The Greatest Day: The Epic Story Behind Hip-Hop's Most Iconic Photograph

Based on the Respect magazine essay "The Game Changer" by Sheena Lester Narrated by Sheena Lester.In 1998, XXL Editor-in-Chief Sheena Lester and the magazine's staff set out to create a hip-hop remake of Art Kane’s legendary 1958 Esquire magazine photoshoot known as “A Great Day In Harlem."Kane's image featured 57 of the greatest jazz musicians of the time gathered around the stoop at 17 West 126th Street in Harlem. That image remains one of the greatest moments in jazz music history, and the talented team at XXL was looking to pull off the same for hip-hop at the very same place consecrated by jazz 40 years prior.This five-part series features firsthand accounts from many of those involved in this wildly ambitious/borderline impossible idea, including former XXL staff members and a range of artists, journalists, photographers, and cultural luminaries. With the venerable Gordon Parks recruited behind the lens and 177 rappers in front of it, what they ultimately achieved—the photograph