Meeting Arrested Development
When I started hanging out with Killer Mike back in 2017, I always had in my head how cool it would be to meet folks with Arrested Development. Last year my friend DJ Kemit connected me with Speech, the founder of the group. I’ve been working on a book of portraits called West of Atlanta and pitched him to take his portrait for the book.
We were going to meet on a Sunday at my studio and the week before he hit me to see if it’d be okay if he brought Eshe with him. She was one of the five original members. Of course that was fine!! A couple of days later, Eshe hollered to see about bringing Rasa Don, the original drummer for the group. In the end, Rasa wouldn’t make it that Sunday and visited the following week.
For me, it was really an amazing day. I’ve been a fan of theirs since they came on the radio back in the early 90s. When I got out of the Navy in September 1992, I moved to Chattanooga, TN where my family had moved while I was serving. When I moved there it was a bit of a shock and I wondered if I made the right decision moving there. It was as this time that there hit Tennessee was in heavy rotation on the radio and thought if a group could make a song that celebrated the state like that, I could give it a try. I’d go onto get my degree in Chattanooga and start my design career there until I moved to Atlanta January 1, 2005.
You can see more about my book in progress on my site, stevewestphoto.com/west-of-atlanta
