If you know, you know: the late hip-hop pioneer, graffiti legend, and contemporary artist Rammellzee—a legend in his own time to his peers, such as art world luminary Jean-Michel Basquiat—was a profoundly influential figure across the art, graffiti, and music worlds whose work continues to resonate to this day.

Rammellzee was an enigmatic and key figure in the nexus of creative forces that defined New York City’s heady downtown scene in the late 1970s and 1980s. In the first major monograph on the multi-hyphenate artist, his inspired vision and wildly diverse artistic output are explored in depth. The book presents a treasure trove of materials: a diverse and comprehensive selection of artworks (paintings, sculpture, and installations), music, rare archival documentation, and ephemera. They tell this complex artist’s origin story and detail his artistic evolution for the first time.

Max Wolf, editor of the volume and curator of the much-lauded retrospective in 2018 on which this book is largely based, convenes a historic gathering of the key actors of the time to tell Rammellzee’s extraordinary story, from graffiti writers and artists to photographers and filmmakers including Sonic, Toxic, Lee Quinones, Charlie Ahearn, Jim Jarmusch, and Henry Chalfant, among thirty other critical voices. This richly layered volume is a must-have for the legions of Rammellzee fans, as well as enthusiasts of contemporary underground art and culture, graffiti, and the history of hip-hop.

Max Wolf is a curator and editor based in New York. Wolf founded New Canons in 2021, a nomadic curatorial office and art advisory. As the founder and chief curator of Redbull Arts, an experimental arts space in New York City he staged major exhibitions of artists such as Gretchen Bender, Mel Chin, and Bjarne Melgaard, among many others. Jeff “Chairman” Mao is an author, music journalist, DJ, and curator. Jeffrey Deitch is a gallerist and curator.