August 2001: They’ve been banged up, shot at, knifed, adored, ripped off, sampled and mobbed. There’s 30 of them and the youngest is eight. They’ve brought mob rule to the charts and rebuilt pop for the 21st century. This is So Solid Crew: get UR streets on to the future sound of young Britain.
Spike Lee is now showing a sunnier face to the world, yet he’s making another film without a happy ending.
To celebrate Black History Month, we’ve dug through our 40 years-deep back-catalogue to find interviews and profiles with the world’s greatest talents across film, music, fashion and the arts. Over the coming weeks we’ll be posting a selection of these FACE encounters with the best of the best. Creative, resilient and revolutionary: these are our Archive Heroes.
Black History Month: It's September 1999. He is Napoleon in Pumas. In LA, he brokers peace for Biggie and Tupac. In London, he buys champagne for 700 friends. In Paris, he parties with George Lucas. And back in New York, there are the Spanish and rock markets to conquer… Has Puff Daddy come to save hip-hop, or to bury it?
July 1996: Things won’t ever be quite the same for The Prodigy following the incredible success of that record. Where next for the fire-starting mob now they’ve torched the rock ‘n’roll blueprint?
January 1990: After a year of underground success, Stone Roses and Happy Mondays crowd into a Top of the Pops dressing room to celebrate their entry into the national charts. With Britain at their feet the world will surely follow, and if you're looking for the sound of the Nineties, these are the Mancunian candidates.
To celebrate his fierce Travis Scott cover-shoot for our new print edition, Richard Benson (Editor of THE FACE 1995-98) walks us through LaChappelle’s best bits from the archive.
It’s the blockbuster that’s part Western, part comic-book and a bit Mortal Kombat... It’s the sci-fi film reinvented. Let the experts who made it show you how. The Matrix: you’ll believe Keanu can fly.
Issue No.2, March 1997, Volume 3: Where did it all go wrong for The Artist Formerly Known As Slave? Ask Ekow Eshun. He visited Prince at Paisley Park, and thinks he might have the answer. Kind of.
September 1993: “There’s no cure for cancer,” a cigarette puffing Denis Leary bragged in his 1992 comedy routine. But 19-year-old Dave Chappelle disagrees: racism is a cancer and it’s not too late for treatment. Wicked world, it’s time to laugh yourself better.
To mark the 23rd anniversary of his death, editor Sheryl Garrett has reissued Bliss To Be Alive – a collection of The Face’s foremost features writer’s most loved work.
Andrew Weatherall, 6th April 1963 – 17th February 2020.
February 1984: “The badly-dressed people are always the most interesting,” says Jean-Paul Gaultier. His zany and iconoclastic creations have managed to bemuse even the most modern tastes. Here are six of the most striking, described and photographed by the designer himself.
Following Kim Jones’ Dior tribute to the Buffalo gang icon, we revisit Blame’s archive stories for The Face.
November 1996: You are Ewan McGregor. In Trainspotting you play Britain's most famous heroin addict. You're fêted at Cannes, then signed by Hollywood. What do you do next? Star in a film in which you mostly appear naked, with words painted on your penis. Of course.
February 1994: Snoop Doggy Dogg is currently America’s top rap star. He’s also due to be tried later this year as an accessory to murder. In his first interview with the British press, he tells us whether the gangsta life celebrated on his records has now become reality.
December 2000: Joaquin Phoenix has demons. The myth surrounding his late brother River. His “hippy” family. The six “wilderness” years he took off from acting. That “moodiness”. But this year, with formidable performances in Gladiator and now The Yards, he’s finally headed into the light.
An archival tribute to Oasis, 25 years on from the release of their groundbreaking debut album, Definitely Maybe.
February, 1996: A first-hand scoop into the bleak world of the ’90s cult classic, taken from our archive.
May 1991: In homage to the late John Singleton, director of ‘90s cult classic Boyz N The Hood, The Face unearths an archive feature on the rise of “Black Hollywood”.
May, 2004: From bun-shakin’ Kelis to André 3000 twistin’ in jockey silks, flamboyance and fun have taken over.
May, 2003: Beyoncé brings passion. She sings it like she means it… eyes shut, sweat pouring, body rocking.
May, 2002: First, they came for us. Then they came for your parents. Then our kid brothers and sisters. Are mobiles taking over?