NY artist turns tiny hip-hop street scenes into profitable business

NEW YORK - With his nimble fingers and child-like enthusiasm, Danny Cortes re-creates in miniature the hip-hop-infused street scenes of a gritty New York.

But what began as a hobby has since brought him fame in the rap community and profitable sales even at Sotheby's prestigious auction house.

"We are adults, but we never stopped being kids," the 42-year-old artist tells AFP. "Who doesn't like toys? Who doesn't like miniatures?"

One of his recent creations is a modest Chinese restaurant with a battered yellow sign and with its red-and-mauve brick walls covered with graffiti.

Standing outside the restaurant -- the real one -- Cortes, sporting a black jacket and a baseball cap over his round face --  smiles as he tells how New York rapper Joell Ortiz, who grew up in the neighbourhood, insisted on buying the model, saying, "Yo, I need that." 

The price?  

"Ten thousand dollars," Cortes says, adding that "the first piece I sold was like $30, and I was so happy that I got $30."

The artist builds collectables based on the banalest of urban scenes, "the little things that we pass by every day" and pay no attention to, but which collectively form the unique cityscape that is New York.

One of his first signature works was a rendering of a simple white commercial ice box -- the kind that sits outside corner groceries, the words "ICE" in block red letters on its side, and often covered in graffiti, which Cortes reproduces with meticulous detail.

His repertoire also includes a classic ice-cream truck like the one in Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do the Right Thing," its musical chimes guaranteed to bring young New Yorkers running.

His work resonates with nostalgia, and he often incorporates tributes to mythical local rappers like Notorious B.I.G. and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Cortes was not always an artist -- he has worked in sales, construction, and at a homeless shelter.

But the pandemic changed his life, pushing him to take more seriously what had been an enjoyable pastime.

After he displayed his first creations on social media, his work "just took off," he said.