Jean-Michel Basquiat started as a street artist writing graffiti as SAMO, then became immersed in the Downtown art and music scene.

[2] Ramellzee and Toxic accompanied Basquiat to Venice, Los Angeles while he prepared for his March 1983 show, his second at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood.

[4] During this trip, Basquiat painted Hollywood Africans, which recounts a day when he and his friends "had their pictures taken in a photo booth and looked at movie stars' footprints.

"[5] Set to a golden yellow backdrop, at the center of Hollywood Africans is a self-portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat and his friends artists Toxic and Rammellzee, who accompanied him to Los Angeles.

The date 1940, written at the top of the painting, may refer to the year actress Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar for playing "Mammy" in Gone With The Wind (1939).