Now this is innovative!
Syreeta Gates and Randall Wilson are the founders of Most Incredible, a “creative studio aimed at celebrating and commemorating the artists and moments that continue to elevate and define hip-hop culture – through LEGO.” Gates is a hip-hop archivist and founder of The Gates Preserve, a multimedia company focusing on preserving hip-hop through innovative experiences. While Wilson is a digital designer and front-end developer and avid LEGO enthusiast. Together, the two have merged their love of hip-hop and LEGO to create some of the most thoughtful pieces of art for the culture on the market.
Photo Courtesy of Most Incredible Studio
A New York native, Gates was inspired by the artists and influencers who shaped hip-hop culture, from legendary stylist Misa Hylton to films like “Belly” that were shot in her Queens neighborhood. Wilson had a similar experience, growing up in Atlanta and fashioning his love of hip-hop through labels like So So Def and groups like Organized Noize. Most Incredible fuses the duos experiences to highlight milestones, influential insignias and other hip-hop cultural moments through their LEGO art.
“A few years ago I started building the LEGO architecture collection sets and as I’ve built every set that they had available, I started to ponder about the sets that I would love to build that didn’t exist. Eventually, I began to think about the necessity of a fusion between hip-hop and LEGO. Because I don’t do anything in silos, my friend connected me with Randall, who knows the culture and has been a LEGO head for 30 years. He got the vision and we joined forces and created Most Incredible,” Gates told Because Of Them We Can.
Photo Courtesy of Most Incredible Studio
“I’ve been an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) for years and build my own stuff all the time. I was actually working on creating a model for the Smooth Criminal music video when Syreeta came to talk to me so my mind was already in that mode of building musically inspired LEGO art. I thought it’d be a great challenge to explore the concept and pull out motifs and imagery from hip hop and build them with a toy that’s universally recognizable – adding yet another texture to the culture. The one guiding light Syreeta provided was that she wanted this to be the ‘Rocafella of LEGO art,’” which drove us to find the name and the feeling we wanted to deliver as a studio,” Wilson added.
Photo Courtesy of Most Incredible Studio
Since then, the New York/Chicago based studio has created a variety of innovative LEGO Art pieces including ones inspired by A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC and N.W.A. as well as their newest offering, the “Ornamixtape, vol. 1,” a package of hip-hop inspired Christmas ornaments featuring a lego mic, DJ set, motherland piece and a lego snowman, fashioned after rapper Young Jeezy’s snowman logo.
Photo Courtesy of Most Incredible Studio
Wilson spoke about why he thinks the work they’re doing is so important, saying, “There’s so many worlds that people inhabit and move through that sometimes you miss the chance to engage them in dialogue with one another.”
He continued, “[Most Incredible] is an entry point for folks to get familiar with both art forms and how their vernaculars intersect, if you’re not well-versed in one world or the other. And if you do listen to music and don’t just skim through it, while also being a fan of these bricks, the connection is that much richer. It’s reinforcing that hip hop is a realm where you can stretch the bounds of what’s possible, just like LEGO.”
Both Gates and Wilson plan to continue reimagining the world of LEGO and creating pieces that resonate with the culture. “The work is necessary to be a point of reference. A reminder to create what’s missing,” Gates told BOTWC.
To purchase pieces from Most Incredible, click here.
And ya don’t stop! Keep doing the work Syreeta and Randall!
Photo Courtesy of Most Incredible Studio