Presenter Bios

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  Vikki Tobak

  VIKKI TOBAK is an author, journalist, and curator. She is the author of critically acclaimed books CONTACT HIGH: A VISUAL HISTORY OF HIP-HOP (Clarkson Potter/Random House), 2018); ICE COLD: A HIP-HOP JEWELRY HISTORY (Taschen 2022) and The Streets Win (Rizzoli 2023). Her work has appeared in Complex, Rolling Stone, The FADER, ESPN’s The Undefeated, Mass Appeal, Paper, Vibe, i-D, the Detroit News, The Library of Congress and more. Tobak is also the curator of the traveling Contact High exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography, The International Center of Photography, Manarat Al Saadiyat (MAS)in Abu Dhabi and MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture). Tobak and the exhibition were nominated for a Lucie Foundation Award for Curator / Exhibition of the Year. She is a former producer and columnist for CBS, CNN and Bloomberg News. Vikki got her start as a culture editor for Paper magazine before going on to work at Payday Records/Empire Management working with groups including Gang Starr, Jay-Z, Mos Def, Show and AG, Jeru and other hip-hop legends of the Golden Era. She has lectured widely about music photography and contemporary culture at American University, The Schomburg Center, The Kennedy Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
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  Janette Beckman

  Janette Beckman is a British-born photographer who now lives and works in New York. She began her career at the dawn of punk rock working for music magazines The Face and Melody Maker. She shot bands from The Clash to Boy George as well as three Police album covers.

  Moving to NYC in 1983 she was drawn to the underground hip-hop scene and photographed pioneers such as Run DMC, Slick Rick, Salt’n’Pepa, Grand Master Flash and LL Cool J. Beckman has published five books: “Rap, Portraits & Lyrics of a Generation of Black Rockers,” “Made In The UK The Music of Attitude 1977-1983,” “The Breaks, Stylin’ and Profilin’ 1982- 1990,” “El Hoyo Maravilla” and “The MashUp: Hip Hop Photos Remixed by Iconic Graffiti Artists.”

  Her work has been shown in galleries worldwide and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of the City of New York and the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe. She is represented by the Fahey Klein Gallery.

  Beckman continues to chronicle sub-cultures of our generation as well as work on shoots for clients such as Levi’s, Dior and Apple.

• Cey Adams

  Cey Adams, a New York City native, emerged from the downtown graffiti movement to exhibit alongside fellow artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. As the Creative Director of Def Jam Recordings, he created visual identities, album covers, logos, and campaigns for Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., Maroon 5, and Jay-Z. Today Adams’ work focuses on themes including pop culture, brand identity, cultural, and community issues. He recently collaborated with Levi’s, Converse, Pabst Blue Ribbon, YouTube, and Google.

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  April Walker

  April Walker is an agile entrepreneur, author, health and wellness enthusiast, and a fashion designer who inspired a multi-billion dollar streetwear and lifestyle industry. Her brand, Walker Wear was one of the first streetwear fashion brands to dominate in menswear, garnering millions in sales and opening global distribution doors for streetwear, and key product placement implementation.

  Walker Wear has been featured in countless publications, films, and videos. Her clients have included Tupac, and B.I.G., Queen Latifah, and Mike Tyson, to name a few. April has been featured in Fresh Dressed and The Remix: Hip Hop x Fashion, two films that highlight the marriage of fashion and hip-hop. As a creative, her collaborations extend from Brooklyn to Berlin. Her work is currently featured in the Street Dreams exhibit at the Kunsthal Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

  Today, April remains at the helm of Walker Wear. She serves on a local arts advisory board, and on a public service advisory council. April also serves as a virtual mentor for entrepreneurs and youth, implementing a customized curriculum to help them own their own magic.

  As a wellness influencer, April has dropped a Walker Wear athleisure line, and penned her first five-star book, Walkergems, Get You’re A$% Off The Couch. She spreads her Walkergems by giving people the tools they need to design the lives they imagine while she is uplifting her community in the process!

• YoYo

  YoYo is a rapper and actress whose music is notable for its feminist messages. Raised in the South Central district of Los Angeles, her big break came when she appeared on Ice Cube’s 1990 debut, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, duetting on “It’s A Man’s World,” representing her gender in admirable style. Her own long-playing debut introduced her combative attitude, with frequent interjections from Ice Cube’s Da Lench Mob posse. YoYo’s insight was later confirmed by her leading role in the formation of the Intelligent Black Women’s Coalition. Her 1992 album Black Pearl is among her best known. As an actress, she is perhaps most famous for her role as Keylolo on the 90s sitcom Martin. In 2013, she began running a musical academy called the YoYo School of Hip Hop. YoYo is currently the co-host of the #1 nationally syndicated radio show for women of color, Café Mocha, alongside Emmy Award Winner Loni Love and broadcast veteran Angelique Perrin. The show is heard in over 35 markets across the United States and on SiriusXM Channel 141.

• Estevan Oriol

  Estevan Oriol is an internationally celebrated professional photographer, director and urban lifestyle entrepreneur. Beginning his career as a hip-hop club bouncer turned tour manager for popular Los Angeles-based rap groups Cypress Hill and House of Pain, Estevan’s passion for photography developed while traveling the world. With an influential nudge and an old camera from his father, renowned photographer Eriberto Oriol, Estevan began documenting life on the road and established a name for himself amid the emerging hip-hop scene.

  Nearly 20 years later, Oriol’s extensive portfolio juxtaposes the glamorous and gritty planes of LA culture, featuring portraits of famous athletes, artists, celebrities and musicians as well as Latino, urban, gang, and tattoo culture lifestyles. He has photographed Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper, Ryan Gosling, Chloë Grace Moretz, Marissa Miller, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Floyd Mayweather, and others. He has also produced shoots for internationally-acclaimed photographers such as Ellen von Unwerth for Sang Bleu and Luca Babini for GQ Italy.

  In addition to shooting campaigns for companies including Cadillac, Nike and Rockford Fosgate and directing new media projects for My Cadillac Stories, MetroPCS, MTV and Apple, Estevan has designed album covers and/or directed music videos for artists including Eminem, Cypress Hill, Blink 182, Snoop Dogg and Xzibit.

  His work has been showcased in select galleries and institutions—such as Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, Mesa Contemporary Art Center, Petersen Automotive Museum, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ Art in the Streets exhibit—concluding with a best-selling books of his work: LA Woman, LA Portraits, And This Is Los Angeles capturing the dangerous gangsters, Lowriders, Musicians, Celebrities, L.A. Lifestyle and the alluring beauty of women shot in his uniquely provocative and raw style. His photography has been featured in Complex, FHM, Juxtapoz, GQ, Vibe, Rolling Stone and other publications, with appearances on popular television shows such as CNN’s Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, CNN’s Street Food with Roy Choi, HBO’s Entourage and Last Call With Carson Daly.

• Mike Miller

  Internationally acclaimed photographer and director Mike Miller. A native of Los Angeles, Miller is widely known for his iconic images chronicling the rise of the West Coast hip hop scene.

  Miller grew up on the Westside, attending Santa Monica public schools. His teen years were impeccably timed, growing up in the early days of punk and hip hop. He went on to graduate from UCLA in the mid-1980s and decamped for Europe, ending up in Paris, where he briefly made ends meet by painting houses. While in Europe, super model Linda Evangelista gave him his first camera, a Nikon F2 passed on from Peter Lindberg. Miller began photographing in earnest and quickly proved gifted for the craft. Within months he was traveling across Europe to shoot campaigns for Cacharel and other major fashion houses.

  When Miller returned home to L.A., his fashion work caught the eye of record labels such as EMI and by the late 1980s, he was shooting artists as varied as girl rockers The Go-Go’s and Heart, to jazz players such as Stan Getz and Herb Alpert. Miller, however, grew up a hip-hop fan, listening to 1580 AM, KOAY, the first 24-hour hip-hop station in the country. In 1989, he snapped his first rap-related cover, for the original N.W.A. group member, Arabian Prince along with his debut solo album. This was the beginning of Miller’s long history of shooting the key figures on the West Coast rap scene, thorough ly compiled in his monograph West Coast Hip-Hop and the subject of his in-progress documentary about the influence of this region’s hip-hop culture on the rest of the world.
  Miller’s most recognized images of artist Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, along with never before seen photographs depicting the time, culture, and community that gave birth to West Coast rap.

  Mike Miller (b. 1964) lives and works in Los Angeles. His work has been included in recent exhibitions at The New York Public Library and The Oakland Museum of California and has been acquired by the by the collections of the Smithsonian, Getty Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, among others.