Get Home Safe
From the mundane to the exciting, this collection is a look at the lives of two rising artists, trying to write their names in the history books of New York rap.
After a 2015 mixtape had Brooklyn and the world on notice, the duo of Swook and Stackzs dropped constant hits to get a feel for the industry, rather than giving into the antics around them.
In 2017 Gloss Gang decided to tell their own story through a documentary circulated by media company Mass Appeal. This gave viewers a look into the crime-ridden neighborhood that took the lives of many of their childhood friends.
On the cusp of blowing up bigger than ever, unfortunately, a twice collapsed lung and child being born kept their debut album in the chamber.
Gloss Gang’s tale is a constant reminder that no matter how good everything seems in the present, the future is sadly never promised.
Life can change in an instant — especially in Brooklyn, NY.
Get home safe.
Photographer’s Note:
Once I realized I wanted to be a fly on the wall for Gloss Gang, I needed a name for the project. I spent many days trying to think of something that fit, but ultimately I decided to give it a break and let something come to me.
One night, as I was heading home from a photo session, instead of saying “bye”, Stackzs told me to “get home safe.” This struck me as odd, being a white kid from a Columbus, Ohio suburb, I just always told my friends that I would see them later.
But it was immediately clear that this was the norm where Gloss Gang grew up. After friends had been shot and killed, committed crimes, and arrest on the very streets that I was going to take home that night, it made sense — the stakes were higher.
I thought about it long and hard, eventually coming to the conclusion that these three words summed up their story to this point. With everything going their way, with an album ready to release, everything can change if someone doesn’t get home safe.
These three words also represented a moment of clarity to me as a photographer and journalist, realizing that I was capturing something that I wouldn’t have gotten to experience without taking a leap of faith and moving to NYC.