That
unabashed bombast has made Wiley a walking superlative: the most successful black artist since Basquiat, possibly the wealthiest painter
of his generation, certainly the one who made his name earliest (he was 26 for his first major solo show), a gay
man who has become the great painter
of machismo for the swag era, a bootstrapper from South Central who talks like a Yale professor (much
of the time), a genius self - promoter who's managed to have it both ways in an art world that
loves having its critical cake and eating the spectacle
of it, too, and a crossover phenomenon who is at once the hip - hop world's favorite fine artist (Spike Lee and LL Cool J own pieces) and the gallery world's most popular hip - hop ambassador.