Today we’re excited to premiere a new chapter in the DapperAfrika Experience. The impromptu Melanin Man shoot sees rapper Clint’N Lord out and about in the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn under the creative direction of New York-based editorial and beauty director, choreographer, songwriter and wardrobe stylist Yasin Abdur, aka DapperAfrika and more recently, Uncle Juice Lord.

According to DapperAfrika, a melanin man is “someone who expresses himself in freedom even when the world is mad.”

The resulting shoot with Clint’N Lord was ​"an hour's work of being free-spirited,” he tells us over the phone.

On the issue of gentrification around Brooklyn, DapperAfrika maintains that no one can commercialize originality. “You can't take away their freedom of art.”

After all, originality is one of his trademarks. “I do my best to shift it back to originality,” he says of the DapperAfrika Experience.

Check out our premiere of the Melanin Man editorial, shot by Mari J Brooklyn, below. Keep up with DapperAfrika on Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook.

Credits:

Editorial Direction

Styled by Dapper Afrika

@dapperafrika

#teamdapperafrika

Photography

Mari J Brooklyn

@marijbrooklyn

Subject

@clintnlord

Designers

White +Gray +Blue Scuba set.

@woodhouse_official

Red black plaid jacket

@sean_terris

Man's Bag

@marijbrooklyn

Blk + White print shirt

@damascusapparel

Burgundy Trench

@installationbrooklyn

Blue + yellow checkered turban

@ajypsysjunk

Tribal Cuff

@tafaritribeshop

Purple +

Yellow bubble cuffs

& all other accessories

@marijahbrooklyn

Brown Shoes

@JohnVarvatos

Blue socks

@gucci

Xoxo

@omen_nyc