IRAK CREW CLOTHING

IRAK is a graffiti crew based in NYC and was started long before it all began in the country with that similar sounding name (or for some languages the same name). "It all began" - ok, strange things have been going on in that area for decades, so we could get into a discussion about the context but that shall not be our subject for today.

IRAK have been turning up quite frequently during the past couple of months. We saw them in the book All Most Famous photographed by Kai Regan and produced by alife (one of our top 10 books for 2004), Ryan McGinley took a series of pictures of the crew, and then we watched as they invaded Stockholm together with their Retail Mafia buddies.

Before we get into describing the graphics and hypothesizing about their meaning, look at the slides and make up your own mind. Those of you who are familiar with Barbara Kruger's work might recognize the "attack irak" visuals. the name derives from the activity of taking spraycans from a store without leaving money...

New York’s 2001 graffiti scene is made up of some of the most reckless drug users in America. Their crew is called Irak. They are rude, illegal, sometimes gay, and always on the verge of losing their lives. We like to write about people who get fucked up, but this is better: Spacer, Semen, and Earsnot are more than most wanted on NYPD’s hit list. They are what New York looks like. If you close your eyes and think of this city, you see the work of Irak and its peers. With this much hedonism getting this much credibility, it was time VICE put together the supreme guide to what, where, when, why, and who is painting on the fifth-biggest city in the world. We knew notorious fag filmmaker Bruce LaBruce hung out with them so we flew him down to blow it wide open. We asked him to live with them for a week, go bombing with them, get Ryan McGinley to photograph everything, and then research the history of this fucked up form of indigenous art. He said sure, but then he got too wasted.

This isn’t an article about graffiti. If you want to read a definitive piece of journalism on throwing up (and I’m not talking about Karen Carpenter), go to your local library and hunt down the Rolling Stone article “Mean Streaks” dated February 9, 1995. In it Kevin Heldman, a real journalist, trails a couple of spray painters around New York (following them into subway tunnels to stand breathless by their side as the trains barrel past; clambering up the Manhattan Bridge to observe them hanging from their knees to bomb or tag the mammoth structure) and generally lays out the whole historical and sociological context of urban graffiti.

Fuck that shit. I ain’t no kamikaze reporter fresh from covering the events in the war-torn Republic of Chechnya; nor am I any kind of expert on the graffiti scene. I do, however, enjoy getting blotto with a couple of the most unusual and gifted kids currently bombing New York. When I was asked to do this story I had hopes, but all I ended up getting was high. It isn’t easy trying to write about vandals when you’re getting fucked up with them.

I arrive on a Saturday with my long johns under my clothes, having just escaped from a twenty-below-zero Toronto cold snap. I stomp sweatily up the five-floor East Village walk-up with my heavy bags. Ryan McGinley answers the door. This young cutie, who follows writers everywhere fanatically taking pictures, is just now saying good-bye to Marc, his model boyfriend. They seem like they’re really stoned, which I soon discover is because Tyrone, Ryan’s best friend (a corporate headhunter and part-time “rum-runner”), has acquired some opium, a rare treat that comes along only a couple times a year.

Ryan and I buy some beers and settle on the couch in the small, shabby living room and in front of Tyrone’s widescreen digital TV with pirated cable and watch the inauguration of America’s latest figurehead, Dubya. We get ridiculously high, like Withnail and I, in time to witness Latin queen Ricky Martin (who while a member Menudo was incidentally molested by the father of the Menendez brothers) do his queenly routine. He’s followed by a gays-in-the-military faggot who belts out “God Bless America” as if she’s in a Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s The Star-Spangled Girl.

I’m flying high on the opium magic carpet, my kundalini shooting through the top of my head into space, while trying to concentrate on Dubya’s speech and Tyrone and Ryan’s repartee. With his choked pauses and clipped phrasing, Dubya seems like an automaton. I half expect white liquid to start dripping out of the corners of his mouth. He talks in vague, populist homilies that don’t really mean anything, like Mao. I’m convinced in my altered state that Iraq is going to drop the bomb on him right here and now, which would be appropriate since the name of the graffiti crew I’m here to observe is called Irak (not the country, silly—“I rak” as in “I shoplift”).

As a Canadian in the land of the Yanks, the ascent of the Texas travesty unfolding before our eyes is stirring up my old political punk leanings, but strangely I will soon discover that Ryan and the graffiti kids he will be photographing, despite their radical pursuits and flagrant disregard for the law such as racking and mopping on a daily basis and ragging and throwing up wherever they go (crimes against property in this new era of hypercapitalism are the worst you can commit), are surprisingly apolitical. The only thing they seem to want to boycott is talking to me seriously about graffiti. Nikes, new or vintage, are ubiquitous amongst the crew (what sweatshops?), and any conversation regarding the motivation behind spray painting is devoid of any specific political or even anarchistic socialist rhetoric. Sure they often destroy mass media billboards and mall-like chains, but it’s not ad-busting. It’s wrecking something to “ups fame” (an Earsnotism). The general impression is one of “après moi, le déluge.” Things are so fucked up at this point in history, so monumentally surreal, that only the impulsive moment counts—the rush of adrenaline garnered from racking or tagging, the natural high.

But believe me, the unnatural high for these kids isn’t chopped liver either. The amount of opiates and pharmaceutical powders and pills that course through their veins would put Judy Garland herself to shame. Lucky for me, it fits right in with my new diet regime: no food and tons of drugs.

I’m so high at this point, the last thing I want to do is interview someone, but I do my duty and try to contact the graffiti kids. Nobody’s answering their cell phone. VICE wants me to profile the real legends.

Sacer. He’s the guy you read about in the New York Times who did the ultimate throw up: the Brooklyn Bridge. This is a large deal for two reasons. One, when you do the bridge, there’s only a very tiny ledge separating you from the black water below, making the odds of death by falling so high that it makes me nauseous thinking about it. Two, vandalizing a national monument is a felony, which means if you do it more than twice you go to jail for life or longer. Shortly after the bridge incident, he made the news again after throwing etching cream on a slew of high-end boutiques and pretentious galleries.

Earsnot. He’s more than one of the most prevalent tags in New York; he’s an infamous thief who often walks out of a store with three $400 North Face jackets. His crimes are popular with the press, too. So much that he’s had several two-week stays at Riker’s.

And Semen. Semen is the one who draws those little sperms on every single door and window in New York. Once you start to look for them, it becomes a challenge to find a block that hasn’t been hit.

These are the people I’m here to profile, but do I have to do it now? Anyway, I hear a rumor that Sacer has fled to Texas where Dubya stands on the TV in front of me.

As we watch the Knicks game, a stream of Jersey boys revolves through the apartment. They all talk in advanced homese so sometimes I feel like a visitor from a foreign country, which I suppose I am. Whenever the door buzzer rings, you have to be careful to see who it is. A couple of weeks ago the cops busted in during the night and dragged Ryan down to central booking for some outstanding warrants. He got into a little altercation during his day-and-a-half jail visit from which he is still sporting a bandage on his hand and says he doesn’t want to ever repeat the experience.

We finally drag ourselves out of the apartment at 3:00 AM and go to a neighborhood dive gay bar where we encounter a fag who works for Honcho, the porn mag to which I frequently contribute. That’s where my memory ends.

The next day I go to the excellent fag novelist Bruce Benderson’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. party, but I’m pretty burned out so I leave around 11:00 AM. On my arrival back at the apartment, whom should I find but Ryan, Sacer, Earsnot, and Marc, all in full party mode. The first thing that catches your eye when you see these kids is gold. Gold fronts, gold chains with gold tanks hanging off them, and gold rings. Bling bling. After that it’s an expensive combination of high-end Gucci hats and low-end Nike Uptowns. They are all very high. Well, when in Rome, do coke, Special K, Vicodin, and Budweiser, I always say.

Semen drops by and, as it’s his birthday, we’re compelled to get even higher. We’re watching the patterns you can create by playing CDs on a Sega Playstation, an option I was just reading about in the newspaper that was developed in cahoots with NASA scientists to control the brainwaves of hyperactive children, which most if not all graffiti writers surely are. The song we’re playing, appropriately, is “Paint It Black.”

I decide it’s time to clean up their act so with a shaky hand I reshave Sacer’s hair into a Mr. T-modified Mohawk in the bathroom as Ryan snaps photos. Sacer is 19, married, diminutive, and cute as a fucking button, with epic tattooage and a killer smile. The first night I met him, he and Earsnot snuck me into a very exclusive Ford model party at Lotus, where Kate Moss was spinning (she was also DJ-ing). Sacer bought me drinks and told me about his tragic life, something about his parents dying in a bizarre ritualistic murder/suicide when he was a kid. Earsnot also filled me in on his sordid past, but I got the feeling that their personal bios are as fluid and transient as their tags. Earsnot is tall and handsome and has a big smile, but has been passed out about 73 percent of the time I’ve seen him. He’s a fag and has a preference for that burly, hairy, 40-plus subgenus known as “the bear.” He hibernates in the Bronx with just such a noble creature.

The fact that both Ryan and Earsnot are openly fag in the circles in which they travel is pretty remarkable, but it’s something you don’t really think about when you hang with them because they are so unfaggy. There’s a certain amount of machismo in the graffiti world. If you paint over another writer’s tag or write “toy” over it (the ultimate dis), you better be prepared to drop your paint cans and put up your dukes. And most writers aren’t really down with the gay thing, so it’s pretty brave for this crew to be so “fuck you” about it even though only one of their members is a card-carrying faggot.

Sacer and Ryan and I amble on up to the roof to get some fresh air. Ryan is covered in a multicolored Indian blanket, looking like a cross between Howard Beale, Tiny Tim, and the cutest white homeboy ever. Sacer is in camouflage, and with his Mr. T do resembles a hot militia member. With a can of Bud in his hand, Sacer jumps up on the front ledge of the building and peers seven floors down into the black abyss as Ryan and I snap pictures. As Sacer dances and prances and does a jig on the precipice of death, I discover I don’t have the stomach for this. For a moment I think it’s a classic case of the Heisenberg principle—the presence of a journalist influencing the behavior of his subject causing him to take risks in a way he normally wouldn’t—but then I realize I’m flattering myself. The adrenaline, the flirtation with death or jail or bodily harm, is as natural for these kids as peeing. Sacer is poised to lob a snowball at a passing car 50 feet below and as I fear that the momentum of the throw will send him over, I retreat back to the apartment. I wait in anticipation for Ryan to come running down from the roof yelling that Sacer has gone over, is gone forever, but after a few minutes the two of them come stumbling into the room laughing. Ha ha.

The next night we all end up at a trendy place where at various points in the evening I see George Stephanopolous, a woman who looks like Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger, three Hell’s Angels with some loose models, and a bunch of young artists and spray painters. Sacer is underage, but he’s drinking for free and we’re doing lines right off the tables. Believe it or not, there’s a whole lot of other stuff going on that I can’t even write about, but ultimately on the way home a member of Irak who shall remain nameless accidentally on purpose torches a huge bundle of Christmas trees propped up on the street in front of the bar. The flames are shooting 20 or 30 feet high as Ryan and I snap photos. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me, but after someone calls 911, Ryan convinces us that we should bust out fast so we hop in a cab and book. Dismissing the little incident as a harmless prank, we go to a friend’s restaurant and drink wine till the wee hours. At one point I get all weepy thinking of Sacer last night on the roof, plummeting into the void, supernova-ing. He pats my shoulder consolingly. He’s too beautiful a soul in an ugly world to burn out like that, but I suppose that’s why his life has to be constantly on the verge of sacrifice to make that point.

The next day, Ryan and I go to check out the damage outside the bar. Apparently a car caught fire and may have slightly exploded or something. It does look a little charred, like something you might have seen in Beirut in the 1970s. The Irak crewmember in question has to get out of town before sundown, heading appropriately south of the border into the sunset. So I guess that’s the end of my reportage.

I have accompanied the kids on bombing expeditions before and it’s pretty much what you might expect. Every square inch of the city is a potential target for their tags, every store a wealth of free goods. At this point their behavior is compulsive, an addiction and definitely not something that they can articulate, nor should they be expected to. I see them as antibodies attacking the infections of the modern world: corporatism, materialism, brainwashing, conformity, mass indifference. Graffiti is one of the last forms of rebellion left, and it looks pretty, so shut up.

I call the refugee Irak pyromaniac in Texas and he’s having a helluva time. He’s bombed some major billboards and at least 60 railroad cars. And he’s bringing me back a pillowcase full of pills from Mexico. So shut up.

BRUCE LABRUCE

All photos by Ryan McGinley. From Vice magazine Vol. 8, No. 3, April 2001

http://www.viceland.com

ALL MOST FAMOUS - alife

photo by

Kenneth Cappello

from

Dazed & Confused

photo by

Kenneth Cappello

from

Mass Appeal

from

Mass Appeal

from

Mass Appeal

IRAK TAG

by EARSNOT

AUTOGRAF

/PETER SUTHERLAND

from

Mass Appeal

sorry about the size of the larst few images

site: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense

even though IRAK is a little too 'vice cool' for my tastes,

the designs are dope and no one can take away the fame

and rep they've built for themselves.

good post hipster.

Originally posted by The Hipster@Dec 6 2004, 11:51 AM

Quoted post

where are these photos from?

good post.

Make that paper.

Originally posted by Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 03:43 PM

Make that paper.

Quoted post

any idea what issue? also, any idea who the photographer was?

Originally posted by Misteraven+Dec 6 2004, 03:52 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Misteraven - Dec 6 2004, 03:52 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 03:43 PM

Make that paper.

Quoted post

any idea what issue? also, any idea who the photographer was?

[/b]

No, I didnt post this, but its likely that Ryan McGinley took the photos.

Also that shirt with the skull getting skiied up is dope.

Sorry but i dont see anything special here, the crew may be dope and up graffitiwise and thats why the I RAK NY is their best design imo. The barbara Kruger one aint a 'reference' but just a bite, the attack irak has a symbolism thats pretty fuckin stupid..and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

crap

Originally posted by Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM

Also that shirt with the skull getting skiied up is dope.

again... way to 'Vice Mag' for me.

(and hell... I susscribe and have been printed in it)

Even that word 'ski' just screams Bruce LaBruce.

.... and let's never speak of this ever again.... I dont want to have to edit.

Originally posted by <KEY3>+Dec 6 2004, 04:11 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (<KEY3> - Dec 6 2004, 04:11 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM

Also that shirt with the skull getting skiied up is dope.

again... way to 'Vice Mag' for me.

(and hell... I susscribe and have been printed in it)

Even that word 'ski' just screams Bruce LaBruce.

.... and let's never speak of this ever again.... I dont want to have to edit.

[/b]

well damn, you got all the angles covered on this one. Let me just sit back and listen to you speak.

Originally posted by Tesseract@Dec 6 2004, 10:05 PM

and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

 

crap

Quoted post

the skulls are a reference from Dash's tattoo

Originally posted by Misteraven+Dec 6 2004, 09:52 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Misteraven - Dec 6 2004, 09:52 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 03:43 PM

Make that paper.

Quoted post

any idea what issue? also, any idea who the photographer was?

[/b]

as Good Morning Captain aid try Ryan McGinley he has a few books out

http://www.indexmagazine.com/books.shtml

Originally posted by The Hipster+Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Hipster - Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Tesseract@Dec 6 2004, 10:05 PM

and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

 

crap

Quoted post

the skulls are a reference from Dash's tattoo

[/b]

Dash's tattoos are a reference to giant....http://www.mikegiant.com/main.html

oh i do beg your pardon

thanks

IRAK is dope, so are the pictures. the clothes, ehhh.

the article is ass though. the fucktard who wrote it sounds like an elemantary school girl custom equiped with an infatuation for anyone who gets fucked up and can steal things. glorifying that type of lifestyle is LAME. just document that shit.

Ill post....

Originally posted by Tesseract+Dec 6 2004, 05:28 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tesseract - Dec 6 2004, 05:28 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>

Originally posted by The Hipster@Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM

<!--QuoteBegin-Tesseract@Dec 6 2004, 10:05 PM

and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

 

crap

Quoted post

 

the skulls are a reference from Dash's tattoo

 

Quoted post

Dash's tattoos are a reference to giant....http://www.mikegiant.com/main.html

[/b]

i dont know for sure, but i wouldnt be surprised if giant did it. he's in town all the time and dash knows just about everyone. may not be the case, but it's certainly possible. i'll ask him or giant next time i see either one around.

Irak is a great crew but the designs just arent that great. the best is probably that Irak NY shirt. maybe they should make a shirt with that "Best things in life..." design.