An Audience With Blowfly, Hip Hop’s Bawdy Caped Crusader
The Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village was nearly empty at 9 p.m. last Friday night, save for an old black man wearing a shirt emblazoned with the letters “BF” and a ratty orange hat that said “Big Day Out.” He was sitting in the middle of the lobby, serenading a handful of fans with an X-rated parody of “Hello Dolly” in which “It’s so nice to see you take a douche again …” was the only printable phrase of the song. This was R&B songwriter Clarence Reid, but soon enough he would don the sequined cape and mask of his doppelgänger, and when several members exiting the theater from another show filed past they would look at him warily, as if this crazy guy in a sparkly, befouled outfit might follow them out the door asking for money. In reality, they should probably be asking him for something—the autograph of the infamous Blowfly. Read More
