up there, so I thought it would perfect. He specifically asked not to show the words in the art, though. He’s the only rapper I’ve ever shot that was right on time.”

"When 'Where My Dogs At' first came out, I was on one of my first real assignments for Rap Pages. I was just happy to be here, to be a part of this. I remember he actually brought his dog into the booth to record with him."

"I shot this on the Staten Island Ferry, on the way to shoot at the Statue of Liberty with O.D.B. I noticed the light was really nice by the bathroom, so I asked him to come over. He was kinda out of it for the entire day, but for a split second he smiled and I was able to get that raw look from him. He was always like a caricature of himself, but I like this picture a lot because I feel it shows his humanity."

“We were in the Bronx and Joe ran over to this ice-cream truck to get an ice cream for himself and his wife. A lot of the times, if you just keep shooting and you’re ready for anything, that’s when you get the best shots.”

“This was from a shoot I did for Mass Appeal. I wanted to get some movement, so I asked him to act like he was smacking the camera. There’s a full sequence in the book. The magazine ended up going with something else, but I liked this picture.”

“Nkiru Books" is a bookstore in Brooklyn that Mos Def, Hi-Tek, and Kweli own. I was supposed to shoot Talib and Mos together, but Mos was like four hours late, and Kweli had bounced by then. I just pulled Mos aside when he got there and took like three shots. Hopefully this is the picture people use to reference Mos 20 years from now.”

“This was for a concert called 'New Yorkers for Peace,' it went down sometime after 9/11. They were just backstage, chillin' with their families, and had their kids running around. If this had been the ’80s, this picture would have been a little different."

“I met Maino in the projects in Brooklyn where he grew up. There was a walkway between one of the buildings and it had this great light. We did a couple shots, but I really like everything about this photo. It ended up being his album cover.”

“This was in the Poconos, where Biggie's mom lives. This is one of my favorite pictures. Biggie is something different to everyone, but to her, he’s just her son. She’s just a mom and grandmother. He’s this icon to us, but she lost her son. I like this picture because it shows her strength and her pride. To me it’s really strong.”

“Back in 1999 or 2000, The Source sent me out to be with Cash Money while they were on tour with Nelly. Juvenile and B.G. were the big ones at the time, mostly Juvenile, but all the girls really went crazy for Wanye. I remember thinking it was crazy because he hadn’t really done anything yet, but the girls loved him. I like that picture because it shows how far he’s really come. He’ll look at this and be like 'I remember that phone.'”