1. Let's start from the beginning. What started you in the fine arts?
My earliest memories of making art really are of Saturday mornings sitting on the floor in the bank as my mom waiting in line to cash her paycheck. I would travel with a plastic bag of crayons and a legal pad and sit there drawing away secretly hoping the line would take extra long so I wouldn’t be interrupted. So the love has always been there. Coming up in the 80s a lot of my family lived in the same building so my older cousins and the graffiti in our neighborhood was a big influence. They introduced me to artists Biz, Kool Moe Dee, Audio Two and I would copy the things they were doodling on their canvas 3-ring binders as well as the stuff I saw on the walls of our apartment building. There’s one image that I remember drawing all the time in multiple variations of a guy with a flattop, rope chain, 4-finger ring, and boombox. Since then, hip-hop culture has always been the background to my art, whether it is the music or the inspiration or, usually, a combination of the two.
2. Describe this medium. Why do you enjoy working with it?
My work right now are digital illustrations which I create using a couple of different Adobe programs. When working digitally, my approach varies based on the concept. Most pieces begin with research for reference images and a sketchbook drawing. After that, again, it depends on the concept, sometimes I’ll work it some more on my iPad to get it to a more final state then transfer that image to my computer for final edits, or I’ll take the sketchbook drawing straight to Illustrator and finish it there.
The biggest reason I enjoy working digitally, is the ability to manipulate the image. I can move things around, create layers, resize, change colors, etc. with ease and accuracy. Not to say I don’t still love the other mediums I’ve worked with, but without my own studio, it’s hard to execute some of my ideas as well as I would like.
3. Your art is clearly influenced by hip hop (mostly from the 90's aka the golden era) and pop culture references. How do you decide what you want to present in your art?
This is going to sound cliché and cheesy but it’s a lot about what speaks to me. Often, I’m listening to the music and an image pops into my head. But a lot of it is about representing those iconic moments, items, and verses. I want my viewers to get a tinge of nostalgia and see themselves in the piece.
4. Do you have a favorite piece? Which one and why?
I have a couple favorites…
I love “Mixtapes” because it’s a symbol of my relationship with hip-hop. Coming home from middle school and sitting by the radio with the tape deck on record/pause waiting for that hot song of the moment to come on. Some of the best mixes on my itunes are based on lists from those tapes I made in the early 90s (which I refuse to part).
Another piece is “I listen to Classical” which is a play on T-3’s line from Slum Village’s “Fall N Love”. For me, it really says it all when it comes to how I feel about the state of the music now. Not to mention, although many of us think of the music of golden era as if it was yesterday, it really was 20 years ago so it has reached that “classical” stage.
5. What does the future hold for kevfrumbk?
Right now, I’m working on a series called “I Got A Story to Tell” in which I aim to present some of favorite Hip-Hop stories/songs as a comic book or picture book. It’s a really slow process as some parts of a song aren’t as vivid but I love the challenge of finding ways to present those parts as images. In between, I’m doing smaller concepts pieces based on whatever pops into my head, like the “Warning” and “Technics 1200s” series.
6. Where can UR heads find your work?
To be honest, I feel like I’m kinda scattered about the Internet, but here it goes…
The formal site (for now) with some of my older work is
For the more current things I’m working on and the occasional random musing,
To purchase my readily available work,
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