by Mary Spiller
Could 24, 2025
Jenkins died of issues stemming from A number of System Atrophy.
Influential journalist and filmmaker Sacha Jenkins has died. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the cultural legend who co-founded Nineteen Nineties journal Ego Journey, died attributable to well being issues Could 23 at 54 years outdated.
Jenkins’s reason for dying was confirmed by his spouse, fellow journalist Raquel Cepeda. On the morning of Could 23, Jenkins suffered from a number of system atrophy, a progressive neurodegenerative dysfunction that impacts each the central nervous system and the autonomic nervous system.
Jenkins, a Philadelphia native, constructed an extended and various profession in journalism by his ardour for tradition and the humanities. His profession took off when he launched Graphic Scenes & Xplicit Language, credited as one of many very first magazines centered on graffiti artwork.
Later in life, he partnered together with his longtime buddy Elliott Wilson, who would proceed to work in each journalism and tv, to begin the hip-hop newspaper Beat Down. Jenkins and Wilson’s subsequent main challenge was the enduring Ego Journey, {a magazine} that blended hip-hop tradition with skateboarding.
Although he was initially born in Philadelphia, Jenkins himself was raised and formed in New York Metropolis. He selected to maneuver to Queens within the late Seventies to place his finger to the heartbeat of hip-hop, the place it was actually taking off. Within the epicenter of town, graffiti and skateboarding had been each rising as widespread mediums of expression.
Jenkins defined in a 2024 interview with Concept Era, “It was crucial for me to be immediately concerned, as a result of I be taught from hip-hop, from hardcore, from graffiti, no matter. Being a practitioner, being concerned, or understanding these cultures and subcultures has at all times been very germane to my evolution. Having that have actually helped me navigate the world at giant.”
Jenkins had a prolific artistic profession. In journalism, Jenkins started by writing underground zines, however continued to write down and edit in main magazines resembling Vibe, Rolling Stone, and Spin. Most lately, he was the artistic director at Mass Enchantment.
Over time, he engaged in telling and poignant interviews with big-name artists from completely different musical backgrounds, wrote a number of books centering on graffiti, created an off-Broadway play, and directed a number of movies.
As a filmmaker, Jenkins was additionally a drive within the trade. Most lately, he produced the documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” and nonetheless has a brand new movie on the best way referred to as “Harley Flanagan: Wired for Chaos,” which focuses on the lifetime of legendary Cro-Mags bassist and frontman.
Jenkins directed a number of notable movies, together with “Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James” in 2021, “Recent Dressed” in 2015—which takes a dive into the historical past of Hip-Hop vogue—”All Up within the Biz” in 2023, a documentary about rap legend Biz Markie, and a 2019 four-part collection on the “Wu-Tang Clan, Of Mics and Males.” A few of Jenkins’s different credit embrace: “All the things’s Gonna Be All White,” “Round The Manner,” “Supreme Crew,” “Era Lifeless: The Strolling Lifeless Fan Documentary,” “You’re Watching Video Music Field,” “Rolling Like Thunder,” “Cypress Hill: Insane within the Mind,” and “Metropolis Ladies Level Clean Interval.”
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