Features
Holy Hip Hop
By Nazneen Miah
Feb 5, 2008, 10:18

Alex Melamid
Unintentional Pioneer

When General Secretary Brezhnev was as frequent in an American home as Bob Dylan, Alex Melamid’s public figure was emerging. Melamid has been an artist since the age of 12, and with 50 years of creating, Detroit will the first stop for his first solo exhibition: Holy Hip-Hop, an accolade to the great innovators of the genre.

Power, social or otherwise, has allured humans for centuries and hip-hop artists are the embodiment of the hedonistic lifestyle in modern society. Being introduced to many of the greats, such as Common, by his music video producer son Dan “the Man” Melamid, Alex Melamid began to see the engaging lifestyle the men lead. With a plethora of “bitches and bread” at their disposal, their brand of magnetism has a blatant appeal to society; there is a reason more people vote for American Idol than the leader of our country.

After graduating from the Strogonov Institute of Art and Design, Melamid and his creative collaborator, Vitaly Komar, began making statement pieces in their native Moscow. In 1973, Melamid and Komar presented Paradise, where the two dressed up as Lenin and Stalin in an apartment, and had the audience listen to official Soviet radio. This was a statement to let the public know they are not afraid to express their creative genius and would allow it to be uninhibited. “Artists are like geniuses and you want to show that to people,” says Melamid. “Art is a good medium to express yourself … In my day, artists were as big as world leaders. I wanted to be as big as them and change the world.”

Melamid has been compared to pop artist Roy Liechtenstein. But it was legendary pop artist Andy Warhol who would create a rapport and a story to remember with the Soviet artists. Upon meeting Warhol, Melamid and Komar decided to let him in on a tradition among the Soviet pop artists: They would sell their souls to one another. Melamid convinced the ever-cool Warhol to sell him his soul. Melamid and Komar sold the contract written on a piece of scrap paper to an auction house in Russia for roughly $100.   

Melamid’s style is hard to define. For Holy Hip-Hop, the icons are not in their public image. Melamid had one-on-one time with each icon and drew them the way he saw them. Bringing humanity to what might be a more mysterious power of urbanity. The style is reminiscent of Baroque, which was favored in the Roman Catholic Church.“ They are supposed to look modern, because the subjects are modern,” Melamid tells me. The hip-hop artists are not in their public image, because this is not for publicity. It’s the way Melamid captures them, and brings his Russian intelligencia to the rap world that impresses. Melamid will be at the MOCAD  from Feb. 8-10.  | RDW

Alex Melamid: Holy Hip-Hop • 2/8 – 4/20 • MOCAD








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