rime has so many good pieces throughout newark and north jersey - he had this crazy piece on the highway leading up to holland tunnel that just got painted over a month or two ago. i was so bummed.
That whole KCW crew is dope. Him, Chip, Nace (RIP)... I remember me and my crew drove up to Elizabeth (I think!) for a KCW party. I drove from Philly to Elizabeth completely rolling on E in a car that had no registration and insurance, with the rest of my crew in there and a trunk full of paint. We got to the spot, some waterfront dive bar and it was crazy. Rime was wearing a jacket and tie had the illest most slutty strippers there doing "party tricks" for the folks. I don't remember how I got home that night. This was maybe like a month before Nace passed away. That night was fucking crazy and I completely forgot about it until right now, holy shit.
hell no, you need to check your boston history. these are new jacks who get up in 1 section of town
click quite possibly the best writer ever to come out of boston deme the cat that was part of the jazz mural beyond kem mk
i could go on...
Dement definitely was one of the better dudes out in beantown. FOr boston heads...
Wombat-my all time favorite Ryze IMG SRC="http://www.graffiti.org/boston/zone-kem-prisco_lc_12-16-02.jpg" width=700> Zone http://www.graffiti.org/trains/2005trains/relm_freight.jpg" alt="" /> Relm http://www.graffiti.org/boston/clickhandballct.jpg" alt="" /> Click http://myspace-664.vo.llnwd.net/00268/46/68/268248664_l.jpg" alt="" /> Alert http://myspace-481.vo.llnwd.net/00410/18/46/410516481_l.jpg" alt="" /> Sly http://myspace-964.vo.llnwd.net/00461/46/93/461033964_l.jpg" alt="" /> Target http://www.bombhiphop.com/graphics/bombaust/graf-o.jpg" alt="" /> SP.One Mas(dude RAN boston back in the day) no pics though...
hell no, you need to check your boston history. these are new jacks who get up in 1 section of town
click quite possibly the best writer ever to come out of boston deme the cat that was part of the jazz mural beyond kem mk
i could go on...
Dement definitely was one of the better dudes out in beantown. FOr boston heads...
Wombat-my all time favorite Ryze IMG SRC="http://www.graffiti.org/boston/zone-kem-prisco_lc_12-16-02.jpg" width=700> Zone http://www.graffiti.org/trains/2005trains/relm_freight.jpg" alt="" /> Relm http://www.graffiti.org/boston/clickhandballct.jpg" alt="" /> Click http://myspace-664.vo.llnwd.net/00268/46/68/268248664_l.jpg" alt="" /> Alert http://myspace-481.vo.llnwd.net/00410/18/46/410516481_l.jpg" alt="" /> Sly http://myspace-964.vo.llnwd.net/00461/46/93/461033964_l.jpg" alt="" /> Target http://www.bombhiphop.com/graphics/bombaust/graf-o.jpg" alt="" /> SP.One Mas(dude RAN boston back in the day) no pics though...
Yeah man. 5AV used to run shit. Was'nt Hush from up there too? My man Exakto MURDERED Boston. Nancy O'Laughlin raided his shit without mercy .
Late seventies/early eighties - the era that I first started getting interested in writing: Clyde Estro Pez E-Z Mr. Blint Deadhead Credit Jay-Cee Razz Japan Kozmo Pap & Brez (my local neighborhood kings)
Showing your age kid! add on Robski, Emork, Suroc, Cry, MB, SM... I remember walking on the train tracks across the the schukill eway and my friends and I hollered over to a dude walikng with a couple other guys and we yelled at them "What Do yall write" One dude hollered "Tan"... we was like ... mad rep in the eighties and did some damage to Philly walls for sure...
Razz is my man... owns a store on south street... went to Temple I think...
Mid to late eighties - the era in which I first actually started to get up... this is tougher than I thought, there's so many, so I'll just name a few: Cape Rasan Kadism Erx (my first "old head" who took me under his wing.) Denske (who busted out a little later but changed the game.)
I ran into Rasan maybe eight years ago and I called his name like "Rasan" He looked like he saw a ghost! He keep saying that nobody he sees from High School hollers at him on the Graf tip... We went to Lincoln High Together along with Cape and Kran... You know Denske is my man no question about it! I'm looking for him if you see him first, tell him Raystar is looking for him! Big ups to North Phillys own Far... he was running mates with Kad... also DanOne! King Kair runs the "L" train... cant forget El K Lover aka Karaz, The originator of the phrase "Okayplayer"! Check your On The Go tapes for the evidence of that!
Late seventies/early eighties - the era that I first started getting interested in writing: Clyde Estro Pez E-Z Mr. Blint Deadhead Credit Jay-Cee Razz Japan Kozmo Pap & Brez (my local neighborhood kings)
Showing your age kid! add on Robski, Emork, Suroc, Cry, MB, SM... I remember walking on the train tracks across the the schukill eway and my friends and I hollered over to a dude walikng with a couple other guys and we yelled at them "What Do yall write" One dude hollered "Tan"... we was like ... mad rep in the eighties and did some damage to Philly walls for sure...
Razz is my man... owns a store on south street... went to Temple I think...
Hahah... yeah man, no doubt I am. Even if I was a kiddo when I first got into this shit (think I first started "tagging" in 1983) that's still the school that "put it on" for me. And yeah I definitely did neglect to holler about them other heads... fucking TAN. To this day dudes can't fade his fucking print. Revolutionary no fucking doubt. And yeah, Razz and I are very cool. We go way back on some music shit... same thing with Suroc.
Jesus, how the hell did I turn into an oldhead?!?
Mid to late eighties - the era in which I first actually started to get up... this is tougher than I thought, there's so many, so I'll just name a few: Cape Rasan Kadism Erx (my first "old head" who took me under his wing.) Denske (who busted out a little later but changed the game.)
I ran into Rasan maybe eight years ago and I called his name like "Rasan" He looked like he saw a ghost! He keep saying that nobody he sees from High School hollers at him on the Graf tip... We went to Lincoln High Together along with Cape and Kran... You know Denske is my man no question about it! I'm looking for him if you see him first, tell him Raystar is looking for him! Big ups to North Phillys own Far... he was running mates with Kad... also DanOne! King Kair runs the "L" train... cant forget El K Lover aka Karaz, The originator of the phrase "Okayplayer"! Check your On The Go tapes for the evidence of that!
I was really tight with all them dudes. I only met Rasan once, but ended up linking with Cape and Kran through Erx, who like I said "mentored" me and was my old head, eventually putting me down with WAB (main crew I rep, although most writers are like "what crew is that" - learn your history, SONS.) Also definitely Far aka Lejos did it big with Kad. Meeting Kad was like my FACEMELT meeting a writer, and the icing on the cake was when I met him he was like "Oh dude YOU'RE ****?!? Oh shit you're killing it." which was AMAZING to me on some youngboy shit.
Kair was crazy as fuck, but my dude and a good friend. Same thing with Karaz, Cee and Kape and all those 5th & Wyoming dudes, we were hella tight. I ended up meeting them 3 dudes at the Big Daddy Kane concert back in 1989. El K had a denim jackt with a Karaz piece on the back (Cee did the whole crew's jackets) and me and my man Julio (not Julio NP) were like "OH SHIT KARAZZZZ!"
I remember like 5 years ago or so when I went on Okay Player and described to those dudes on that site about Karaz and the origins of "Okay Player" and how that tied in with me and my crew, and The Lay-up, On The Go, The Roots, and all of that... cats were NOT HEARING ME. Feel me on that? As if I did teh knowledge and motherfuckers were not really trying to see what the fuck the TRUTH was.
One day I'll tell that story again.
Denske did a longtime federal bid. I saw him when he got out a few years ago, still trying to get his shit back on his feet. We used to be tight for a few... cause right before he busted out big time in 1990, I was writing "Denek" and that time and he was like "Son I'm gonna bust out big time." So he suggested that I change my name and that I go out with him, which I did. That was one talented dude. Dude could draw, rap (remeber his record "John Doe" - fuck, what was the title of that jawn again?!? Shit wa dope) he could make beats (I still have the 83 Convention record he left at my crib) dude could make clothes and sew on some Dapper Dan shit - and unfortunately he sold coke well. We kind of ran with the same crew on that shit as well, cause I ran and was in TUK arond 1990. I was real tight with Menace and Chicago (RIP.) Chicago's story still breaks my heart. I was at his viewing and it was rough. Do you know the story, Ray? It was terible. Things were really rough up there in those neighborhoods at that time, and I was there. and I was also tight with Kers (who was an incredible writer) & Sam (RIP,) Hammer, as well as Kaja and Kiki (RIP) and I also rep YIC.
Seriously, dudes don't know the half of shit I've seen in my life.
But yeah, two more dudes on some writing shit are Met and Spel (fucking dope.)
I was really tight with all them dudes. I only met Rasan once, but ended up linking with Cape and Kran through Erx, who like I said "mentored" me and was my old head, eventually putting me down with WAB (main crew I rep, although most writers are like "what crew is that" - learn your history, SONS.)
WAB, you going back yo... like mid eighties...
Also definitely Far aka Lejos did it big with Kad. Meeting Kad was like my FACEMELT meeting a writer, and the icing on the cake was when I met him he was like "Oh dude YOU'RE ****?!? Oh shit you're killing it." which was AMAZING to me on some youngboy shit.
Far is a dude you really want to just hug him... He cannot read and sometimes he would ask me what something said and my knee jerk would always be "What? Can't you read?" Then I would fall back and feel bad... He and my good friend I.Q. used to live together at 5th & Butler (Whoa)... one day I was over there with my man I.Q. and we were building on beats and songs and Kad & Far came in from a late night on that New Jersey Drive tip and I was buggin too because he was still a King at that point like 96-97... actually I still live near were Kad grew up and my peoples really knew him from when he was a buck... I really hope that Far and him are cool again because they fell out over something many years ago...
Same thing with Karaz, Cee and Kape and all those 5th & Wyoming dudes, we were hella tight. I ended up meeting them 3 dudes at the Big Daddy Kane concert back in 1989. El K had a denim jackt with a Karaz piece on the back (Cee did the whole crew's jackets) and me and my man Julio (not Julio NP) were like "OH SHIT KARAZZZZ!"
Karaz is still Karaz... thats it... saw a couple years back, he's good... doing his little dj thing...
I remember like 5 years ago or so when I went on Okay Player and described to those dudes on that site about Karaz and the origins of "Okay Player" and how that tied in with me and my crew, and The Lay-up, On The Go, The Roots, and all of that... cats were NOT HEARING ME. Feel me on that? As if I did teh knowledge and motherfuckers were not really trying to see what the fuck the TRUTH was.
One day I'll tell that story again.
Give it to us again.
Denske did a longtime federal bid. I saw him when he got out a few years ago, still trying to get his shit back on his feet. We used to be tight for a few... cause right before he busted out big time in 1990, I was writing "Denek" and that time and he was like "Son I'm gonna bust out big time." So he suggested that I change my name and that I go out with him, which I did. That was one talented dude. Dude could draw, rap (remeber his record "John Doe" - fuck, what was the title of that jawn again?!? Shit wa dope) he could make beats (I still have the 83 Convention record he left at my crib) dude could make clothes and sew on some Dapper Dan shit - and unfortunately he sold coke well. We kind of ran with the same crew on that shit as well, cause I ran and was in TUK arond 1990.
Denske is a dude like many of us in the city, maaad talent, wild smart, very few outlets... need to eat, do dirt... have to sit down somewhere for a minute... Den was drawing pictures for people to send to thier girls while he was locked up, he was writing for people and reading for people while he was in their too... I never saw anything that he ever mad on the clothes tip but everybody talks about his skills... He like I said is a cat I am really looking for... he payed me some serious compliments on the beat tip, he bit a part of a song I did as he was at the session when we where recording... he was on a couple of my older songs... Karaz is another dudes who is still talking about beats I did like ten years ago...
I was real tight with Menace and Chicago (RIP.) Chicago's story still breaks my heart. I was at his viewing and it was rough. Do you know the story, Ray? It was terible. Things were really rough up there in those neighborhoods at that time, and I was there. and I was also tight with Kers (who was an incredible writer) & Sam (RIP,) Hammer, as well as Kaja and Kiki (RIP) and I also rep YIC.
I remember being with Den and EnEm... wild boy!... EnEm was talking about Chicago, EnEm didnt really get into detail and that was a while ago... all I remember is people running up in Chicago's home and just shoting... I think I remember the talk being that Chicago was a clean dude and didnt really deserve what happened... I really dont know though... Den knows!
Seriously, dudes don't know the half of shit I've seen in my life. But yeah, two more dudes on some writing shit are Met and Spel (fucking dope.)
I dont know how I forgot them! Cos my man... these people are street legends and people talk about thier lives as though they are dead... they live in North Philly baby...
that dude estro invented piecing. dasar and praez are 2 of my biggest influences. did'nt that dude mesk move up there from dc?
i know heads will disagree, but graffiti was invented in philly. it grew up in nyc.
some other philly dudes that need dap in this thread... des omni nope
I love how Estro used to do this throwup that looked like the letters was melting on the bottom, I looked at this stuff everyday and a child growing up it Philly... it was something to do while you rode the bus!
Yeah man. 5AV used to run shit. Was'nt Hush from up there too? My man Exakto MURDERED Boston. Nancy O'Laughlin raided his shit without mercy .
It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...
It's funny i used to buy caps from Exakto when he was under house arrest for all that shit. He was the pride of the Nancy and the rest of the boston vandal squad.
Someone should make a 5 best Graffiti Crew Names thread...
Dont forget Boo... my man's has this picture of him with a real nice little shiner... somebody punched him... didnt he work for the Source?
Boogie Booster worked for The Source up until a few years ago. I should look him up, we were always cool.
He's down with Karaz and Cee, and Tramp and Hayz (the last 3 who worked for The Source.)
*I typed this all down and then the page timed out. Good thing I saved it!
But yeah man, I mean when I look back at it, that's where I was from, like that school. I ran with a lot of these cats. At first it was graffiti, and then it went to that New Jersey Drive shit, then it went to being a corner boy, until I did a short lil bid and it ended up being that me having a passion for DJing that saved my life. That became my outlet you know. But in my 32 years I've seen all that shit. And I've walked in the shadows of some of these legends, and at times I walked with them, in both dirt and campaigns of glory. Those early 90s days in North were wild, bro. I know you don't need me to tell you, you lived that shit. "Badlands" I guess but it was never called that back then.
And yeah, Enem and I go WAY BACK. I talked to him a few months ago, he's doing his rap thing still which is good. Another talented dude. As for that Chicago story, it is something like what you described but this shit is real and the streets do talk. In fact there's a piece up near 4th and Diamond right near where the TUK crew used to be based that said "The streets will tell your story." I think Den did that one. Either way, no matter what Chic did, he didn't deserve to go out like that. He was always a good man, a good person, a friend to me and a good heart.
As for OKAY PLAYER, well it's kind of circulated around this store in Philly called The Lay-Up. It was a hip-hop shop in 1993 or so and kind of became the clubhouse for a lot of us dudes that came up out of Philly. It was owned by 5 dudes: Aalim who was the Uptown/Harlem mixtape connect, Tramp & Hayz (who were the dudes who used to do the comic book in The Source, and that MTV cartoon "Channel Zero" I think,) Keith who is now the tour manager for The Roots, Rob (who went on to be one of the first designers for Ecko, and now works for Nike, but the atmostphere was kind of like "everyone is involved in something." I was the youngboy who used to hang around the store and eventually they made the the store manager. At this time I was pretty much hanging out with The Gods and was all involved in that community, which was also like the P5D family, The Roots back when they were The Square Roots etc. That was my crew you know. I knew all the dudes and we would have ciphers in teh back of the store. I would DJ, heads would freestyle. Sometimes Ahmir would DJ, we would build on old school funk records, just kick it. This was before they were signed to a label. We would all wear "jazzy" clothing and smoke mad blunts.
Also I was spinning at this party with this dude King Britt. Him and me and this other dude Dozia (who is Art Blakey's nephew) had this party called Back To Basics which was like the Philly version of Giant Step. King had connects with teh acid jazz scene so somehow I think through him, Talking Loud go focused on The Roots and signed them to an EP deal (the OG "Do You Want More" EP.) Now because it was all in the family, the guys got Tramp to to the art.
So anyway, The Lay-up was also the hot spot for graffiti writers to hang out at as well, because of the magazines and also because we used to still do On The Go back then and it was kind of the place where yo could always find one of us. One of the dudes who used to hang out was Karaz AKA El K Lover. For those who don't know, Karaz is like this huge puerto rican dude from North Philly who just used to always get wild whenever he hung out, wetted up and drinking mad forties. He always used to say "Okay Player" about anything. "Yo El K you getting money?" "Okay Player!""Yo El we're heading up North.""Okay Player!" And that just kind of became this running joke. So Tramp put "Okay Player" on the front of the EP and it came out. After a couple years, it just kind of ended up being something that was attributed to all things "Roots" and whatnot but really "Okay Player" is nothing but a North Philly Puerto Rican holler.
This photo is from WAY back in the day, when these dudes were The Square Roots. The photo was taken by an old dear friend of mine Mpozi, who recently passed away, and who's memorial service i attended this weekend. It was incredibly tough but brought back a lot of memories, and I got a chance to see lots of people that I haven't seen in well over a decade. I know that this doesn't have anything to do with graff but still, I just wanted to share it.
The show above was held in the top floor of Nirvana Fitness Club and I was DJing before and after the show.
Yeah man. 5AV used to run shit. Was'nt Hush from up there too? My man Exakto MURDERED Boston. Nancy O'Laughlin raided his shit without mercy .
It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...
It's funny i used to buy caps from Exakto when he was under house arrest for all that shit. He was the pride of the Nancy and the rest of the boston vandal squad.
Someone should make a 5 best Graffiti Crew Names thread...
since i started writing in 83' i have seen every generation of writers in boston, and have met just about all of em.
i dont think anybody in sports got up more than ryze or alert..both were 5av...sports was barely repped cept for sp,sly and maybe wombat. but really, as far as boston is concerned..nobody had more ups than mass, detect and jayroc.
yall saw the label scan in the most recent waxpoetics of twr...that was a graff crew my man maze(clicks cousin) did the script on the label, maze actually just had a pair of nikes done..legit af1s btw..nancy locked me and my man chronic in 86.
since i started writing in 83' i have seen every generation of writers in boston, and have met just about all of em.
i dont think anybody in sports got up more than ryze or alert..both were 5av...sports was barely repped cept for sp,sly and maybe wombat. but really, as far as boston is concerned..nobody had more ups than mass, detect and jayroc.
yall saw the label scan in the most recent waxpoetics of twr...that was a graff crew my man maze(clicks cousin) did the script on the label, maze actually just had a pair of nikes done..legit af1s btw..nancy locked me and my man chronic in 86.
I wanted to find some flicks of Mass. His stuff was legendary to me. Old school boston graf was some of the illest styled shit i have ever seen. it definitely was right up there with that really unique philly style but i dont think it got the credit that philly gets. btw what did/do you write Raw Hamburger?
since i started writing in 83' i have seen every generation of writers in boston, and have met just about all of em.
i dont think anybody in sports got up more than ryze or alert..both were 5av...sports was barely repped cept for sp,sly and maybe wombat. but really, as far as boston is concerned..nobody had more ups than mass, detect and jayroc.
yall saw the label scan in the most recent waxpoetics of twr...that was a graff crew my man maze(clicks cousin) did the script on the label, maze actually just had a pair of nikes done..legit af1s btw..nancy locked me and my man chronic in 86.
I wanted to find some flicks of Mass. His stuff was legendary to me. Old school boston graf was some of the illest styled shit i have ever seen. it definitely was right up there with that really unique philly style but i dont think it got the credit that philly gets. btw what did/do you write Raw Hamburger?
i wrote....kon
soul..thanks man ! so many good memories as well.... very few people have flix from back then..target is one of em' i know my man spell has em too, but i havent talked to him in ages how bout,crush one who is doin his thing out in l.a. now on the indie rap tip here are some writers from the 80's
larry d storm fume popeye(jordan knight from n.k.o.t.b.!!) hang fuse design theme scene mk rich3 mask anomic dash (floorlords bboy) silk gator oz & noz start saint genius most in boston wont even know this cat...unless you 35 + zone saint adidas sway alert empire boa...to me the illest name in graff ever !! dude tame duo (rich5) pony tale remote charm prank secret rath fate jest coz lit romeo dream (nefra) from edo g. & the bulldogs...now in l.a. and makes custom hats for the likes of common javonski
this was all dorchester ,roxbury, mattapan, jp, the illest hoods and......brookline one of the sweetest hoods!
man..i seriously could go on and on. let me tell yall...in these days shit wasnt sweet.. most of these cats were gang affiliated... we used to have writers meetings....200 deep !!!!
To me Seen UA is the all out king of kings regarding bombing, letterstyle, trains etc
On the European tip I must say Bando has to be one of the most influential old school writers. Along with Shoe from Amstedam and Mode 2, Bando helped changing the whole style of europe from bubbleletters to a more straightletter orientated style. Their trip around Europe in I think 1986 gave their style a lot of exposure.
Later Delta from Amsterdam did a great job with 3d style. I never really liked Daims stuff. He's very good technical but Delta burns him style wise. The Dutch always had a great letterstyle.
Must of you guys probably wont know many writers from Copenhagen but people like Ice and Romance from Cant Stop, Freeze, Fuse, Bates & Great and the rest of PCP, Sabe & Fase, Rens & Sek from A-Line Vandals, Blaze..., Side, Sketch, Rezen, Date, Secher from the old days deserves a mention.
Ive always loved that shit from Dream..cant even remember where I seen it first. Many, I aint even about to TRY to list a top writers list..but I enjoyed reading everyones...yall covered a lot of areas.
Anyone else bummed out/depressed on how now and days graffiti is "different"? I dont really know how to explain it..it just is. The letters aint importamt like they used to be..handstyles are weak. Writers are dumbasses(and rich usually). I dont know...and it even like im some old school head..i didnt get into this shit until the early 90s...but since the internet and everything..I dont know. Shit just bothers me a little bit.
To everyone still out there doing their thing the RIGHT way..keep doing it. I fucking love you all!
A consistent old school Boston writer who once broke his right hand and had to learn to take tags with his left(still doing that?). Quite a ladies man and definitely took the award for best dressed for a writer. Kon???s been on the scene for a long time. Thank you for setting it straight. Respect. Didn???t we first meet In Kev C???s car with Glenn Dudley driving an hour all the way to Salisbury Beach, N.H. on a Sunday just to play video games?
As Kon was saying Boston's graffitical history is far richer than many know, including myself. Having started around ???88 things had died down quite a bit when I caught the fever. The elevated orange line had just been dismantled and I think a lot of kids just moved on. By the time I hooked up with Alert and got my focus, it felt like we were the only kids getting up in ???89, like we had missed the party. Of course we weren???t the only ones but our timing allowed us to get a lot more attention cause basically there wasn???t much happening anymore.
Mass was Boston???s undisputedly most notorious. He was under vandal squad surveillance often and known for taking paint tags in broad daylight in front of whoever. Alert and I both took his, Detect???s, and Jayroc???s example to heart. Every city with a graff history has an ???ill white boy??? category. Mass clearly still holds the beantown record.
Remote once told me a story that happened more than once. One night out on Blue Hill Ave. with some kids eventually the ???what you doing out here white boy??? talk started. Remote was like, ???That???s Mass right there.??? The guys hassling them didn???t believe it and demanded he get up in front of them. One tag later the tides had changed and they???re getting the VIP treatment, for a couple blocks anyway.
Kon, ever meet this guy Ham2? He had family in western Mass. But he lived out in SF? That guy had some serious old flicks. A year or two ago a friend sent me a Phoenix article supposedly about the history of Boston graffiti. Not a mention of anyone I???d ever known or even heard of. About two years ago I went to Charm???s bachelor party and hung out with him & Jayroc. Escalade limo from the Susse Chalet in Dorchester to the Foxy Lady in Providence and back. Pretty hilarious.
As for this conversation???
???It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...???
Things were well under way before Hush came around the two or three times he did. Sports in Boston consisted of???Zone, Sly, Wombat and B3. Alert and myself were down but were too busy pushing KBN & 5AV. SP, who grew up with Hush in Queens, moved just south of Boston after college. Obviously he was down for sports but pushed other crews at the time, BFB, MDC, etc. and has since moved back to NY. Hush is my man but to infer that he had a large hand in Boston???s graff scene would be inaccurate. Sports definitely had a presence at that time but so did OD (Alone???s crew) and BSB (Target???s crew).
Kon???s list of Boston writers makes you realize how deep things were for a time.(keep going with that!) If you think Jordan Knight aka ???Popeye???(who was actually pretty good) formally being a Boston writer is a trip, than here???s another weird bit of boston history. Yesteryear???s metal power ballad one hit wonder Extreme, stole they???re name from this guy Al Fuji who wrote ???Extreme??? back in the day. He was up all over Boston and these guys couldn???t get over how they saw his tags everywhere. I doubt he???s bragging about that one to anybody.
Maze is alive and well here in NY. Designing for Nike, Recon, Kid Robot etc. Lost his right index finger in a table saw accident about five years ago. Definitely hasn???t slowed him down though. Still as crazy as always.
A consistent old school Boston writer who once broke his right hand and had to learn to take tags with his left(still doing that?). Quite a ladies man and definitely took the award for best dressed for a writer. Kon???s been on the scene for a long time. Thank you for setting it straight. Respect. Didn???t we first meet In Kev C???s car with Glenn Dudley driving an hour all the way to Salisbury Beach, N.H. on a Sunday just to play video games?
As Kon was saying Boston's graffitical history is far richer than many know, including myself. Having started around ???88 things had died down quite a bit when I caught the fever. The elevated orange line had just been dismantled and I think a lot of kids just moved on. By the time I hooked up with Alert and got my focus, it felt like we were the only kids getting up in ???89, like we had missed the party. Of course we weren???t the only ones but our timing allowed us to get a lot more attention cause basically there wasn???t much happening anymore.
Mass was Boston???s undisputedly most notorious. He was under vandal squad surveillance often and known for taking paint tags in broad daylight in front of whoever. Alert and I both took his, Detect???s, and Jayroc???s example to heart. Every city with a graff history has an ???ill white boy??? category. Mass clearly still holds the beantown record.
Remote once told me a story that happened more than once. One night out on Blue Hill Ave. with some kids eventually the ???what you doing out here white boy??? talk started. Remote was like, ???That???s Mass right there.??? The guys hassling them didn???t believe it and demanded he get up in front of them. One tag later the tides had changed and they???re getting the VIP treatment, for a couple blocks anyway.
Kon, ever meet this guy Ham2? He had family in western Mass. But he lived out in SF? That guy had some serious old flicks. A year or two ago a friend sent me a Phoenix article supposedly about the history of Boston graffiti. Not a mention of anyone I???d ever known or even heard of. About two years ago I went to Charm???s bachelor party and hung out with him & Jayroc. Escalade limo from the Susse Chalet in Dorchester to the Foxy Lady in Providence and back. Pretty hilarious.
As for this conversation???
???It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...???
Things were well under way before Hush came around the two or three times he did. Sports in Boston consisted of???Zone, Sly, Wombat and B3. Alert and myself were down but were too busy pushing KBN & 5AV. SP, who grew up with Hush in Queens, moved just south of Boston after college. Obviously he was down for sports but pushed other crews at the time, BFB, MDC, etc. and has since moved back to NY. Hush is my man but to infer that he had a large hand in Boston???s graff scene would be inaccurate. Sports definitely had a presence at that time but so did OD (Alone???s crew) and BSB (Target???s crew).
Kon???s list of Boston writers makes you realize how deep things were for a time.(keep going with that!) If you think Jordan Knight aka ???Popeye???(who was actually pretty good) formally being a Boston writer is a trip, than here???s another weird bit of boston history. Yesteryear???s metal power ballad one hit wonder Extreme, stole they???re name from this guy Al Fuji who wrote ???Extreme??? back in the day. He was up all over Boston and these guys couldn???t get over how they saw his tags everywhere. I doubt he???s bragging about that one to anybody.
Maze is alive and well here in NY. Designing for Nike, Recon, Kid Robot etc. Lost his right index finger in a table saw accident about five years ago. Definitely hasn???t slowed him down though. Still as crazy as always.
A consistent old school Boston writer who once broke his right hand and had to learn to take tags with his left(still doing that?). Quite a ladies man and definitely took the award for best dressed for a writer. Kon???s been on the scene for a long time. Thank you for setting it straight. Respect. Didn???t we first meet In Kev C???s car with Glenn Dudley driving an hour all the way to Salisbury Beach, N.H. on a Sunday just to play video games?
As Kon was saying Boston's graffitical history is far richer than many know, including myself. Having started around ???88 things had died down quite a bit when I caught the fever. The elevated orange line had just been dismantled and I think a lot of kids just moved on. By the time I hooked up with Alert and got my focus, it felt like we were the only kids getting up in ???89, like we had missed the party. Of course we weren???t the only ones but our timing allowed us to get a lot more attention cause basically there wasn???t much happening anymore.
Mass was Boston???s undisputedly most notorious. He was under vandal squad surveillance often and known for taking paint tags in broad daylight in front of whoever. Alert and I both took his, Detect???s, and Jayroc???s example to heart. Every city with a graff history has an ???ill white boy??? category. Mass clearly still holds the beantown record.
Remote once told me a story that happened more than once. One night out on Blue Hill Ave. with some kids eventually the ???what you doing out here white boy??? talk started. Remote was like, ???That???s Mass right there.??? The guys hassling them didn???t believe it and demanded he get up in front of them. One tag later the tides had changed and they???re getting the VIP treatment, for a couple blocks anyway.
Kon, ever meet this guy Ham2? He had family in western Mass. But he lived out in SF? That guy had some serious old flicks. A year or two ago a friend sent me a Phoenix article supposedly about the history of Boston graffiti. Not a mention of anyone I???d ever known or even heard of. About two years ago I went to Charm???s bachelor party and hung out with him & Jayroc. Escalade limo from the Susse Chalet in Dorchester to the Foxy Lady in Providence and back. Pretty hilarious.
As for this conversation???
???It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...???
Things were well under way before Hush came around the two or three times he did. Sports in Boston consisted of???Zone, Sly, Wombat and B3. Alert and myself were down but were too busy pushing KBN & 5AV. SP, who grew up with Hush in Queens, moved just south of Boston after college. Obviously he was down for sports but pushed other crews at the time, BFB, MDC, etc. and has since moved back to NY. Hush is my man but to infer that he had a large hand in Boston???s graff scene would be inaccurate. Sports definitely had a presence at that time but so did OD (Alone???s crew) and BSB (Target???s crew).
Kon???s list of Boston writers makes you realize how deep things were for a time.(keep going with that!) If you think Jordan Knight aka ???Popeye???(who was actually pretty good) formally being a Boston writer is a trip, than here???s another weird bit of boston history. Yesteryear???s metal power ballad one hit wonder Extreme, stole they???re name from this guy Al Fuji who wrote ???Extreme??? back in the day. He was up all over Boston and these guys couldn???t get over how they saw his tags everywhere. I doubt he???s bragging about that one to anybody.
Maze is alive and well here in NY. Designing for Nike, Recon, Kid Robot etc. Lost his right index finger in a table saw accident about five years ago. Definitely hasn???t slowed him down though. Still as crazy as always.
Ryze
A definite "get the fuck out of here" moment.
Haha for real- I would have never thought soul strut would bring about the one and only Ryze- My comment to Sports was more personal to me. As Wombat was and still is a close friend and huge influence. And i think the evolution of Skills magazine also had a bit of that influence as it showed a fair amount Boston stuff. But don't even doubt that you and Alert didn't have a huge influence on my style and alot of others- i still remember Mes' former name was ryme in an all too similar style to Ryze.
A consistent old school Boston writer who once broke his right hand and had to learn to take tags with his left(still doing that?). Quite a ladies man and definitely took the award for best dressed for a writer. Kon???s been on the scene for a long time. Thank you for setting it straight. Respect. Didn???t we first meet In Kev C???s car with Glenn Dudley driving an hour all the way to Salisbury Beach, N.H. on a Sunday just to play video games?
As Kon was saying Boston's graffitical history is far richer than many know, including myself. Having started around ???88 things had died down quite a bit when I caught the fever. The elevated orange line had just been dismantled and I think a lot of kids just moved on. By the time I hooked up with Alert and got my focus, it felt like we were the only kids getting up in ???89, like we had missed the party. Of course we weren???t the only ones but our timing allowed us to get a lot more attention cause basically there wasn???t much happening anymore.
Mass was Boston???s undisputedly most notorious. He was under vandal squad surveillance often and known for taking paint tags in broad daylight in front of whoever. Alert and I both took his, Detect???s, and Jayroc???s example to heart. Every city with a graff history has an ???ill white boy??? category. Mass clearly still holds the beantown record.
Remote once told me a story that happened more than once. One night out on Blue Hill Ave. with some kids eventually the ???what you doing out here white boy??? talk started. Remote was like, ???That???s Mass right there.??? The guys hassling them didn???t believe it and demanded he get up in front of them. One tag later the tides had changed and they???re getting the VIP treatment, for a couple blocks anyway.
Kon, ever meet this guy Ham2? He had family in western Mass. But he lived out in SF? That guy had some serious old flicks. A year or two ago a friend sent me a Phoenix article supposedly about the history of Boston graffiti. Not a mention of anyone I???d ever known or even heard of. About two years ago I went to Charm???s bachelor party and hung out with him & Jayroc. Escalade limo from the Susse Chalet in Dorchester to the Foxy Lady in Providence and back. Pretty hilarious.
As for this conversation???
???It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...???
Things were well under way before Hush came around the two or three times he did. Sports in Boston consisted of???Zone, Sly, Wombat and B3. Alert and myself were down but were too busy pushing KBN & 5AV. SP, who grew up with Hush in Queens, moved just south of Boston after college. Obviously he was down for sports but pushed other crews at the time, BFB, MDC, etc. and has since moved back to NY. Hush is my man but to infer that he had a large hand in Boston???s graff scene would be inaccurate. Sports definitely had a presence at that time but so did OD (Alone???s crew) and BSB (Target???s crew).
Kon???s list of Boston writers makes you realize how deep things were for a time.(keep going with that!) If you think Jordan Knight aka ???Popeye???(who was actually pretty good) formally being a Boston writer is a trip, than here???s another weird bit of boston history. Yesteryear???s metal power ballad one hit wonder Extreme, stole they???re name from this guy Al Fuji who wrote ???Extreme??? back in the day. He was up all over Boston and these guys couldn???t get over how they saw his tags everywhere. I doubt he???s bragging about that one to anybody.
Maze is alive and well here in NY. Designing for Nike, Recon, Kid Robot etc. Lost his right index finger in a table saw accident about five years ago. Definitely hasn???t slowed him down though. Still as crazy as always.
Ryze
Wow !!!!!!! Big ups to ryze!!!! I dont even know how you found this site...!!?? Anyway, yes kev c !! glens old duster !! btw they are playing cbgbs next week i think (wrecking crew reunion) Good to see you are still doing your thing ! Actually im a lefty !! it was my left arm that broke (85') i then learned w/ my right. Also al fuli used to beatbox...and rock straight adidas...then went the way of the black eyed peas fashions back in 1990 waaaaay before them (not sure if thats a good look or not) lets tie in extreme now to top choice clique ! for those that know the group of "peace of mind" fame extreme got behind them to make a really poor 12"...push it past red i think. ryze..you should try to get in touch w/ regan...he does these legends of style events, next one is in october (futureclassic.net)
thank god for graff and music, cuz this is what saved me from becoming a stat. i need to get the flix of me in the yards with throws on the trains, in my hand is somw 12"s from the store circa 86..
Comments
That whole KCW crew is dope. Him, Chip, Nace (RIP)... I remember me and my crew drove up to Elizabeth (I think!) for a KCW party. I drove from Philly to Elizabeth completely rolling on E in a car that had no registration and insurance, with the rest of my crew in there and a trunk full of paint. We got to the spot, some waterfront dive bar and it was crazy. Rime was wearing a jacket and tie had the illest most slutty strippers there doing "party tricks" for the folks. I don't remember how I got home that night. This was maybe like a month before Nace passed away. That night was fucking crazy and I completely forgot about it until right now, holy shit.
Dement definitely was one of the better dudes out in beantown. FOr boston heads...
Wombat-my all time favorite
Ryze
IMG SRC="http://www.graffiti.org/boston/zone-kem-prisco_lc_12-16-02.jpg" width=700>
Zone
Relm
Click
Alert
Sly
Target
SP.One
Mas(dude RAN boston back in the day) no pics though...
Yeah man. 5AV used to run shit. Was'nt Hush from up there too? My man Exakto MURDERED Boston. Nancy O'Laughlin raided his shit without mercy .
Showing your age kid! add on Robski, Emork, Suroc, Cry, MB, SM... I remember walking on the train tracks across the the schukill eway and my friends and I hollered over to a dude walikng with a couple other guys and we yelled at them "What Do yall write" One dude hollered "Tan"... we was like
Razz is my man... owns a store on south street... went to Temple I think...
I ran into Rasan maybe eight years ago and I called his name like "Rasan" He looked like he saw a ghost! He keep saying that nobody he sees from High School hollers at him on the Graf tip... We went to Lincoln High Together along with Cape and Kran... You know Denske is my man no question about it! I'm looking for him if you see him first, tell him Raystar is looking for him! Big ups to North Phillys own Far... he was running mates with Kad... also DanOne! King Kair runs the "L" train... cant forget El K Lover aka Karaz, The originator of the phrase "Okayplayer"! Check your On The Go tapes for the evidence of that!
Hahah... yeah man, no doubt I am. Even if I was a kiddo when I first got into this shit (think I first started "tagging" in 1983) that's still the school that "put it on" for me. And yeah I definitely did neglect to holler about them other heads... fucking TAN. To this day dudes can't fade his fucking print. Revolutionary no fucking doubt. And yeah, Razz and I are very cool. We go way back on some music shit... same thing with Suroc.
Jesus, how the hell did I turn into an oldhead?!?
I was really tight with all them dudes. I only met Rasan once, but ended up linking with Cape and Kran through Erx, who like I said "mentored" me and was my old head, eventually putting me down with WAB (main crew I rep, although most writers are like "what crew is that" - learn your history, SONS.) Also definitely Far aka Lejos did it big with Kad. Meeting Kad was like my FACEMELT meeting a writer, and the icing on the cake was when I met him he was like "Oh dude YOU'RE ****?!? Oh shit you're killing it." which was AMAZING to me on some youngboy shit.
Kair was crazy as fuck, but my dude and a good friend. Same thing with Karaz, Cee and Kape and all those 5th & Wyoming dudes, we were hella tight. I ended up meeting them 3 dudes at the Big Daddy Kane concert back in 1989. El K had a denim jackt with a Karaz piece on the back (Cee did the whole crew's jackets) and me and my man Julio (not Julio NP) were like "OH SHIT KARAZZZZ!"
I remember like 5 years ago or so when I went on Okay Player and described to those dudes on that site about Karaz and the origins of "Okay Player" and how that tied in with me and my crew, and The Lay-up, On The Go, The Roots, and all of that... cats were NOT HEARING ME. Feel me on that? As if I did teh knowledge and motherfuckers were not really trying to see what the fuck the TRUTH was.
One day I'll tell that story again.
Denske did a longtime federal bid. I saw him when he got out a few years ago, still trying to get his shit back on his feet. We used to be tight for a few... cause right before he busted out big time in 1990, I was writing "Denek" and that time and he was like "Son I'm gonna bust out big time." So he suggested that I change my name and that I go out with him, which I did. That was one talented dude. Dude could draw, rap (remeber his record "John Doe" - fuck, what was the title of that jawn again?!? Shit wa dope) he could make beats (I still have the 83 Convention record he left at my crib) dude could make clothes and sew on some Dapper Dan shit - and unfortunately he sold coke well. We kind of ran with the same crew on that shit as well, cause I ran and was in TUK arond 1990. I was real tight with Menace and Chicago (RIP.) Chicago's story still breaks my heart. I was at his viewing and it was rough. Do you know the story, Ray? It was terible. Things were really rough up there in those neighborhoods at that time, and I was there. and I was also tight with Kers (who was an incredible writer) & Sam (RIP,) Hammer, as well as Kaja and Kiki (RIP) and I also rep YIC.
Seriously, dudes don't know the half of shit I've seen in my life.
But yeah, two more dudes on some writing shit are Met and Spel (fucking dope.)
i know heads will disagree, but graffiti was invented in philly. it grew up in nyc.
some other philly dudes that need dap in this thread...
des
omni
nope
Philly Mesk (i2i) and the other Mesk are 2 different dudes.
And I mentioned Dasar, Des(ign 29) and Nope. I did forget Praez and Omne[/b] though. Good dudes.
And yes, modern day graffiti comes from Philadelphia.
WAB, you going back yo... like mid eighties...
Far is a dude you really want to just hug him... He cannot read and sometimes he would ask me what something said and my knee jerk would always be "What? Can't you read?" Then I would fall back and feel bad... He and my good friend I.Q. used to live together at 5th & Butler (Whoa)... one day I was over there with my man I.Q. and we were building on beats and songs and Kad & Far came in from a late night on that New Jersey Drive tip and I was buggin too because he was still a King at that point like 96-97... actually I still live near were Kad grew up and my peoples really knew him from when he was a buck... I really hope that Far and him are cool again because they fell out over something many years ago...
Karaz is still Karaz... thats it... saw a couple years back, he's good... doing his little dj thing...
Give it to us again.
Denske is a dude like many of us in the city, maaad talent, wild smart, very few outlets... need to eat, do dirt... have to sit down somewhere for a minute... Den was drawing pictures for people to send to thier girls while he was locked up, he was writing for people and reading for people while he was in their too... I never saw anything that he ever mad on the clothes tip but everybody talks about his skills... He like I said is a cat I am really looking for... he payed me some serious compliments on the beat tip, he bit a part of a song I did as he was at the session when we where recording... he was on a couple of my older songs... Karaz is another dudes who is still talking about beats I did like ten years ago...
I remember being with Den and EnEm... wild boy!... EnEm was talking about Chicago, EnEm didnt really get into detail and that was a while ago... all I remember is people running up in Chicago's home and just shoting... I think I remember the talk being that Chicago was a clean dude and didnt really deserve what happened... I really dont know though... Den knows!
I dont know how I forgot them!
Cos my man... these people are street legends and people talk about thier lives as though they are dead... they live in North Philly baby...
I love how Estro used to do this throwup that looked like the letters was melting on the bottom, I looked at this stuff everyday and a child growing up it Philly... it was something to do while you rode the bus!
It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than 5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...
It's funny i used to buy caps from Exakto when he was under house arrest for all that shit. He was the pride of the Nancy and the rest of the boston vandal squad.
Someone should make a 5 best Graffiti Crew Names thread...
Boogie Booster worked for The Source up until a few years ago. I should look him up, we were always cool.
He's down with Karaz and Cee, and Tramp and Hayz (the last 3 who worked for The Source.)
*I typed this all down and then the page timed out. Good thing I saved it!
But yeah man, I mean when I look back at it, that's where I was from, like that school. I ran with a lot of these cats. At first it was graffiti, and then it went to that New Jersey Drive shit, then it went to being a corner boy, until I did a short lil bid and it ended up being that me having a passion for DJing that saved my life. That became my outlet you know. But in my 32 years I've seen all that shit. And I've walked in the shadows of some of these legends, and at times I walked with them, in both dirt and campaigns of glory. Those early 90s days in North were wild, bro. I know you don't need me to tell you, you lived that shit. "Badlands" I guess but it was never called that back then.
And yeah, Enem and I go WAY BACK. I talked to him a few months ago, he's doing his rap thing still which is good. Another talented dude. As for that Chicago story, it is something like what you described but this shit is real and the streets do talk. In fact there's a piece up near 4th and Diamond right near where the TUK crew used to be based that said "The streets will tell your story." I think Den did that one. Either way, no matter what Chic did, he didn't deserve to go out like that. He was always a good man, a good person, a friend to me and a good heart.
As for OKAY PLAYER, well it's kind of circulated around this store in Philly called The Lay-Up. It was a hip-hop shop in 1993 or so and kind of became the clubhouse for a lot of us dudes that came up out of Philly. It was owned by 5 dudes: Aalim who was the Uptown/Harlem mixtape connect, Tramp & Hayz (who were the dudes who used to do the comic book in The Source, and that MTV cartoon "Channel Zero" I think,) Keith who is now the tour manager for The Roots, Rob (who went on to be one of the first designers for Ecko, and now works for Nike, but the atmostphere was kind of like "everyone is involved in something." I was the youngboy who used to hang around the store and eventually they made the the store manager. At this time I was pretty much hanging out with The Gods and was all involved in that community, which was also like the P5D family, The Roots back when they were The Square Roots etc. That was my crew you know. I knew all the dudes and we would have ciphers in teh back of the store. I would DJ, heads would freestyle. Sometimes Ahmir would DJ, we would build on old school funk records, just kick it. This was before they were signed to a label. We would all wear "jazzy" clothing and smoke mad blunts.
Also I was spinning at this party with this dude King Britt. Him and me and this other dude Dozia (who is Art Blakey's nephew) had this party called Back To Basics which was like the Philly version of Giant Step. King had connects with teh acid jazz scene so somehow I think through him, Talking Loud go focused on The Roots and signed them to an EP deal (the OG "Do You Want More" EP.) Now because it was all in the family, the guys got Tramp to to the art.
So anyway, The Lay-up was also the hot spot for graffiti writers to hang out at as well, because of the magazines and also because we used to still do On The Go back then and it was kind of the place where yo could always find one of us. One of the dudes who used to hang out was Karaz AKA El K Lover. For those who don't know, Karaz is like this huge puerto rican dude from North Philly who just used to always get wild whenever he hung out, wetted up and drinking mad forties. He always used to say "Okay Player" about anything. "Yo El K you getting money?" "Okay Player!""Yo El we're heading up North.""Okay Player!" And that just kind of became this running joke. So Tramp put "Okay Player" on the front of the EP and it came out. After a couple years, it just kind of ended up being something that was attributed to all things "Roots" and whatnot but really "Okay Player" is nothing but a North Philly Puerto Rican holler.
This photo is from WAY back in the day, when these dudes were The Square Roots. The photo was taken by an old dear friend of mine Mpozi, who recently passed away, and who's memorial service i attended this weekend. It was incredibly tough but brought back a lot of memories, and I got a chance to see lots of people that I haven't seen in well over a decade. I know that this doesn't have anything to do with graff but still, I just wanted to share it.
The show above was held in the top floor of Nirvana Fitness Club and I was DJing before and after the show.
since i started writing in 83' i have seen every generation of writers in boston, and have met just about all of em.
i dont think anybody in sports got up more than ryze or alert..both were 5av...sports was barely repped cept for sp,sly and maybe wombat.
but really, as far as boston is concerned..nobody had more ups than mass, detect and jayroc.
yall saw the label scan in the most recent waxpoetics of twr...that was a graff crew my man maze(clicks cousin) did the script on the label, maze actually just had a pair of nikes done..legit af1s
btw..nancy locked me and my man chronic in 86.
Me and that cat ran GAME on Brookline honeys!
Oh shit how one sentence can bring back memories.
Word on jayroc the prolific - you & him (and MASS, true) were all I saw
wherever I went in the mid-80's, Kon.
Respect due.
I wanted to find some flicks of Mass. His stuff was legendary to me. Old school boston graf was some of the illest styled shit i have ever seen. it definitely was right up there with that really unique philly style but i dont think it got the credit that philly gets. btw what did/do you write Raw Hamburger?
i wrote....kon
soul..thanks man ! so many good memories as well....
very few people have flix from back then..target is one of em'
i know my man spell has em too, but i havent talked to him in ages
how bout,crush one who is doin his thing out in l.a. now on the indie rap tip
here are some writers from the 80's
larry d
storm
fume
popeye(jordan knight from n.k.o.t.b.!!)
hang
fuse
design
theme
scene
mk
rich3
mask
anomic
dash (floorlords bboy)
silk gator
oz & noz
start
saint
genius
zone
saint
adidas
sway
alert
empire
boa...to me the illest name in graff ever !!
dude
tame
duo (rich5)
pony
tale
remote
charm
prank
secret
rath
fate
jest
coz
lit
romeo
dream (nefra) from edo g. & the bulldogs...now in l.a. and makes custom hats for the likes of common
javonski
this was all dorchester ,roxbury, mattapan, jp, the illest hoods and......brookline one of the sweetest hoods!
man..i seriously could go on and on.
let me tell yall...in these days shit wasnt sweet.. most of these cats were gang affiliated...
we used to have writers meetings....200 deep !!!!
On the European tip I must say Bando has to be one of the most influential old school writers. Along with Shoe from Amstedam and Mode 2, Bando helped changing the whole style of europe from bubbleletters to a more straightletter orientated style. Their trip around Europe in I think 1986 gave their style a lot of exposure.
Later Delta from Amsterdam did a great job with 3d style. I never really liked Daims stuff. He's very good technical but Delta burns him style wise. The Dutch always had a great letterstyle.
Must of you guys probably wont know many writers from Copenhagen but people like Ice and Romance from Cant Stop, Freeze, Fuse, Bates & Great and the rest of PCP, Sabe & Fase, Rens & Sek from A-Line Vandals, Blaze..., Side, Sketch, Rezen, Date, Secher from the old days deserves a mention.
Thanks for sharing pics ya'll.
Dress
2. Kab101 (Australia)
3. Merda (Australia)
4. Seen
5. Can2
Anyone else bummed out/depressed on how now and days graffiti is "different"? I dont really know how to explain it..it just is. The letters aint importamt like they used to be..handstyles are weak. Writers are dumbasses(and rich usually). I dont know...and it even like im some old school head..i didnt get into this shit until the early 90s...but since the internet and everything..I dont know. Shit just bothers me a little bit.
To everyone still out there doing their thing the RIGHT way..keep doing it. I fucking love you all!
A consistent old school Boston writer who once broke his right hand and had to learn to take tags with his left(still doing that?). Quite a ladies man and definitely took the award for best dressed for a writer. Kon???s been on the scene for a long time. Thank you for setting it straight. Respect. Didn???t we first meet In Kev C???s car with Glenn Dudley driving an hour all the way to Salisbury Beach, N.H. on a Sunday just to play video games?
As Kon was saying Boston's graffitical history is far richer than many know, including myself. Having started around ???88 things had died down quite a bit when I caught the fever. The elevated orange line had just been dismantled and I think a lot of kids just moved on. By the time I hooked up with Alert and got my focus, it felt like we were the only kids getting up in ???89, like we had missed the party. Of course we weren???t the only ones but our timing allowed us to get a lot more attention cause basically there wasn???t much happening anymore.
Mass was Boston???s undisputedly most notorious. He was under vandal squad surveillance often and known for taking paint tags in broad daylight in front of whoever. Alert and I both took his, Detect???s, and Jayroc???s example to heart. Every city with a graff history has an ???ill white boy??? category. Mass clearly still holds the beantown record.
Remote once told me a story that happened more than once. One night out on Blue Hill Ave. with some kids eventually the ???what you doing out here white boy??? talk started. Remote was like, ???That???s Mass right there.??? The guys hassling them didn???t believe it and demanded he get up in front of them. One tag later the tides had changed and they???re getting the VIP treatment, for a couple blocks anyway.
Kon, ever meet this guy Ham2? He had family in western Mass. But he lived out in SF? That guy had some serious old flicks.
A year or two ago a friend sent me a Phoenix article supposedly about the history of Boston graffiti. Not a mention of anyone I???d ever known or even heard of.
About two years ago I went to Charm???s bachelor party and hung out with him & Jayroc. Escalade limo from the Susse Chalet in Dorchester to the Foxy Lady in Providence and back. Pretty hilarious.
As for this conversation???
???It was more about SPORTS (Sick People Out Rockin The Streets) rather than
5 Angry Vandals. Sports is Hush's crew. Hush came up from NY a bunch but
i don't think he ever lived in Boston. Think he just hung with SP and folk...???
Things were well under way before Hush came around the two or three times he did. Sports in Boston consisted of???Zone, Sly, Wombat and B3.
Alert and myself were down but were too busy pushing KBN & 5AV.
SP, who grew up with Hush in Queens, moved just south of Boston after college. Obviously he was down for sports but pushed other crews at the time, BFB, MDC, etc. and has since moved back to NY. Hush is my man but to infer that he had a large hand in Boston???s graff scene would be inaccurate. Sports definitely had a presence at that time but so did OD (Alone???s crew) and BSB (Target???s crew).
Kon???s list of Boston writers makes you realize how deep things were for a time.(keep going with that!) If you think Jordan Knight aka ???Popeye???(who was actually pretty good) formally being a Boston writer is a trip, than here???s another weird bit of boston history. Yesteryear???s metal power ballad one hit wonder Extreme, stole they???re name from this guy Al Fuji who wrote ???Extreme??? back in the day. He was up all over Boston and these guys couldn???t get over how they saw his tags everywhere. I doubt he???s bragging about that one to anybody.
Maze is alive and well here in NY. Designing for Nike, Recon, Kid Robot etc. Lost his right index finger in a table saw accident about five years ago. Definitely hasn???t slowed him down though. Still as crazy as always.
Ryze
A definite "get the fuck out of here" moment.
Haha for real- I would have never thought soul strut would bring about the one and only Ryze- My comment to Sports was more personal to me. As Wombat was and still is a close friend and huge influence. And i think the evolution of Skills magazine also had a bit of that influence as it showed a fair amount Boston stuff. But don't even doubt that you and Alert didn't have a huge influence on my style and alot of others- i still remember Mes' former name was ryme in an all too similar style to Ryze.
Wow !!!!!!! Big ups to ryze!!!! I dont even know how you found this site...!!?? Anyway, yes kev c !! glens old duster !! btw they are playing cbgbs next week i think (wrecking crew reunion) Good to see you are still doing your thing !
Actually im a lefty !! it was my left arm that broke (85') i then learned w/ my right.
Also al fuli used to beatbox...and rock straight adidas...then went the way of the black eyed peas fashions back in 1990 waaaaay before them (not sure if thats a good look or not)
lets tie in extreme now to top choice clique ! for those that know the group of "peace of mind" fame
extreme got behind them to make a really poor 12"...push it past red i think.
ryze..you should try to get in touch w/ regan...he does these legends of style events, next one is in october (futureclassic.net)
thank god for graff and music, cuz this is what saved me from becoming a stat.
i need to get the flix of me in the yards with throws on the trains, in my hand is somw 12"s from the store
circa 86..
Shit blows my mind sometimes.
Glen D plays hockey with me every Monday now - or he
DID, until he got a new girlfriend
btw Ry**, it's yr boy MF here, once dabbled with Havok but
would never try to brag about it...
One Boston graff moment I always remember for laughs:
the minor (as I recall) BSB/5AV beef, best summed up
by my man T*m Target yelling out
across Copley Sq. one summer night...
You should definitely come up for JR's next showdown -
come out to JP and we'll drink obscure German beer with Syre!