Norman ‘Normski’ Anderson was born in Northwest London in 1966 and became a documenter of British youth culture in the 1980s and 1990s. As part of the UK hip hop scene during this period he photographed fashion associated with the music style.

B-Boying is considered one of four original elements of hip hop, alongside rapping, DJing and graffiti. The term refers to break-boying; a style of street dance that originated in New York, largely among African Americans in the early 1970s. References to B-Boys in popular songs by American hip hop artists like Run DMC and the Beastie Boys caused it to become used in Britain in the 1980s to describe people associated with the dance style or the hip hop scene in general.

The B-Boy style and attitude was adopted by a wide variety of British youth. It was often seen as a modern expression of black consciousness, which can be appreciated in the T-shirt featuring the African American activist Malcolm X worn by one of the Islam B-Boys. The B-Boy stance of leaning back with arms tightly folded was made famous by Run DMC. B-Boy fashion often featured branded trainers and baggy sports clothing, which would be customised to reflect individual identity.

The V&A acquired seven photographs by Normski as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives. A photograph by Jennie Baptiste titled ‘Brixton Boyz’, which explores the use of branded designer clothes to make fashion statements, was also acquired as part of Staying Power.