T Dot Eric Recalls Documenting The 1995 Source Awards Clash From The Front Row
Photographer T Dot Eric has taken some of the pictures that have defined how Hip-Hop thinks of its heroes. His work includes legendary flicks of Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Big L, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Gang Starr, De La Soul, and Black Star—only to name a few. T. Eric Monroe, as he is also known, was the photograph editor of The Source magazine during the 1990s and a frequent contributor to Thrasher magazine throughout the decade. No matter who he was working for, the New Jersey native approached his subjects like they approached their music—artfully.
Today, Heads can see T Dot Eric’s work on his carefully curated social media (embedded below). However, he has also published annotated volumes of his photographs, Rare & Unseen Photos of 90’s HipHop, with an emphasis on care and quality. Eric discussed just how seriously he treats his craft in a conversation with Ambrosia For Heads‘ What’s The Headline? The guest breaks down capturing The Roots at an inflection point in the band’s career. He explains documenting mid-1990s Tupac and how that personality shifted when the cameras were down. Eric also explains why he stopped shooting Hip-Hop by the new millennium.
At the top of the hour-plus chat (embedded below, in video and audio), T. Dot Eric describes photos that became historical moments. Before his post at The Source, Eric was present the August 1995 night when the coasts clashed at the Source Awards. Eric, who documented Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, as well as their affiliates, recalls the evening.
“Something was in the air; you could sense something was off. There was tension that was not verbally said,” he says. T Dot Eric photographed a grimacing Snoop Dogg checking the Madison Square Garden audience with Dr. Dre at his side. Snoop famously declared, “The East Coast don’t got no love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg? Well, let it be known then.” Eric shares, “You can understand why Snoop was so pissed off: [Death Row] was doing a good job, they were there, representing themselves or whatever, but also honoring New York. But at the same time, no one gave them any kind of congratulations [or applause]. It was [more so] ‘Eh, go back to L.A.’ kinda sh*t.'” Eric empathizes with the Long Beach star who was a performer that night with his Death Row Records label-mates and DJ Quik. Inside one of Death Row’s prison cells on its set was a cardboard cutout of Tupac Shakur—an incarcerated affiliate who had not yet signed.
Eric explains getting into the event, despite some hardships. “I wasn’t on assignment there either. I was supposed to have gotten a pass to be in there; no one got me the pass. But I knew because they didn’t get me a pass, where my windows of opportunity were, getting into Madison Square Garden.” He took photographs of Suge Knight and his label partner, Dr. Dre, during soundcheck. “The presence that Suge had was larger than life. Just watching how everyone moved underneath Suge was just interesting to watch.”
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Later in the night, Suge, flanked by R&B singer Danny Boy, used the podium to send nameless disses in Puff Daddy and Jermaine Dupri’s direction. Eric, sitting a few rows in front of Diddy, remembers the shock of the moment.. “I’m watching, and I’m looking back at Puffy—because you’ve never seen a moment like this, but you’re watching it unfold, so I’m like snap [takes photo, reacts, take photo, reacts]. ‘Alright, it’s time to go now.'” As the show neared its close, T Dot Eric admits he was up and out—headed for the Garden State. “I just knew for me, I’m good. I got enough shots. I’m gone; what else do I need to see? Not that I [thought a fight would break out], I just know when it’s time to leave.”
Eric also makes a point about where Death Row and Bad Boy were at the time. Even documenting Death Row during soundcheck, he says the mood going into the show was light. “I just thought it was interesting watching this sh*t unfold; it was fun.” Eric adds, “No one was a celebrity yet. Everyone had hits. But to me, that night, let’s say LL Cool J was there—that would’ve been a celebrity. Everybody else was sort of bubbling up, and you were watching their careers evolve over two or three years. There was no shell-shock of celebrityism. Everybody was still, ‘Okay, we’re still growing, but nothing has happened yet.'”
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While T Dot Eric captured the Rap world fracturing one night, he had also snapped one of the few photos of Tupac and Biggie together (embedded below). Eric attended a 1993 ONYX show on an assignment for Thrasher. “Someone, off the side, was like, ‘Yo, come take our picture.’ I was like, ‘Okay, cool; just give me a second.’ I got my stuff together and went over to dudes. I’m lookin’ at ’em and lookin’ at ’em—just lined ’em up, and when I’m ready, that’s when Pac threw up a finger. [I took the photo] and was like, ‘Thank you,’ and I went back to [ONYX’s] dressing room. That’s all it was.”
Eric admits that he did not think much of the photograph at the time. “It was on slide film. For years, I knew it was Tupac. But it was this giant middle finger—in magazines back then, we can’t run profanity sign language.” Pac’s middle finger made the shot unusable in the mid-1990s. It sat in many of Eric’s boxes and bins of film.
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In 2012, while beginning to publish from his archives, things changed. “I looked at it, and I looked at it again—’cause I had to get a light-box. It just didn’t make sense what I thought I was looking at.” The photo shows Tupac in a Bad Boy Records t-shirt, two years before attacking the label in songs. “There’s Biggie Smalls, there’s Tupac, there’s Lil’ Cease, there’s D-Roc, Stretch, one of the [other] guys from Junior M.A.F.I.A. all wearing ‘I’m A Bad Boy’ shirts in support of Biggie’s single.”
Eric showed the photo to Cease and filmed him discussing it. “He was like, ‘I was 16 in that; I had no business being there that night. I didn’t even know this picture existed until a few years ago.’ That’s why he was happy about the Internet, ‘This is the only moment that shows all of us were friends, together.'” He adds, “It tells a story.”
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T Dot Eric tells many stories in his What’s The Headline? interview. Heads can support T Dot Eric’s books and photography.
Here Is A Rundown of the Discussion:
0:00 Intro
3:24 On being in the front row at The Source Awards when The East Coast/West Coast Beef started
8:18 On photographing Tupac and Biggie when they were friends
21:12 How Big L’s music improved over time
24:45 Photographing Guru, Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd together for Jazzmatazz
25:50 Working with Nas to capture one of his most iconic photos
27:30 How he took his rare photo of Mos Def and Talib Kweli
31:40 What Tupac was like when the cameras weren’t pointed at him
33:34 His first impressions of Mos Def when they met
35:14 How Tupac changed when he was around kids
36:40 Hearing unreleased music by The Roots in the studio
39:00 The importance of respecting artists’ boundaries
40:45 Why he stopped doing Hip-Hop photography
44:00 The amazing chemistry he saw between Raekwon and Ghostface Killah
46:15 His experience working for The Source
48:20 Taking one of the few photos of Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo together
51:35 The uniqueness of The Roots’ Malik B
55:38 Photographing Big Pun at home with his family
59:20 Being on set for Missy Elliot’s first video shoot
1:01:50 What he learned from doing his Rare & Unseen Moments Of 90’s Hip-Hop books
1:06:18 What he’s learned about himself through is photography career
Ambrosia For Heads readers can catch regular discussions about the culture on our What’s The Headline podcast. Additionally, What’s The Headline has recent interviews with Pharoahe Monch, Prince Paul & Don Newkirk, Statik Selektah, Lyric Jones, The LOX, MC Eiht, Mobb Deep’s Havoc, Duckwrth, and Lord Finesse. All episodes of the show are available wherever you stream your pods.
#BonusBeat: Some highlights from T Dot Eric’s archives, available in his books:
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