RATT Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 Coupe interview --First things first…..What do you write and why? And what crews do you assosciate with? I write Coup from Louisville Ky., and the crews I push are Cold Fusion first and formost then WFR, ASP, RA, and I’m also in Heavens Gate. I started writing because I was into politics and wanted to write a word that meant revolution. Now its years later and I'm not as political and more into graffiti art then any thing. --How long have you painted for...what got you started? 4-5 years but I didn’t get really even half way decent until 2000 I guess maybe early 2001 --What do you enjoy writing on the most? walls…steel…..etc… Hmm what do I enjoy most just doing a good piece in a good spot that is right in peoples faces. --What was your best experience in graffiti? I don't really know. I've had so many. Getting into Cold Fusion was nice. Paint Louis 2000 was cool. Having almost 1000 cans at one time was nice. Meeting cool writers is at the top of my list though. Plus the block long block busted I did with Liv 215 in Louisville was nice, but I think really the coolest thing or one of the best experiences is this. When I get a email or run into a writer that says I was a inspiration to them. That’s really cool to actually see people enjoying what I’m doing. --Ever been arrested or in some serious shit over art? Nothing real serious. Mostly I have problems with traffic tickets. --Give us a good chase story….everyone has em…… Well Fosik and I went into this approx. 10 story abandon building in Detroit to do the window trick. It was great we decided to put the outlines on first on the way to the top and then use roller fills on the way down. Well it was cool but when we got to the top we came out on the roof and the whole building was surrounded by cops. It sucked they had flash lights out looking all over the ground and just crazy shit. Well we chilled up there for a hour or so. We didn’t know what the deal was. We had already attempted to do this building once before with Malt and we had to bail that time early in the week because some cop was snooping around. Well we kept a cool head on our shoulders and just watched the cops. It was crazy because the longer we waited the more cops showed up. The cops had all the lights on their cars looking all over the ground for something.. Then Fosik started to tell me he thought they were gang squawd. I was like what the fuck is gang squad? I guess they are these super cops in Detroit that basically get away with what ever they want and they if they catch you. They kick the living shit out of you. That was scary as hell. Well after waiting forever the cops finally left. One at a time and it took over an hour. Then finally we finished all our stuff up and bounced. I still have no idea what those cops were looking for but it was fucked up and every thing ended up being kosher. --What kind of music influences you? Deicide, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Ani Difranco, Indigo Girls, John Cougar Mellancamp, Fear Factory, Machine Head, Blues is really good, DMX, Ludacris, and any good metal. --Who was the first writer you met? Hmm I don’t even remember it was just some kid who use to write that I was in a political group with. Actually to be honest most of the writers that I've met seem to be dicks. I don't like to many writers and they seem to not like me. I've met a few writers that were such dicks that I wish I didn’t have anything (including writing) in common with them. Once in a while though I've met writers who just blow my mind. When I met the PA kids from Arizona they just were fucking cool kids, same with Fem, Mines and some of the FST kids, RA crew out of Toledo, all the CF guys. When I met Kahn from HM that was nice because I really looked up to him and the other HM guys art for inspirations. Of course there’s been a few kids I've met in passing that were pretty cool too. --Do you rack paint or buy it? They don’t call me Klepto Coup for no reason. I love racking its one of my favorite sports. I did it before I painted and learned it from a ex girl friend. Thank god for stripper girl friends who don’t like to pay for much stuff. --Where do you think graffiti is going in the future….. I have no idea really. I wish more positive kids would get involved in it and all the negative shit talking writers would fall off. It really sucks to be involved in a art form that can be so powerful and empowering to people but is plagued by stupid bullshit beef. I haven't ever really had any major beef and I feel blessed. It just sucks when I talk to friends in other towns and cities that have had so much of their art dicked and destroyed for no reason except stupid beef. I really feel for girl writers the most because they a lot of times it seems get the double edged sword. They are either loved or hated and a ton of times there is always some dateless fucker trying to hook up with them and if they reject that guy who knows what kind of psycho shit they'll do. I've seen multiple girls that were awesome writers and awesome people that had their shit dissed for that reason. It really sucks. Any guy writer who does that should just be shunned by the graffiti community. Stuff like that should not even be allowed to exist in graf. --With harsher penalties for being caught, do you think that's only gonna make people go bigger and harder? No, I think that graf goes through cycles of popularity. Depending on what city you are in. That dictates if the scene is rolling high or low. Some cities right now are on the top of their game while others are having a stagnant period. I think getting busted has little to do with that but it could. --What do you think about a graffiti artist spending 3 years in jail and a rapist doing a year? I really feel for Gkae. In a lot of ways he's one my heroes and a hero, but most people see him as a little bastard. He damaged a lot of stuff in their eyes and when he got busted they threw the book at him. It really sucks, but in reality that should tell a lot of writers and people where our country is at and how sexist it is. If they put more punishment on some one writing their name on something. Then a rape that is clearly a sign of a fucked up society. In the city I reside in currently Columbus Ohio. They just cut a program (I cant remember the exact name I think it was the counsel for Women’s issues). That program helped women with a lot of women’s issues including but not limited to single mothers and helping them me better mothers. That program cost approx $250,000 a year to run. There is a similar program for men too. While about a week after that program got cut from the Columbus budget $300,000 grand appeared out of no where to pay for new and improved buffing.The men's program is still in place but the Women’s one got dismantled. Now I don't know about you all but when I'm roaming threw Columbus I don’t see 3 kids and one dad just chilling on their way to the store. I see a lot of single mothers. To me it's pretty common sense who needed what program more. That showed me like a slap in the face how sexist Columbus was. It shows how much they care about women and where they are compared to buffing graf. --Why do you write? Is it to see your name all over? Is it to show your freedom? Is it for vandalism? There is so many reason why I write. Sometimes to show how fucked up things are. Sometimes as a stress reliever. Sometimes its a good chance to chill with close friends. Sometimes its a chance to make closer friends. Its always just fun though. --What influences your letters? Fonts, HR Giger, LTS crew, Revok, and Kept from 95-98 --Do you plan to paint forever? Or do you see yourself being satisfied at one point? Hopefully not forever because if I do at the rate I’m at now I'll look like Frankinstien because of all the cuts and bruises I'd have. I think in about 2 years I'll have done every thing that I'd ever wanted too, but who knows, maybe at one point in my graffiti career I'll decide to stay in it for the long haul and try to blast as many cities as I can. I've been trying to stop doing graf for 4 years and I haven’t yet, so hopefully I will someday. --Whats the worst part about graffiti to you? Is it the penalties, the beef, the toys….? Hookers and Crackwhores. I'm telling you negative writers suck. Dealing with narcs, toys, cameras, beat downs, and all the other shit sucks, but Hookers and crackwhores are the worst. I hate it there is so many nights that I've just got pissed. I hate hearing hey white boy you want some sugar? I'm just like yo I’m doing my own fucked up shit right now I can't deal with your shit. It really sucks also because sometimes you know you're lonely and just like hmmmm maybe.................. Then you snap into reality and say what the fuck am I thinking? --Seeing how we were all toys once, what do you think about toys? Toys are awesome. I've seen a lot in my days. The toys come and go. Sometimes they suck but sometimes you just can't compete with them. A really good toy can last so much longer then I could. Over all though toys are fun if you get the right one. Personally I can't deny it, I love going to the adult store and picking up some toys for me and my lady friend. --Who is your favorite writer when it comes to letters and what they are about? Hmm Revok, LTS, earlier Kept stuff 95-98 they do great spots and good art. They are willing to take chances with their art and their spots. They do something different and just awesome. I have a severe love for those writers. --Do you like stock caps, thin caps, or fat caps the best? Rusto fats, german thins, and NY thins and what ever I can get for cheapest --What 2 people do you admire outside the graffiti world and why? HR Giger because I really feel his stuff. and really good pin up artists from the 40-70s Gil Elvgren being the best. In the last week or two I came to the realization that I really really like realism. Those artists do stuff that looks so real and just awesome. The beauty of the art blows any thing away I will ever be able to do --What motivates you to paint in the middle of the night? Damn I have no idea. Nothing better to do and addiction at this point. Plus trying to be at the top of my game. --Where is the weirdest place you got laid at? hmmm the list is so few hmmm. I wanted to have sex infront of a piece once but this girl wasn’t for it. As much as I want to say crazy places I'm more into the bedroom action, but that's because I normally date girls who are into crafts and are pretty calm and not to freaky. Hopefully though when I move back down south I'll find some nice girls that dated Ludacris that will turn me out. Plus ontop of that I try to date a lot of girls and do end up with them, but as far as fumbling the ball I'm really good at that almost pro.. I'm the only one I know who could fuck up getting a booty call at 3 in the morning and didn't get with it. I think it's because I sold my soul to graffiti and my mind is so focused on getting over in the right spots that I don't think enough about having game. Well what can you do? --Where do you see your art in 10 years? Fuck who knows bufffed more then likely maybe one to ten pieces will be riding some where. --Any last thoughts…..? Hmm just thanks to all the writers that have been cool to me in the past. I would list them all but it would just be too long. Sorry to all the writers/people that I pissed off or offened. I have to thank the cities of Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Dayton, Toledo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Louisville, Nashville, New York, and St. Louis for having nice good spots to paint in, nice friendly people, and most of them having good spots to rack at too. Thanks to Adult Zone in Toledo and Star Dust Entertainment in MPLS. Thanks to the Latin lover who cock blocked on me in Indianapolis. Fruit Leather. All of Cold Fusion, ASP, WFR, and RA. The magazines Life Sucks Die, Dead In The Dirt, Revolting, Short Cuts, Taste Like Chicken, and any other quality mags. My current favorites are Show and Improve (get me my copies bro), 12 oz Prophet, Life Sucks Die, 3rd Shift, and Short Cuts. Plus here’s some good web sites too. Silent Wrytes, Motosoul.org, deadinthedirt.com, bastardartist.com, http://bombingscience.com/freight.htm, http://graffiti.org/stlouis/freights/main.htm, nashvillegraf is good, paint by face rocks toowell from Coupe Nugent to you all take it easy http://www.silentwrytes.com/coupinterpic2.jpg'> http://www.silentwrytes.com/coupinterpic1.jpg'> http://www.silentwrytes.com/coupinterpic4.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
some pittsburgh flavor Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 Re: Coupe interview Originally posted by RATT [b --Seeing how we were all toys once, what do you think about toys? Toys are awesome. I've seen a lot in my days. The toys come and go. Sometimes they suck but sometimes you just can't compete with them. A really good toy can last so much longer then I could. Over all though toys are fun if you get the right one. Personally I can't deny it, I love going to the adult store and picking up some toys for me and my lady friend.[/b] hehe... that's clever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nG Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ingerson/dsf3.jpg'> RAGE KHC/DSF/BIRDS crews Since when and why did you start writing? I started to paint in 1995 but had my first taste of graf in 1994. I used to hang around at places where graffiti was, that made me interested and later on i tried it myself. My first attempt was the painting of a character next to a sportfield. I remember afterwards being so frightened that i went to the woods and with bare hands I dug a hole in the ground and buried my cans and gloves. What was your first aquaintance with graffiti? Actually the first graffiti i saw was on trains. I used to live on one of the most bombed S-train lines so i had the chance to see lots of panels and wholecars in traffic. This was also my first contact with the KHC/DSF crew. Veh, Wem, Candy, Jepsy and Razor had a lot of pieces on that line. The style of DSF writers is different from common German styles; can you explain why you think that is? I think the DSF crew is a group of real individual persons and personalities. We got ideas and together we try to give them the right form. I mean you combine the style ideology of all crew members. We inspire ourselves so everyone's style contains a piece of the others. To me style means to give my thoughts a form. I try to express myself in letters, this is what style means to me, showing your personality in the letters and pieces. I think theres a big parallel between style and personality. Why are you writing on the trains? Because walls don't run and freshly painted pieces on trains, parked in a yard, get protected for free by more security guards than one possibly ever can afford! What has graffiti on trains done to your life? One of the most positve things about graffiti is the friendship you gain. While travelling Europe I've been to a lot of places and made a lot of friends. I've also learnt about other countries and cultures. Then theres my crew; I don't think you'll find a stronger friendship outside the world of graffiti. How do you look at graffiti on trains? Its important for me to have fun. Its nice just to start to paint without taking care what people say or do. Its nice to paint for two hours in a relaxed yard and take care of quality but on the other hand its fun to paint a cool piece, have a chase from security and in the end get away with it. Whats the difference between your city and other graff cities? The scene is more quiet than in cities like Berlin, Prague or Copenhagen. Theres no such thing as a writers corner here in Hamburg. Other cities try to scare writers away by putting up fences, cameras and guards. In Hamburg the yards look soft and easy at first sight but they're not. Guards, dressed in military suits hide in the bushes and you have to run your ass off in a chase bacause their condition is better than that of the average writer. When you get caught they mostly throw you in jail for just one night. Its not like other countries where you go to jail for weeks or months after being busted. I am lucky as i've never had any problems with the cops but it was often fucking close though. What does the future have in store for you? My goal is to paint as many trains as possible in foriegn countries. I don't care about what happens in the future. You get into graffiti the regular by painting legal walls and after a while you start to think what will come after a colour-wholetrain!?! Shouts out to my crew partners also to these cool guys Kripo, Wem, Veh, Mr Beam, Icnoc, 1999, Psychokorn, Kaos (Stockholm) and to the DOS and BIA crews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nG Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 ^^^that was from the book Ultimate Graffsportz by the way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el lies Posted March 3, 2003 Share Posted March 3, 2003 dope interviews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Metal Calus Posted March 3, 2003 Share Posted March 3, 2003 good shit. ive never heard of a number of these writers so i didnt read their shit. otherwise word up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest phem9 Posted March 3, 2003 Share Posted March 3, 2003 Coupe is tha shit!!!!! Aside from the fact, his stuff rolls thru once a week, or more...he's an great guy! Good interview. Peace 9er. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMYONE TSR Posted March 3, 2003 Share Posted March 3, 2003 props... COUPE DIESEL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BURZUM Posted March 3, 2003 Share Posted March 3, 2003 That JA interview was tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabo 2 Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 an article by elk PFB I posted a while back. It's not an interview but fuck it.... UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE Despite the endless B-boy revivals, graffiti is the last element of hip hop culture to resist the mainstream; its stars remain unknown. In this account of a life on the tracks, ELK tells why some people will risk their lives for a painting no one will ever see. I was drawn to graffiti as the first tasters arrived in London from New York. The first names I had seen painted on streets were the nicknames of London punks in the late 1970s. Written only with cheap British car paint, the poor pigments of red and blue that were soaked up by the brick were no comparison to the strength of what I was yet to see on the sides of New York subways. I was 12 years old and it was exciting. I knew nothing of the movement, only that it stirred something inside me in a way nothing else had. 'Graffiti' was the term used by the media to describe the wave of aerosol activity that appeared on the subways of New York and Philadelphia in the early 1970s. Its birth coincided with the recession of the time. 'Coco 144', a New York graffiti artist, who was active then, described it as "a cry, a scream from its streets...This was one way of saying, 'Hey, I'm Coco. This is where I'm from and this is what I'm doing'". In New York, the city's infrastructure faced collapse under the leadership of Mayor John Lindsay and Mayor Abraham Beame. The Wall Street Journal said at the time: "Basic city services, once the model for urban areas across the nation, have been slashed to the point of breakdown...the subway system is near collapse, plagued by ageing equipment, vandalism, the frequent breakdowns and derailments." This was the perfect environment for those early writers. The cut-backs meant there was barely the money to run the system, let alone erase their work. The numbers of young writers were multiplying rapidly and it became increasingly difficult to compete with their onslaught. By 1975, Mayor Lindsey openly conceded that the fight against graffiti was "a losing battle". The scene crossed the Atlantic and arrived in London in the early 1980s. The city's teenagers quickly took it up and, as in New York ten years earlier, it spread rapidly through the many boroughs. By 1986, there was an established body of writers who were regularly visiting the depots of the London Underground. I was one of them. The first time I went to a railway sidings, 'Skate', 'Kam' and me could hardly reach halfway up the side of a 12-foot high Metropolitan Line (or 'Big Met') train. We were 14 years old, miles from home; it was dark, cold and exhilarating. All we wanted to do was scrawl our names in 'matt dark earth' and 'gun metal' model spray. The concept of painting a whole car seemed unimaginable. How would you steal all the paint you needed, and how would you reach the top of the train? How would you get enough time before sunrise? How would you distinguish all the colours in the dark? Answering all these questions was a slow process of discovery. As well as the physical implications, you had to learn the rules of the graffiti world, had to prove yourself and hopefully become accepted. This probably took me about five years. The community that existed on the London Underground consisted of competitive, judgmental and aggressive young men. A disregard for the rules of the community could result in immediate rejection, not just from the tube line you were painting on, but from all the lines across the capital. Initially, you had to develop your tagging style, which is a form of calligraphy. Maturing your tag seems essential in the progression towards 'pieces', and unfortunately it is these experiments that the public is subjected to. From the tag you'd progress to the 'throw up', from the 'throw up' to the 'dub', and from a 'dub' to a 'piece'. Really it was the mastering of the 'piece' that would be the recognised initiation into the upper echelons, though writers that only 'bombed' (to tag one's name) could achieve a King's status through the style and proliferation of their 'tags'. It was during these early stages that the writing fraternity would skim off the weak. Train writers are very proud and there is no room for incompetence. If you had the skills and, more importantly, the motivation to ascend through the stages of style and colour, you then had to prove yourself by displaying fearlessness. Writers whose nerves were weak, who couldn't take the pressure of an illegal career were quickly weeded out. The apprentice would have to prove himself to a mentor before earning respect. This could involve anything from the ability to steal, to displaying the necessary courage to enter a depot on a reconnaissance mission. Once you had all entered the yard it was fairly easy to distinguish the 'throbbers'. If it wasn't something obvious like the shakes, you could tell by the look on their faces that they were scared. Being nicked and not cracking under the strain was a fairly effective way of gaining acceptance. The news of a raid and an arrest would spread rapidly, with the community eagerly awaiting the result. Would those that got away have an unexplained knock on their door by the 'graffiti squad'? If the writer took the punishment and continued to write, he would instantly find himself in a position higher up the ladder. He would have proved his dedication by continuing after prosecution and would have instilled a sense of trust by keeping his mouth shut. The irony of the British Transport Police's efforts is the kudos it creates amongst us. Personally speaking, I found them an incentive - writing on trains wouldn't be half the fun without them. But why do it? Why channel so much energy into a painting no one may ever see, that may have to be done in dark, cold and cramped conditions, and where there is potential for imprisonment or death? I never cared about the answer. I just did it. People seemed to spend so much time deliberating, I didn't give a shit, I just wanted to paint trains. Though part of the same movement, the legal and illegal scenes are completely removed from one another. There is train graffiti and wall graffiti. When I'm painting trains the flow is a product of tension and adrenaline. At any point you may have to run. As your head looks from side to side in anticipation of a raid you don't even watch the paint you're applying. Every so often you lie on the ground to scan through the wheels for any approaching legs. The result is totally different to the writer who buys his materials and paints concrete walls in the comfort of a Sunday afternoon. Only through the acceptance of art with danger can the writer rise to become a 'King' - a high achiever of the graffiti world. To quote one such devotee, such writers are the 'true soldiers'. On any one Tube line you may find many different Kings: 'King of insides', 'King of outsides', 'King of stations', 'King of the tracks', 'King of roof-tops', or 'King of style'. The highest accolade imaginable is 'All Out King' which is a very rare occurrence. Competition is fierce and writers will go to incredible lengths to stand out from the rest, scaling high buildings and walking through dangerous tunnels. Before you can get to this point you must be relaxed in your unusual working environment. I vividly remember the first time I got onto the tracks. It was like entering a new world. It was three o'clock in the morning and I knew track workers and train drivers were the only people that ever went there. I didn't know which rails were electric, which way we should run, and I felt sure that somebody was going to suddenly appear and try to catch us. I didn't relax once while I was painting, and yet the following day all I could think about was going back. I was hooked. Riding the train to school that Monday and seeing my name gave me an unmatched sense of satisfaction. This feeling of personal achievement compared only to acceptance within the scene. The height of this was getting to know the Kings. Watching one draw in his black book or sketch up a first outline on a train carriage were invaluable lessons. I shall never forget the day I went to Rickmansworth 'lay up'. I was a young 'toy' out on a Saturday night 'bombing insides'. On my way back home I pulled into Harrow on the Hill station and saw a group of kids gathered on the back wall. Writers would meet at benches on the different lines. This was the 'Big Met', so I knew they were writers. I had to get home but I also wanted to go and see who it was. I paused while the doors closed and at the last minute jumped off. As I got closer I realised the importance of the company I was approaching. They were from different areas, so all of them being here meant they were doing an 'all nighter'. Kast was the 'All Out King' of the 'Big Met', Fuel was the King of the 'Little District' (Wimbledon line), Ganja was one of the many Kings visiting from the Little Met, Chain was the King of bombing and lastly there was Steam, an up-and-coming King of the Big Met and one of the most feared Kings around. I didn't have any paint of my own, so spent the night 'keeping dog' for the others, wandering up and down the lay up as their pieces developed. Watching Kast paint his 'top-to-bottom' was a highlight of my career. It wasn't long before the electric world of the Underground became second nature to me. As my confidence grew, so I got more daring. I remember walking on the live rails being a kind of initiation. You know it can kill instantly, but you also know that the rubber soles of your trainers can prevent the connection. Every time I do it there's a little bit of apprehension bubbling away inside. The fact that you can die lingers in your mind, and, until your foot is firmly on that steel, you don't fully relax. It makes you feel a bit funny but you still go back for more. It's the same with stealing. In my experience, almost all the major writers in London are criminals to some extent, and more than the obligatory stealing and 'breaking and entering' that are now the basics of painting a train. This might be small-time drug peddling to support a weed habit or a more serious involvement equivalent to a paying job. In essence, it's impossible to become a King without being a criminal. There is no way that a writer could afford to pay for the paint, pens, inks, sketch books, camera films and train fares necessary. You could say that thieving, or 'racking' is compulsory. It is certainly unavoidable if you want to sustain a career in graffiti. When racking started getting difficult in London we began travelling further afield in search of paint shops less clued up to our ways. Initially this took us on British Rail journeys out to the country, and when that got difficult it took us to the continent. Going to Europe was like discovering an endless string of gold mines. Not only was it easier to steal, but the quality and range of colours was far superior. 'InterRailing' became known as 'InterRacking'. First port of call when starting a trip in Europe would be Amsterdam, to stock up on skunk and Afghani. We'd go away for anything up to a month, sometimes having to return to England every seven days to relieve ourselves of stolen property. During the first jaunts abroad, the acquisition of as many spraycans as possible was the primary aim. If we picked up some clothes along the way it was a welcome bonus. As time progressed we became more familiar with what was on offer in the various European countries. Germany was, and probably always will be, the best place to steal paint - they have the best in the world. Scandinavia was always good for winter clothes, and Switzerland was the best for electrical goods. The beauty of this way of life was the independence it gave us as teenagers. As long as I had the money to cross the Channel I knew I could survive on the other side and paint to my heart's content. The fondest memory I have of those tours is of a friend of ours who left for the continent with £10 in his pocket. 'Rozer', known to his friends as the 'Man with the Magic Trousers', returned five weeks later with the same tenner. He'd stayed with a Chilean family in Amsterdam, on a yacht in the South of France and had rolled across Europe sleeping in couchettes. Arriving home, he had a completely new wardrobe, cameras, leather jackets, a stun gun, hand-held Segas, sunglasses, bottles of bubbly, and enough paint to lighten the lives of many a Tube carriage. As our tastes matured, so did our destinations, the finale of which were yearly trips to the French Riviera. Cannes and Saint Tropez were ripe. Hardware shops stocked aerosols in beautiful shades of 'Framboise' and 'Bleu Fonce'. Then we would visit the supermarket next door and help ourselves to the racks of Dom Perignon. If there were none in the fridge we would take our bottles to the freezer section and bury them amongst the frozen peas, returning an hour later. We would spend the night drinking champagne and then, in the early hours apply our fancy 'couleurs' to the local SNCF rolling stock. Our favourite train sidings backed on to the beach, where we would stand in our shorts, painting till dawn. Customs officers are a problem when you cross borders with enough luggage for a family of five, but the Graffiti Squad is our main opponent. We might laugh and joke when amongst ourselves, but when you've just been chased out of a siding by a team of them, your heart beats overtime. It doesn't matter how many times it's happened. When they've sat in their unmarked cars until the early hours, and they finally walk round the front of that train and see you standing there, spraycan in hand, they really do want to fucking catch you. If the surroundings are appropriate it's always amusing to conceal yourself somewhere and watch what they get up to. Quite often you can listen to their conversations because of the quiet of night. You get to observe their movements and how they conduct themselves. It gets even more hilarious if they try to hide in wait for you. Watching police who think they're watching you never fails to put a smile on my face. I'd love to share more of the moves we use to our benefit, but I don't want this article to be of too much use to the police. They have a difficult job. If they are chasing us, chances are they will never know the area as well and won't be prepared to take the risks we will. If I'm painting a train and get raided, I will run for the most dangerous escape route. That might be into a tunnel, down a drainpipe or across a rickety roof. They might want to catch you, but it's not worth their lives. Even when they make an arrest, they fuck up a lot. The most ridiculous example I can think of is when Diet got nicked on Boxing Day. It was the year Karl and Cherish had done the whole train in 'Snips' (Parsons Green Sidings) and a large group of writers had collected at Edgware Road where Fuel and Prime had both done 'whole cars'. We were all on one platform admiring the paintings when the transport police appeared on the opposite platform. We all left the station, hopped the barriers, and saw the empty car of the police we had just left downstairs. Within seconds a pen appeared and moments later the car was being tagged. Diet was the last to get the pen and decided that the front windscreen was where he wanted to write his name. He had his feet on the bonnet and his hands on the glass as a second police car pulled up. Many months later, young Diet was up in court. With two policemen and the station foreman as witnesses we all thought he was definitely going to get done. The police, however, had no evidence and couldn't even remember how the crime had been perpetrated. I can't recall exactly, but they did something along the lines of accusing him of tagging the vehicle with blue spray-paint when in fact he had done it with a black marker. Diet's barrister highlighted their incompetence and fortunately the case was dismissed. Christmas Day is when the 'true soldiers' of the writing community really come into their element. It's the one day when the whole system shuts down, so for someone who loves painting trains it is the highlight of their year. There aren't any drivers with timetables to keep or cleaners to inspect carriages, just rows and rows of shiny canvases waiting for you. The person you're most likely to bump into on Christmas Day in a depot is a graffiti squad officer. It took them many years before they started showing their faces on our special day, but once they did, they became regulars. A team of them is on duty and will drive round the various stomping grounds hoping to find some of us getting up to mischief. It's pot luck where we go in hope of avoiding them. Whenever you're arrested doing graffiti in this country there is a compulsory house raid that follows. Waking up the folks on Christmas morning with a gang of police wanting to search the house is never a good way to start the festive season. I know that some of the kids that are bombing now think that they are the real writers. The new generation has to deal with security measures such as laser trips and infrared cameras. The first yard I ever went to only had a wire fence that barely reached my waist. They have a sense of superiority because they feel that we had it so easy in our day. I suppose that's just a matter of opinion. I know that a particular era of London's cultural history has gone and can never return. When we used to get on the system we were lost until we returned to street level. Now there is no station, ticket hall, platform, or subway that doesn't have a CCTV camera. There really is nowhere on the system you can go without being watched. We used to chase our pieces, trying to photograph them. If you do that now your every move can be followed. When 'WD' and 'The Bash St. Kids' started the Circle Line 'train jams' in the late 1980s, hundreds of kids used to descend on the Underground, free of any watchful eye. We gathered at a tube station and, soon enough, would pour into the back carriages of our chosen train. The neon lights were twisted off, magic markers brought out to provide the decoration, and, with the music blaring, round and round we went. When it came 'on top', we simply moved to another line. Within minutes we were lost again in the labyrinth. I don't even think LTs (London Transport workers) had radios then. The PFB crew restarted the tradition in the early 1990s. The last one ended after a long wait in the tunnel outside South Kensington station. Once five minutes had passed we knew we were getting raided. It was a familiar tactic - containing you while they collected the necessary manpower. We started to spread along the train, mingling with the other passengers. Paints and pens were thrown out of the windows, while the really guilty ones jumped out the back into the tunnel. I sat down in my pinstripe shirt and buried my head in a newspaper. With the passenger doors still closed, the old stinkies entered the train one by one through the driver's cabin. They filed straight past me. The unfortunate ones were taken to the police station. Writers may be seen as criminals, putting up our names everywhere, but is it any wonder? We are living in an age of brands and logos, where the sign and its duplication is king. Imagine a train covered in tags moving overland through London, past all the hoardings and the billboards - perhaps there graffiti has its true context. As long as there are big cities there will be graffiti. Out of the 70 or so Kings that have existed since the mid 1980s, over 60 are from broken homes. Graffiti gives you a family and a focus. Certainly, in my case it kept me away from more serious crime and taught me about colour, form and design. As daily life grows ever more homogeneous, it's one of the only ways kids on the edge of society can make their mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WebsterUno Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 Re: HAZE 29 Interview Originally posted by trew CAN CONTROL - Freight Train Special Number Two (Issue 12 - 1996) WRITERS SPOTLIGHT - Haze 29 - AWR, MSK I have this issue, best fr8 zine Ive ever seen! It was the only zine I had for a few years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 bump for the RAGE interview Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdoter Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 sick thread, oclock is crazy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vynlone Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 Bump for the Elk interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cep147 Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 Re: Re: GESO Originally posted by --OhToo-- Cant Find it...I know it was in LifeSucksDie....Oh well i got it but its way too long to type.heres part of it lsd-when did u start your dedication to a life outside the law g-fuck,12 13 lsd-wat were u getting into then g-car theft,smoken cigarettes lsd-was it cigarettes that led u ashtray g-yea lsd-wat led from that to graff g-my freind was a thug and he did graff on the buses(in sf) seeing him do it got me into it.that was probably 93 94.i would just go along and watch but i was always scared to do it. lds-but u were stealing cars g-yea i wasnt into graff that much i wasnt into art .i got graff to be destructive.just being a little kid.i lived in a small town.wen i moved to san francisco...... its 4 long pages...and my comp is slwo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeque Posted September 13, 2003 Share Posted September 13, 2003 Skore article - N-igma 8 - Wholecars.com http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma5/grove-park/large/skore-dek.jpg'> People will respect you for what you're doing, only if you return that respect" 1999, my sixteenth year writing. Yes 16 years, that means I've been writing before many of todays writers were even born. Now for some that meybe hard to comprehend, as it was for me looking at New York in 1970, the year I was born, but facts are facts and it will be interesting if many of todays writers will have equally long careers. Before I talk about my year, I'll give you a quick history. I started writing in 1984. Usual influences and early pieces were done with assorted mediums until Subway Art came out and taught us the method. By 1985 I was heavily bombing and making my first journey's into South London. In 1986 I painted my first train pieces and was warming up the insides too. In 1987 I was up and running, top to bottom wholecars, window-downs, panels, insides and outsides. For the people that remember (and they get fewer every year) like Petro, they'll tell you that in the eighties me and my bombing partner Dome were kings of BR's throughout the South East. Tags on every train, and that's an area many times the size of London. We would ride trains every night with weekend yard visits. In 88 I was based at Elephant & Castle, and tubes already visited in 87 came more into play. Insides on every Bakerloo, hanging out on the Big Met, Kast, Mise, Steam, Harrow on the Hill ... London was living. In 89 things stepped up in two ways, a chance meeting with Mist 1 from Sheffield, meant tube yard tourism and busts. Crown Court conspiracy, toothbrush in hand. A subsequent meeting with Sigher (a live train addict) meant the start of TRC, but another bust and Crown Court conspiracy after walking into a Police filled yard for wholecar actions. The decade ended and so did my career as I knew it. The 90's was a rethink for me as the most of the eighties writers I had known had now disappeared and the 'Summer of Love' had changed things for ever. While most were screaming 'Aceeeeed!!!!!!!', I became one of the main faces on the wall scene in London. Along with Snatch, Rough, Mean, Shu2, Stet, Shun, Busk and a handful of others, I carried on as I still do today keeping halls of fame in heavy rotation. 1999 was much the same as any year as far as I was concerned, a routine had developed. After years on the circuit it's more about maintaining the habit and developing your style. You don't start the year with any great plan or mission, just a string of past mission's and chapters that tell a story. Don't get me wrong, it's not about going through the motions, it's about still pushing the boundaries and constantly looking for new and original ways of taking it. Every year takes it's course and it isn't until the end of the year that you can look back and sum it up. January is always a great time for reflection as a writer, another chapter closes and a clean page is sitting in front of you. 99 followed 98, a year of travel and learning, with trips representing England to paid events in France, Holland and Germany meeting the cream of Europe and watching their different approaches. From experience I can say you'll learn more in a week painting abroad that three years in this uninspiring scene. 99 on reflection was taking this approach and applying it in London, and straight away I have to give credit to those I have connected with, most notably Dek, who have listened to my ramblings and in turn helped create some real classic walls. Others include Tener (as always), Crok (rarely as always), Shine, Jyer, Rhise, Merc & Astek. I have to say in 99 I've had the most active year of the last five, and thats really nothing to do with heart or dedication .. it's simply finding writers with as much heart as myself. Not to suck my own dick, but over the years it's been hard to find other writers with as much energy to take it to the next level, but this last year has been inspiring more not for what we have achieved but what we can achieve if things continue. 99 has seen some memorable walls, my personal favourite being the Tufnell Park whole wall .. a day where everything came together to pull of a painting, not a string of individual pieces. Ego's left at home for a common goal, someting very rare on these shores, yet everyone went home a better writer. I think some of the best walls ever seen in this country have been done this year and some the most ambitious painting too. The downside which I don't want to dwell on as I pay it no mind in regards to what I do, is our peers .. the other writers in London. I speak of the Newjacks 'in it for a minute' ignorant to anything pre-98 writers. 'Ignorance is bliss' the saying goes, and for a newjack I guess ignorance is needed to come with 'that attitude' because neat writers need credentials, and a newjack has none. It's easier to disregard something than to aspire to it and in this dispoable age, instead of inspiring creativity and thought, our pieces just inspire ignorance and jealousy. Why do newjack writers think that a couple of trackwalks, a bit of street bombing and the odd ten minute panel piece are the biggest thing ever. Why do newjack writers tag on people backgrounds without reason like it's the most normal thing in the world to catch a tag over fresh burners and then act surprised when a writer gets pissed off. Why do newjack writers in today's world of magazines, books and videos all run the same weak style. Why do newjack writers thrive on bullshit clichés, bullshit stories and bullshit fronts? Almost without exception, all the quality writers in this country are in their late 20's, early 30's. This wasn't the case 10 years ago. Todays new writers are happy being crappy. At the end of the day though, I really don't give a fuck. Once upon a time I cared for the scene, wanted us to be something, but hard learnt lessons have worn me down. Now I disregard the bullshiters as they disregard us and strangely I've found it works. Whilst many have been driven away from the Capital, I'm still will fucking up for it and so are the people I surround myself with. All the talking I've left behind. I couldn't give a toss, it's about actions ... as they speak for themselves and the last year has been another classic. Skore TRC PS. If you've been doing that same old shit time and time again, do something different, surprise us! There are too many predictable people who have run out of ideas. Read the 'sell by' date. Link to the original article - With pictures http://www.graffiti.org/brighton/skore/skor98_1.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma8/skore/87-2.jpg'> http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma11/burners/large/skore.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el pecador Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 props due to big poppa pock 167.we love u grandpa..:lol: :lol: :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeque Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 More Elk... GOING UNDERGROUND • • • http://www.freephoto-i.net/users/3157/23874'> Authored by Ekow Eshun, it was accompanied by photos of a tube jam on the Lil'Met and tube pieces by Drax and Cazbee. Inspired by hiphop, graffiti exploded across our cities in the 80's. It is now a dying art form as far as popular interest goes. But to hardcore "taggers" like Drax and Elk, the writing is still very much on the wall. It is a wet, grey afternoon. Tube trains the same colour as the sky shoot through the London Underground and intersect at Edgeware Road, a busy station where three different lines meet. On board one of the trains, Drax and Elk peer through carriage windows, checking for signs they have been here before. In their early 20's, the pair are anonymously dressed in well worn padded jackets, their faces practically hidden by hats. They pass Latimer Road and Elk breaks out into a broad fresh faced grin. On the platform, every sign or hoarding has been obscured by a highly stylised, spray can applied signature. Untangle the "tags" and they will unmistakably all read "Elk". He points up as the train continues. On the sides of buildings which overlook the tracks are larger, more elaborate colour pieces which are also his. Inside the carriage, Drax and Elk have been getting busy writing their tags on the windows with the short, thick marker pens they have made themselves. With a flourish, Drax takes out an aerosol can and deftly sprays his tag on a window. He takes no more than 2 seconds and leaves a wet signature and the unmistakable bubblegum scent of spray can paint. But they're spotted. An irate elderly passenger is trying to flag the attention of the driver as the train pulls into its final stop. Mindful of the in-station video cameras, they dash into another train on a different line. Within minutes they'll be far away lost in the system. But it's likely they'll ensure their passing will not go unmarked. This in the subculture of graffiti in 1991 undercover, risky and sometimes vaguely romantic. And, although many consider it to be a distraction of the past, the artists and writers who make up the scene insist it continues with a vengeance. But with an increasingly belligerent London Underground determined to wipe out a problem which costs them over 2 million a year, a British Transport Police which now has it's own nine-person Graffiti Squad, and a rising severity in court sentences for arrested graffiti artists, the scene is under fire. As a result it has gone underground. "Graffiti is dead as far as popular culture goes," confirms Drax later, in more relaxed circumstances. "But it still exists in London and across the country; in most major cities, it's just massive." And if anyone should know, it's him. Over his five year career, he's one of very small number of artists never to be caught. He's also responsible for the single biggest piece of art (or vandalism, depending on your point of view) ever done in Britain. On Christmas Day 1989, he and another artist graffitied an entire train, from toptobottom, in an enormous piece which read like a roll of honour grandiose gesture probably marked the end of the golden days for London's graffiti artists. The British graffiti scene began in the early 80's, when it was imported as part of the first wave of hiphop culture to cross the Atlantic from New York. While deejays like Grandmaster Flash explored the possibilities of scratch mixing, it was people like Futura 2000 who demonstrated the art of graffiti. But it was films like 'Beat Street' and books like 'Subway Art'(a photo history of graffiti on the New York subways) which acted as the prime inspiration for would-be London artists. The scene flourished for some time, with the police turning a blind eye to what they took to be a short-lived fad. But many artists refused to put down their spray cans. Their pieces became more adventurous and increasingly began to appear on trains and the weight of criminal damage being caused rose. In response, the British Transport Police incorporated a full-time Graffiti Squad in 1987 and courts began to switch from imposing light fines on the adolescents to handing out jail sentences intended to deter others. Today, Sgt Thompson, the most experienced officer on the Graffiti Squad, believes "graffiti is contained. We're slowly winning the war and, right now, we're down to the real hardcore." Underground, however, the scene continues and shows no sign of going away. But why do artists and writers continue? "I think what plays a great part is the fame you get" suggests Elk. "People that are absolute nobodies just become really famous." "It's basically egotistical," agrees Drax. "You get kids coming up to you asking what you write. When I tell them I'm Drax they freak out. It's like introducing a little girl to Jason Donovan." But despite the glamour of graffiti, it remains a dangerous activity. "A friend of mine, who I'd known since I was six or seven, was in Neasden depot doing a piece with two other people," says Elk after a moments reflection. "The Transport Police came running along and chased them out onto the largest train junction on the Underground, which has about 20 sets of tracks. As they ran, he tripped and fell onto an electrified rail and died." One of the others with him "went totally mad", waging a personal war against London Underground, setting fire to trains, assaulting Transport Police and eventually ending up in jail. Elk himself has recently been arrested and faces a possible six month sentence. "Getting caught is like an occupational hazard, and you deal with it when it comes along." shrugs Drax. "You're not going to do graffiti in front of a policeman, but the prospect doesn't stop you." Like that other secret obsession, computer hacking, graffiti has gone underground after a brief flash of media attention. But the desire of the artists and the hackers to leave their mark and crack a network either made of computer circuits or tube lines is still very much alive. "I'm doing my art and putting my name up for people to see," defends Drax. "If I can get away with it, that's good luck to me. If I get caught, that's my problem." Graffiti, says Drax, is still all about individual expression an artistic alternative to the corporate adverts that blanket our cities. "I have to look at names and symbols from people like Coca-Cola all day and I don't have a say about that. So if I put my name or art somewhere, it's there anyone else's ." Sgt Thompson disagrees. "It's simply damaging other people's property and it costs London Underground over 2 million a year and they don't want it." The Transport Police are now targeting school children in an effort to deter them from ever becoming involved in graffiti. Sgt Thompson reckons, "It's a craze which will die when something else comes along." Underground as it is today, the graffiti scene shows little sign of disappearing. And a cursory inspection of the tube lines of London, the buses of Newcastle, or wall spaces in any major city from Glasgow to Brighton will make that clear. "The penalties and fines will deter many," says Drax. "But in the end it's art. People like Salvador Dali or Van Gogh never stopped painting and neither will we." Wholecars.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeque Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Even more Elk... THIS IS ELK • • • http://www.graffiti.org/dj/tubes/1/large/t53.jpg'> Written by Imogen O'Rorke on June 28 1996, titled in full, 'This is Elk. At 16, he was the scourge of London Transport Police. Now he works in advertisng' ---------------- When SoHo street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat picked up a can of spray-paint it was poetry; a brave new expression of racial anger and social discontent. When Simon Sunderland, a 23-year-old student from Sheffield, got his hands on one recently it was five years for criminal damage. Twenty years since the jagged, hip hop-style tags started appearing all over our cities, the debate over whether it is art or vandalism is as hot as ever. Sunderland, who caused £7,000 damage using the tag Fisto, was given a "public hanging" to deter others. The authorities despair of ever containing the underground art form, which costs London alone £110 million a year in cleaning bills. Society sends out confusing messages to graffitists: the Prince's Trust has been known to patronise them, Providing them with paints and canvas, while Politicians call for the "vandals" to be put in the stocks; council-funded youth centres put spray cans in the teenagers' hands and the law slaps handcuffs on their wrists. Captains of the art establishment like Brian Sewell of the Evening Standard dismiss the art form as "deplorable", "a form of aggression towards society". Even the graffitists - who call themselves "writers". are divided over whether it is art. Elk and Cal, who wrote for the gang CWS (Cheeba Wizards) during the eighties, have wholly different experiences of the graffiti scene. Cal, 25, grew up in the middle of the graffiti boom in Ladbroke Grove, where names like Mode2, Zaki and Pride, known as "the Chrome Angels", dominated the school playground. He was handed his first can at his community centre when he was 14. He bumped into his teacher, a respected writer, on a train later that week. "He gave me a green can and I wrote 'Clash' all over the carriage. It was the biggest buzz ever. From then on I would ride the trains every lunchtime, wearing a big mac crammed with cans. I became a serial sprayer." Getting his tag around guaranteed instant respect at school. The arrival of breakdancing and the book Subway Art - which he says was like "a junkie's first fix" - from the US in 1986 started off a craze. "It was all about getting your name up." he says "What we were all doing wasn't art. It wasn't like New York, where they were expressing proper anger at the government for poor social conditions. It was a status thing: I'm a nutter. I'm a bad boy. I do loads of trains - I'm the king" Cal spent most of his teens crawling under wires and over roofs to get at trains; letting himself out of his bedroom window at night by a ropeladder to go on "wrecking" sessions in the yards. His favourite hits' were Gloucester Road (nicknamed "happy faces"), Wembley and Rickmansworth (Ricky). He left school at 16 and went to art college. Graffiti became a full-time occupation' Cal scattered his tag over all the Tube lines, but was most prolific on the "Little Met" (a branch of the Metropolitan Line, since renamed the Hammersmith and City Line). 'At most stations you could just walk off,the platform and into the tunnels and wait in the cubby holes for the trains to stop," he recalls. "The trackies would yell, '0i, you! Drop it!'and we would run into the tunnel where they couldn't get us, hoping a train wouldn't come. I normally consumed a bottle of whisky beforehand, it was so nerve-racking." When London Transport Police raided a station, they were supposed to give advance warning for the electricity to be cut off. Often it wasn't. The first death happened in Kilburn Park station in 1990 to the little brother of a gang-member. Evil, a 12-year-old, was scooped up out of his cubby hole by a train and dragged off down a tunnel. Cal was unlucky in another way. At 18 he was charged with causing £45.000 criminal damage: for tagging and setting trains alight and raiding an off-licence with a gang of 50. He came back the day after to to take souvenir photographs and was picked up. He was still paying off the £800 fine and doing conimunity service two years later. Times have changed. "I have to bite my tongue now when I hear advertising executives in moleskin trainers discussing graffiti," he says. "As coffee table art, it's bollocks. I used to have a motto when I was 17: 'The trains are the canvases and the galleries are the stations." That's bollocks too. Graff is about how much damage you can cause and how quickly you can do it. It starts through boredom and becomes an obsession." He reserves his opinions, however, when dealing with clients, who Pay him handsomely to decorate their studios and Regency terraced houses with tags and murals. His client list so far includes the singer Wendy James (who asked for Tank Girl in her study), a member of the Rothschild family (who wanted Good V Evil. in the bedroom), a stockbroker, a banker, a publisher. Cal eventually wants to be a graphic, designer and has "absolutely no qualms" about marketing his skills in the meantime. Elk, 24, reigned suprenme on the London Underground for three years from 1989 and is still considered be one of the top five "old skool" writers. He now lives in Manchester and has just been offered a place at Glasgow School of Art. He doesn't know what started him off: "What motivated me aged 12 to pick up a felttip pen and write 'Pinky and Perky' on a wall? I don't know," he says, "I guess it was the adrenalin at first and, later on, the fame." Driven by a desire to get his name up in the station-yard Hall of Fame, he taught himself how to trace the letters from Subway Art and develop his own style of writing, which has developed into what he calls "Old English". It took years of dedicated "raiding", but at 16 Elk had taken over the Metropolitan Line. He formed his own crew, PFB - standing variously for Profits From Bethlehem, Punishment For Bumpkins, Paddy's Fighting Back - with big names Drax, Robbo and Shun. In PFB, the more perilous the task, the higher the rewards: one of Elk's biggest thrills was to hide. in the bushes to wait for a Jubilee Line train to stop at a junction, then jump into the tracks and tag before a fast Metropolitan train came rushing through. The death of a gang member during a raid in Neasden yard marked the end of "innocence". He remembers the night: "LTP surprised us, and we had to escape across a 40 track junction. It's like running through knives. Raze tripped and fell face down on the live tracks. Nobody realised that he was dead till the next day. One or two stopped after that. The rest went ballistic - declared all out war on LTP's graff squad." Nearly all of them ended up with serious convictions. Elk has never been caught in this country and has carried on playing a game of cat and mouse with police. He plays it safe, hiding his designs at friends' houses, resisting the temptation to keep photos at home. He has started moving with the legal crowd as well, most of whom he says are "trainspotting types, more into graffiti art magazines than girls". They meet at "Halls of Fame" and "Unity" sessions, which he organises once a year, around the country to paint on sponsored hoardings or wall spaces. He also teaches spray-can art to homeless people in Soho, deprived children in East London and Bengali kids in Brick Lane. Graffiti, he hopes, keeps them out of worse crime: "There is a kind of scally- wag who is gonna get a record whatever they do," he explains. "I never talk about the illegal stuff to the kids. But if a kid is already doing trains I will educate him." ELK only hits BR trains these days (considered the lowest of the low by London writers) because they are "easier" and the "canvases are bigger". "Kids on the Tubes these days are hardcore. They have to deal with laser beams, hidden cameras, carry bolt cutters and gloves for fingerprints. It's a real hassle," he says. He believes the British scene will progress naturally on to walls and canvas, but fears narrow- mindedness in other graffitists. "In Brighton there's some fantastic abstract being done. But they are outcast by train writers," he says. "Graff as an art form should not be scorned at. It is an expres- sion of where we are at now: of our insecurities, our disposable lifestyle. Our generation is starting to be influential. Young art buyers understand where we are coming from now." From pop videos to the set of Lynda La Plante's new fihn, Supply And Demand, graffiti is being deployed for the designer cityscapes of the nineties. Elk is frequently contacted to do film sets and advertising promos and is soon to star as a graffiti artist on the run in a short film to promote Renegade Soundwave's new album. His work- place, scattered with multifarious cans of Smoothwriter, Krylon and sketches for a new "Old English" figurestyle that he's been working on, is becoming the studio of a fanatical graphic designer. Without equivocation he concludes, "Graff is definitely the best thing that ever happened to me." http://www.graffiti.org/dj/tubes/1/large/t49.jpg'> Wholecars.com - again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeque Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Bozo and Fume and.... Elk! BATTLE OF THE ART OUTLAWS • • • A front page feature of the Big Issue written by Max Daly, August 25 - 31 1997 Fume and Bozo are London's most wanted graffiti artists. The two renegade 20-year olds from West London, who have made their mark on most of the tube trains running through the capital, are the bane of the British Transport Police. The pair are part of a rapidly-growing mob known as 'bombers' - graffiti artists who vandalise trains by scrawling their name in as many places as possible. They have declared war on the more law abiding 'old skool' wall painters, whose work has developed into vast colourful illustrations. The bombers make it their business to ruin the work of all other graffiti artists as quickly as possible, and are equally hostile to what they call 'bumpkins', graffiti artists from outside London. This worsening graffiti war, exclusive to London, surfaced in the form of a punch-up at an annual gathering of graffiti artists - ironically entitled Unity - in Hammersmith earlier this month. The event, held at a disused sunken basketball pitch, was meant to bring together members of the warring underground cliques. But it degenerated into an ugly battle when a London bomber stole a can of paint from a member of the old skool from Brighton. 'It was absolute mayhem. I lost count of the number of fights. There were bottles flying everywhere," says Unity organiser Elk, who reigned supreme on the London Underground in the early Nineties. He is regarded as one of the UK'ss top five old skool writers. 'There were serious fights, people got their backs up pretty badly and the police had to be called. It's a reflection of how rough the graffiti scene is now. These youngsters have no regard for people who were writing when they were still in nappies. They are deliberately upsetting the hierarchy.' If writers are caught tagging (writing their names) in the wrong area, or over existing graffiti they are now likely to get robbed or beaten up. The young breed, whose raids are commonly fuelled by drugs and alcohol, are prepared to go to any extent to get their name known. Fume, who has been working in a gang of 20 since 1992, explains the cause of the fights. 'The only proper writers are on trains, that's where it belongs. Those fighting were mates of ours. The Unity lot just paint walls, we call them 'toys' because they're so lame. They cannot be allowed to dominate us and call themselves writers'. 'If someone has come down from the country you have to nick their tins of paint. That's why the fight at Unity started. It's our fee. You've got to earn the right to be hardcore. If you are not on the line (vandalising tubes), taking risks, then you've got no right to say anything about it. That's the beef: that these people are calling themselves writers and they are not.' According to Fume and Bozo, a bona fide writer must leave the house with no money, and spend the day nicking food, tube tickets and paint to fund their graffiti lifestyle. They say it is like going on a mission. Both claim taggers know more about the workings of the tube system than the drivers and, as a result, have the right to do what they want. 'A real writer is someone who knows how many trains are in each depot and when to pounce; someone who scratches their tag on train windows, paints on them inside and outside,' says Bozo, who adds that getting stoned and arrested is all part of the buzz. 'If you're out with us the whole train has got to be fucked-up. Nothing less will do. It's no use painting the odd wall with pretty colours. You've got to smash every depot. It's a war and no one can control us.' Hundreds of new tags are appearing each year, creating a scrabble for notoriety. If writers are prepared to take the risk to get their name up where others would not dare, reverence is instant. In urban areas, graffiti has become one of the most desirable ways of gaining status. However impossible a tag may seem, somebody will do it. They might get arrested, put in jail or killed, but they'll do it. And there is always someone prepared to take their place. Children as young as 10 are climbing 40 feet up drainpipes and hanging from six inch wide ledges. Many enter areas designed to keep out the IRA. Security guards, railway and Tube depots protected with razor wire, and laser trips which trigger infrared cameras just act as a challenge to most graffiti artists. 'It is one of the most passionate art forms and that's why there is so much friction in London at the moment,' says Elk. 'Writing is about getting your name everywhere. There is a lot of resentment created if someone has got their tag in more places than you. Writers have phenomenal drive and motivation; people will steal paint so they can do it - and for no apparent gain.' Ben, 27, used to tag trains in the early Nineties but avoids writing in London now because of the new breed of taggers. He says it used to be mellow, that writers wouldn't go over other people's work. 'There was a lot of respect, now there is zero respect. London graffiti culture is different from the rest of the England - everybody hates everybody.' Pulse, who has been writing for 15 years, is also disgusted at the wave of in-fighting blighting the London scene, which he describes as being 'the worst in the world at present'. He says youngsters like Fume and Bozo resort to bombing because they can't produce the quality of work achieved by their enemies. 'They have to take the next step and use their imagination,' he says. 'They have no style. The older generation has got to show the youngsters the way forward.' Despite the Unity brawl, old skoolers say the youngsters can still create something positive out of their passion - given time. 'There is not a chance in hell that I can bring these factions all together in peace by waving a magic wand,' says Elk. 'There is too much anger in these people, it is beyond our control now. Hopefully soon they will think what the fuck am I doing. The fact that some of the younger writers were there to see how the older ones work will influence them in the future. They might have been fighting but they were still there. We have planted a little seed which could turn these people into the graphic designers and magazine editors of the future.' http://www.graffiti.org/dj/n-igma7/tubes/large/bozo-zom.jpg'> Bozo - Zomby 1999 Text and flick from Wholecars.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeque Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Drax article MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I'M A LONDONER • • • Taken from issue 3 of Graphotism (1993) and written by Drax WD PFB In the last issue of Graphotism there appeared an article entitled "The London Scene". I personally found the article mis-informed, factually incorrect, and to be honest, far too wide a generalization of what is a large, complex and varied scene with many sub-scenes loosely connected to it by an ever decreasing grape-vine of information - A circumstance which I feel the writer of the article had fallen victim to resulting in the subsequent vague, inaccurate reportage. Personally I was initially of the opinion that he was just discrediting the London scene and putting it down, but I too was misinformed. It would have been more appropriate to say that the article portrayed the London scene as he saw it, it wasn't right, it wasn't wrong, it was his opinion, and this is mine... Unfortunately, it would be true to say that `92 was probably London's worst year yet. Since the days when Kosh, Haze, Krash 151, Robbo, and the others like them first started bombing the streets of Europe's biggest city and artists like Shades, Rom, Snake, and The Trailblazers started developing styles which were to inspire and influence the rest of Europe, there hasn't been a year with such a level of police created paranoia, such a breaking down of our channels of information, such a lack of promise and disappointingly, such grayness on the underground system. The daily practice of riding the lines it seemed had been replaced by the new pastime of impressing each other with how secretive you have become - a clever tactic for most as it succeeded in covering up the fact that they had done `f**k all'. It became the year when to be a writer all you had to do was call yourself one. Actually doing anything was quite pointless in these circles as you might as well stay at home and let people think you were one of the currently active mystery men claiming the fame silently earned by those that just simply got on with it... And it is to these mystery men and some more obvious individuals, that this capital owes a great debt to, for it was they that put colour where there was ever increasing greyness; kept those that would destroy us on their feet; and offered at least some small inspiration to those that view cautiously whilst awaiting their return. Names like... Sub One, Shuto, Staks, Faum, Barge, Teach, Fiza, Diet, Rate, Meab, Sham 59, Noize, Prime, Fuel, Elk, Keen, The Supernaturals Crew, If, Eine, Abel, Mean, DDS, various PFB and more should be remembered for keeping it alive in `92... from here we shall grow. Indeed it is true that London saw an Art as well as a financial recession during `92. Although there were take over bids from such companies as Sell Out L.T.D., Extreme paranoia L.T.D., London is shit L.T.D. (A foreign based company), The British Transport Police, secrecy un-L.T.D. (maybe), lack of press exposure (very limited), oh, and of course the London Underground L.T.D, we have managed to maintain our independence without being engulfed by the flim-flam which surrounds us, and are consolidating our assets, liquidating our gains, revitalizing our gameplans and, if we stay on course, looking toward a great and successful future. Success I feel that the artists / writers of this city (and its surroundings) have deserved for too long now, as hard work, dedication and sacrifice have gone unrewarded. Taking into consideration that European Graff (for lack of a better word) all but started here, and that this, Europe's biggest city has been the inspiration to most British Artists since day one, it is amazing that we don't have one internationally renowned or respected artist - not even one. Why is that?...It isn't I feel the fault of the individuals but more the fault of us all collectively. While Germans, Danes, Swedes, and countless other Europeans were producing magazines, sending out photos, showing a pride in their particular scene, (not dissing everyone around them to try and get to the top) and organizing events to show off and promote their artists and inviting foreigners to come and associate, participate, view, or whatever (not get them down Ladbroke Grove and rob them.) What were we doing? Fighting amongst each other or so intensely engrossed in ourselves that we never gave a second thought to how the world perceived us or whether they new we even still existed - most I fear thought we died after the Chrome Angels, but this was just one chapter in a huge and varied history; a history we were too busy to document for anyone else. Cocooned in our own little world, our only interests became "The Giants" v's "The All Star Kings" battle; the Hall Of Fame in Ladbroke Grove; Rio, Ice 3, Demo, Rush, Foam and Co. on the little met; what lines were Chane, Robbo or Set 3 bombing this week; who king of the buses down south - Was it Reck 1, Spraze, Ceaze from TA, Hasterok, North One or Pest? Who was up most on North London's streets? Robbo, PIC, Excel, Ceep 108, Shuto, Fume, Carl-ST, Hell-TU, or whoever. This and a million more (to the outsider, irrelevance's) became our only fixations as weekly pilgrimages were made to the Hall of Fame in search of inspiration and the seemingly eternal quest for information, new pieces or just gossip, blinkering us from what might be happening in Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin or even New York (which hardly was given a second thought since the showing of `Style Wars'.) Blinkered too became the opinion of many outsiders who on losing contact with what was happening, chose to conclude that the answer was nothing and began to make comments like "London is shit and nothing is happening here". Meanwhile the so- called London scene had grown to be a thriving and intense one. Writers from all over Britain came to view and participate, hopefully going home with the ultimate prize, a photo of a tube piece in motion (one for the old photo album) and a story to tell back in their hometowns. Notable visitors have been Goldie from Wolverhampton, Popz from Nottingham, 3D from Bristol, TRC from Kent, and in more recent years, Part 2 from York, Mist from Sheffield, Psyche and his crew from Newcastle, DFM from Brighton, Pulse and Alert from Notts, the SNC from Ascot, Shock One, Pebble, and countless others - even the occasional European visitor - Rhyme and some of the GVB crew from Amsterdam, Zebster and some of the RTA members from Germany, HIV from Finland, Ash2, Kister, Crazy JM, The UK crew and many from Paris; even non- Europeans like Seth, Metro and PHS from Austrailia; or Web, Reas and selected AOK, Keylo, Brim and others from New York passed through, and to some extent participated. Daily the newspapers were full of headlines, "stop this graffiti menace", "Child dies in graffiti accident", "Bigger sentences for vandals", together with similar TV reports. The British Transport Police had to form a permanent full-time graffiti squad, such was the size and depth of this, the true London scene - a scene totally self-contained and self- influenced, initially inspired by New York of course, but now isolated in its own identity, unlike some European cities who even to this day try and emulate the styles of New York during the 80's, with references to places such as the `New Bronx' and the reminders that the art comes from a Ghetto(what ghetto?) If anywhere in Europe has a ghetto, it's in England - Toxteth, Mosside, Handsworth, Tottenham, Hackney, Stonebridge, or parts of Leeds, Newcastle or Bristol, are just a few; and okay maybe parts of Paris and Berlin fit that description too - but that's it. So why do so many Europeans still try to pretend they are living in the South Bronx or Brooklyn. Some even travel there to seemingly compete with the New York writers, not learn from them or paint with them, and yet it is this here mentioned lack of respect which is so often aimed at London and indeed England. They talk of our styles being old fashioned whilst some of their artists copy the oldest styles of all the New York ones. That's not to say there is anything wrong with looking to New York for inspiration. It's just that respect should also be given to older styles which have been developed in circumstances and environments these people know nothing about - Basically what I'm saying is, don't criticize what you don't understand. Within London, many styles have developed and at different points come of age. It happened with the Chrome Angels, then the Giants, Nonstop, the writers of the little Met Lines `87 to `89, the "Three Corners (Snatch, Hatch, Don, Check, Stet, CWS, etc.) Crowd" from `89/'90 and then again with the likes of Elk, Tera, Fame, Era, Cherish, Shoom, IBS and others on the trains in 1990. Only the Chrome Angels period was in any way documented, all the other styles and stories became private London issues not really known by those who didn't venture here. No magazines or videos have shown or will show CD, Set 3, Tilt, D'sia, Kis 42, Steam (The Real One), TU, Kasa, Ran, Coma and Mise to name a few on the Big Met; Reez, Fume, Merc2, ACR and AWC on the Piccadilly stage; the Bush Bomber on the Jubilee, Cane, Insane, Time and Co. on the Bakerloo; Sham 59, Prime, Caos, Rev, Cade, Can, So Tuff, Crash 151, Dev 666, Envy, Kez, Cem 1, TCM, etc. on the Northern; the likes of Fuel, Ganja, Check, Grand, Rozer, Shun, Don One, Coad, Rome, or whoever on the District; everybody on the Little Met, plus Chane and Robbo on almost everything. Oh and you will never see `We Rock Hard's' annihilation of the Central Line in any magazines either. Each week interests within the London scene would change - one week everyone would be on the platform at Harrow, then Moorgate, Tuffnell Park, Edgeware Road or outside Golders Green; then it would be all down to the cage at Westbourne Park or the Hall of Fame. Every district had its day - the South with Hell Raisers, Custom Boys, Giants, Tuff Arts and Crime, and Masters of Destruction like Event, Rate, Sham, Pest, Haste, Reck, Razor, Skip and many more. The West with State of Art, Cane, Foam, Hate, Ink 27, Ice 3, Cazbee, No Limits, Infoe and bombers like Demo, Bush and Time. The North with crews like "We Rok Hard", TKS, Worldomination, Newave, So Tuff and names like Excel, Sub, Cemi, Kez, Diet, Tube, PIC, Elk, Doze, Echo 89, Reez, Fume, Car 138, Choci, etc.; and then finally the East with writers like Urge, Check, Chase, Race, Seize, Chrome 307, Funbox, Stop One, Side, Sure, Skool, Pusher, Ellis, Hopa, Abel and numerous others. All over London there was a constantly flowing grapevine of information each area had its heroes and villains and of course the stories were plentiful - like the time Envy, Macs and Co. went to Loughton and were chased out by the police with dogs as a police helicopter hovered above; only Envy escaped. He hid up a tree, who knows if it is true, who cares? This and a million other tales, Rev with his tape deck in Parsons; ITC on a station burning mission in the late 80's; Grand going to the Lillie Road workers depot in full workers outfit - apparently he was there so often, he could nip into the canteen for a quick cup of tea with the lads, find out where they were working that night and then head off in the other direction; WRH going to the yards with baseball bats, balaclavas and bag full of beers and check with his Christmas welcomes for the cleaning staff at Upminster. More stories than a decade of Jackanory viewing, infact I'm sure that is where some got the stories from. Then there were moments of pure fact, The Hammersmith Shed, full of burners, Christmas `88. A whole train in Moorgate, Christmas `89. Another at Fulham, Christmas `91, the deaths of Rase, Evil, Bliss and Zone, the disappearance of Cast and the WD Tube parties of 87-88 on the circle line with as many as 250 people jamming on a tube train and then going on mass bombing rampages never since seen ("Graffiti gang in $10,000 orgy of vandalism" was one headline) 100 or so writers bombing the same few carriages or the same station cheered on by 100 to 150 assorted clubbers, girls, opportunists, hangers on or bystanders who had been swept along by the party traveling rapidly beneath the city, think about the sheer power of it. The power to shock, to disgust, to excite, to destroy, all in the same instance, then think about those that say London is shit, trains are finished, London styles are old fashioned. Think about how in a city with the oldest subway system in the world, and the biggest and best in Europe, where 10,000 maybe 20,000 or 50,000 pieces have been done since `84 or maybe even earlier; a city that helped inspire a continent and city with nearly 10 million witnesses, some will still manage to criticize and say nothing is happening in London. History, that's what is happening in London and will continue to, a vast history, and culture revolving for such an amount of time around one city and just one subway system. A history only surpassable by New York itself. There too the art grew on and around the subway system and a million so called "old fashioned" or "shit pieces" must have been as well as all those whole cars and burners from `Subway Art' that we all love to marvel over. The same ones scattered about the photo albums of writers from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and beyond. And there amongst them those photos are the so called shit pieces, throw ups, tags, bombed insides, outsides, streets, crossed out stuff and other oddities. Why? Ask the ignorant and unknowing (the ones that use expressions like `old fashioned'). History, that's the answer, it may look shit or meaningless to you but it means something to someone so don't disrespect it or to put it another way I'll use a Bob Marley quote Popz from Nottingham likes: "How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and watch" or worse still join in and increase the verbal attack on something and somewhere that is a big part of our history. By "our" I mean any British writer because like it or not London is a big part of the British scene and its history and within London the tube system is almost everything.I'm not saying if its not on a London tube its nothing (not at all) many fine works have been executed on the walls of Britain and the British rail system in and out of London, but within the capital most of them since `87 anyway have been either done by the respected tube artists or inspired by them. Look even as recently as the `Unity' event in Fulham last year. Only Snatch and Saker PFB or Carl from Manchester could claim to be not directly influenced by London tube styles and they all, I know, have a healthy respect for them. Most it seems within London or from beyond who are genuinely down with the true London scene have a respect for what is happening here on trains or walls. They may not like some or all of the styles but hey at least they understand where they are coming from and to where at least think they're going. It seems that the only individuals who choose to knock, discredit or belittle what happens here are those that stand to gain from our downfall or those that wish to cast they eye of interest in their direction. Frauds who encourage wholesale selling out of all that we hold in esteem, criticizing the painting of trains when they cannot even begin to understand what it is to do them, seething at their supposed alienation from seemingly closed society. Commercial success - that is the way forward, that is what they advocate "the time is right to capitalize on our exposure and use our talents to put money in our pockets" - product ranges, events, t-shirts, tops, hats, canvases, bags, etc. theres and exhibition in `a' somebody in `b' is producing a range of t- shirts, somebody in `c' has a 20 page catalogue an in `d' they are flying in 3 French artists to show off photos of boots they have painted, bobble hats, coats, trainers, - what is this a f**king jumble sale? But now we can see the reason for the anti- train stance the dislike of bombing tags etc. or even racking - we're now advised to write off and companies will give it to us (what a result). All these things and others you see have no financial potential and are infact an obstacle between us and the powers that be (or should I say between the sell-out gang and the powers that be). But what if we gain acceptance from these `powers' from the `man in the street', then what will happen, they will turn it like everything else good, into a sick charade of Sun newspaper like headlines "Graffiti is in" etc. "This week we talk to the artists from the street who have made good", "win a trip to New York" and of course the art will have not depth, soul or meaning then as Mr. Buyrite or Marks and Spencers sell of their last stocks of wildstyle slippers or aerosol art knickers and decide not to re-stock the powers that be will be back with the "Graffiti is out", "boy died after inhaling paint", "Stop this craze now", "Graffiti promotes drugs and violence" etc., etc. and then it will be good-bye to this whole scene, good-bye to any respect from anyone, anywhere, good-bye to our discredited history and good-bye to those that encouraged the sell out, as they'll be living it up on a yacht somewhere, laughing and then what will we have left? Nothing. With all the sacrifices of those imprisoned, fined, or thrown out of their homes be forgotten, will it all be stuck in a big book title `That was aerosol art'. Will we have to look under, VOP, SBS, DDS, SA, DVS, CMS, CCD, Fuel, Prime, Robbo, If, Mint, Vogue, Furra, Jinx, Arian, Shaze, Dest, Cast, Skore, Mes, Doze, Sed, Drop One, Cate, Fugi, Beejay, Spaz, Glory, Rich, Rage, Rase, Cen One, Fued, Cop, Juvenile, or whoever to read of their doings and exploits? Will we have to look under the section titled "trains" to see how "strange warped individuals" used to go into yards and spray on the trains and will the final edit of the book be done by the British transport police? Is that how it will be? Now, I'm not saying there is not a place for commercial success within our scene, of course there is for those that deserve it. But it can only really be (to me anyway) a part of it, not where the scene is heading, this isn't the stock market and the time will never be right to "sell out" because without roots this tree will die. At this point I feel some may be saying what the heel is this guy going on about such distractions such supposed irrelevancies, such strange self indulgences, why doesn't he get to the point, okay, the point is if by now you have become sick of the London scene, tired of the points I am making and annoyed by my repetitions and sloganisms then good, now you'll have realized that you were never down with the so called London scene, anyway, you have no respect for its styles, history, culture or indeed anything, infact you probably envy it or would like to think you don't care about it, its possible you read this article with a preconceived idea of what is and what was happening in London or worse still just to see if your name was in it. Nothing I'm sure was going to change that opinion and I doubt if you give a damn who bombed this or that, maybe you've seen the trains looking clean and the Hall of Fame looking dated and decided that there is nothing happening in London, well look at New York's clean trains and it's sometimes dated `Hall of Fame' would you say New York is shit, nothing is happening I think not, so why say it here? Unless of course that's all you want to see. To really see what is happening here things are now so simple as ride a line or two, see the Hall of Fame and ask someone (who knows less than you) you've met at Covent Garden what's up in London? You've just got to look deeper and harder, harder than doing the things I've just mentioned, harder than looking in magazines, harder than coming for a week or so and thinking you've got the feel for what's happening here or indeed what isn't and harder than listening to the opinions of those that don't know all the facts (myself included),then, and only possibly then you will see (if you want to) that `Things are happening in London'. Crews like DPS, TRC, PFB, VOP, TKS, WD, CCD, WRH, SBS, NEWAVE, BNB, ITC, DSS, Nonstop, Giants, Hell Raisers, IBS, CWS, Criminal Damage, Hit `N' Run, NHS, TCM, KTC, No Limits, SNC, ACR, CMS, TU, Yardies, DVA, Mighty Ethnics, So Tuff, ASK, AWE, TA, MGM, WS, MTS2.11's, SOH, CBK, APN, CBS, FON, SAS, South Side Mob and countless more have been, and some still are bringing life to what is undoubtedly an ever increasing atmosphere of apathy, depression, wasted dreams and frustration. Only a complete deaf, dumb and blind fool from outer space could honestly say `nothing is happening in London', look and you shall find. You'd expect somebody to do the same in your city. This has been Drax, WD, PFB annoyed and fed up with the condemnations of those that choose to criticize what they don't understand and don't want to, those that feel our downfall will lead to their success, those that are ignorant to the facts, choose to use expressions as ill informed as `old fashioned' and worst of all those that would sell ours and even their own artistic souls for even a taste of what they perceive to be fame. Maybe all my points haven't been that clear, certainly I haven't mentioned all those I should have, unfortunately some may still not understand, and no I don't think I am the outright authority on the `London Scene' but I was there, I still am and I love every minute of it.... Daniel Tuffrey (he's out there), Gary Baxter, and others, (who died when we were all so innocent), its for you and always will be. Standing on the verge of getting it on...these are the nineties. DRAX 1993 http://www.fotango.com/p/eba00244755f00000024.jpg'> Text from Wholecars.com Flick from the Oldschool London thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nang'eds! Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 good post freeky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
se_FOUR Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Skam1 http://www32.brinkster.com/britishhiphop1/...ts/skam_one.htm http://www.foundationz.com/rg-kd-hall-of-fame.gif'> London 1982 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
se_FOUR Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Prone Interview http://www.uk-graffiti.co.uk/prone.jpg'> 1. So…….How did the name come about……..or was it just nice lettering? A name has to have meaning or maybe reflect your personality, Prone means lying down & I’m a very laid back person. I used to be known as Prize but at end of 1986 I changed to Prone… yeah the lettering is cool but that should never be the reason for having a name. 2. What’s the count? How many years you been at it now? Dam … its been 20 years this summer .. I started out in 1983 when I first started b.boying, come 1986 I gave up the b.boying to concentrate on painting & Djing. 1986 to 1993 were my most active years. My first Graff crew was part of my b.boy crew known as ‘Circuit Rock’ the artistic members of the crew painted under the name ‘Sweet Comix’ this was around 1984. I had a period of changing my ‘street name’ or ‘tag’ back then, my first ever tag back in 1983 was ‘Spider A’ then In 1985 became ‘Scan’…. From the end of 1985 I became ‘Prize’ and joined ‘TCB’ – The Crime Banditz (later known as Totally Creative Bombers). There was me Prize, Pace (later Metro), Deam, Sure (Later known as Desta) & Area. With this crew we conquered a lot of ground. For instance I was the first ever person to lay a mark on the Ascot Bowl hall of fame, this was in early 1986 under the name of Prize. I hit up with a metallic Prize throw up then a few weeks later put up the the first ever colour piece on Ascot bowl. I never realised this would be so dam relevant in years to come.. but its all good. The same year Prize (me), Deam & Metro (as TCB at this stage known as Totally Creative Bombers) made are mark at Winnersh Triangle and put up the first ever pieces at what later became known as ‘Lodon Bridge Hall of Fame’, it kinda died when they built the cinema complex there but people still sting it from time to time. Also in 1986 we did regular pieces at the site near Bracknell Dump, Tilehurst Hall of Fame & ‘Drax Alley’ in Twickenham which was a wicked place to paint. End of 1986 beginning of 1987 I became Prone & TCB became DRS (Da Rough Stuff) We seemed to be doing pretty serious work at this stage and a few extra members joined up with us we were hitting a lotta steel too but I won’t go into that. By 1989 things started getting outa out of hand when a couple Non writers who could only tag started getting involved & all the shit like mugging kicked of ..DRS was becoming more of a gang & getting a bad rep .. so being Mr nice guy I decided to leave & go solo for a little until I was invited to join SNC (Suicidal Network Crew) with ‘Dreph’, ‘Kesp’ etc. Had some great times with this crew who were pretty dam serious… as is ‘dreph’ today who is probably one the best writers in the UK. As this was all going on I was also a member of a small crew in North London known as GA (Ganja Assasins, Gypsy Accordians … what ever ..lol) with ‘Kred’ & ‘Germ’ who are both profesional artists today. In 1990 I joined ‘AWE’- All World Experts one of Londons oldest crews, I was invited to join AWE by ‘Case’ & ‘keen’ who had in the past had members like ‘Rase’ rest in peace, Redeem 27 (way way ahead of his time), Pusher, Pember & Busk. Put up AWE for a few years and gradually went solo. Now I’m down with ‘Sinstars’ as a painter, b.boy & DJ with peeps like ‘Kilo’ , ‘Shok’ etc.. 3. What really got you started writing? It was when I started B.boying seeing videos like Malcom Mc larens – Buffalo Gals & the odd piece you saw in US films. 4. Which writers and artists have inspired you over the last 20 years? Or have you just done your own thing? Anyone who says they have never been inspired is a liar, so yeah I have been inspired, I would say by mainly UK artists like Trial Blazers (later - Chrome Angelz), Artful, Mode 2, Scribla, London Giantz, Non Stop. We had nothing back then .. just Car paint.. like Dupli’s, Carplan, U Spray & then later , Buntlak, Belton (my favourite) & Hammerite smooths… you couldn’t buy nozzles .. specialists paints, magazines etc..it was so dam difficult but so exciting, so basically we made the best from what we had pioneering what is around now. I just wanted to be better than all these guys & that’s what inspiration did for me. As far as US artists go for me it will always be Skeme, Seen, Bio & all the TAT mob. 5. Where have you travelled and painted? Just good old UK really… lets see… Exeter ( with kilo’s old crew back in the 80’s), Bristol, Southampton, Hayling island ( back in 1985), London.. Bromley By Bow, Paddington (with Tuff Arts back in 87), Battersea Park (at the legendary Capitol Radio Festival 1987),Twickenham, Farnborough, Aldershot, Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Camberley, Bracknell, Woking, Ascot, Tilehurst (old hall of fame in Reading .. now gone), Winnersh Triangle, Reading, Staines.. shish … everywhere man .. but only UK. Bombed a little in Paris but that aint paint realy.. 6. Have you ever been arrested? Fraid so .. been bagged a few times dawn raids and so on suspected trains & things, after the last time which was back in about 1993 I decided I had paid all my dues and went legal. 7. How do you feel about "destructive" tagging and scribing glass? Scribing glass is for Tramps… its ugly shit .. the kinda thing those smelly kids who walk round with hoods up over their caps in the blazing sun do. As for tagging done it .. legal now, but because I had something to prove that’s why I did it ,aint no excuse for tagging if you cant even piece up… its like rah rah rah look at me I can tag … great … but is that all you can do. I’m not against tags & throw ups but I don’t like seeing it on shit like churches, graves, listed building etc … its disrespectful & after we gotta remember they don’t build nice buildings anymore… shit am I getting old?…lol 8. How do you feel about writing on trains? As long as its good I like it … nothing like seeing a nice burner on them panels… again … I’m legal now so I can’t do anything like that now & don’t feel the urge. 9. Do you prefer to work in collaboration or as a solo artist? I like the best of both worlds .. large productions are fun.. done a couple of 60 foot by 8 foot commisions with Kilo not so long ago.. great fun. But I always like doing my own thing. In the early eighties you would have like 4 or 5 of us just doing one tiny piece, we were all learning to paint from scratch back then … with no guidance, mags , vids , specialist paint etc… mind you I’m glad all that stuffs available now… the scene has really progressed in that sense. 10. If there was one writer you really respect and admire, who would it be? Mode2 .. hes kept it real with his own style from day one, everything he does is a progression of that original style .. plus hes a nice guy too. 11. Where do you think styles are going? Most writers outside London are following a European trend? You liking that? I dunno where styles are going & I don’t care for trends, its all about creating your own style…yeah look at what others are doing but don’t start copying … Graff is a culture not a trend & more often than not I see a lot of people just biting the next man. Some people look at my work & say its old school, bollocks its ‘Own School’ something I created for me …its all about style & creating your own … that’s what graff is being original. I remember a few years back my man Score came out with some mad Razor wire style letter … then every tosser started biting it… same with all the ugly jelly lettering that started rearing its ugly head … dunno who started that one off but it sure was ugly. 12. What about the trend of taking graff skills onto a computer or setting up design companies? Do you see this as Graff evolving or selling out? I think its good using a PC & taking things to the next level, its not about the past its about progression .. getting good paints & caps, putting out publications. This is graff evolving & spreading the word. For example now being legal doing workshops & commisions I do not consider myself as a sell out, Ive paid my dues and have nothing to prove anymore because ive done it all & put my all into it… I believe I deserve something back from it & there is nothing wrong with making money. Otherwise some fool will make money out of you from it. I’m like 33 now with a lovely baby daughter & partner so its all about survival & responsibility for me now.. dam I will make something from it when I can. 13. Do you do any graff oriented graphic design on the computer? Yeah … done a lot of flyers for people & a few things on my website: www.breaksclub.com plus the LP cover for ‘Prone Breaks’ coming out in June 2003. 14. Do you see yourself still painting in 10 years or will you eventually just give it up? Yikes I will be 43!!!! Huh… I will always paint.. these days I am very lazy but come out once in a while to prove I can still rock. Those not famiar with graff know of me now through my success as a DJ but I will never let the graff fall off. Once a writer …. You know the rest… lol 15. If you could teach or tell the kids coming up something, what would it be? Wash behind yours ears, garage sucks.. lol .. naar … create your own style by all means look for inspiration but don’t be too influenced by others. 16. What are your plans for the future? To keep producing music & djing which is where it is for me at the moment.. I plan to paint more & help steer peeps in the right direction 17. Any final words, shout outs, advice to the youngsters, that sort of thing? Yeah kids listen up … we pioneered this uk scene so be careful with it .. learn from the past & what we did but take things to the next level … just keep it real .. whether on the street, steel or gallery.. Big shouts to my crew Sinstars, Kilo etc & all the juniors, Dreph, Skam one, Fume (the real Fume .. not the one that’s around these days!!), Ice 3, All City Rebelz, Case, Keen, Mode, London Giantz, Choci Roc, Twighlight Zone Crew (still going since 84), Desta, Non Stop Art, Car, Bus, Demo (later known as Cade), Satin, Zebster, Side one, TNS … anyone that knows me .. ive left loads out PEACE!!! http://www.uk-graffiti.co.uk/prone2.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nG Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 good shit lads. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nang'eds! Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Yeah good ass posting.i'll try get an elk interview soon.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nang'eds! Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 fuck it's been poste d:mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reach.4 Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 wow. i just spent over an hour looking at one thread. Love the Ja and Flow and Rove interviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bemflix Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 from BIG DADDY magazine Interviewed by Chino BYI Chino: What do you write? CAP:: King Cap One MPC Chino: What year did you start writing? CAP:: I started in 1976. Chino: What were your first impressions of graffiti? CAP:: Seeing all the early 70’s gang graffiti on walls, the inside and outside of trains. Then actually meeting some of the writers who wrote on the walls I had seen. Chino: What were some of the first names you saw up? CAP:: On trains: “Stay High 149”, “JR Bic 149”, “Tracy 168”, “Butch2”, “Shorty 5”, “Hippie 44”, “Lee”, “Revolt” to name a few. RIP to “Billy 167” and “Smily 149” brothers in heaven. Local writers: Batch TBB, P-Nut 2 Wild Style, Tean & Kade TMT, Jake, Herno. Chino: Did you have any mentors? CAP:: “John 150” of “The Crazy Five”, “Billy 167” of “Wanted” and “Tracy 168” “Wild Style” I thank for sharing some of their insight and technique with me. Chino: Do you remember the first train you hit? CAP:: It was a motion tag I caught on the inside of a #2 train in 1977 and then again on the outside of a #5 train in 1978….that was at the Esplanade lay ups in The Bronx. I met “Colt 1”, “Slip3” and “Rock 161” and they introduced me to “Comet” and “Blade” who hands down were the most up on the #2 and #5 trains at the time. Chino: Did you have any bombing partners? CAP:: “Kassone” was my first bombing partner and then “AD” on the insides it was “Rest” and “Rush”. Chino: Got any good stories? CAP:: It was snowing out one night in 1981. Me, “AD” and “Cabone” did some bombing at the Bronx Park East lay up on the #2 line, that lay up was about 90 cars long from just before Bronx Park East station to the Allerton Avenue station through Pelham Parkway. It was still early around 6:00pm on a Saturday we had hit about 40 cars all the doors were open between the cars except at the end of the cars, but we had keys and went from car to car as we heard people scream up to us from the street at Lydig Avenue, “hey toys get out of our lay up” the voices sound familiar so we open the window and looked down, now they started throwing snowballs up at us. It was “Cal3”, “Buck” and “Edster” TKK/The Katz Krews. So we climb out the train and return fire. One of them yells back “The Katz Krews #1”, we laugh as “AD” returns with “MPC Rules”. In the midst of our fun a train slowly pulls in along the downtown track right next to us, no problem at this point we’re already laying down on top of the train, then a train on the uptown track that stops two cars short of where we were hiding. The front doors open and plainclothes officers call up to us “Let’s go kids, it’s dangerous out there, climb down and we’ll call it a night”. We all jump up and “Cab” screams at them “No way in hell!” and we take off running. We were all ready several cars ahead of the detectives as they started to pour out the raid train. As we reached the Bronx Park East station “Cab” wants us to climb down off the top of the train and break out through the station but I keep on going and so does “Ad”. So as the three of us run through the station (all the while still on top of the train) we spot uniformed officers hiding on each side of the platform just waiting for us. We keep on running so they begin to run along side of the train cursing at us, one of them throws their night stick at me just missing me. We kept running eventually switching tracks and exiting at Bronx Dale Avenue. By the time we make it back to Lydig Avenue, it’s snowing again and we bump into “The Katz Krew”, get some beers and tell them our raid story. Chino: How did you get most of your paint? CAP:: I racked it, mostly from big stores or at lunchtime we (MPC) would go to the paint factory and take anywhere from 30-40 six packs of paint while the workers were out to lunch. Chino: Do you remember the first writer you ever went over? CAP:: First Comet….and then Blade Chino: Are there any memorable beefs wars you remember? CAP:: CIA, RTW, TVS were some hot crews. MPC never backed down to anybody and we weren’t going to be stopped. Chino: Who were some of the writers that you’d say gave you some good comp? CAP:: Duro CIA, he was a true write and king. Chino: What type of backlash have you experienced as a result of your actions? CAP:: All physical conflicts are way past me now. I have survived harsh criticism from other artists. My concern now is former friends who turned to me when their lives were in jeopardy and now choose to associate with other artists that criticize me and still claim they are my friends when it opens the door of opportunity. I am not a playa or a sucka. I have mellowed out but I still can school my niggas when they need it. Chino: I hear there’s a clothing company somewhere overseas using the name CAP 1 is there any affiliation between you and this company? CAP:: I am designing T-shirts and other shirts along with Med from “Tuff City” tattoos Bronx, NY outlaw graffiti is my theme and my outline and tags that are copyrighted. As for this other company I have seen ads about and I believe they are trying to sell clothes using a name that I have struggled to keep on top of NY trains for many years. I hope that consumers will choose to buy clothing from the original artist CAP 1 Wild Style. Chino: What have you been up to lately? CAP: I’ve been traveling. I’ve been to Zurich, Switzerland then cities in Germany and Holland. I am doing canvases and have other projects like designing T-shirts with Tuff City Tattoo’s and I am writing 2 books one about snow piecing and the other about my time as an outlaw writer on NYC subways and walls. I’m having a gallery show in here in NYC in the near future. I plan on painting more with my brothers in Europe, we’re working on a website. Thanks to Tuff City Tattoo’s, A Life, BLS, Big Daddy and great thanks to Chino BYI for his time and patience. Peace to all. - Chino BYI http://www.caponebronxaction.com/ http://www.diasparra.com/tn_cap001.jpg'> http://www.diasparra.com/tn_capbem.jpg'> http://www.diasparra.com/wa_capskewbem.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reach.4 Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 sake hyh interview.. stolen from visualorgasm.com. Vorg: How long have you been bombing for and why do you think so many bombers go hard and then fall off completely, while you keep going at? Sake: I have been writing for around 8 years now. People fall off for various reasons. I have seen hundreds of writer's come and go. If it is not in your heart than you will not last. You need mad heart and dedication to maintain anything you do in life. Real graff is on another level, you need need heart, dedication, guts, street smarts, courage, and a tolerance for people hating on you. You must be able to make sacrifices, get used to seeing all your hard work disappear and be able to maintain staying up. You can't be a wuss or you will get stepped on, you risk getting arrested, facing jail time, hefty fines, community work and ruining all you fresh gear and kicks. A lot of people do not even have half of this that is why the majority do not last. I hate when I see kids who bomb hard for a year or two and then they think they are the illest. I have seen this happen many times and that is why if someone is bombing a lot for a year or two it does not impress me, I have been there, done that and I am still doing it 8 years later. The real challenge is keeping up for more than a few years since the average span of a writer is two to three years or less. Staying around for more than a few years separates the real from the fake ass writers. No one can ever diss a real bomber because a bomber is a graff writer, there is no other way around it. I am not saying I will write forever, I can't say what tomorrow holds, but at least I have been around and have seen a lot more than someone who has only painted a year or two. In this day in age it is hard to find people with a passion for something that does not give you money in exchange for your services. Graff is unacceptable to most people. Graff is not supposed to be accepted by everyone, the day it is, is the day graff dies because there will be no more challenges for any one any more. Graff is going against all odds; regardless of the negativity that is piled on you just shake it off. THE REAL ONES STAY TRUE WHILE YOU SUCKAS COME AND GO.... Vorg: What keeps you motivated to keep on bombing? Sake: There is always another spot to hit or re-hit with new throws, tags, blockbusters, rollers, or just new styles. Over the years it just became a part of me like eating and breathing. The feeling you get when you hold a can and just go buckwild!!! The feeling of going out and not knowing if I am going to make it back safely without getting busted or getting into any beef or even dying because I love a challenge. Anybody can just walk up to a wall and paint it but not everyone can climb and hang off 6 inch ledges and still make there shit come out phat and get away with it. When you are doing a crazy spot all these things are rushing through your mind and body. Are the cops coming? Is that big guy over there going to run up and try and punch me? Did anyone that matters see me? Am I going to fall to my death? This is all a part of the drug; graffiti has me addicted, seriously! Also what has me addicted is that it is something creative to do with my time. I sit back and see all these club hopping faggots thinking they're somebody or that they're doing something important by spending all their days working. At night they spend all their money at clubs looking down on people like me because I do graff and don't get paid from it. I can do what they do, it is easy, but is it easy to stay up for years through all the bullshit you go through, from beef to the buff haters? People that have no clue why you love graff so much putting you down for what you do, what they would never have the guts to do. All this feeds the fire inside of me, which keeps me constantly hitting the streets. GRAFF IS TOO ILL…..TOO REAL!! RAW HARDCORE!! Risking everything you have, to do what you love, regardless of anyone's opinion and get nothing but pure satisfaction and self-gratification back. I like people I don't know hating me it's ill, because I have nothing to say about them, I don't care about those people. I've never heard of them, but you know they have heard of me, that is why they can't stop running there mouth like little girls. Keep running your mouth while I keep on running the streets. Keep on hating me I never asked for anyone's approval and I never will. Vorg: Is there anything you won't hit? Sake: When I first started I thought I can't hit old monuments or churches or stuff like that but if you really think about it there is like a million religions out there, which one is the right one, who decides? Everyone has their own beliefs and I think if you do graff you pretty much have no respect for any property. 99% of the world looks at graff as wrong, they believe graff is wrong just as much as they believe in there bullshit made up religion, graff is my religion it's what I believe in and who is to say my beliefs are any better or any worse than someone else's? It is what I choose to do. Life is short and precious, if you find something you love then do it. Some people go through their whole life and never find something they love and they live for someone else. I will live my life the way I want to, not the way you say I should. Government shit should be the first thing you should hit unless it's a monument to someone who saved lives or freed slaves or made a difference in this world for the better etc. Hitting churches or someone's apartment is pretty much the same because someone will always see it as wrong to hit it but in the end it is how you see it that matters. Vorg: What do you get out of all this? Sake: I get self-satisfaction and self-gratification. Knowing at the end of the day that I did something that I wanted to do. I get a rush. I get as much satisfaction as anyone else who does what they love, whether it be basketball, rapping, djing etc. Graff is what I love, it's my pleasure. Vorg: Ever think about stopping? Sake: I think one day I will stop, but I try to in vision a day when I wake up and do not have the feeling of needing to paint, but I don't see it happening any time soon. Vorg: What gives you a visual orgasm? Sake: Going out the next day and seeing a dope spot I just hit or seeing a dope spot I hit for the hundredth time and seeing my shit everywhere I go. Vorg: Do you have any influences? Sake: No, I am not a follower. I was never one to look up to anyone. I always liked doing my own thing. I don't look at anyone as someone that is better than me because they have a bigger name or are more famous than me; I respect others who have as much love for graff as me. Where I am from I was the first to really go all city and really kill shit and I am still killing shit. If you come to Montreal and see anyone up I was up before them and I am still up. I am not conceded or any thing I just know what I have done and where I have been. I know where I stand in his graff game and so do all the real heads. Vorg: Last words? Sake:Mad respect to all the real heads around the world, maintaining against all odds and doing what you love regardless of what others say. No respect to legal piecers because you ain't shit, you are just artists who lack the graff part, the illegal part, the real part, the part that 99 percent of the world does not respect, stick to museums and art expos. If you want to do legal walls fine but don't think you are a writer because you do them, they don't count for anything, you risk nothing doing a million legal walls. Doing legal walls you get your mom and grandmas respect and everyone else who do not understand real graffiti. What is so hard about sitting at your house all day drawing then going out and saying excuse me sir can I please paint on your wall with my pretty drawing. It is different if you see a legal wall by someone who actually has put their mark on the city but a piece by someone who hasn't done shit illegal doesn't do anything for me These people are too scared to bomb or got caught and gave up or people who think if they bomb that it will just get buffed or crossed, then they don't realize that it is all part of the game. It is cool if you do your share of bombing or you have bombed for years and cant bomb any more by all means do legal walls but if you just do legal walls or freights in a bush or a forest somewhere with no sign of civilization please do not call your self a writer a REAL GRAFF WRITER IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT...... MOST HIGH RESPECT TO THE REAL HEADZ IN IT FOR MORE THAN A MINUTE>>> SHOK,BANK,SEK,SCAN,FATSO,FLOW,INSIGHT, HOLDYOUR HEADS HIGH! HYHOOLAGANS (SHOK LOES DOCK MOBER EKON BANK ESPRIT) http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid80/pf062671834152dd2c81267f7ce1bbece/fb0cc311.jpg'> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.