272 pages Photographs by Jamel Shabazz Text(s) by Diana McClure & Carlton Usher Foreword by Kenneth J. Montgomery Esq. Designed by Phillip Shung 29.2 x 26.5 cm Language: English Hardback Publisher: powerHouse Books First edition 2025
“The Drama is the attitude and the Flava is the style.” — Jamel Shabazz
From the subway platforms and street corners of 1980s New York to the glossy pages of Vogue, The New York Times, and DAZED, photographer Jamel Shabazz has spent over four decades shaping the visual language of style, attitude, and cultural pride.
With Drama & Flava, Shabazz draws a direct line between his groundbreaking early work, immortalizing the fashion and energy of the hip hop generation in his classic book Back in the Days, and his more recent editorial and fashion commissions. The result is a vibrant cross-generational conversation: boomboxes, graffiti, Kangols, and gold chains meet the elegance and polish of contemporary shoots in Paris, Tokyo, and New York.
Everyday people smiling in front of his lens appear alongside iconic figures including Dapper Dan, Spike Lee, Slick Rick, Naomi Campbell, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Venus Williams, Yasiin Bey, and Kylie Jenner. What emerges is a powerful testament to the evolution of Black style and its global influence, raw yet refined, joyful yet unapologetically bold.
Featuring a foreword by Kenneth J. Montgomery and essays by Carlton Usher, Elena Romero, and Diana McClure, Drama & Flava is more than a photography book: it is a love letter to the creativity, resilience, and beauty of a community that continues to inspire the world.
Shabazz’s lens has always celebrated not just how people look, but who they are, and this volume affirms his place as one of the most important chroniclers of fashion, music, and everyday life in our time.
