Bojangles Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Rest In Peace Stay High 149 http://www.stayhigh149.com/ Wayne Roberts, better known as Stay High 149, passed today at the age of 61. Most will remember him as the NYC graffiti pioneer who dotted the city with his Smoker glyph, now as iconic as the Yankees' logo. Even with his declining health, Wayne was in high spirits—a resilient presence who never lost his love for art in all its forms. A true legend, The Voice of the Ghetto speaks on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishCarBombs Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Terrible Lose R.I.P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CILONE/SK Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nnout Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 REST IN PARADISE...... my homie gots a copy of style wars that he hit up should have bought it when i had the chance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McLovin Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Legend! He will be missed greatly I've always wanted to meet him. One of the many great pioneers of graff. Bomb It. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EPMDfan Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 True Legends never die!!!! Rest in Peace Wayne, you will be missed!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipod90 Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 His name will live on. RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STYLEISKING Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STYLEISKING Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPS Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Rest In Peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theprotester Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 With real respect, rest in peace. Legends never die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walid Jumblat Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 One of the people who truly changed the world. RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eviltrailer77 Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Damn that sucks, I always loved the smoking saint. I remember being 12-13 (right after i saw Subway Art for the first time) and trying to copy that thing in/on my desk and text books. He will always be remembered as a true pioneer. Rest in Power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUGR Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shittles..TasteTheAsshole Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 R.I.P. This is really sad news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username0913 Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 And graffiti loses another legend. Its sad really. Relax in Paradise to one of the greats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STYLEISKING Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Wayne Roberts was a pioneering 1970s graffiti writer known as “Stay High 149” who borrowed the haloed stick figure from the title sequence of the 1960s television series “The Saint,” put a joint in its mouth and turned it around. His “Smoker” tag, or signature, turned the heads of legions of imitators and admirers, including the anonymous teenagers who slipped into train yards at night to paint whole cars, as well as Norman Mailer, who featured him in his book “The Faith of Graffiti.” Connect with NYTMetro Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for news and conversation. Mr. Roberts, who disappeared from the scene for some 25 years until he was rediscovered by a new generation of fans and artists in 2000, died on Monday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. He was 61. The cause was complications of liver disease, his sister Pauline Noble said. “He was incredibly influential for generations,” said Eric Felisbret, founder of the graffiti archive @149st and author of “Graffiti New York.” “He set the pace for how to do an elegant tag and set yourself apart from other people. It was like corporate branding.” Mr. Roberts was born in Emporia, Va., on Oct. 20, 1950. He never knew his father — not even his name — and moved to Harlem as a child with his mother and his younger brother, Eddie. The family moved to the Bronx in 1966. He recounted on his Web site that by his late teens he was working as a messenger on Wall Street and smoking about an ounce of marijuana a week, earning the Stay High nickname. In his subway travels he noticed other tags — TAKI 183, JOE 182 and PRAY — and followed suit with his own creation, according to his site. He said he could hit as many as 100 trains a day and twice that at night, when he sometimes did larger pieces. “In 1972, Wayne was 22, and he was taking the train to deliver all over the city,” said Chris Pape, a younger graffiti writer and co-author, with Sky Farrell, of Mr. Roberts’s biography, titled “Stay High 149,” published by Gingko Press. “He rode empty trains all day with markers in his pocket, and he wrote everywhere.” Mr. Pape said the Smoker figure was a departure from the tags of the early 1970s, which relied on simple, straight letters, often done by young teenagers who were active only briefly. Soon stylistic flourishes like arrows and loops were added, but none were as successful as the Smoker. In 1973 New York magazine featured Stay High in an article and showed his face. He was arrested soon afterward. (The arresting officer later called him “a gentleman.”) Switching to different tags, Mr. Roberts eventually created another memorable tag: spare, kinetic letters declaring “Voice of the Ghetto.” Many other writers copied elements of his style, including the stick figure and the halo, even the name: there was Stay Cool 149 and Super High 149. In one case, another Bronx artist insisted to High Times magazine that Mr. Roberts had gotten the original tag idea from him and his cousin. By the mid-1970s Mr. Roberts had disappeared from the scene devoting himself to his job as a messenger at the World Trade Center (where he tagged many of the staircases) and to raising his two children, Dwayne and Michelle, who survive him, along with two sisters, Ms. Noble and Karen Michelle Owens, and three brothers, Tracy, Eddie and Tyrone. By the early ’80s, Mr. Pape said, drugs had begun to take their toll. Mr. Roberts left his World Trade Center job, and his wife, because of his drug use. “He was a functional junkie who occasionally did time in prison for stupid things,” Mr. Pape said. “He was like that for 20 years. He didn’t want to be found.” It was not until a chance encounter in 2000 with another early graffiti writer that he realized he had so many loyal fans. At an exhibition in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, he was mobbed by autograph seekers. At another show, he had to duck out the back door because of the crowds. Mr. Pape said Mr. Roberts cleaned himself up and began to write graffiti again. New versions of the Smoker started appearing. When Mailer’s “Faith of Graffiti” was reissued in 2009, the cover carried a photo of a Redbird subway car rumbling along elevated tracks, with “Stay High 149” emblazoned on its side. Yet by then, it was not uncommon to find the creator of that tag haggling with customers on the street as he sold canvases for a pittance. “When he came back on the scene, he had no idea how important he was,” Mr. Felisbret, the graffiti archivist, said. “He could not capitalize on it because he had no business savvy. The level of his street cred could have translated into some money. Instead, he was selling canvases in the street for $25. “I’m not saying he could have made Banksy money. He was looking for a quick buck. But at least I’m glad he knew how the culture felt about him.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decyferon Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 RIP to a legend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geargff Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 RIP. The saint with the joint was classic. I used to draw those all over the school and neighborhood way back. Thoughts and prays for the family Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super T Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 Rest in peace Stay High 149. Here's an interview with him posted on S.O. in case anyone missed it: http://www.subwayoutlaws.com/Interviews/STAY%20HIGH%20149%20INTERVIEW%202.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fr8slayer Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 rest in peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Ku Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 StayHigh149's Voice Of The Ghetto tribute by AMEN1 ROF TUM SBF.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STYLEISKING Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STYLEISKING Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jupitersupport Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 RIP, those are excellent from my view. i'll try to create new art today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLebowski Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Brother Wayne, rest easy Amigo! http://www.frank151.com/blog/2012/07/20/reflecting_on_stay_high_149 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PissinACup Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 RIP STAY HIGH 149 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrinkles Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rack101 Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 when i saw him on the cover of a graff mag his photo gave me goose bumps. R.I.P Stay High 149 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afsi Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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