“I don’t know why she chose Nefertiti,” Tobak says of the legendary wife of 18th Dynasty Afro-Egyptian pharaoh, Akhenaten, who was the first person in history to proclaim the existence of a single god. □: Megan Thee Stallion (2020) by Marcelo Cantu | Courtesy of TASCHEN Then her mother sharing, “If you’re ever in a bind, you could always sell it” - practical wisdom passed down by those who have been discriminated against on the basis of gender and race alike. Don’t lose it,'” Tobak recalls of the piece that she still has to this day. “My mother gave me the necklace and said, ‘This is real gold. Tobak, who describes herself as “pretty low-key back then,” didn’t buy much jewelry herself, but she did own a Nefertiti pendant that her mother purchased at a little jewelry store at Detroit’s Northland mall in 1987. Tobak developed a deep appreciation for personal style and self-expression through both music and style - particularly jewelry, which was as braggadocious as the rhymes themselves. Tobak became Director of Marketing for the indie label, sporting a title with all of the prestige and none of the benefits but in doing so learned the industry from the ground up, a vantage point that has served her well. At Nell’s, Tobak met Patrick Moxie, Gang Starr’s manager, who was starting up Payday Records. There was a reason that Biggie shot the ‘Big Poppa’ video at Nell’s,” she recalls of the role nightlife played in Hip Hop culture during the ’90s. “I started learning in the club world, because that was like our internet. Tobak got her start as a photography intern at Paper magazine before going on to write for them, and work at Nell’s, the fabled nightclub on 14th Street. It was an exciting time.” □: Nas (wearing his signature QB piece designed by Tito Caicedo of Mannys) by Marc Baptiste | Courtesy of TASCHEN Everyone was trying to build, whether it was the label or clothing companies. If you showed loved and were authentic, you could get in where you fit in. “At that time, Hip Hop was not a place that everyone was dying to be a part of so it really felt like a small world. “People think Hip Hop was always this very coveted, competitive industry but it wasn’t always like that,” Tobak recalls of her early years hustling in New York. It was still the time when a few artists could crossover, as PMD memorably rapped: “Rappers been around long, makin mad noise you see / Still I haven’t seen one rapper livin comfortably.” All that would change by the end of the ‘90s, bringing Hip Hop’s Golden Age to a close. At the time, Hip Hop was still a small, underground community that was widely marginalized by record labels and brands alike. When it was Tobak’s turn to tell the class her dreams for the future, she said, “I want to move to the Bronx and work in Hip Hop.” □: Eric B & Rakim (1987) by David Corio | Courtesy of TASCHENĮveryone looked at her like she was crazy, but she explains, “In my teenage mind, I wanted to go where the music was and be a part of it.” And so she did. She gravitated to the skaters and art kids at school who were listening to groups like Public Enemy, and helped her to understand she didn’t need validation from mainstream America. Tobak vibed with songs she heard on the radio and in the clubs, grooving on everything from Motown to techno, funk to R&B - but it was Hip Hop that made Tobak feel like things finally made sense. Growing up, Tobak remembers feeling like an outsider in everything except music, which became her voice, allowing her to express the deep, playful, and profound feelings she couldn’t fully verbalize in her adopted language. High school student Vikki Tobak awaited her turn to speak as the teacher asked the class: “What do you want to do when you grow up?” The teen, who first arrived in the city in 1978 with her family as refugees from Kazakhstan, had fallen in love with the city’s soulful music scene. □: (L) Slick Rick by Sophie Bramly (R) Slick Rick by Janette Beckman | Courtesy of TASCHEN
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