MCKINLEY “MAC” PHIPPS, JR.
IPSISSIMUS 2023, Acrylic paint on canvas.
Creatively interprets the experience of Troy:
Interviewer: “Tell me about what you felt like you needed [before you had contact with the system]?”
Troy: “Support. Somebody to motivate me to go harder.”
Young Black men are denied the inalienable right to simply “Be.” Their environment teaches them to suppress every emotion except anger—to survive. I therefore titled this piece IPSISSIMUS, which in Latin means He who is most himself. I want to visually, and unapologetically, convey the strength and vulnerability of this young Black man.
McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr. (b. 1977, New Orleans LA; based in New Orleans, LA) is a musical recording artist whose talent for drawing was nurtured from a young age by his mother, Sheila Phipps, even before he released his first solo album at age thirteen. Mac signed to the No Limit Records and released two more albums before contributing to a collaborative project titled Goodfellas with the 504 Boyz in 2000. At age 24 he was convicted of manslaughter in a controversial trial where his lyrics from different songs were used as primary murder evidence. Mac served twenty-one years of a thirty-year sentence at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, and in 2021 he was granted clemency by the Louisiana governor. Currently a volunteer at Son of A Saint and a music instructor and mentor at the Youth Empowerment Project, Mac recently released his first solo album in 23 years, Son of the City.
INSTAGRAM macphippsofficial
