AGE OF AQUARIUS: Futura2000 by
Roosevelt Franklin (Black President)

" My name is Lenny. If I ain't got it, there ain't any. Wanna buy a watch?"
-hustle man from TV show Good Times

With the eloquent tone of a professor, the dirty eyes of a pot smoker and the organized discipline of a soldier, he's considered a legend in the culture of Hip-Hop. This inner city renaissance man (a.k.a. Leonard McGurr) first got fame blessing NYC's subways with his artistic terrorism in the 70's and 80's. He's held it down with Afrika Bambaata, spit lyrics with punk rock icons the Clash and matrickulated with Madonna.

Like contemporaries Phase 2 and Rammellzee, Futura's abstract compositions have been shown in galleries around the world along side cats like Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. His freestyle stresses the intuitve over the rational; emotion methodically manifest through highly technical skill.

In the early 90's, this conceptual mindset made Futura a pioneer in urban fashion. He and two partners produced the infamous Phillies Blunt t-shirts, second in popularity only to black Bart Simpson at the time. Project Dragon is the code name for their new graphic design and clothing company sold through Recon, their chain of stores in San Francisco, New York and Tokyo.

The stores sell his limited edition toy line based on the alien like creatures inhabiting his pieces. The continuity of these characters reflect a subversive theme through out his work which allows him to create his own funkadelic mythology. It's one that's subliminal, militaristic, futuristic, but not necessarily utopian, cybernetic but still organically hallucinogenic. These aliens appear on his seemingly endless website www.futura2000.com. They're on album covers for avant garde hip-hop label Mo' Wax. They're also in designs for Levi's jeans available only in Japan, where he's idolized like Bootsy Collins and Wu Tang.

Those interested in more info on the icon can check for his new book, Futura, an autobiographical archive of his graffix, etc. published by Booth-Clibborn.