Fahamu Pecou deconstructs ‘All Dat Glitters’ on the canvas and the mic (and the iPhone)

• Fahamu Pecou
• ALL DAT GLITTERS AINT GOALS: A picture is worth a thousand raps.

If you go searching for Fahamu Pecou on Wikipedia like I randomly did several months back, you’ll find that his page was deleted for suspect reasons, including a failure to “assert the importance or significance of its subject.”

Besides confirming yet again that the collaboratively edited online encyclopedia is a wack source for journalistic research, the rationale behind the deletion struck me as ironic considering how much “success” plays into the theme of the celebrated visual artist’s latest collection. All Dat Glitters Aint Goals takes aim at the performance of success in black male culture by holding up a mirror to the absurd proliferation of niggerific images in contemporary pop.

Pecou’s own international success in the art world has come largely from his penchant for pointing out such ironies. He tackled the cult of celebrity by turning himself into one. His resulting collection of “Fahamu Pecou is the Shit” self-portraits, painted with him gracing art-magazine covers, served as dual commentary on the art world’s air of exclusivity and pretentiousness.

This time, his deconstruction of black masculinity also tests the limits of the fine arts world by taking the exhibit beyond the white walls of the gallery. In conjunction with the art collection, Pecou released a 5-song EP of original hip-hop inspired by, and titled after, the paintings in All Dat Glitters. Though the exhibit debuted last September at the Lyons Wier Gallery in New York, he’s recently taken it into overdrive with the release of two new music videos for the project (see below the jump) and the announcement of a mobile app to be released next week. On May 31, the Fahamu Pecou Art app goes live on iPhones and iPads, featuring the current exhibition, accompanying music, and other interactive content.

The combined art and sounds of All Dat Glitters Aint Goals serve as both a cultural critique on the played-out tropes of black masculinity pervasive in mainstream rap and a grand lyrical statement of Pecou’s alternative worldview. It’s not the first time the artist - who penned his own lyrics for the project - has offered up a meta-rap critique. But while his former dabblings on the mic have come in the form of comic parodies (The Soggy Bottom Boys, Shit Gangsta Rappers Say), the All Dat Glitters EP is a serious work of art. He enlisted the help of a host of Atlanta-based hip-hop heavies, including producer Illastrate, emcees stic.man of Dead Prez, Yamin Semali, Methuzulah, Mike Flo, Ekundayo, DT, Boog Brown, Joe D, Massive, Divine, G.R.E.A.T. Scott, and vocalist Jamila Crawford.

When I visited Fahamu Pecou last August at his Decatur home, he was in his garage studio putting the finishing touches on “Shiny Things,” the last painting in his latest collection. He’d just run out of some new glitter paint made out of gold and was planning to make a run for some more before the art store closed. When I asked him if it shined like gold on the canvas, he said it was so subtle that you wouldn’t really be able to tell but the effect was still ill. It felt like a cool metaphor for the theme behind the whole exhibit. Below are excerpts from the rest of our conversation, including Pecou’s honest query about how Gucci Mane sleeps at night, and his admission that he used to steal his big brother’s raps back in the day and spit them at school as if they were his own.

Sounds like perfect fodder for a Wikipedia page, in case anyone’s interested.

Can you break down the concept behind the project for me?