The Untold Story Of The Greatest Male Supermodel — Tyson Beckford

Before Tyson Beckford was the face of Ralph Lauren, he was running with the Shower Posse — a notorious Jamaican gang operating across the Bronx, Queens, and Jamaica — selling weed, guns, and stealing cars, all while a federal indictment was building around him. One phone call changed everything. His brother Patrick, who had just told him to leave the streets and go be a model, was murdered. Tyson got on the subway with a loaded gun, heading to kill the men responsible. Somewhere on that ride, Patrick's voice came back to him and he got off the train. That single decision made him the first Black male supermodel in history, the face of Ralph Lauren for a decade, named Vogue's greatest male model of all time — and yet within years of reaching the top, he was standing at New York Fashion Week watching all-white runways and calling out an industry that had used his face to prove it had changed, then quietly moved on without him.