HIP HOP HISTORY RECOUNTED ONLINE ERICA GARCIA Special to The News. New York Daily News. New York: Oct 18, 1999. PEOPLE THAT MAKE NEW YORK WORK Copyright Daily News, L.P. Oct 18, 1999 As rap artists such as Lil' Kim take center stage, those who have captured their images on film also have flourished. Chi (pronounced Chee) Modu and Steven Proctor founded C2 short for Content is Critical and called C-Squared by the pair to market their photos of African-American rappers. Banking on their initial success, they've branched out. The three-year-old company, with offices at 349 Broadway in Tribeca, and in Paterson, N.J., is capitalizing on the popularity of rap as well as images that appeal to an urban market. "You tend to shoot what you know best," Modu said. The two 33-year-old entrepreneurs, who met at Rutgers University, started their business with money from early projects and help from friends and family. When costs mounted for equipment and going online, they secured a $100,000 bank loan. Since 1991, during Modu's early days as a photographer, he has aimed his lens at rap artists from Tupac Shakur to Biggie Smalls while working at The Source, a hip-hop magazine. Soon, the native of Nigeria was doing album covers for such heavyweights as Snoop Doggy Dogg. By early 1996, after shooting 30 covers for The Source, Modu shifted his focus when photo editors from various magazines complained of a dearth of images of black people in everyday settings. Proctor, who started out as Modu's photo assistant, made connections with different magazines, and the business broadened. Stocked with photos taken by 50 photographers on subjects from black fathers in the rural South to images of Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Malcolm X, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other prominent figures, the C2 library took shape. Magazine editors started calling and they reaped attention from shots in People, George, Time, Newsweek and international titles. "It makes sense for us to be at Yankee games as well as a march in Brooklyn," Modu said of the company, which now employs eight. Photos from the library can run from $250 to $5,000, depending on the usage. The lower price covers the cost of running a photo once in a noncommercial setting. At the high end, a company running an advertisement can buy exclusive rights for a particular image. Before widespread usage of the Internet, photo libraries were forced to print and send out costly catalogs. But with next month's launch of a Web-based image bank, www.diverseimages.com, they project that sales in the coming year will surge to a few million dollars from last year's $200,000. "We saw a lot of other people without experience who were making it happen" Proctor said. "You have to be somewhat fearless and not worry about failure."

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