This film meets Ricky Powell, a native New Yorker whose photographs of iconic people such as the Beastie Boys, Keith Haring and Cindy Crawford made him a pivotal figure in the downtown party scene during the '80s and '90s. Now 50, Ricky’s lust for photography and music is still strong. Through his eccentricities such as his love for a transistor radio and feeding squirrels in the park, we gain an insight into his everyday life. Retrospective of New York City and how it has changed over his lifetime, he shows us around the city and contemplates what the future holds.
Since the mid-1980s, he has been the industry’s very own burly, bearded version of Forrest Gump, appearing in the background, slightly blurry but ever present, at a remarkable number of key musical moments. Except that Rubin's ubiquity is not an accident. His production credits include LL Cool J’ Radio (which may have been the first real hip-hop album); The Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill; “Walk This Way” by Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith; Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (as executive producer); the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik; Tom Petty’s Wildflowers; Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series; and various songs and albums by Justin Timberlake, System of a Down, Metallica, Slayer, Danzig, Weezer, AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails ... The list goes on.
