20 People to Watch - FRKO

The satirical arts madman elicits strong reactions

The strongest reaction to one of Freako Rico, aka FRKO’s illustrations resulted in a direct threat on the artist’s life.

??
“I had this one kid say he was going to come down to Atlanta and shoot me,” the 27-year-old illustrator, painter, sculptor, and BMX biker says. “I was like, ‘Damn, over a cartoon?’”

??
One look at the Atlanta-born, Stone Mountain-raised artist’s portfolio and Instagram feed, and there’s plenty of visual fodder to draw the ire of Internet trolls. FRKO’s freehand ink illustrations take cues from Hanna-Barbera, Mike Judge (“Beavis and Butthead,” “King of the Hill”), and Freaknik’s comic book-style T-shirts. FRKO’s work marries the comical — Drake’s hit “Hotline Bling” reimagined as “Backpage Bling” — and the controversial — a drawing of FRKO nailed to the cross like Jesus and another in which the prophet Muhammad is throwing dollars at a pole dancer. None of those was the image that got him the death threat.

??
That distinction belonged to an illustration of up-and-coming New York MC Action Bronson being set on fire by Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah. The image emerged shortly after the latter released a video directed at the former during their beef earlier this year.

??
Like most of FRKO’s work it was bold, with pinpoint line work. The only problem: He was the in-house artist for Action Bronson, and made a name for himself doing the singles and album artwork for the rapper’s album Mr. Wonderful. The fallout with Bronson and his fanbase was swift, but FRKO had made up his mind before that image ever hit the Web.

??
“I’m not trying to get a rise out of people. I just do this shit because I like doing it,” he says. “At the same time it was my way of showing I’m an individual, I’m not just working for somebody.”

??
In 2015, the Redan High School grad and Howard University dropout garnered attention from the A3C Hip-Hop Festival, Phoenix Festival, and Forward Warrior Project as well as Snoop Dogg and BMX brand Animal. FRKO jokes that he no longer needs to look for work because “people are hitting me up.” The people he’s referring to include the ones at ad agencies and others commissioning a slew of projects in 2016, the kind he’s legally bound to not mention on record till the first press releases are sent.

??
Still, FRKO’s most excited about his first solo show in the spring, which is slated to go down at ABV Gallery. There’s also talk of a potential solo show at Notch 8 Gallery. For both exhibitions, he plans to show more 3-D and installations, along with his painting and carpentry work.

??
One of the bigger projects involves building a 20-foot mobile version of Roberto the Rat, a recurring character in FRKO’s illustrations. As if the prospect of a giant rodent in the street wasn’t intriguing enough, FRKO’s even dabbling in music, releasing a mixtape, “maybe an album,” called Everyone is Wack to Me in January.

??
Whatever media FRKO has his hands — or mouth — in, you can bet it will be broadcast in his hometown.

??
“A lot of people get big in art and they’re traveling all over the place. That’s cool and all but I don’t even like getting on airplanes,” he says. “If I have a dope idea for a show or for an event, I want it to happen in Atlanta first. I love the people here.”