This super producer opened a gallery space near Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood

Salaam Remi is your favorite producer’s favorite producer.

Name a genre and he has a classic. Hip-hop? “Made You Look.” R&B? “Bust Your Windows.” Dancehall? “Here Comes the Hotstepper.” Not to mention his work as a producer for Amy Winehouse’s seminal work “Back to Black.”

But as talented as he is behind the boards, his recent foray into the world of visual arts might be his most fascinating pivot.

“A lot of artists didn’t really have any resources to make a lot of money from what they were doing,” the Grammy Award-winning producer said. “So me being the person I am, if I can plant a tree that’s fruit not only for me but for a whole set of people, that’s the way I’m going to do it.”

The MuseZeuM is that manifestation. A gallery without “the old gallery ways,” the MuseZeuM combines Remi’s love of music with his passion for visual art, crafting paintings of legends including Marvin Gaye, Celia Cruz and Slick Rick that double as speakers, also known as an Artboxxx. The MuseZeum will also host a monthly concert series featuring acts that normally wouldn’t pull up to Miami like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane.

A Miami resident since 2001, Remi always had a passion for creativity. Art Basel, in a sense, was his playground: a time that combines all forms of art for a week in December. It took the pandemic, however, for him to start his own journey as a visual artist. Beginning in 2020, Remi abandoned the recording studio as he attended what he called “YouTube University,” teaching himself how to spray paint. In doing so, Remi realized an important piece about creativity.

”For me, part of the creation process is bigging up the people that you think are great and putting them in position for everyone to love them as well,” Remi said.

Getting a space to display all of his creations was the next logical step and in December 2022, he opened the doors of the MuseZeuM. Located on the edge of Wynwood, the outside of the MuseZeuM is adorned in graffiti dedicated to some of Remi’s favorite artists like D’Angelo, Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley. Walk inside the gallery and you’re immediately greeted by a carefully curated playlist as well as the faces of some of the greatest artists — Gaye, Marley, Amy Winehouse, Celia Cruz — all created by Remi himself. And while only the Winehouse portrait, which features the songstress blowing a pink bubble, doesn’t contain a musical component, the others are outfitted with speakers specifically tuned to the artists’ genre of music.

What makes Remi’s endeavor unique, however, is that everyone – from the photographer who took the source image to the subject – gets a cut of the sale. Take the portrait of Gaye, for example. The piece costs $40,000 and when it sells, the Gaye estate receives 40 percent while the remaining 60 percent is divided among “the photographers, illustrators, engineers, craftsmen,” according to Remi.

“Too many beloved musicians don’t know their value,” Remi said. “And never get a chance to tap into whilst here with us. And their families will now know what’s capable as well.”

At a time when artificial intelligence allows users to produce entire songs without the artists’ consent, Remi’s desire to get all the artists’ consent. Remi refused to even sell his Gaye portrait without the “full support of the family,” said Lloyd Winston, the executive director of Gaye’s estate.

“That made it easier to be a part of this because the architect of its first concern was to make sure the family was a part of it and compensated fairly,” Winston added.

Omer Pardillo, the executive director of Celia Cruz’s estate who negotiated with Remi to create the Afro-Cuban legend’s portrait, says Remi doing the “right thing.”

“He has the right approach in business and ethics,” Pardillo said, adding that he’s “helping us bring Celia to more generations.”

For a young artist like Tatiana Crooks, the creative director for both Remi and the MuseZeuM, its showcasing the power of collaboration. As the person who redraws the photo for the portrait before Remi puts his touch on it, Cooks also gets a slice of the pie — as well as prominent placement on the exhibition label.

“There’s nothing wrong with sharing a creation,” Cooks said. “Nobody does everything by themselves: it always takes another person or a team.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: The MuseZeuM

WHERE: 2032 NW 2nd Ave Miami, FL

WHEN: Fridays and Saturdays 12 p.m. - 12 a.m.⁣