This article was posted by Terror161 6 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes ago.
In graffiti there are a slew of writers’ writers, guys who were prolific stylists that for some reason slipped by the radar . Anyone who followed the culture in the 80’s or was lucky enough to paint with Shame 125 aka Much 107 knows that he rocked hard. Simple clean letters with pristine characters. A disciple of Skeme who painted with DEZ and a slew of other heavy hitters of his era, Shame 125 dropped out of sight in the early 90’s. He got busy on a freight with SAK and Slave a few years ago and has been painting the town lately.
His career on trains began on the 6 line around ‘83 with Brim. They were amongst the first members of TAT’s . Mack also partnered up with them. Shame’s talent made him a sought after partner. He met Raz, who introduced him to SEEN UA and pilgramages to the ghost yard circa ‘84 became commonplace. During this period he would often collaborate with Cem , Kenn , T.KID , Bio , Lase and Raz who would execute an army of memorable cars that set the style standard of the day. Shame even made a cameo appearance on the #1 Broadway line, blazing a two man panel with DERO. He quit the trains in ‘87. The baddest cats in the game speak of him with extreme reverence, but he’s a humble cat who’d never toot his own horn.
‘93 Action
This article was posted by Terror161 1 Month, 16 hours, 14 minutes ago.
Decided to make a rare Sunday afternoon appearance at MSG to catch LBJ , D. WADE and Boshasuarus . As currently constituted we are a very flawed team with Melo expected to carry us. The Dead Baron at point guard is a recipe for disaster. Melo had 42 and the combined rest of the starters had a paltry 19. This team will beat us in 5 if we some how move up to the 7th seed and face them in the first round. This year has been great as the Knicks are in every game until the end most of the time. First home loss under Mike Woodson. Those dreaded green guys from Boston invade our house on Tuesday night . Hopefully Rondo and Pierce won’t kill us. Melo may have another Chicago -like performance in him. Gotta keep our eyes on Philly and The Bucks with the playoff picture in mind. And now for the flicks du jour:
This article was posted by Terror161 1 Month, 3 days, 11 hours, 55 minutes ago.
When my man CES put me up on this dude I was vaguely aware of his character work on the early FX walls. I got the pleasure of working with him during a project we worked on for a European collector in 2007. Watching him in action made me a believer. Lightning speed and pinpoint can control. Another guy who made me glad I quit this sport eons ago. His black book work is amongst the best I’ve ever seen . What I love about dude is he does 90 % of his work for the pure love of the art. Oh yeah and those big booty girls of his ain’t too hard on the eyes either.
This article was posted by Terror161 1 Month, 1 week, 1 hour, 29 minutes ago.
Before beginning I would like to address a point about FLINT… and Flint 707, that I should have included in Part 1. There is no comparison between the two. Both are vitally important to the movement in very different ways. Flint 707 was a Brooklyn style master who transformed his awesome tag into a blueprint for piecing then topped it off with a 3D color scheme that revolutionized lettering perspectives and fill-in techniques for those that followed. His color sense and presence on the BMT’s made him a legend and easy choice for UGA membership. Comparing him to FLINT… is an apples to oranges equation. FLINT… wasn’t playing the same game. The two met back in the day and almost fought when Flint 707 took offense to FLINT…‘s use of the name they shared , but cooler heads prevailed. Both Flint’s appear in the pages of my book Graffiti 365 along with photos and bios.
HMMM? ONLY ONE DOT?
FLINT…‘s approach didn’t include piecing and his tag style remained deliberately plain to communicate with the everyman not just other writers. The photos he took capturing the heavyweights of his era include : Tracy 168, LSD OM , FDT 56,Bomb 1, Shadow, Dime 139, Krome 100, MICO, Dino Nod, Chopper 13, Scooter, Hoy 56, Sonny 107, SJK 171, Bama /AMRL, his neighbor Flip 1 SSB and too many others to recall.
UP IN THE BRONX WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE FRESH (1973 Grand Concourse Wall)
In early 1973 LSD OM didn’t know any writers , although he’d been writing LSD OM for a while and CHAD prior to that. A social breakthrough occurred when he met FDT 56 around his block. LSD OM considers this meeting the key to getting socialized into the ranks of the culture’s movers and shakers as FDT 56 would provide him with intros to a who’s who list of writing luminaries .
CAN YOU SAY LEGENDS? TWICE! (FDT 56 and LSD OM TAKING A BREAK.)
Soon, LSD OM ventured to The High School Of Art and Design , a hotbed for writers and a style laboratory of sorts. He met FLINT… there and told him he had admired his sayings approach to writing. The two formed an instant friendship that was based on mutual respect for one another’s work. LSD OM recalls: “When we went writing together FLINT… amazed me , because he always carried around this little spiral note pad filled with those sayings he’d write”. FLINT… addresses this by stating: “For Those Who Dare was an easy one to remember, but after that , after all the weed I was smoking I had to carry the book around because my memory was shot.” The amazing thing about writing in the early 70’s was the visual communication that existed between boroughs . Cats from the Bronx knew who was who from Brooklyn and Manhattan. This phenomenon expanded socially as Bronx cats ventured out to Brooklyn and vice versa. LSD OM soon found himself hanging in Brooklyn with Dino Nod ,Scooter and the Ex Vandals posse and FLINT.. would often chill in a Grand Concourse playground near Yankee Stadium with FDT 56, Hoy 56 and others… a cultural exchange program of sorts.
LSD OM IN THE BRONX WITH STITCH 1 R.I.P. and C. A. T. 87 TAGS
FLINT.. always brought his camera and states that he has always had a dialogue with photography. “Ever since I was a little kid, we’re talking grammar school now, I always had an innate sense on how to take a complete picture. Nobody’s head ever got chopped out of one of my photos. In the winter of ‘73 LSD OM , after a partnership between he and FLINT… had been forged, LSD OM wanted to form a crew of their own ,but couldn’t think of a good crew name. One day LSD OM who often planned bombing strategies for the duo , devised a plan to hit insides on the Coney Island station. His theory being that several lines passed through the spot and they could bomb several lines simultaneously. While doing their thing they encountered another like minded individual, a little blonde kid several years their junior. The kid turned out to be Rebel 3 and already had developed a nasty tag style. A light bulb went off in LSD OM’s head and he knew he’d found a fitting moniker for a crew, THE REBELS. FLINT… and LSD OM founded the crew and put REBEL 3 in as the first member. Rebel dropped the 3 from his tag and rocked insides with one of the freshest tag styles of his day. Other early members included SE 3 aka HAZE, an early protege of LSD OM’s and the first band-shell oriented cat to be inducted , HOY 56 and later Queens king ROGER .
MOTORMAN AND APPRECIATIVE PASSENGER TAKE IN A BICENTENNIAL WHOLE CAR PRODUCTION BY CRAZY DIKE, KINDO 2 and JAY 159
Photography became just as important of a mode for creativity and expression as writing did for FLINT… who states: “At one point I honestly didn’t know if I was a writer or a photographer.” Almost 40 years later the culture we can be very thankful that he decided to wear both hats.
This article was posted by Terror161 1 Month, 1 week, 23 hours, 42 minutes ago.
One of the nastiest Harlem cats to rock trains in the 80’s , and in a lotta people’s minds, the successor to SKEME. Wrote with TAT’s , SEEN, DEZ, TNB’s. People that know, know. Coming soon in a profile by yours truly. Compulsory teaser photo included in this post for salivational purposes only.
This article was posted by Terror161 1 Month, 1 week, 5 days, 13 hours, 39 minutes ago.
FLINT… BAD, BUT NOT EVIL
Flint Gennari remains one of the most unique artists and photographers ever spawned by the graffiti movement. A loner with a rebellious spirit, FLINT…, like Stay High 149, co-opted his identitiy from a popular spy series, in this case borrowing his moniker from super-spy Derek Flint played by James Coburn in late 60’s James Bond parody films “In Like Flint” and “Our Man Flint”. Impacted by the Kennedy assassination, The Viet Nam War and the civil rights movement , he began carving the name Flint.. into picinic tables and writing long political diatribes signed by his new alias. This was the gestation period for the graffiti moniker he would popularize later. Flint Gennari grew up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn , just a few blocks away from Ex Vandals founder Dino Nod and legendary first generation Brooklyn tagger Scooter.
PRAY and CHOPPER 13
Although he rolled with the Ex Vandals , the first all city graff crew, FLINT.. remained somewhat of a loner. He developed a love for photography and found he had an innate sense for capturing the moment. As graffiti transitioned from signatures to piecing FLINT… kept his work conceptual. As graffiti became a sport for the masses , FLINT… stopped writing political sayings and began implementing thought provoking catch phrases that epitomized cool and left readers scratching their heads. The plain FLINT… tag changed as Gennari added seriphs to his letters making his tags look as though they were typewrittten. All of us were trying to forge our own identities as non-conformist rebels, but when thousands of kids embrace non-conformity simultaneously they become conformists. FLINT.. approached writing conceptually. As a kid I was blown away by FLINT…‘s neat tags with sayings that are forever embedded in my cranium such as :For Those Who Dare, Bad But Not Evil, For Ladies Only and the ubiquitous THINK FLINT… which a slew of other writers appropriated. FLINT… attended Art and Design High School where he would drop his photography major, finding he already knew more than the teachers and take up film making instead. Just as he did with writing FLINT… approached photography from an outside the box perspective. While most photographers and writers concentrated on capturing simply the pieces on the train, FLINT… focused his lens on the people and the process.
BK NEIGHBOR FLIP ONE SSB
Using only black and white film he captured portraits of the architects of graffiti in their prime, building the most historically significant archive ever captured on film with an insider’s eye . During this period he would meet Tracy 168, LSD OM and fellow alumni, Steve 61, SJK 171, Shadow, Dime 139 and Al Diaz aka Bomb 1 , who would eventually write SAMO along with Jean Michel Basquiat .
FLINT… and EARLY PARTNER CHOPPER 13
Coming soon: Part 2 The Rebels and Al Diaz on FLINT… and Basquiat with exclusive video interview.
This article was posted by Terror161 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 19 hours, 24 minutes ago.
I’ll be the first to admit that I know next to nothing about Hip Hop. My favorite era was the early 80’s when def jam was in it’s heyday and Public Enemy ruled.
I do know graff, however and this wall is fire. Much respect to C3 and his crew!
BY THE TIME I GET TO ARIZONA mural project is a collaboration of several artists throughout the country. This mural, as executed by the Momentum Art Team over a period of two days, is located in a Chicago Westside neighborhood. Their goal was to recreate Chuck D’s venture into the fine art medium for everyone to see. Chuck D, working in conjunction with Scenefour Art Collective, used this project to focus on the problems associated with ill-conceived immigration policies in Arizona. Watch as Momentum Art completely translates this message on a large scale.
Not ready to give up Led Zep yet, but these guys got me thinkin’ about it!
This article was posted by Terror161 5 months, 1 week, 2 days, 19 hours, 13 minutes ago.
Miami ,during Art Basel, must be seen, smelled and heard to be believed. Amidst a backdrop of murals from the hottest street artists the globe has to offer, a washed up old graff writer (yours truly) and some friends set up a table with a mountain of books, ready to write their names on something legit. Luckily they were all veterans of repetitive autographing , so writer’s cramp wasn’t a factor. T.KID 170 came all the way from the Bronx,Daze from Manhattan, FLINT ... from Staten Island, Ellis G. and Cern from BK and reppin Japan, Aiko and Shiro. How and Nosm were already there and we all signed opposite one of their massive murals (Nunca’s mural was behind us) in the courtyard. Risk and Tyke/Witnes showed love from the West Coast and Cash for Your Warhol(Somerville, MA. stand up!) placed cards in each book on the stealth. Martha Cooper alternated between the roles of signator and documentarian. About 5,000 people rolled through Wynwood Walls that night and some even bought books. Here’s a few flicks of the signing and some “extracurricular activities” . Just got a much better batch of photos from Martha Cooper. Why would I even consider letting my grainy phone flicks compete with her camera? Here they go:
ALL PHOTOS @ MARTHA COOPER 2011
RISKY BUSINESS
TERROR and TERRIBLE with TYKE/WITNES and WILLIE T.
This article was posted by Terror161 5 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 21 hours, 8 minutes ago.
I met Lady Aiko shortly before Art Basel 2010. She and Martha Cooper convinced me to make the pilgrammage to South Beach and so I let my anti-permission walls anti- Street Art guard down. I was midway through compiling my book and thought it’d be a good way of getting content and meeting some of the players on the other (Street Art) side of the fence. I was flattered as hell when Aiko asked me to paint a wall with her , fully cognizant of the fact that time had passed me by and without a subway car canvas I was out of my element. Needless to say she injected my ancient scrawlings with school bus and temptress stencils that brought breath to my lifeless letters as if she were a Japanese Dr. Frankenstein. That trip and collaborating on that wall with her caused me to look at Street Art with a newfound respect without feeling I had sold graff out.
Aiko Nakagawa moved to NYC from Tokyo in the mid 90’s . She hit the streets of Europe hard and became a founding member of Faile. She also rocked with Murakami prior to his stratospheric rise to fame. Now ,having launched a successful solo career andkilling it with shows in Amsterdam, LA, NYC, Shang Hai and Paris to namedrop a few locales, it’s Lady Aiko’s name that’s ringing bells. Honored to have this girl supporting me at Wynwood. Tokyo/BK represent!
AIKO IN SHANG HAI
TOKYO.>>> BK>>>MIAMI
I HAD A CRUSH ON JESSICA RABBIT, BUT NOW…...??
A BRAVE NEW WORLD>>>> AIKO/J.SON 2010 ART BASEL (photo@ Martha Cooper)
This article was posted by Terror161 5 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 20 minutes ago.
The 12 oz. Fam is already in Miami . Thought it’d be nice to give some shine to the peeps who are supporting my event. Batting in the leadoff spot is a cat I’ve known over 30 years and not always on good terms. Peaceful co-existence between us didn’t work out too well during his Vamp Squad period. T.KID 170 had one of the greatest stylistic influences in what graff looked like in the 80’s having executed hundreds of burners on transit. He was one of the first Americans to go rock over in the UK and influenced German and other Euro writers with dope wild styles and funky characters. Personally , I liked his comeback with Boozer on Broadway with the Roger Dean exploding planet backgrounds. A good guy to have on your side and the wrong guy to have beef with or owe money to, T.KID’s rep doesn’t need to be re-hashed here.
His work appears in Graffiti 365 several times , including the pages designated for Alex One of Mac Crew and The Amazing SKE from PR. T.KID 170 will be repping at my Wynwood Walls event and has brought down a treasure trove of canvases and subway maps for collectible purposes. Here’s what I mean:
T.KID 170 Paris with PORTRAIT OF DAUGHTER ALYSSA by ALEX ONE MAC CREW (from Graffiti 365)
T.KID SUBWAY MAP #1
T.KID SUBWAY MAP NUMERO DOS
A PORTABLE CANVAS JOINT (24 x 36)
Just a small sample to satisfy the curious.
See you at the signing on December 2nd at Wynwood Walls 6-8 PM!
This article was posted by Terror161 5 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes ago.
While there’s no question the premise of Thanksgiving is shaky when its origin is considered, there’s no doubt many of us have much to be thankful for. I am blessed with an amazing family , great friends and projects both realized and envisioned. I have loved graff since witnessing my first Taki 183 tags and hate the incongruity that exists within this culture . Street Artists command six and seven figure sums for their work, while the cornerstones of the writing culture struggle to get by. Both Ket and Faust have already brought attention to the plight of pioneer/innovator Riff 170 who is currently homeless. While his spirits are high and he’s looking good , the cold weather is upon us. One thing I miss about the 70’s is the elegant tag styles that lined the insides of the subway system. While the artistic bar rises higher and higher by the year , the art of tagging seems to be a forgotten element. This drawing , although recently executed , calls forth the primal element of writing—the tag. It’s the foundation on which the house of style was built .If you love writing and this culture then help a man out who gave it to you. If you don’t know who Riff 170 is , then do some homework. Hint: He’s the cat who invented something you use in your piece today before you were even born.
This article was posted by Terror161 5 months, 3 weeks, 21 minutes ago.
If anyone happens to be in Miami for Art Basel , please be sure to come by Wynwood Walls for what’s sure to be a killer event. Just peep the list on the invite.
NUFF SAID!
There will be a pop-up gallery and store where Graffiti 365 ,How and Nosm’s Brazil Diaries and Martha Cooper’s new series of books documenting Wynwood Walls and some of the artists who painted them will be sold. Also, canvases from a grip of dope artists will be for sale. Here’s a preview of some of the eye candy:
FUTURA 2000 (THREE AMIGOS)
