Sacha Jenkins facts for kids

Sacha Sebastian Jenkins (born August 22, 1971 – died May 23, 2025) was an American producer, filmmaker, writer, and artist. He was known for documenting hip-hop, graffiti, punk, and metal cultures. Even as a teenager, Jenkins published a 'zine (a small, self-made magazine) called Graphic Scenes & X-Plicit Language, which focused on graffiti art. In 1994, he helped start Ego Trip magazine. Later, in 2007, he created a TV show for VH1 called Ego Trip's The (White) Rapper Show. Jenkins also worked as the creative director for Mass Appeal magazine.

Early Life and Family

Sacha Jenkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 22, 1971. His family lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., until he was seven years old.

Moving to New York

After his parents separated, Sacha's father, Horace Byrd Jenkins III, moved to Harlem. Horace was a professor at Howard University. Sacha, his mother Monart, and his sister Dominique moved to Queens, New York in 1977.

His Parents' Careers

Sacha's father, Horace Jenkins, won Emmy Awards for his work on TV shows like The Advocates, Sesame Street, and 30 Minutes (a CBS TV series). He was a pioneer in TV magazine shows with Black Journal. Horace also wrote and directed the film Cane River (1982). He passed away from a heart attack in the same year.

Sacha Jenkins' mother, Monart, was a painter from Haiti. Her artwork was shown in galleries in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Education and Learning

Jenkins graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School in Astoria, Queens, New York, in 1990. He then attended Brooklyn College and City College of New York. In 2000, he received a special fellowship to study at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

Creative Career

In 1988, Jenkins published his first 'zine, Graphic Scenes & Xplicit Language. This was one of the first magazines dedicated to graffiti art. In 1992, Jenkins and his childhood friend Haji Akhigbade started Beat-Down Newspaper, an early hip-hop newspaper. Elliott Wilson, who later became a famous blogger, was the music editor for Beat Down.

Ego Trip Magazine and TV

In June 1994, Jenkins and Wilson co-founded ego trip magazine. Over the next four years, they published 13 issues. The magazine covered many topics, from rap music to skateboarding and punk rock.

Ego trip later expanded into books, including ego trip's Book of Rap Lists and ego trip's Big Book of Racism. They also created TV shows for VH1, such as "Race-O-Rama" (2005), ego trip's The White Rapper Show (2007), and Miss Rap Supreme (2008).

Jenkins himself wrote and produced several film and TV projects. In 2005, he worked as a writer for the first season of Aaron McGruder's popular show The Boondocks. In 2011, Jenkins was an executive producer for "50 Cent: The Origin of Me," a documentary about the rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's family history.

Writing and Journalism

From 1997 to 2000, Jenkins was the music editor for Vibe magazine. He wrote articles for Spin magazine and Rolling Stone about many different artists, including Nas, Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta, and Kid Rock.

Jenkins also co-wrote Eminem's biography, The Way I Am, with Eminem. With co-author David "Chino" Villorente, Jenkins created the important Piecebook series of books. Piecebooks are sketchbooks that graffiti artists use to plan their art before painting it on larger surfaces. The Piecebook series shows drawings from all over the world, some dating back to 1973. In 2007, Jenkins wrote the introduction for Jon Naar's The Birth of Graffiti, a book about New York graffiti in the 1970s.

Other Projects

Jenkins was the creative director of Mass Appeal, a magazine and website about urban culture that started in 1996. He was also writing a biography with the Beastie Boys. He finished directing Fresh Dressed, a documentary film about the history of hip-hop fashion, for CNN Films.

Jenkins was a member of the bands The Wilding Incident and The White Mandingos. The White Mandingos was a rock band that included rapper Murs and Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer. Their first single and album, both called "The Ghetto Is Tryna Kill Me," were released in June 2013.

Jenkins also worked with musicians to present their art in theaters. In 2009, he wrote and produced an off-Broadway play called Deez Nuts: A Musical Massacre. Two years later, he directed "Negroes On Ice," a traveling show featuring Grammy Award-winning producer Prince Paul. In 2022, Jenkins wrote, directed, and executive-produced the documentary series Everything's Gonna Be All White. He was also a member of the National Arts Journalism Program.

Personal Life

Sacha Jenkins was married to author and filmmaker Raquel Cepeda. They had two children: Djali Brown-Cepeda (Jenkins' stepdaughter) and a son named Marceau.

Jenkins passed away at his home in Manhattan on May 23, 2025. He was 53 years old and died from complications of multiple system atrophy.

Exhibits

• Writers Convention: A Collaborative Study of Pigments, at Bill Adler's Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, New York, November 4 – December 17, 2005. Jenkins described this show as painted "duets" with artists like Chino BYI, Claw Money, and Jose Parlá.
• Write On Bros.: Paintings and Words by Sacha Jenkins SHR and the Legendary Livingroom Johnston, at the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, New York, May 9, 2007 – June 2, 2007.
• Write of Passage, Red Bull Studios, October–November 2013.

Books

• With Elliott Wilson, Jeff Mao, and Gabe Alvarez, ego trip's Book of Rap Lists, St. Martin's Griffin (1999).
• With Elliott Wilson, Chairman Jefferson Mao, Gabriel Alvarez, and Brent Rollins, ego trip's Big Book of Racism, Harper Perennial (2002).
• "The Writing on the Wall: Graffiti Culture Crumbles into the Violence It Once Escaped," a chapter in And It Don't Stop: The Best American Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years, edited by Raquel Cepeda, Faber & Faber (2004).
• With Eminem, The Way I Am, Dutton Adult (2008).
• With David Villorente, Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers, Prestel (2008).
• With David Villorente, Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985–2005, Prestel (2009).
• With David Villorente, World Piecebook: Global Graffiti Drawings, Prestel (2011).
• With Carlo McCormick, Sean Corcoran, Lee Quiñones, City As Canvas: New York City Graffiti from the Martin Wong Collection, Skira Rizzoli (2013).
• With Howie Abrams, The Merciless Book of Metal Lists, Harry N. Abrams (2013).
• With Henry Chalfant, Training Days: The Subway Artists Then and Now, Thames & Hudson (October 2014).

See also

• List of writers on popular music
• Music journalism