15 June 8-14, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | Music | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | Museum Worthy Salaam Remi’s MuseZeuM is an ecosystem for artists, music, and culture. BY SHANAE HARDY T he residue of a storm still lingers thick in the air on a sluggish Sun- day afternoon in Wynwood. An overcast temporarily fades over an intersection on NW Second Ave as a few tourists stop to pose in front of murals of Bob Marley, Betty Wright, D’Angelo, Amy Winehouse, and Nas embla- zoned along the exterior of MuseZeuM. At first glance, the renovated storefront fits like a puzzle piece among the splash of spray- painted units lining the street. Inside the MuseZeuM’s flagship location at 2032 NW Second Ave., Grammy Award- winning producer Salaam Remi wraps up a phone call while sitting at a desk in the center of the showroom. He dons one of his custom oversized red hoodies featuring his Marvin Gaye “Save the World” print, inspired by a Gaye remix EP he released in 2021. His tow- ering stature and gentle mien make his pres- ence prominent yet placid when he stands. He greets with a warm, benevolent voice before offering a tour of his bespoke collection, the exact walkthrough he’s led for artists like Lauryn Hill, Nas, Jazmine Sullivan, DJ Khaled, Wyclef Jean, and A$AP Rocky during his Mi- ami Art Week debut back in December 2022. He thoroughly details each element, from the mural-wrapped exterior to the sonic textures and the multimedia materials he used to bring his muses to life with his creative director Tati- ana Crooks and audio engineer Ryan Evans. He stops in front of a portrait he designed around a photograph he took of Amy Wine- house. The British singer’s unescapable stare stands in contrast with the bubblegum-pink theme. She blows a bubble, while above her head is the word “Cherry” embellished in red glitter, a nod to the song of the same name he produced for her 2003 debut album, Frank. Remi produced many songs in the late sing- er’s catalogue, from Frank and her acclaimed follow-up Back to Black. Like much of his art, the Winehouse can- vas is inspired by the connections and friend- ships that span Remi’s three-decade career. “Each one is their own centerpiece,” he describes the paintings and canvases circling the gallery’s perimeter. A low-profile savant who prefers to stay out of the limelight, Remi is the producer to be studied, not just admired. The son of the Trinidadian-Barbadian studio musician Van Gibbs, he grew up in Queens, New York, around hip-hop pioneers Kurtis Blow, Doug E. Fresh, and Fab 5 Freddy. By his early teens, he was contributing keys to Kurtis Blow’s 1988 album Back by Popular Demand. By the next decade, his unique production style be- came a catalyst for culture-shifting artists like the Fugees, Winehouse, Nas, Supa Cat, and Miguel. A key player in the evolution of hip- hop, R&B, and reggae, he’s the mastermind behind timeless hits like Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper,” the Fugees’ “Fu-Gee- La,” Nas’ “Made You Look,” and Toni Brax- ton’s platinum single “You’re Makin’ Me High.” After releasing his 2020 album, Black On Purpose, last year, he announced plans to re- tire on his 50th birthday. But the art hobby he picked up during lockdown tugged him in a different direction. “I was like, ‘It’s my 50th birthday, and I’ve been doing records since I was 14. When do I get my pension? When do I get an opportu- nity to do other things?’” he recalls. “Starting this aspect of it was really me doing it as a fan first in the same way I started doing music as a fan, and when I’m a fan, I try to figure out how to create and contribute to that. This was great as a personal development, but when I realized I could share this with other people, that’s when it went to another level.” Right before last year’s Miami Art Week, Remi, who’s lived in Miami since 2002, picked out a spot in Wynwood big enough to host his growing art collection and private events. He was almost ready for a debut with his art already approved by the artists or their estates. The only piece missing? A name. “When I was showing J. Cole these pieces, he looked at it and said, ‘But what’s your name?’” he says. “I couldn’t think of a name. Then Super Cat left me a message one day. He said, ‘Yo, don’t put my picture in no museum.’ He didn’t want to say gallery because Jamai- cans have the whole double talk thing, so when he said muse-zeum, I was in London and kept thinking muse-zeum. So right before we opened for Art Basel, I said, ‘We gone put it there, and it’s going to stick Jamaican style,’ and it sticks. It’s a musezeum. We want to have the musicians a part of it.” He didn’t want to make his art transactional like aristocratic galleries extract and capitalize from artists. Instead, he developed a “for art- ists, by artists” concept, where musicians, art- ists, and fans can benefit from a symbiotic partnership. The space celebrates art in all forms. He’s incorporated photographs of hip- hop icons from celebrity photographers Mi- cheal Benabib and Ricky Powell and paintings from Black contemporary artists like Crooks, Brittany Anne Baum, and Justin Wadlington, whom he discovered on Instagram a few years before adding his Nas painting PicEsco to the MuseZeuM collection. Remi also splits a per- centage of art and limited-edition revenue with the artists who created it and the artists who inspired the paintings, eschewing pa- parazzi practices of selling and exploiting the likeness of celebrities without their consent. “That’s one missing thing in this ecosys- tem, at least for African-Americans,” Wad- lington says. “I’ve always wanted to connect my art to some of these people. I feel it’s im- portant to bridge these gaps, and I love that Salaam is doing that. He’s being selfless about it too. He’s using his voice and his platform to bridge gaps, and it’s an amazing thing.” In April, he kicked off his Midnight at Mu- seZeuM concert series with hip-hop pioneer Rakim. The two-part event included a private unveiling and conversation held at the Wyn- wood space, where fans were given exclusive access to limited-edition merch the night be- fore Grand Puba and Rakim hit the stage at the Miami Beach Bandshell. The live series encapsulates Remi’s approach to building tangible connections that can breed new pos- sibilities for everyone involved. He’s the con- duit between the overlapping worlds of music and art, a role he played long before picking up a spray can. “I’m not a huge self-promoter,” he says. “On all the records I’ve produced over the years, there’s only one song where someone shouted me out at the beginning of the song, and I wasn’t there when they mixed it. Who I am is great, but what the people I’ve helped to create is even more. For instance, I’ve never done a record for Beyoncé, but ▼ Music Producer Salaam Remi has established a “for artists, by artists” ecosystem at MuseZeuM’s flagship location in Wynwood. Photo by Creator Trigger/Donjai Gilmore/Sean Bell “STARTING THIS ASPECT OF IT WAS REALLY ME DOING IT AS A FAN FIRST IN THE SAME WAY I STARTED DOING MUSIC AS A FAN.” >> p16
