In 2005, the cable TV network VH1 commissioned rising artist Kehinde Wiley to paint portraits of the honorees for that year’s Hip Hop Honors program. Some of these were incorporated into promotional posters for the event like this one, intended for display in the subways. The images by the now-legendary Los Angeles-born painter reflect his ongoing efforts to redefine and assert Black identity in works grounded in the Western canon of figurative portraiture. This poster features Wiley’s portrait of The Notorious B.I. G., one of the most influential hip-hop artists of the 1990s, who was killed in 1997 at the age of 24. Paintings from the series were shown in 2008 in the group exhibition Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Culture at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D. C.