IRAK CREW CLOTHING

[The Hipster]

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

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

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

http://www.beinghunted.com/v40/reviews/2004/september/irak/_images/pic_01.jpg
http://www.beinghunted.com/v40/reviews/2004/september/irak/_images/pic_02.jpg
http://www.beinghunted.com/v40/reviews/2004/september/irak/_images/pic_03.jpg
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[The Hipster]

http://www.viceland.com/issues_au/v10n3/htdocs/new_york/1.jpg
New York’s 2001 graffiti scene is made up of some of the most reckless drug users in America. Their crew is called Irak. They are rude, illegal, sometimes gay, and always on the verge of losing their lives. We like to write about people who get fucked up, but this is better: Spacer, Semen, and Earsnot are more than most wanted on NYPD’s hit list. They are what New York looks like. If you close your eyes and think of this city, you see the work of Irak and its peers. With this much hedonism getting this much credibility, it was time VICE put together the supreme guide to what, where, when, why, and who is painting on the fifth-biggest city in the world. We knew notorious fag filmmaker Bruce LaBruce hung out with them so we flew him down to blow it wide open. We asked him to live with them for a week, go bombing with them, get Ryan McGinley to photograph everything, and then research the history of this fucked up form of indigenous art. He said sure, but then he got too wasted.

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


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

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

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

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



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

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

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


http://www.viceland.com/issues_au/v10n3/htdocs/new_york/2.jpg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BRUCE LABRUCE


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

www.viceland.com

[The Hipster]

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[The Hipster]

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[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283285.jpg
ALL MOST FAMOUS - alife

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283275.jpg
photo by
Kenneth Cappello

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283270.jpg
from
Dazed & Confused

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283277.jpg
photo by
Kenneth Cappello

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283278.jpg
from
Mass Appeal

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283279.jpg
from
Mass Appeal

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283280.jpg
from
Mass Appeal

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283282.jpg
IRAK TAG
by EARSNOT

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283283.jpg
AUTOGRAF
/PETER SUTHERLAND

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01283281.jpg
from
Mass Appeal


sorry about the size of the larst few images

site: www.rakuten.co.jp/essense

[<KEY3>]

even though IRAK is a little too 'vice cool' for my tastes,
the designs are dope and no one can take away the fame
and rep they've built for themselves.

good post hipster.

[Misteraven]

Originally posted by The Hipster@Dec 6 2004, 11:51 AM
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01247871.jpg
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01247870.jpg
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http://image.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01248161.jpg
http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/img10251002411.jpeg
Quoted post


where are these photos from?

good post.

[Good Morning Captain]

Make that paper.

[Misteraven]

Originally posted by Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 03:43 PM
Make that paper.
Quoted post


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

[Good Morning Captain]

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


any idea what issue? also, any idea who the photographer was?
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

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

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

[imported_Tesseract]

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

crap

[<KEY3>]

Originally posted by Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM
Also that shirt with the skull getting skiied up is dope.


again... way to 'Vice Mag' for me.
(and hell... I susscribe and have been printed in it)

Even that word 'ski' just screams Bruce LaBruce.

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

[Good Morning Captain]

Originally posted by <KEY3>+Dec 6 2004, 04:11 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (<KEY3> - Dec 6 2004, 04:11 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Good Morning Captain@Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM
Also that shirt with the skull getting skiied up is dope.


again... way to 'Vice Mag' for me.
(and hell... I susscribe and have been printed in it)

Even that word 'ski' just screams Bruce LaBruce.

.... and let's never speak of this ever again.... I dont want to have to edit.
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

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

[The Hipster]

Originally posted by Tesseract@Dec 6 2004, 10:05 PM
and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

crap
Quoted post


the skulls are a reference from Dash's tattoo

http://www.mcmagma.com/MCGINLEY/B_DASH_UP.jpg

[The Hipster]

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


any idea what issue? also, any idea who the photographer was?
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]



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

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

[imported_Tesseract]

Originally posted by The Hipster+Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Hipster - Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Tesseract@Dec 6 2004, 10:05 PM
and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

crap
Quoted post


the skulls are a reference from Dash's tattoo

http://www.mcmagma.com/MCGINLEY/B_DASH_UP.jpg
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

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

[The Hipster]

oh i do beg your pardon

thanks

[Jimmy Jump]

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

[LaCosaNostra]

Ill post....

[Misteraven]

Originally posted by Tesseract+Dec 6 2004, 05:28 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tesseract - Dec 6 2004, 05:28 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>Originally posted by The Hipster@Dec 6 2004, 05:00 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-Tesseract@Dec 6 2004, 10:05 PM
and the skulls is what Giant makes a million times better.

crap
Quoted post


the skulls are a reference from Dash's tattoo

http://www.mcmagma.com/MCGINLEY/B_DASH_UP.jpg
Quoted post


Dash's tattoos are a reference to giant....http://www.mikegiant.com/main.html
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

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

[fatlaces]

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

[Cobraz]

Mike Giant did Dash's tattoo...

[Misteraven]

Originally posted by fatlaces@Dec 6 2004, 08:55 PM
Irak is a great crew but the designs just arent that great. the best is probably that Irak NY shirt. maybe they should make a shirt with that "Best things in life..." design.
Quoted post


clearly they're writers, not designers. but you cant knock them for trying to make a few bucks if they have a good thing going. i see these tees the same way i see concert shirts... if your a fan, you'll sport one, but like a concert shirt, it's not the pinnacle of fashion.

regardless, if people dont like it they dont have to buy it, but it seems kinda dumb to say they shouldnt have even tried.

*I dont mean this to you specifically, but to anyone that feels like somebody shouldnt bother. I say the more the merrier, and the wack shit will get weeded out via natural selection.

[wiseguy]

...at least it will be writers making money off of graffiti designs instead of some random fashion company.

[Al Green]

i think the barbara krueger one is funny.

but im wouldnt purchase or wear them...any of them.

[imported_b0b]

It is pretty obvious they are selling the "image" of Irak; Irak the brand as it were. That whole partying, drugs, racking and fighting thing - the designs are probably pretty irrelevant to the people they will appeal to.

[fr8lover]

if you wear any of those shirts and you aren't actually crew or friends of em, you should feel pretty stupid.

ps...a lot of the people pictured on this page are still writing graffiti, clothing line or not...i think posting every picture you could find of them is a little corny to be posting onto a graffiti message board.

[Misteraven]

Originally posted by fr8lover@Dec 7 2004, 08:41 AM
ps...a lot of the people pictured on this page are still writing graffiti, clothing line or not...i think posting every picture you could find of them is a little corny to be posting onto a graffiti message board.
Quoted post


these pictures are already in the public domain. if VS hasn't already picked up the copies of mass appeal and paper back where they appeared, then they never will. not to mention that these kids generally show up to parties and events like celebrities and definately dont try and maintain a low profile. clearly we have zero tolerance for turning people out, but this situation is not at all like that.

[fr8lover]

Originally posted by Misteraven+Dec 7 2004, 02:26 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Misteraven - Dec 7 2004, 02:26 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-fr8lover@Dec 7 2004, 08:41 AM
ps...a lot of the people pictured on this page are still writing graffiti, clothing line or not...i think posting every picture you could find of them is a little corny to be posting onto a graffiti message board.
Quoted post


these pictures are already in the public domain. if VS hasn't already picked up the copies of mass appeal and paper back where they appeared, then they never will. not to mention that these kids generally show up to parties and events like celebrities and definately dont try and maintain a low profile. clearly we have zero tolerance for turning people out, but this situation is not at all like that.
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

i understand. i feel the same way about all these pictures existing in the first place, but it's just a little funny when you post them up on a message board specifically for the discussion of graffiti. instead of a bunch of flicks, here's picturers of a bunch of dudes who write...i guess i just don't get it.

[El Producto]

IRAK are a fucking sick crew

but i wouldnt want to wear an item of clothing with my own crews letters on it..let alone someone elses

[<KEY3>]

they are the ones pushing themselves and their 'brand' into the public eye.
Besides.... probably the WORST thing for any 'criminal' to show is a tattoo.
They dont go away and can very easily identify you. So making a t-shirt of your tattoo with your crew name on it?

if that isn't asking for trouble..... I dont know what is.

[El Producto]

and also:

"We’re watching the patterns you can create by playing CDs on a Sega Playstation"

sega make playstations now??

[seeking]

'nyc graff' and 'rest of the world graff' have nothing to do with one another really.

in ny, everything is a product, no matter what it is. everything is so compact and condensed that even your average 40 year old mom living in the city is atleast somewhat familiar with graff. also since everything from the restaurants you eat at to the jobs you have are all tied into some weird heirchy of status, it makes sense that even a writer can be 'someone', based on their notoriety. it's not about talent, it's just about namesake. it might be totally fleeting and ficle, but it definitely exists.
example: on halloween i ended up at some fucked up concert with some shitty ass band playing. there were seriously like 30 people there, but one of them happened to be sace, who looked quite a bit like joe dirt mixed with captain cave man. i assumed it was a costume, but looking at the above pictures, i realize he's just a dirt ass, which is amusing considering the insane fortune the grape vine puts him as heir to. anyway, of course, the entire room sort of revolved around him. it's strange, and it's surreal, but it's life. whatever.

what's my point? my point is that the rules of graff dont apply in ny, and the rules of ny dont apply to graff. some might overlap, but all in all, they're kind of different animals. 'irak' arent just guys who paint, they truly are 'celebrities' in the same way that dondi, futura, zephyr and lee where back in the 80's. they're still worthless in the grand scheme of things, but luckily for them, ny exists outside of that grand scheme. their clothes might not be 'cool' or 'well designed' to the rest of us, but when placed on the same time-line that brought us the 'ny minute', they make perfect sense. everything in ny is 'flash in the pan', because there are 6 million people all trying to cook on the same proverbial stove. the place is like boise idaho on crystal meth with ADHD.

this essay was brought to you by lewis blacks rant on minnesota and my desire to hear myself talk.

[fr8lover]

i also gotta say that espo....is on some sort of next level mc serch type shit

[Misteraven]

i'd bet there were some contemporaries of basquiat that hung out with him back in the days in some shit hole in the lower east side of nyc that said, 'dooood... your shit kinda sucks. my little sister can draw a better figure. what are you expecting to get out of those paintings?!'

[seeking]

yeah...basquiat does kind of suck though.
ha.
i've never understood what people saw in that dude.
i watched the movie and everything, still nothing.


oh, and for the record, giant borrowed that style of tattoo from latin america. he might have made it more prevelant in graff/hipster circles, but he certainly didn't invent it.

[<KEY3>]

I personally dont think giant's work is very original.
I'm not saying it isn't technically well executed or that
I dont really dig the style, but it's very clear where his
influences are rooted. Having said that......

That style applied to graf IS totally original.
Well I've never seen a writer do work like that before,
so in terms of 'grafitti' it is totally original. Yeah... paradox.

[rick flair]

Originally posted by seeking@Dec 7 2004, 06:03 PM
yeah...basquiat does kind of suck though.
ha.
i've never understood what people saw in that dude.
i watched the movie and everything, still nothing.


oh, and for the record, giant borrowed that style of tattoo from latin america. he might have made it more prevelant in graff/hipster circles, but he certainly didn't invent it.
Quoted post



basquiat did suck as far as what he put out to the public, but i think people dug his image more then anything....look at all the laim dudes get fame now off their laim art!

i used to love that movie too, until i read the book..... that movie made basquiat look like an timmid shameless punk.... the book is dope and is more the real story about the dude.... pretty fast read too...
i'm way more intreaged about basquiat cuz of his life style not his art work.....

[Good Morning Captain]

Way VICE!

http://www.2ktshirts.com/WholesaleE/admin/art/04BSQ021-19-S.jpg
http://www.2ktshirts.com/WholesaleE/admin/art/04BSQ022-01-S.jpg
http://www.2ktshirts.com/WholesaleE/admin/art/04BSQ016-19-S.jpg

[The Hipster]

a brief extract from an interview with Ryan McGinley talking about photographing IRAK:


AFH: You frequently photographed the IRAK graffiti crew. Are you interested in graffiti as an action or as an art form?

RM: I love the idea of graffiti but I am not really excited by its esthetics. Individual pieces and tags rarely interest me. What I love is the insanity of it as an action. I wouldn’t want to photograph a piece alone, but I love taking pictures of kids doing it. I have one image called Dash Bombing that is just a picture of this kid I know spraying graffiti on the side of a wall. I think it is a beautiful image. And, I love the idea of a kid writing his name hundreds of thousands of times, over and over and over because he feels he needs to.

AFH: Saying it like that makes it sound less rebellious than Obsessive Compulsive.

RM: Well, it is addictive to some. I am attracted to the mania of someone who goes to such extreme lengths to do their art. I love the illegality. It is really appealing to me that some kid will stand 40-stories up on a ledge or duck into a rat-packed tunnel alone at night just to produce his art. The only thing about it that doesn’t interest me is the final product. I have a few friends who are graffiti writers, including the IRAK crew, and I like that they are as obsessed with something as I am with taking pictures. I eat, sleep, move and breathe photography 24-7.

AFH: Graffiti and editoral photography are two genres often perceived as transitioning badly into galleries and museums. Do you agree that editoral photography and graffiti inherently loose something when taken indoors?

RM: No, strong art should be able to function anywhere. The art world is such a small, esoteric community, that it doesn’t appeal to me to only exhibit my stuff in galleries. I like having my work is books and magazines where I can reach the widest possible audience. I don’t discriminate between highbrow and lowbrow. Vice magazine reaches more kids than any gallery exhibition would give me access to. Any random person can pick up their free issue of Vice but an art magazine only appeals to a few.

http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/honigman/Images/honigman6-21-7.jpg
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/honigman/Images/honigman6-21-4.jpg


rest of the feature here (http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/honigman/honigman6-21-04.asp)

[trackstand]

What a weird thread.

[rick flair]

why is that girl holding her penis down.....? she's already naked!!

[Cobraz]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[<KEY3>]

Originally posted by trackstand@Dec 7 2004, 04:27 PM
What a weird thread.
Quoted post


what a great thread.
DutyFree could use more threads like this!

[Misteraven]

maybe basquiat did suck, maybe not. considering he rarely has pieces for sale on the open market, and buying one by making an offer on one in a private collection is gonna cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions), i'm not even sure it's subjective to comment on his talent.

incidently, i've heard rumor that the deal involving sony's purchase of mo-wax back a few years ago involved sony having to buy james lavelle a basquiat piece. since at the time none were for sale, they had to drop a small fortune buying one from a private collection or it was going to be a deal breaker.

[fr8lover]

and what strides sony has made with mo wax since then...

[PeteWhite]

mize? hahahaha.

[imported_Tesseract]

Market and essence of work is not to be confused. You can make the market bigtime with obvious talent or a very ineteresting persona or good connections or even all of the above and still you may never contribute anything worthwhile. What i mean by worthwhile is to be in the position where you're just being you and you change the way the game moves, after a while it seems like the game couldnt survive without you. Basquiat doesnt fall under this category at all, its not only that i dont like his work but i could never see how basquiats work opened new ways and put artists and people in general mind in a new rotation. I'm totally against the theory and vice of Warhols work but noone could say that he wasnt a crucial figure in art at the time, dude brought all kinds of viewing the world and art as a sum of the world..along with that he brought basquiat too. I dont think the appeal is based on his work but more on the background story of the man himself that the world was prepared to accept. Definitions of cool and interesting change really fast but the whole deal relies on either you make them or just fit the bill. To keep it simple, i think that basquiat is a classic 'right time, right place' case.

As far as irak goes, i dunno..shit is way to flashy for my taste and while i totally respect what they do and that they manage to come off like they do it aint nothing of importnace to me. I'm not willing to give excuses like 'they're not designers just writers'...its not that important talking so much about a t-shirt but i cant overide the fact that raven is also a writer, made the best graff mag in the market, and produces superior tshirts that arent sold out solely because the same hype doesnt suround him.

What else, giant is dope. period

[ohjeez]

yo, there are entirely too many names and pictures floating around on this thread. Somebody needs to jump in and do something about it. They may be designers or whatever, but they still paint (at least some of them...a little), so it's best to keep that shit confidential.

[imported_Tesseract]

I believe its their desicion to be so. If you have your face and tag together on magazines that circulate all over the city you paint you obsiously want it to happen. We protect the people that their data was exposed without their will or willing, we're not here to play world safety police.

[>>recap da 1]

DOPE THREAD....IRAK LOOK LIKE SUM CRAZY ASS DUDES..PPEESSHHHHHH

[JesusMachine]

Can somebody tell me why you would push some other crews t-shirts?

who do you think will buy this, hipsters or writers?

[imported_b0b]

Originally posted by Misteraven@Dec 7 2004, 10:41 PM
maybe basquiat did suck, maybe not. considering he rarely has pieces for sale on the open market, and buying one by making an offer on one in a private collection is gonna cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions), i'm not even sure it's subjective to comment on his talent.
Quoted post


Come on Raven surely you understand that value, or worth, is not an indication of talent! That is why the art world is so crazy.


*edit* Tesseract dealt with this much better then me. I should really read the thread fully before replying in future. */edit*

[imported_b0b]

Originally posted by ohjeez@Dec 8 2004, 12:44 AM
yo, there are entirely too many names and pictures floating around on this thread. Somebody needs to jump in and do something about it. They may be designers or whatever, but they still paint (at least some of them...a little), so it's best to keep that shit confidential.
Quoted post


Who is this someone and what should they do?

Also they aren't designers, that is what about half a page of posts alludes to.

You are obviously well meaning, but your post was pointless as it already been discussed on page 1.

[rick flair]

Originally posted by JesusMachine@Dec 8 2004, 04:47 AM
Can somebody tell me why you would push some other crews t-shirts?

who do you think will buy this, hipsters or writers?
Quoted post





hipsters of course......

[seeking]

i always forget how much i like gingerbread, then christmas time rolls around and i remember again.

if anything, i think basquiat proved that talent is irrelivent in the face of egomaniacle (seemingly unfounded) confidence. if you act like you're the shit and anything you do is the greatest thing ever, there are a good portion of people who will go along with you simply because they don't want to be behind the times or out of the loop. remember 'cant buy me love'? basquiat is the ronald miller of the pop art world.

seeks/that was funny.

[<KEY3>]

so..... what you're saying is that someone (I'm guessing Warhol) spilt a glass of red wine on the art world's suede dress and basquait payed for the cleaning?

that scene in the airplane graveyard was kind of cool.



oh... this just reminded me opf a tread I was going to make in ch.zes.... zero.

[the_gooch]

Originally posted by wiseguy@Dec 7 2004, 02:38 AM
...at least it will be writers making money off of graffiti designs instead of some random fashion company.
Quoted post



good point

[the_gooch]

Originally posted by seeking@Dec 8 2004, 04:18 PM
i always forget how much i like gingerbread, then christmas time rolls around and i remember again.

if anything, i think basquiat proved that talent is irrelivent in the face of egomaniacle (seemingly unfounded) confidence. if you act like you're the shit and anything you do is the greatest thing ever, there are a good portion of people who will go along with you simply because they don't want to be behind the times or out of the loop. remember 'cant buy me love'? basquiat is the ronald miller of the pop art world.

seeks/that was funny.
Quoted post



hahaha

yeah that is totally valid!

good point as well!

[the_gooch]

...

[Misteraven]

i think this discussion is getting too deep. bottom line is anyone can take a shot at making loot. whether people actually buy into it or not will decide how worthy the venture is. but you can't knock someone for trying.

[LaCosaNostra]

I wouldn't wear the clothing, but it's OK. IRAK is hot...whatever.

[why write?]

irak tears shit up....id rock one of those shirts to bed hah

[X THIZZ OR DIE X]

damn those irak shirts r pretty sick its sorta eak theyre selling out like that but im sure itll give them good fame

[seeking]

Originally posted by Misteraven@Dec 8 2004, 09:05 PM
i think this discussion is getting too deep. bottom line is anyone can take a shot at making loot. whether people actually buy into it or not will decide how worthy the venture is. but you can't knock someone for trying.
Quoted post


if this discussion is too 'deep', then it is so only in comparison to the shallowness of the product.

no one is knocking them for trying, or even knocking basquait, we're simply questioning the motives of the people who pay exorbinate amounts of money for items that are largely hype.
also, there is the fact that 'writers' are not really the target audience here...atleast not 'real' writers that put in work. this stuff is for hip, scenester 'culture vultures'...if IRAK can put one over on them and make a buck, they've certainly earned that right and i aint mad at them, but ive also earned the right to question those heartless fucks who want to look cool and dick ride on some shit they don't belong to, simply to look 'edgy'.

also, work is really fucking boring and theoretical arguments are wonderful time wasters.

[Good Morning Captain]

My favorite thing about this thread is the dude that was like "Those skulls are biting Giant. Giant could do those skulls better!" and then come to find out that Giant did those skulls.

[The Hipster]

From every thing I have read and seen about irak aren’t they hipsters as well as writers?

isit possible to coincide with live a graffiti life style and also actively be involved with fashion show parties and clothing lines?

Is andre a writer or a hipster because of his involement with Bape?
Or the fact that he produces clothing as well as being one of the most well recognised Parisian writers

[GucciCondom]

Wouldn't rock that shit, but ups for them getting so much rep.

[imported_Tesseract]

Originally posted by Good Morning Captain@Dec 9 2004, 04:42 PM
My favorite thing about this thread is the dude that was like "Those skulls are biting Giant. Giant could do those skulls better!" and then come to find out that Giant did those skulls.
Quoted post


Your favorite part of this thread would be me then, cant blame you,but the point still remains if you read through carefully.
If those are giants skulls tattooed on dudes chest then they're the worse giant skulls i've seen. I aint lying, go check his website and tell me about it.

Secondly, if those are giants skulls, and irak crew used them for a tshirt of their own its weak. For two reasons, one is stated above- they dont reach the quality giant usually has- and two, because if you're such a notorious crew i'd expect to come off with your own designs for your shirts rather than the worst giant skulls and some cheap barbara kruger bite.

I stay on my initial view, more power to them for trying to make the more they can, the i rak ny is a dope tshirt considering their thing, and i hold the right to critisize what i see in terms of nice/bad, cheap/classy without even being a hater.

[turnyourback]

Originally posted by GucciCondom@Dec 9 2004, 05:41 PM
Wouldn't rock that shit, but ups for them getting so much rep.
Quoted post

word..i found it weird that it wasnt even mentioned where the clothes are sold.
doesnt union/nom de guerre have some irak stuff ?

[Good Morning Captain]

Originally posted by Tesseract@Dec 9 2004, 06:43 PM

Secondly, if those are giants skulls, and irak crew used them for a tshirt of their own its weak. .
Quoted post


I do agree with you on this. The focus is obviously not on originality or design. The bottom line is selling a tshirt for money.

[trackstand]

Originally posted by <KEY3>+Dec 7 2004, 03:55 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (<KEY3> - Dec 7 2004, 03:55 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-trackstand@Dec 7 2004, 04:27 PM
What a weird thread.
Quoted post


what a great thread.
DutyFree could use more threads like this!
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

Yeah... I suppose you are right.

[steelchef]

Originally posted by Good Morning Captain+Dec 9 2004, 08:36 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Good Morning Captain - Dec 9 2004, 08:36 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Tesseract@Dec 9 2004, 06:43 PM

Secondly, if those are giants skulls, and irak crew used them for a tshirt of their own its weak. .
Quoted post


I do agree with you on this. The focus is obviously not on originality or design. The bottom line is selling a tshirt for money.
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]


my take on it is like this:
IRAK is not the best crew out there. they are simply the most notorious right now. no one can truly believe that they are the most talented...so why should they have extravegant designs then?
i think their t-shirts are congruent to their graff- make it bold, recognisable, and (god willing) just as ubiquitous. also- i think this represents getting over on people in the literal sense- a bunch of tags with legs roaming around the city as free fame (advertising.). as if racking shit and bombing the fuck out of NY is not enough.
i am not promoting their designs, or choice to make t-shirts, it just makes a lot of sense to me.
and finally, it can be gathered that a few of the members of Irak are set and have nothing to worry about. why then would they try to make money off selling t- shirts?

[Good Morning Captain]

Originally posted by steelchef@Dec 10 2004, 12:29 AM

and finally, it can be gathered that a few of the members of Irak are set and have nothing to worry about. why then would they try to make money off selling t- shirts?
Quoted post



so your implying that someone with a couple of dollars shouldnt be motivated to make more? Thats just silly.

[seeking]

personally, i think it makes perfect sense that they would just rip off other peoples designs. as steelchef said, irak has never been known for talent (outside of earsnots hand perhaps). they're known for whyling out and not giving a fuck....which is inline with the designs.
whatever, i aint mad at them. actually im glad they do shit like this, it makes it way easier for me to laugh at dumb ass white bitches who spend $65 on a tshirt.

[Misteraven]

they're known for a lot more than that. most kids in that crew simply crush shit. sace and earsnot are most talked about, but many others including sperm, fanta, year, zer, and kent have tore up manhattan pretty thoroughly as well. it's a sick pace to keep up, but you still can't go to too many places in nyc and not see sace and/or earsnot (or at least irak) up somehow (usually huge sloppy krink tags or throwups). when you consider what a relatively short period of time they did this in, it's pretty impressive from a bombing point of view. as far as talent... that depends what your looking at. they don't really piece, they don't really do galleries, but as far as bombing... i'd say sace and earsnot have definately written their chapter in graffiti history whether you like their shit or not. beyond that, most kids in that crew are personalities. it's been a long time since writers transcended into becoming street celebrities, and the kids in that crew seem to have an affinity for it. they're arguably the poster children for the lower east side, and show up to most events like rock stars. for the most part, they get treated like so as well. how many other writers get asked to be in photo spreads from so many magazines ranging from graff to culture to fashion? clearly they found their niche and are juicing it for all it's worth or we wouldn't be talking about them.

also the shirts are $28 last i saw which is about average, if not slightly below average, in cost for a tee shirt in nyc these days.

[seeking]

yeah, but $28 isnt that much. i needed to exagerate in order to prove my (futile) point.

i like year's graff. dude is sweet.

i was looking at some pd&c t shirts yesterday. $44 dollars and the damn thing looked like it was sewn inside out. it was pretty damn soft though. but fuck that, i'll just sew my own.

[what.718.bk.]

what a crazy ass thread..these irak dudes are def. sick fux just like me. i love how they are selling the whole image of drugs graff crime and violence. this shit goes hand in hand..at leazt for me it does.

[seeking]

have you thought about a career in rap?

[Can you sign my book???]

Considering Ear Snot went from being homeless and sleeping on trains, to this, I got the utmost respect...I mean NYC is a dog eat dog place, going from living off of stealing, to making clothing based on your crew, WHY NOT????Im gonna assume, Snot didnt even put up his own money to do this, someon probably begged him to do this....People are also forgetting that dudes like SEMZ, CINIK,REMO etc, were pretty much all city...A lot more people are down with IRAK then you know..SACE is one of the most dedicated writers ive ever met...I watched him litteraly hang off a 10 story building with nothing holding him up, to catch tags...SEMEN is one of the funniest most down to earth people ive ever met, or at least he used to be...I used to chill with them all the time, and Snots raking skills are mindblowing...Wed be standing outside a store, and hed literally take orders for what people wanted, and come outside with his pockets bulging....I could go on and on...As far as the celebrity status stuff, i kind of never liked all that bullshit, but people jocked the hell out of them...So fuck it...

[steelchef]

And coming back from the break TKO and IRAK advance to the finals....

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/md/nonsport/trads/tim-brant-200x230.jpg

[rick flair]

get ya jesse james and billy the kid t-shirts here!!!!!

extra extra read all about it!!!

[>>recap da 1]

DUNKS

[Ngati Hrvati]

this thread is banging.......
:burn:

[rick flair]

yeah man it's totally rad!!

[large BALLS]

I mother fucken rack too

nah but for real IRAK is some hard ass shit

[test pattern]

doesn't irak's clothing line sort of defeat the whole purpose of what they do?

[imported_Tesseract]

Originally posted by test pattern@Dec 18 2004, 11:31 AM
doesn't irak's clothing line sort of defeat the whole purpose of what they do?
Quoted post


Unless you steal them from them

[The Hipster]

EARSNOT THREAD
http://www.12ozprophet.com/forum/index.php...opic=35457&st=0 (http://www.12ozprophet.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=35457&st=0)

SACE THREAD
http://www.12ozprophet.com/forum/index.php...topic=51372&hl= (http://www.12ozprophet.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51372&hl=)

[seeking]

i was in some graff store in LA years ago and they had a big sign on the counter, bitching at people about 'respect' because someone caught a small scribe tag on the glass of one of the display boxes. that made me laugh.

[<KEY3>]

^ just like how writers get pissed when someone goes over them
but they'll turn right around and do it to someone else.

[LaCosaNostra]

Originally posted by seeking@Dec 20 2004, 12:43 PM
i was in some graff store in LA years ago and they had a big sign on the counter, bitching at people about 'respect' because someone caught a small scribe tag on the glass of one of the display boxes. that made me laugh.
Quoted post

Hahahah, that's hilarious...Someone in the Chitown thread made some angry post about how someone hit up his brother's van or some shit. I laugh so hard at suckers like them..

[deathmetal.]

earsnot and sacer are fags haha

[El Producto]

sace is gay???i knew earsnot was but sace???

sace is probably my favourite writer..if not, top 5 definately

[Misteraven]

their sexual orientation has nothing to do with this discussion. but since it's been brought up, earsnot is openly gay. sace has never claimed to be and any speculation is exactly that - speculation.

if you'd like to dicuss the subject further start a new thread in the appropriate forum, cause whether they're gay or not is completely off topic.

[The Hipster]

Originally posted by Misteraven@Dec 21 2004, 10:10 PM
their sexual orientation has nothing to do with this discussion. Quoted post

[IzacFour]

New yorkers are way too cynical. I like the designs, keeping it simple.

[Manifesto]

besides the whole is it right for them to sell theyr crew name...

but WHY THE FUCK IS JASON DILL IN THIS PHOTO!
[center/middle guy, bic'ed sides, curly hair in the middle]


http://image.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img01248161.jpg

[haunts]

sacers got some piecing skills.
so how do they get all that krink without robbing kr...i guess theres shops in ny that carry krink?
maybe they are donation gifts...who knows

[fr8lover]

Originally posted by haunts@Dec 30 2004, 09:27 PM
so how do they get all that krink without robbing kr...i guess theres shops in ny that carry krink?
maybe they are donation gifts...who knows
Quoted post


well if you looked at the picture above, you can probably figure out how they get the hookup.

[JesusMachine]

earsnot supports cancer awareness.

[00]

so do I

[IzacFour]

Is it just me or is Jack Black in Irak?

That rhymed.

[society_kills]

those flicks were cool.

the mods, and no disrespect mods, seem to be having an extremely anylitical art fag debate over this, which i find really funny for some reason.

again, no disrespect.

[fatbastard]

Originally posted by haunts@Dec 30 2004, 09:27 PM
so how do they get all that krink without robbing kr...i guess theres shops in ny that carry krink?
maybe they are donation gifts...who knows
Quoted post


are you serious?

[Misteraven]

http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/img10251091759.jpeg

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/538370/541728/

[Misteraven]

source: http://www.beinghunted.com/v40/reviews/2004/september/

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

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

Before we get into describing the graphics and hypothesizing about their meaning, look at the slides and make up your own mind. Those of you who are familiar with Barbara Kruger's work might recognize the "attack irak" visuals. As always, we'll round up this piece with a couple of helpful links. If you're interested in finding IRAK's tees, drop us a note. And, by the way, the name derives from the activity of taking spraycans from a store without leaving money...

[DITDxCULT]

Originally posted by JesusMachine@Dec 7 2004, 11:47 PM
Can somebody tell me why you would push some other crews t-shirts?

who do you think will buy this, hipsters or writers?
Quoted post


I don't know the dudes very well, but I like there work and wouldn't mind supporting them. I would wear the I <3 NY shirt just becuase I like the design.

http://www.gtfuradio.com/images/041904/1.jpg

[Sarah Tonin]

telly?

[GamblersGrin]

yeah thats him. that draft dodgers shirt is pretty cool.

[Coffie Crave]

Can somebody tell me why you would push some other crews t-shirts?

who do you think will buy this, hipsters or writers?

--------------------

thats what im saying, i can see if these artists came up with some dope looking deisgns on tee's , but all of them are just pushing their crew name, i dont get it...it sorta fucks up the crew itself to have some weirdo u dont even know walk around with ur crew name on a tee, yeh irak where on point but i think they lost it here, I mean ''bombing'' is like the only thing today that has hard true value to graffiti everything is slowly getting candy coated...i just hate to see a respected ''bombing crew'' to pull some kidrobot bathing ape supreme bullshit

what happend to graffiti?

[Misteraven]

Originally posted by Coffie Crave@Jan 11 2005, 05:22 AM
Can somebody tell me why you would push some other crews t-shirts?

who do you think will buy this, hipsters or writers?

Quoted post


I think that in their mind Irak has become more than just a crew. Going by your logic, why would Irak want anyone else representing their crew? I think with all the work they've put in, that would be a more significant question. (No disrespect to you specifically)

[Misteraven]

http://www.irakny.com

http://www.irakny.com/image16.gif

WANTED BY THE FEDS,HATED BY GIULIANI,ABANDONED BY THEIR FAMILIES AND ADORED BY THE KIDS. NEW YORK GRAFFITI OUTFIT IRAK ARE THE MOST NOTOIOUS CREW TO EMERGE FROM NEW YORK IN OVER A DECADE. ON A MISSION TO SELF-DESTRUCT,THEIRS IS A NIHILISTIC,NOCTURNAL WORLD WHERE EVERY WALL IS A BLANK CANVAS AND EVERY NIGHT IS NEW YEAR'S EVE.

[Coffie Crave]

/\ now thats a shirt i would buy...haha

[Fox Mulder]

http://www.irakny.com/image11.jpg

[The Hipster]

looking forword to see whats on the site

[The Hipster]

http://www.irakny.com/image53.jpg

[HAL]

No thanks.

[The Hipster]

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/cabinet/img02268925.jpg
http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/img10251202622.jpeg
http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/img10251165503.jpeg
http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/img10251202626.jpeg
http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/essense/img10251165484.jpeg

[imported_b0b]

Just went to that Japanese website and I noticed that every single item has sold out under it. Do you reckon they are talking about the crew or the stock levels?

<img src=http://www.graffitiaddicts.com/soldout.jpg>

[The Hipster]

^lol.

[X THIZZ OR DIE X]

whens their site gonna be back up?

[Hank Parker]

Sorry....but i'd rack the UBUY shit.
Hahahahahaha!

[El Producto]

i dont think IRAK are sellouts...its not like theyre commercialising graf really..by selling their shirts they are just making a bit of money...i mean, yeah it is a bit gay to make money off graf like that but they have earned their dues...havent they?? im not from new york so i cant say how hard theyve bombed, but from what i see they bomb fucking hard and have been for a while...if they are still bombing and selling these t-shirts i dont think they are sellouts

[inkblots]

ubuy irak nice amen

[Nic Thamaire]

mb EXCLUSIVE:
How a Freelancer Became a National Threat

Urban style and culture writer Richard Baimbridge prides himself on being the penultimate outsider (one of his more controversial Paper Magazine pieces was about drinking his own urine). But, he never dreamed his piece on a graffiti crew called Irak could land him on the FBI's list of suspected terrorists....

In Baimbridge's own words:

"I wrote an article for Dazed and Confused magazine in London several months ago about a NY graffiti gang called Irak. The magazine has been terrible about paying me, but swore that the money had been sent as of last week, even though my bank swore the money had not been received. Actually, the money had in fact been sent -- but the description on the wire tranfser said 'for Irak' -- here's the email I received from my editor regarding this..."

From: Susanne Waddell
Reply-To: Susanne Waddell
To: Richard Baimbridge
Date: 12 Oct 2001 12:19:00 +0100

Richard

You have to hear the latest on your money situation the international department from our bank has phoned me to say that your bank won't release the money to you until we'd confirmed that you weren't anything to do with Iraq as that's what was stated on the invoice so I've had to explain what you do who you are etc just a catalogue of disasters when it comes to getting money to you but it shoudl [sic] all be sorted now - let me know if there are any problems

Susanne
--
Publishing Manager
Dazed & Confused

----------------------------
The following is the letter Baimbridge, a writer for Details, Maxim, Wired, Condé Nast Traveler and Black Book magazine, sent to Chase Manhattan Bank Special Investigations, to release his frozen funds. We'll keep you posted on any new developments in the case!


Richard Baimbridge
Freelance Journalist
[address removed by mb]
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tel. 718.XXX.XXXX
[email protected]

15 October, 2001

Dear Sirs:

As per your request for information concerning the nature of an international wire transfer to my account on the day of October 8, 2001, in the amount of $500 from Lloyd’s Bank of London, I would like you to know that there has apparently been a serious misunderstanding. The description "for Irak" appeared on the invoice, which triggered an investigation and freezing of the funds. I understand the need for caution, given recent events. However, I am a freelance journalist, not a terrorist. This money was a payment for an article I wrote several months ago about a New York-based graffiti crew called "Irak." It was published by the British fashion and culture magazine, Dazed&Confused, and then re-published in Sweden. The research, as you have requested to know, was conducted entirely throughout various bars, bridges, storefronts and subway tunnels in lower Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as at my friend Kenneth’s house on the Lower East Side. Likewise, the "materials" that I used while investigating this article, as you have demanded to know prior to releasing the funds, consist of a laptop computer, some Krylon spraypaint, a "hoody" (a hooded sweatshirt), and a copy of "The Art of Getting Over", by the graffiti artist Revs. I also used the latest Capone’n’Norega (no relation to Manuel) album for inspiration in writing the piece.

To make the matter absolutely clear, the word "Irak" doesn’t even have anything to do with the country Iraq. Rather, it is urban slang, with origins in Hip Hop culture. The expression "to rack" literally means "to steal" (usually spraypaint), thus the tag "Irak" basically means "I’m a shoplifter." Graffiti artists often tend to boast and/or associate themselves with such anti-social themes.

I hope this answers all of your questions, and settles the matter entirely, as the funds were designated to pay my rent. Thank you for your concerned efforts. If you have any further questions, please contact me on my cellie at 917.XXX.XXXX.


Sincerely,


Richard Baimbridge

http://www.mediabistro.com/spotlight/archives/01/10/15/

[ENO ELPMIS]

i thought espo wrote art of getting over right

[2 blaazed]

u guys can call them sell outs all you want.But if you and your graff crew could make money off of clothes designed by your crews name..you would do it too...

[justaname]

think the 7th letter crew.....
edit because i can't type for shit!

[E-DubleSkilZ]

These fools are rock stars. I guess they just dont give a fuck no more. They even posted a flick with the whole crew and all there faces..

Anyways where can u purchase the gear????

[Samsung]

Nom. I heard Alife but only the shoe store is open. Not sure where else.

[The Hipster]

IRAK FOTOLOG (http://www.fotolog.net/iraknyc)

[Frate_Raper]

The skull tattoo debate-IT'S A MEXICAN DAY OF THE DEAD SKULL YOU JERKS! Giant isn't the only fucking tattoo artist in the world,maybe in the graffiti fish bowl but I'm pretty sure any artist thats into Latino art and Americana styled flash has done one.

I have one from an artist unrelated to grafifti is it a Giant bite?

Irak shirts are funny,they're pimping the joe public into reading their names and now they're pimping stupid fashion fags in to wearing it!GOOD ON YA!

[Samsung]

I think what the Irak crew is doing isn't that bad. ITs getting up by all means and making a little money. Personally I wouldn't buy any of the clothing, but I won't knock it.

Yeah people know that giant isn't the only one that does the latino style tattoo. But becuase he is also a graffiti writer and a good one at that people assume hes the best and anyone else is just biting off his style.

[fermentor666]

I don't understand how these guys haven't gotten arrested.

[hulk hogan]

i want fuck fenway shirt

[fermentor666]

Jealous much?

[Dumb Vandal]

espo sticks out like a sore thumb in that crew pic

[!@#$%^&*]

Originally posted by Coffie Crave@Jan 11 2005, 10:22 AM
Can somebody tell me why you would push some other crews t-shirts?

who do you think will buy this, hipsters or writers?

thats what im saying, i can see if these artists came up with some dope looking deisgns on tee's , but all of them are just pushing their crew name, i dont get it...
Quoted post


This seems to be the big deal with other writers. But I'll tell you this much, I would put money into Irak's hands way before putting into the hands of people like Mark Ecko who just capitalize off of graffiti with out actually having to do it. I'm not into graffiti clothing, but alot of kids are. I just think these dudes made some shirts and put them up for sale. I dont think they are trying to become a huge clothing company. For their "image" this shit works, and I cant hate on em for doin it.

[The Hipster]

some one ask where to get them from i seen nyc's nom de gar had a cupple in.

and quite farly priced i thought as well.

[Giving Tree]

again, i'll ask, "how the fuck are they not popped yet?"

[Sarah Tonin]

http://www.epiclylaterd.com/IMG_1954.jpg

[student loans]

Originally posted by Sarah Tonin@Apr 19 2005, 02:34 AM
http://www.epiclylaterd.com/IMG_1954.jpg
Quoted post

twills!

[TwoForFifty]

bump to irak for making money off of a shitty hobby..

[handshark]

which one is espo

[Samsung]

hes wearing sneakers

[handshark]

aight dude

[The Hipster]

If you believe what the New York Police Department’s Vandal Squad says, graffiti is the first sign of a neighborhood that is out of control. But if you look a bit closer, and start to decipher the names that re-appear over and over again all throughout lower Manhattan - on corrugated metal storefront gates, nightclub bathroom walls, delivery trucks parked in Chinatown, burned into the glass of SoHo boutiques with etching cream - there’s actually no question as to who’s in control. In case you need it spelled out, the large public announcement that graced the Brooklyn Bridge last year made it perfectly clear: Graffiti is alive. Fuck Giuliani” - brought to you courtesy of lrak.
From a historical perspective of New York graffiti culture, the Brooklyn Bridge, a protected national landmark, is the Holy Grail of tagging. It’s only been done successfully three times, one of which resulted in the fall and subsequent death of 18 year-old David Smith, aka “Sane, half of the famous Smith-Sane brothers who, along with sacred names like Cost and Revs, Ghost, Toxic, Kaws, Crash, Tracy 168 and Futura 2000, are now so legendary as to be bedtime stories for today’s new generation of graf writers.
Sitting next to me in a hooded sweatshirt with glittering letters that spell-out “New York” is a bloke who’s on a hell-bent mission to achieve that same level of fame. Smooth-faced, strikingly attractive and characteristically pissed-off about life in general, Earsnot (he once misread the word “earshot” in a skateboarding magazine, and adopted the name as his tag) explains the origins of his crew, lrak. “lrak literally means ‘I steal’” he explains. ‘‘Racking’ means stealing or shoplifting, which is what some of us do for a living. A never-ending gangsta rap soundtrack blares in the background as ‘Snot” (as his friends affectionately call him) glances across the room at his partner Rehab, a Skinny young kid from the Dominican Republic. “We figure that we’re making between $40-50,000 a year each boosting, and that’s not even counting what we rack just for our own personal use. Although I don’t really know why I steal clothes since I wear the same thing every day.”
Talking to anyone in lrak is next to impossible without being fluent in the languages of graffiti and New York hip hop, as well as their own secret vernacular of “islands” (lines of coke), “lizzy bags” (hidden linings constructed of aluminum foil placed inside of messenger bags, meant for passing through security checks with items that have sensor tags), or realizing that every person has a minimum of two aliases.
lrak is certainly not the Only active graffiti crew in New York, nor are they the only ones to “boost” (selling shoplifted goods to a “bumpy” - retail stores that purchase the items, then resell them to the public). What sets lrak apart, however, is the incredible relentlessness of their schedule, which is essentially seven days a week, 365 days a year, as well as the sheer audacity under which they operate. Riding down Broadway on skateboards at midnight, they carry stolen $800 Gucci bags, loaded with spraypaint, cutting through the middle of traffic and kicking the shit out of anyone who gets in their way. Their politics are nil, their singular passion is achieving fame through graffiti, and their motto iS: “Every night is New Year’s Eve.” The never-ending marathon of coke, heroin, alcohol and pills is funded communally by profits from boosting, and nearly every night they spend their last dollar on getting fucked up.
lrak also stands out as an anomalous, culturally-diverse crew, crossing all ethnic and socio-economic boundaries, summed up in their leader, Snot, who is black and openly gay (with a preference for large, middle-aged white construction workers). In a scene that is fiercely homophobic, he often uses the tag “Kwearsnot” just to taunt his peers. The Tattoo on his arm is of saddam hussien with a bulging cock in his trousers. “I think the man is very sexy,” Earsnot says. “I’m not going to hide my sexuality and inconvenience my lifestyle just because some people have problems with it.”
A comparison to the film Kids is inevitable when you hang with lrak. And some of the crew are friends with director Harmony Korine, who they say checks in with them from time to time to swap stories. Semen is a long-haired bloke from Jersey who lives in the projects, just above a fried chicken restaurant with a huge sign that reads ‘Wings and Liquor.” His signature tag, a smiling sperm, pops up everywhere on the route to his home. “When I saw the movie Kids,” his friend Area, the youngest member of lrak, says, stretched out in bed with his sneakers on, drinking a ghetto-vintage bottle of Thunderbird wine, “I thought to myself, ‘Fuck yeah! I wanna do that! Going to the coolest clubs, doing drugs all the time, fucking shit up. I’d do anything to be like that.”’
On what could be described as a fairly typical night out for lrak, we hit a graf writer’s party at a bar on the Lower East Side. Earsnot is in the back, smoking a blunt along with a few others, when the bouncer walks up and asks him to leave. He responds by blowing a cloud of smoke into the man’s face, and picking up a pool cue. The bouncer warns him to put it down, and pulls a knife to make his point. Three members of the crew jump the bouncer, as Snot is dragged out the door, holding onto a chair which he smashes to pieces. Snot punches the bouncer in the face, and the police arrive. But before anyone can be apprehended, the members of lrak jump into a white limousine (hired out for someone’s birthday) and speed off. They don’t get far, however, before the driver stops and throws them out for doing charlie and smoking spliffs. The car disappears and once again they are left on the street with nothing but a skateboard, which is promptly run over by a car and broken in half. Earsnot throws up his hands in disgust, and stomps away.
The episode back at the bar wouldn’t have happened, he says, if the bouncer had not upset the strict code of conduct they live by. A bar that is friendly to graf writers is treated with utmost respect, but as Snot says they singled me out because I’m black, so tuck them.” At that point, any form of retaliation becomes acceptable.
It’s only been about a week of hanging with lrak, and already I’ve noticed some personality changes in myself. Aside from the 7am to 5pm sleep schedule, I can’t seem to go into a store without nicking something. When I walk through a bar, I notice people step out of the way. When you walk with Irak, you feel as if you’re in an invincible cocoon. Everyone and everything outside the crew is vulnerable, but if you’re down with the crew, there’s nothing to fear - you are loved and protected, despite Snot’s frequent flip-out dramas, which are usually forgiven almost as quickly as they happen.
We pass through an endless barrage of nightclubs, following a trail of hip hop DJs, chilling until we are inevitably thrown out - usually because Sace (one of the two members of lrak who did the Brooklyn Bridge piece, the other has since been thrown out of the crew) has set something on fire, or because someone has been caught using drugs. There is a long list of clubs that lrak is banned from, but new ones keep opening, so the party just moves on. All the while, spray cans and markers are pulled out every few blocks to mark lrak’s territory like dogs pissing on fire hydrants; a message to the world that says, This little piece of New York is mine”
Just like grunge rock died with Kurt Cobain, for many people New York graffiti died the day the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) started the Clean Trains” anti_graffiti programme, buffing trains that were bombed before they were allowed out in public view. The city of New York had declared war on writers, hitting some with massive fines, so many chose to move on to the safe haven of art galleries. To that extent, the public at large tends to think the graffiti wars are over now, and that the city won. Few take notice of the ongoing dialogue on the streets today, but Irak -and a few other zealous youngsters - are starting to grab their attention once again. There’s definitely a new generation of writers that are ready to bust loose,” says Semz, who is currently at the top of the Vandal Squad’s most wanted list. “But unlike lrak, they don’t get together and meet in the Lower East Side every night, and roam the fuckin’ streets and do fill-ins and take tags. No crew does that. Irak is a beautiful thing, but it’s ridiculous because no one wants to realise what they have right now. It’s not even about the graffiti, it’s about getting together and having amazing times - meeting at five at night and staying out until five in the morning. 12 hours a day, every day. And if I miss a day, I feel so fuckin’ left out.”
Sace is 18 years old and has no job other than boosting. He wears a reversible leather/fur Gucci jacket that cost over $5,000. He got it less than a month ago, and already the sleeve is covered in paint stains. Sace could easily pass for Hollywood’s next rising star, with his drop-dead good looks. A tattoo of the Virgin Mary with an Uzi machine gun stretches across his slim chest, and a gold chain with a gold-plated combat tank hangs from his neck. Sitting in the dim light of a bar, girls look at him with a sort of intimidated fascination. Another strange thing about lrak, half of them look like Calvin Klein models. In fact, Earsnot was recently included in Paper magazine’s list of the 50 most beautiful people in New York.
Snot’s beauty and individuality extend well beneath the surface, as well. No doubt, like the others, he has a dark side, but the more I get to know the members of lrak, the more I find myself drawn to them. In fact, they’re probably some of the best blokes you could ever hope to have as friends, which makes it sad to think that, in many cases, their parents have abandoned them. They may look scary, and certainly they fuck off a lot of people, but society is more afraid of lrak than it should be. These aren’t the kids who shoot up their classmates at school, those nervous little introverts who bottle up their aggression then explode ‘cause they feel powerless. The kids in lrak are the exact opposite. Their rage is channelled into self-destruction, and though it is in some ways the source of their troubles, graffiti is also their one saving grace because it’s the thing that helps keep them ‘on point.’ You realise that when you look out at the crevice of the Brooklyn Bridge that Sace stood on to make his tag, and see that one small error would have sent him falling to his death.
Sace recently fled the country after the FBI came looking for him for various crimes that he prefers not to divulge. He went on the lam for months, turning his exile into a graffiti-tour of Rome, Madrid and Amsterdam. His hand is covered in cuts from punching out a window earlier in the day, and he talks with a nasal voice, like a bad guy in a ‘40s gangster movie, confiding in me that he likes to read the poetry of Rimbaud. Sace’s parents (who he asks me to write in the article are dead) disowned him after he went to jail. When I ask him why he wants me to say his parents are dead, he says “I want them to see this article. And I want them to read that I said that.”
You could say Sace, like the others, is a bit childish. But then Rimbaud was also a graffiti writer at the age of 17, chalking “Merde a Dieu’ on park benches in Paris, getting smashed on absinthe and hash, and getting shot by Verlaine before heading to Africa to become a gun-runner, where he renounced his poetry as “absurd, ridiculous and disgusting” right up until he died. lrak is definitely a combination of juvenile stupidity, legitimate art (aside from graffiti, some of the crew are painters whose work has been exhibited), and hardcore violence without remorse. “Sometimes I see a nice old lady working in a store, and i feel kinda bad,’ says Rehab. But if she’s gonna get in my way of making $300, I’m gonna knock the bitch out.’ One of Rehab’s friends is in jail now for killing a store owner in Chinatown over the botched theft of a baseball cap (he claims the death was an accident).
Racking paint has always been an integral part of graffiti, but Earsnot believes entire fashion trends can be traced back to graf writers and their habit of racking expensive clothing. “No one in the ghetto ever heard of North Face or Polo until people like Lo-Lifes started racking that shit,” Snot says. “It was all about going to some store in the suburbs, racking these butter jackets (butter
dope/expensive) just because they cost mad money. Then your friends would see it and be like ‘yo that shit cost $400? Wordl I want one, too’. Then they’d make their mama buy them one instead of paying the heating bill. Muthafucka Ralph Lauren owes us for that shit.”
Nearly all of the crew has been to jail at least once. On another night I am with lrak, one of their mates has just gotten out of jail, so they head to a newly-opened bar to celebrate. The DJ is spinning New York hip hop Notorious BIG, the RZA arid Capone-n-Noreaga, as the Irakians sing along to every word, cigarettes dangling from their lips, drinks all around, snorting bumps of cocaine off the tips of keys until the waitress catches on and throws them out. Then it’s on to the next club, and the next one after that.
The heroin starts to flow, and Earsnot is walking down the street, vomiting every few steps some awful red colour, wearing his headphones and listening to The Bends. We make it to a club, where he hangs under the table throwing up into a pile of napkins on the floor. On the way home, they stop at every chance to make tags arid do fill-ins, whether on delivery trucks or walls. “I want the kids who ioo~ at this stuff to wonder ‘Who the tuck are these guys?’” says Semz. ‘Their curiosity creates our mystery. Once they really know who we are, they’re gonna have no real respect for us.”
Sitting on the floor of his bare apartment, Sace shows me a framed photograph of an oil tanker, the entire side of which is marked with the most enormous tag I have ever seen in roy life. It says ‘TIE”, and is a tribute in red and silver paint to one of lrak’s mates who was shot in the back of the head. ‘That motherfucker,” he says, pointing to the ship, “sailed all the way to Japan. We got pictures of the fuckin’ ship from writers in Japan.”
Whether it’s true or not (bravado and exaggeration are endemic in the graffiti world), it’s still an unbelievably beautiful image to think of an oil tanker moving along out in the middle of the ocean on its way to Japan carrying a giant tag on its hull. And it’s undoubtedly the greatest tribute I could ever possibly imagine to a fellow graffiti writer’s life that was cut short, just as Sace took the time to add to his tag on the Brooklyn Bridge a memorial that read “Sane, R.I.P7
Its hard to imagine what these kids will be like in ten years, when the name lrak fades away from the city streets beneath the paint of the future generation of writers. With today’s kids numbed by MTV ‘Jack Ass” stunts, backyard extreme-wrestling federations, gangsta rap, and school shootings, lrak has had to work hard just to be noticed: ultimately what graffiti is all about.
Outside, the sky is starting to change colours, signalling the arrival of morning. The last of the drugs are gone, as Earsnot stumbles out the door for an hour_long subway ride home to the Bronx. He needs to grab a few hours rest. After all, tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve, and he has to live up to the tag under his photo in Paper that reads: “There is nothing more beautiful than a criminal.”






stolen off a forum that said it was stolen from 12oz

[godsend]

hey. just wanted to add that you dont make that much money doing tshirts. a few people have most deffinately, but with the amount of people that are doing it now, its really really hard to make any big money. it may seem like, woah that thsirt is $80, but it can cost $50 to put it out after all things are considered. also its damn hard work, its not like ill scribble on a tshirt and sit back and watch the $$ roll in. all the borings ins and outs make it a really hard job. you really have to want to do it, otherwise it would be easier to just get a decent job, work less, less stress and probably get paid the same, and not have to deal with the "sell out" blah blah and also not having to deal with putting your rep on the line on a thsirt design every time.

[The Hipster]

http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_2.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_14.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_19.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_25.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_66.jpg
Polaroids by irak crews dash

link (http://www.tinyvices.com/dash_snow.html)

[El Producto]

snorting coke off another guys penis??. i dont know why they decided it would be a good idea to put that photo on the internet...


anyway, other than the photos of naked men, that link is dope hipster, thanks.

[The Hipster]

^

hahah i know what you are saying mate!

[mackfatsoe]

rock and roll baby

[inkblots]

[FONT=Optima][SIZE=14]bumpthis

[The Hipster]

http://www.earsnot.org/

[courtorder]

^?

[BLAZE SOME HATE]

:spent: :spent2: :spent3: :china: :disguised: :privateeye:

[WhiteOx]

Originally posted by The Hipster@May 4 2005, 11:54 AM
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_2.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_14.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_19.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_25.jpg
http://www.tinyvices.com/DASH_66.jpg
Polaroids by irak crews dash

link (http://www.tinyvices.com/dash_snow.html)
Quoted post



looks like last dude smeared blood everywhere for dramatic effect

[Manifesto]

those nigguhs end up ass naked too often.

[Can you sign my book???]

My favorite picture is of the one with MIZE gettin his dick sucked by that nasty black bitch...With that said, as a former friend and acquaintaince to some of those in those pictures, whos lost contact, i am a little scared to see such blantant bad drug use being glorified....It is far from cool, and a bit scary...Shit i used to party, but How can they go on so long just not giving a fuck like that....So much talent can be flushed down the toilet living your life like that....I guess if you dont have to work a day in your life, you can live like that...Thumbs down....

[trackstand]

i dont know how long it is going to take for people to realize that poloroids of them doing heroin and vomitting are played out.

[dear sas]

i thought they were funny :dazed:

[The Hipster]

Originally posted by trackstand@May 17 2005, 05:05 AM
i dont know how long it is going to take for people to realize that poloroids of them doing heroin and vomitting are played out.
Quoted post



how many poloroids of people doing heroin and vomitting do you see?

[trackstand]

Originally posted by The Hipster+May 17 2005, 01:50 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Hipster - May 17 2005, 01:50 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-trackstand@May 17 2005, 05:05 AM
i dont know how long it is going to take for people to realize that poloroids of them doing heroin and vomitting are played out.
Quoted post



how many poloroids of people doing heroin and vomitting do you see?
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

Maybe it is my fault and I wasn't clear enough about what I was trying to say, but you totally missed the point. I just feel that the glorification of that kind of lifestyle is dangerous, and also completely played the fuck out.

I've been to countless art school shows where the premise is hard drug use, and even more specifically "vices". Ok, cool. You got your pack of Malboro Reds, your bag of coke, a rolled up hundred dollar bill fresh from the ATM, a handle of whiskey and now you are going to take photos of it. Give me a fucking break, that shit is so tired.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some dogmatic straight edge kid either. I just know excessive when I see it. Do drugs, trustfund, act gay, take photos of yourself, get drunk, go tagging, do more drugs, have sex, act gayer. I can see why such a lifestyle interests people, but once someone who you were close to dies of a drug overdose I think it just kind of loses its appeal and becomes scary. Maybe I'm just not enough of a hipster. Sorry.

[The Hipster]

yeah man i take your point. i did right a long rambling response but deleted it fuck it fare play.

[RawSewage]

more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography
more irak photography

[RawSewage]

http://www.saster.net/sgallery/wm.php?i=albums/userpics/10002/IRAK.jpg

[nycbeatstreet]

DILLS IN THAT PHOTO CUZ HE CHILLS WITH IRAK CREW OBVIOSULY THEY ARE ALL HIPSTESR FROM DOWNTOWN

[Manifesto]

Originally posted by nycbeatstreet@May 22 2005, 06:55 PM
DILLS IN THAT PHOTO CUZ HE CHILLS WITH IRAK CREW OBVIOSULY THEY ARE ALL HIPSTESR FROM DOWNTOWN
Quoted post



my previous posts in this thread got deleted for calling out that Dill was in all them photos.

from clean cut skater kid from california –
to this freak of a hipster...

[The Hipster]

The New York Times today ran a fucking amazing story about Simon Curtis of the Irak Crew. In case you missed it, here' the article in it's entirety.

The New York Times on Simon Curtis of the Irak Crew

http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/22feat_span.jpg

Unmerry Prankster


By Steven Kurutz
EVEN now, four years later, people who know Simon Curtis still can't believe the odd series of events that led him to spend the last year in jail. And although Mr. Curtis readily admits that he was living recklessly, drinking too much, taking drugs and spraying graffiti on the Lower East Side, he didn't exactly see a state prison in his future when he went to an art opening on the night of July 14, 2001.

The show, titled "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," after a Flannery O'Connor story, was held at 31 Grand, a small, well-maintained gallery along a strip of paint-chipped warehouses in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was a group show, and a young friend of Mr. Curtis's, a darkly beautiful photographer named Michelle Cortez, was among the artists whose work was on exhibit.

A good-size crowd had turned out, and a loose, partylike atmosphere prevailed. As the evening wound down, Mr. Curtis, then 31, found himself nearly alone inside the gallery and eyeing his favorite photo, a self-portrait of Ms. Cortez that showed her topless and wearing ripped stockings. He was feeling contented and mischievous and also a little drunk. It suddenly occurred to him that it would be funny to show up with the photo at Max Fish, a Lower East Side bar where Ms. Cortez had gone with friends. As a group of people stood outside smoking cigarettes in the sticky air, he reached up, plucked the photo from the wall and shuffled out.

It was a spur-of-the-moment act, a juvenile prank, but one that had far-reaching consequences. From the theft would spring a high-speed getaway, an alleged kidnapping and an assault on a gallery owner. Later, there would follow criminal charges and a grand jury proceeding, a blunt intrusion of law and order into a carefree world.

"I've run that night over in my head so many times," said Mr. Curtis, who is to be paroled this month. "I think about it way too much."

Everything Comes Crashing Down

Had Mr. Curtis chosen any other photo, he might have gotten away with the theft. But the self-portrait was hanging high on the wall, and he aroused the notice of Heather Stephens, an owner of the gallery. She had once worked in a record store, and was, as she put it, "used to chasing shoplifters." As Mr. Curtis was leaving the gallery, he turned and saw Ms. Stephens and Michael Delmonte, another partner in the gallery, frantically running after him.

Outside, friends of Mr. Curtis's were waiting, unaware, in a silver Mercedes sport-utility vehicle. The driver was Sam Salganik, a 24-year-old sometime D.J., and the car belonged to his parents. Sitting beside him was Ryan McGinley, an ambitious 23-year-old photographer whose visceral snapshots of his friends tumbling their way through an extended adolescence were starting to attract attention in the art world.

Mr. Curtis, trailed by the two gallery partners and a group of their friends, jumped into the S.U.V., and, as he later wrote in a letter from prison, the night devolved into "a scene out of 'Dawn of the Dead.' "

With the gallery partners' friends banging on the windows, the S.U.V. drove off. But not before Ms. Stephens either was pulled or jumped into the back seat - there is a difference of opinion over this - and Mr. Delmonte either jumped or was scooped onto the hood. The next few minutes unfolded with a dreamlike unreality.

According to testimony 11 days later before a grand jury, Ms. Stephens sat screaming in the back seat while Mr. Salganik barreled down Kent Avenue at upward of 50 miles an hour with Mr. Delmonte clinging to his hood. Finally, out of desperation, Mr. Delmonte punched the car's windshield, causing a section of it to spider-web.

Mr. Salganik refused to comment on the events of that night, and Mr. McGinley did not return repeated telephone calls. But Mr. Curtis, in his letter, described what happened next: "Sammy exclaimed, 'That's it!,' jerked his car over to the side of the curb, stopped abruptly, jumped out of the car, pulled his shirt off, raised his fists in a fighting stance, and said, 'Now it's on!' "

Speaking to the grand jury, a shaken Mr. Delmonte later described falling to the ground and being repeatedly punched by Mr. Salganik as he scurried, crablike, to the curb.

Amid the chaos, Ms. Stephens recovered the photo, which was priced around $500, and dashed out of the S.U.V. Mr. Curtis and his friends sped away to Max Fish as the mood inside the car shifted from giddy euphoria to shock to a queasy feeling that something terrible had just happened.

Graffiti Days and Rooftop Nights

Simon Curtis is tall and affable, with a shy inwardness befitting a teenagehood spent alone in the bedroom drawing comics and pouring over heavy metal and punk records. Even now, at age 35, his face is both stubble-marked and fleshy, a disarming mix of man and boy.

Friends often describe Mr. Curtis as "a genius," "a crazy guy" or both. "Simon is the most ahead-of-the-curve guy I've ever known," said Matt Sweeney, a musician and a founding member of the indie bands Chavez and Superwolf who has known Mr. Curtis since they were teenagers growing up in Maplewood, N.J. "He's a tastemaker."

But Mr. Curtis could also be erratic and difficult. "He's the only person I ever hit," Mr. Sweeney said. "He did not have control of his emotions and would act out. But I ended up missing him, so we made up. That's been my relationship with him."

Mr. Curtis moved to New York in 1991 to study photography at the School of Visual Arts, and in the years that followed, he fashioned an active, if somewhat unfocused, life in the city's cooler precincts. He roomed with a former member of Nirvana, created a fanzine called Manzine that spoofed macho culture, hung out with the cast of the Larry Clark film "Kids," appeared in a Sonic Youth video, spun records at clubs like the now-shuttered Moomba and started a clothing line, moving back in with his parents when he couldn't pay the rent.

At the time of the fateful gallery opening, he was a member of the Irak crew, a group of graffiti writers and self-styled hooligans described by the downtown magazine Vice as "rude, illegal" and "always on the verge of losing their lives." Mr. Curtis was known for spraying an image of a wiggling sperm cell on walls around the city.

"It's not easy staying hip," he said half-jokingly of his ability to keep pace with the downtown scene. "A lot of people give up or move to the suburbs. I always wanted to be where something was happening."

In 1999, where something was happening was Mr. McGinley's walk-up apartment on Seventh Street near Avenue A. The interior was both sparsely furnished and in constant disarray, as if every day were the morning after a party. Which it often was. As a house ritual, Mr. McGinley used to snap Polaroids of his visitors, and a wall was plastered with snapshots, a tribute to the parade of revelers that had passed through.

Along with Mr. Salganik and Mr. Curtis, the regulars included Ms. Cortez, who had attended the Parsons School of Design with Mr. McGinley; an Irak member and prodigious shoplifter called Earsnot; and Dash Snow, who grew up on East 13th Street and began doing graffiti in his teens.

During the years Mr. Curtis spent apartment-hopping downtown, he figured out which buildings had rooftop access, and he and the Irak crew used to stage midnight graffiti runs or hold parties on the roof. These were halcyon days, what Dash Snow called "a golden period." No one had a full-time job.

"Everybody knew everybody," Ms. Cortez recalled. "You'd think it was a small town." As for what drew everyone together, Dash Snow said, "Not to say substances, but that was a big part of it." (Dash Snow, who is 23, said he suffered complete liver failure last year and had stopped drinking and tagging because "I'm not trying to go to jail.")

For the Irak crew, what would normally have qualified as a misspent youth became, by virtue of Mr. McGinley's camera and, later, his role as the photo editor of Vice, an iconic happening. He would become the youngest artist to be given a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, bolstering his status even further.

"Hanging out with Ryan you feel like you're part of an infamous moment," Gavin McInnes, a founder of Vice, wrote in a New York-theme issue of the British magazine Dazed & Confused. "Like it's going to end up in our generation's version of Please Kill Me. Even when you're puking or getting swastikas drawn on your passed out face you're thinking, 'I'm making history.' "

If such thinking inevitably led to that night at the gallery, it wasn't Mr. Curtis's first crazy stunt. He and the Irak crew once descended on a house party and covered the host's apartment in graffiti. Another time, he appeared near catatonic and high on angel dust on a cable-access television show called "The Kid America Adventure Hour." ("That was a bad one," Mr. Curtis said.)

"I think Simon was definitely begging for trouble," said Mr. Sweeney, his friend from Maplewood. "I've worried about him in the past."

Reality's Harsh Lens

In the days and weeks after the theft, a certain individualism took hold among those involved.

The next day, as Ms. Stephens recalls, Mr. McGinley phoned her and tried to distance himself from that night, saying, "I was only catching a ride." (Mr. McGinley was never charged with a crime.)

A few nights later, Mr. Curtis and Mr. Salganik spun records at a Knitting Factory party, but they parked the damaged S.U.V. several blocks from the club, and with good reason; the police showed up at the Knitting Factory several days later looking for them. Apparently, Mr. Salganik was not cut out for the fugitive life. About a week and a half after the theft, he turned himself in to the police.

When Mr. Curtis did not follow suit, and shaved off his long brown hair, Mr. Salganik phoned him repeatedly and called his elderly parents in Maplewood. Finally, Mr. Curtis went to the police, since, in his words: "It would be a good thing to do as a friend. After all, I did cause the whole thing." In late July, he spent an unpleasant day going through what he called "bullpen therapy" in central booking. He was released and subsequently missed a court date that had been set for September 2001 - "stupidly blew it off," as he put it, and spent the next two years ducking the charges.

While Mr. Curtis was hanging out on the Lower East Side, partying and continuing to spray graffiti, Mr. Salganik faced charges that included assault, petty larceny and unlawful imprisonment. He was eventually sentenced to a "6/5 split," six months in Rikers Island and five years' probation. In a letter he sent to Vice magazine from prison, Mr. Salganik warned readers to "be careful of the company you keep," quoted the rapper 50 Cent and went on to muse on prison culture: "There must be like 400 Angel Nunez's in here" and "The only cigarettes you can get are Kools."

Beyond Mr. Salganik's jailhouse deprivations, everyone caught up in the events of that night endured personal tribulations.

Throughout the high-speed getaway, Mr. McGinley had been furiously snapping photos from the front seat of the S.U.V. Years later, Ms. Stephens was still searching the Internet for the pictures he took, dreading that she might come across them, even though she heard that Mr. McGinley had destroyed them. She began seeing a therapist, and her friendship with Mr. Delmonte ended, largely because whenever they got together, all they talked about was that night at the gallery.

Ms. Stephens still finds it hard to relive the events of that evening. Sitting in her gallery one recent afternoon, she said somewhat defensively: "Have you ever been kidnapped? Have you ever been assaulted?" before growing quiet. She interrupted another conversation to confess: "I'm sorry. I'm having flashbacks about it right now."

Ms. Cortez, upset that her friends had jeopardized her relationship with the gallery, distanced herself from the criminal proceedings. Some of the participants in the events of that night say she could have defused the situation, although Mr. Curtis's lawyer said having Ms. Cortez speak to the authorities would have made no difference.

"To this day, I still get this coldness from Sam," Ms. Cortez said. "I'm not the bad guy here."

In June 2003, almost two years after the theft, Mr. Curtis was finally picked up by the police, this time for spraying graffiti on Avenue A. The authorities soon discovered the prior charges against him, and because he had skipped his earlier court date, he was deemed a flight risk and was unable to post bail. He spent a hot summer in the Tombs, the Lower Manhattan detention complex, where, with his hair once again long, the other inmates called him Howard Stern.

His friends occasionally visited. Mr. Curtis in turn befriended a gang member and had his hair braided by an inmate whom he repaid with Ramen noodles and a can of tuna. But his past life hovered literally within sight. "It was rough going up to the rooftop rec," he admitted, "because I had a bird's-eye view of my downtown stomping grounds."

Because the violent nature of the theft had elevated the crime from larceny to robbery, and because Mr. Curtis had jumped bail, his lawyer advised him to plead guilty, to accept a one-to-three-year sentence and to hope for parole in a year. On July 22, 2004, three years after the night at the gallery, Mr. Curtis was processed at Rikers and eventually sent to the Cayuga Correctional Facility in Moravia, south of Syracuse. "The ride on the bus to Rikers," he said, "wasn't as romantic as they show in rap videos."

Odd Bunkmates, Future Plans

One recent Saturday, Mr. Curtis, dressed in black boots and a green prison jumpsuit, sat among a crowd of inmates and their families in the prison's visiting area and talked about the events of the preceding four years.

For much of the time he wore a sheepish expression, as if he were slightly embarrassed that someone had driven so far to see him. The distance from the city - about 230 miles - has kept most of his friends from visiting, although last fall Dash Snow organized a "Free Simon" party at a Lower East Side bar to raise money to buy art supplies for Mr. Curtis.

In prison, Mr. Curtis has bunked with a convicted murderer and been required to attend vocational classes despite his college degree, but otherwise he seems to have taken his sentence in stride. He spends his days reading and listening to Velvet Underground and Slayer tapes (CD's are not allowed) and he gets issues of Vice sent from the city. Every week, he phones his girlfriend, Meredith, who he met shortly before going to jail.

Mr. Curtis's friends say that he has become more clearheaded and concerned about his future, partly because of a prison-run drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.

"I've wasted a lot of time," he said, in a tone that was uncharacteristically serious. "I've slept on a lot of opportunities and been satisfied with living a certain lousy way. I'd see people get a degree of fame and be jealous, but not understand all the work that went into it."

Mr. Curtis has been promised a job upon his release. A friend who started a clothing label is opening a store on Hester Street, and Mr. Curtis will do graphic design for the company.

"Everybody has been getting serious, not partying so much anymore, trying to take things to the next level, " Mr. Curtis said of the changes among his friends over the past year. Of his own aspirations, Mr. Curtis was more modest. "I'm trying to get a plan together," he said

[The Hipster]

http://www.woostercollective.com/2005/05/n...is-of-irak.html (http://www.woostercollective.com/2005/05/new-york-times-on-simon-curtis-of-irak.html)

[The Hipster]

response on Wooster to the earlier Irak article

Joe responds to today's NYT article on Simon Curtis from the Irak Crew:

"I love your site and have been doing graffiti/street art in some form or another and following it since about 1989. But I do not agree at all about that Simon Curtis article being so great from the Times. This dude acted like a fool, straight up and people are gonna glorify yet another suburban kid and his friends who obviously come from above avearge lifestyles and come to New York acting up and gettin all fucked up on whatever, and then they are made out to be some kind of cool, hip rebels. I am sorry, but I went through hanging in NYC since I was about 15, skating, chillin, doing whatever. Everyone experimented with this and that, got wild, went out, partied, had their fun, etc, etc. So why then is this dude made out to be some "graf rebel". The media comes up with some of the wackest, conrniest stories on things they don't know the half of. It's the same dumb scenario over and over. "Oh he hung out with a crazy group of bandits, he did this and that, he got fucked up" blah blah blah. What a fuckin dumb situation that was. I am not impressed at all with a 31 year old man getting all fucked up and then wondering why the fuck he got into some stupid situation like that. You're not 18 anymore. Yeah it was a prank, yeah he was fucked up on who knows what, but you start putting people's lives and well being at stake, and not knowing when to stop, and you are a grown man, you deserve what you get. If these were kids from the ghetto, they would have never heard the end of it. It would have been attempted murder charges. But these are some rich kids driving around in daddy's mercedes and acting like they are living the rough life. I see way too much of that these days. And then the stupid media bullshit of how they try to portray the dark underworld of what these kids do. It's so corny. The lower east side stopped being any kind of underworld about 15 years ago, so people need to chill with the dramatics. I am just really not impressed with a lot of these portrayals from young artists who have so much, go to expensive ass colleges and pretend they have nothing and are made out to be some kind of geniuses. I am way more impressed with artists who are doing their thing on the down low, not getting all fucked up every night, just into creating and being themselves. Not having to wear all the trendy $100 nike dunks and pre-ripped $100 soho boutique pants. Everyone is trying to live out some NYC fantasy that they saw in movies and read in books, and now they want to pretend they are a part of some movement. NYC will always be one of my favorite places and I grew up here, but any original movements died a long time ago. Maybe that's why all these so called hip people are trying to move near the projects in Brooklyn now, so they can try to convince people they are living the struggle. Life is just not like that in NYC anymore unless you are in the projects. It is the same thing with graffiti, a lot of street art people do not have respect for the art that started what they do. Cost and Revs were doing it years ago, it just wasn't labeled as anything else but graff. Tons of people were doing stickers back then. It just got bigger now and is evolving. But it seems like a lot of street artists really don't know the unwritten rules of it such as going over other people's shit. That's flat out disrespect to wheat paste over a fill in that is someone else's art creation. I am into both street art and graff and I will tell you, if a graff writer saw that happening to his fill in, he'd be pissed and probably fight the dude. Don't get me wrong, a lot of graff writers are caught up in so much unnecessary drama that is such bullshit like all the beef between writers. I could ramble on and on and I am sure you might not agree with everything and it is no disrespect to you directly, I just felt the need to give you my 2 cents on this. I know a lot of street artists and graff wirters are good people with good hearts, but this is aimed more towards the ones who are glorified for all the wrong things, living some soap opera lifestyles that they created all by themselves. I just don't think it is something to look up to when you have these cool people who try to do the right thing and are more on the down low with their art and personalities, not trying to live the rock star lifestyle.
PEACE and keep up the good work!"
Joe

www.woostercollective.com
also www.hurtyoubad.com for the notification via there blog

[Can you sign my book???]

I had been good friends with Sam, Simon, and Ryan, years ago when i too went to Parsons....I had lost contact with them before these events had took place...But had heard about that night, after it happened....I had no idea that Simon spent a year upstate for that shit...Although his actions that night were very much wrong, Simon was a very good person...Big heart, but it does not surprise me at all that this shit happened...This is an example of when the alcohol and drugs blind you from what is really meaningful in life....This is why the glorification of the hard drug life is troubling...Because going to jail is going to happen, or even death, if you live like that for too long...Constantly getting drunk and high is not cool...Shit, Dash had liver failure???That is sad...Not surprising though....Im just glad no one ended up dead...I hope things really have slowed down...After i left NYC, i carried a lot of the "I dont give a fuck attitude" back to where i grew up and lost 5 years of my life to alcohol and drugs...Ive finally ended up on the right track again...If Simon, or anyone who knows him reads this (i know simon used to come on here back in the day), I still got love for yall...I hope you are allright....JEMS KFD

[The Hipster]

http://www.splay.com/mafia/irakparty.jpg
old but never the less.

[The Hipster]

http://www.skateparkoftampa.com/spot/images/dvsnews3.jpg
http://www.labproductions.com/news/music/i...t_from=&ucat=1& (http://www.labproductions.com/news/music/interviews/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1096237159&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&)

LP: Any last words?

Dill: IRAK N.Y.C.

[Manifesto]

Originally posted by The Hipster@Jun 28 2005, 06:48 AM
http://www.skateparkoftampa.com/spot/images/dvsnews3.jpg
http://www.labproductions.com/news/music/i...t_from=&ucat=1& (http://www.labproductions.com/news/music/interviews/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1096237159&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&)

LP: Any last words?

Dill: IRAK N.Y.C.
Quoted post



oh dill,
how you fall victim at such a late age...
shame.

[E-DubleSkilZ]

How did Dill go from hanging out w/ goofy ass Jack Osbourne to chilling w/ IRAK ?

[Abracadabra]

for those that don't know....

jason dill has been an underground legend for years. ever stop to think that he's affiliated with these people cos they are on his dick, and not the other way around?

[sarcasm]

one of my very first "real" skateboard decks was an alien workshop deck

good company

[zooyorkcity]

This is very true....

Joe responds to today's NYT article on Simon Curtis from the Irak Crew:

"I love your site and have been doing graffiti/street art in some form or another and following it since about 1989. But I do not agree at all about that Simon Curtis article being so great from the Times. This dude acted like a fool, straight up and people are gonna glorify yet another suburban kid and his friends who obviously come from above avearge lifestyles and come to New York acting up and gettin all fucked up on whatever, and then they are made out to be some kind of cool, hip rebels. I am sorry, but I went through hanging in NYC since I was about 15, skating, chillin, doing whatever. Everyone experimented with this and that, got wild, went out, partied, had their fun, etc, etc. So why then is this dude made out to be some "graf rebel". The media comes up with some of the wackest, conrniest stories on things they don't know the half of. It's the same dumb scenario over and over. "Oh he hung out with a crazy group of bandits, he did this and that, he got fucked up" blah blah blah. What a fuckin dumb situation that was. I am not impressed at all with a 31 year old man getting all fucked up and then wondering why the fuck he got into some stupid situation like that. You're not 18 anymore. Yeah it was a prank, yeah he was fucked up on who knows what, but you start putting people's lives and well being at stake, and not knowing when to stop, and you are a grown man, you deserve what you get. If these were kids from the ghetto, they would have never heard the end of it. It would have been attempted murder charges. But these are some rich kids driving around in daddy's mercedes and acting like they are living the rough life. I see way too much of that these days. And then the stupid media bullshit of how they try to portray the dark underworld of what these kids do. It's so corny. The lower east side stopped being any kind of underworld about 15 years ago, so people need to chill with the dramatics. I am just really not impressed with a lot of these portrayals from young artists who have so much, go to expensive ass colleges and pretend they have nothing and are made out to be some kind of geniuses. I am way more impressed with artists who are doing their thing on the down low, not getting all fucked up every night, just into creating and being themselves. Not having to wear all the trendy $100 nike dunks and pre-ripped $100 soho boutique pants. Everyone is trying to live out some NYC fantasy that they saw in movies and read in books, and now they want to pretend they are a part of some movement. NYC will always be one of my favorite places and I grew up here, but any original movements died a long time ago. Maybe that's why all these so called hip people are trying to move near the projects in Brooklyn now, so they can try to convince people they are living the struggle. Life is just not like that in NYC anymore unless you are in the projects. It is the same thing with graffiti, a lot of street art people do not have respect for the art that started what they do. Cost and Revs were doing it years ago, it just wasn't labeled as anything else but graff. Tons of people were doing stickers back then. It just got bigger now and is evolving. But it seems like a lot of street artists really don't know the unwritten rules of it such as going over other people's shit. That's flat out disrespect to wheat paste over a fill in that is someone else's art creation. I am into both street art and graff and I will tell you, if a graff writer saw that happening to his fill in, he'd be pissed and probably fight the dude. Don't get me wrong, a lot of graff writers are caught up in so much unnecessary drama that is such bullshit like all the beef between writers. I could ramble on and on and I am sure you might not agree with everything and it is no disrespect to you directly, I just felt the need to give you my 2 cents on this. I know a lot of street artists and graff wirters are good people with good hearts, but this is aimed more towards the ones who are glorified for all the wrong things, living some soap opera lifestyles that they created all by themselves. I just don't think it is something to look up to when you have these cool people who try to do the right thing and are more on the down low with their art and personalities, not trying to live the rock star lifestyle.
PEACE and keep up the good work!"
Joe

[The Hipster]

http://www.ryanmcginley.com/

[Manifesto]

Originally posted by Mr. ABC@Jun 29 2005, 09:02 PM
for those that don't know....

jason dill has been an underground legend for years. ever stop to think that he's affiliated with these people cos they are on his dick, and not the other way around?
Quoted post



i dont know,
ever since he left 101, i think hes been lost,
trying to find another niche,

cause he was hot shit with 101,
then he fell off a while,
then got down with Alien...
then he was just going back and forth between coasts, gettin grimier and grimier,
i remember seeing him skating in ny round the late 90s, with most of the supreme cats,

then he got hooked up with earsnot, i assume
whom around the mid to late 90s, was just doing the irak thing on the low,
only catchin tags at the skate spots, and not really painting as much.

then dill fell hard to the nyc party scene, like many cali skaters come to ny for...
and just got hooked, and been here ever since.

[The Hipster]

http://dopefiend.ca/flyers/1977back.jpg
1977 + IrakNY present: Misfits Night - tonight!

Misfits Night! Tonight, Wednesday July 6th 2005, 10PM. Live performance by A.R.E. Weapons, DJ's Jake Boyle and Daniel Jackson of Surface to Air, plus and exclusive Tshirt by Kent Irak! Joe's Pub on Latfayette in NYC, see flyer for details...

only found this aday late!

[The Hipster]

Bombers


Works by:
Earsnot
Giz
JA
Nato
Skuf
VFR

Bombers is a collaboration between Jeffrey Charles Gallery, Martinez Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) with Antonio Zaya and Whitechapel Project Space. The show will be divided between Jeffrey Charles Gallery and Whitechapel Project Space, just around the corner at 20 Fordham Street. Bombers is a group show of New York graffiti art spanning the last three decades. The show includes work by six of the leading exponents of the NYC graf scene since the Reagan years: Earsnot, Giz, JA, Nato, Skuf and VFR.

To visit certain institutions within the 'new' New York, that disremembered, forgotten, or simply amnesiac city, is to be assaulted by a seemingly unprecedented strategy of reactionary conceptual revisionism with respect to graffiti. It's a vision that tries to trick us, to make us unwilling participants in a shameful communion, all strapped to the same heavy grindstone. But we shouldn't miss out, instead, on the chance to show the work of artists who have, historically and legitimately, blazed a path of courage and honesty; pioneers with a body of work so different than can be found in so-called Piecing, legality, muralism and the 'Fine Arts.' Thus we will be able to cross all the 't's,' as it were, a kind of insurance and plan of attack against that lone naïf that still lets himself, from ignorance or weakness, be fooled by the machinations of the market, by the deep discounts of the slow summer months.

The primary examples of this bloodline of real, authentic Bombers in New York City are VFR, in the mid 1980s, JA, starting in mid 80s, NATO since 1990, Skuf and Giz from 1993, and Earsnot from 1998. This group, which have, individually and in a collective sense, dominated the graffiti scene in the form's Mecca for 20 years, brings their work across the Atlantic to spread the message that they have been toiling at for their whole creative lives:

That not one of them kowtows before the idols of (1) legality, which of course changes with time; (2) Muralism, practiced so majestically by the Mexicans in the wake of their 20th century revolution (Orozco, Rivera, Siquieros) and from which Jackson Pollock, among many others, learned so much; nor (3) the 'Fine Arts,' which are the exact opposite of the kind of work seen, for example, in the extraordinary Thomas de Quincey, that opium-eating murderer of art and life; and of course (4) the piecing, or assembly-line repetition that feeds the hungry maw of the market; not to mention even remoter influences, each with their appellation d'origin.

Before this great conceptual swindle, which won't even admit to its own name, only the Bombers propose to do battle, Counter Current. Only the Bombers dare to look across the river of lies that so many pay tribute to, that so many permit by averting their eyes -- those mute masses that know nothing of true graffiti and even less of its spirit, philosophy and world vision. 'Bombers' preaches the real gospel of the street: anarchism, iconoclasm and revolution.

Jeffrey Charles Gallery is an artist-run space. Bombers is the 15th show.

Private view Thursday 24 July 6-9pm

Image: a work by Earsnot

Hours: Saturdays 12-6 or by appointment

Jeffrey Charles Gallery
34 Settles Street
London
E1 1JP

Whitechapel Project Space
20 Fordham Street
London
E1 1HS

[SPORTO]

Wow!
'Extreme Hipsters' isnt that bordering on an being an oxymoron.
Seems as if the 'lifestyle' of a real hardcore writer is being hijacked by those
on the fringes of the culture.
We all have a friend who turned out to be
mentaly challenged***in later life (or eventualy dead),
due to excess partying during thier younger years.
Hipster shit is starting to look real tired real fast.

[ElectricitySucks]

this thread is as information overloaded as the new york times.

[The Hipster]

http://www.rivingtonarms.com/rarms/artists...ow/dash_bio.pdf (http://www.rivingtonarms.com/rarms/artists/dash_snow/dash_bio.pdf)

[gren1 bnc]

when i seen the writer ina wheel chair i thought it was a safe picture. and then i seee some guy stealing form a ladies bag? fuck that,

[E-DubleSkilZ]

Earsnot -----> www.infamythemovie.com

[inkblots]

http://www.orderlink.com/cdocs/ECKO/images/15603.1.jpeg

[gren1 bnc]

straight gangster.

[someone]

anyone know where i can get a ''i rak nyc'' teeshirt

[student loans]

@ kcdc this sat. 97n 10th bk
earsnot
jesse geller
screw
tim artz
matt t
tino razo
ryan g

[The Hipster]

http://www.arkitip.com/magazines/images/0030-dash-snow.jpg

dash snow for BEAUTIFUL LOSERS from the current arkitip magazine.

[shesmyheroin]

kinging a city is very credible..

dropping the H bomb is very crappy.

[The Hipster]

http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/349/l/irakny_black_close.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/349/l/irakny_black.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/349/l/irakny_blue.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/349/l/irakny_pruple_0.jpg


FINNALY:

Irak NY Tee
34,00 €

http://www.95gallery.com/shop/product/349

[The Hipster]

http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/351/l/espo_green2.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/351/l/espo_green.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/351/l/espo_green1.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/351/l/espo_green2.jpg

http://www.95gallery.com/shop/product/351

[The Hipster]

http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/350/l/price_busters_blue_cl.jpg
http://www.95gallery.com/shop/media/350/l/price_busters_blue.jpg

http://www.95gallery.com/shop/product/350

[Abracadabra]

i like the espo shirt. my love of green and pigeon football all wrapped up in one garment. awesome

[Jack McCoy]

Espo's cool or whatever, but the day I wear another nigga's name on my arm is a cold one in hell with chance of showers.

[GLIK$]

How the fuck are they gonna try to make cats pay 40 bucks for a played out design like that?

Sorry this shit is worse than Bape having sex with Lil Jon.

[The Hipster]

all the first set off t-shirts sold out damn quick.

rember there is one crazy contry called japan.

[im not witty]

i do like that espo jawn. but 40 bucks. i know i know. fashioncore blah blah elite blah label whore what3ever.

[student loans]

IRAKY FREEDOM
www.irakny.com

[mackfatsoe]

I can't believe they sold out.

edit: the shirts, not the crew.

[hungoverseas]

if you're in irak, this shit is cool.

if you're not and rocking this shit, you're a massive dickrider/herb.

[the_gooch]

Originally posted by hungoverseas@Dec 7 2005, 11:34 PM
if you're in irak, this shit is cool.

if you're not and rocking this shit, you're a massive dickrider/herb.
Quoted post



yeah i have to agree, i couldn't rock another writers name or crew if i wasn't down. i guess if you don't write and don't know the deal, but ignorance is bliss.

either way, it's cool that they are getting paid and exploiting the masses.

[Jack McCoy]

These guys did their thing, let them cash in if possible. I also co-sign on the gooch's statement, the hipsters and japanese are holding paper, marketing to them is a no brainer.

[the_gooch]

Originally posted by Jack McCoy@Dec 8 2005, 04:32 PM
These guys did their thing, let them cash in if possible. I also co-sign on the gooch's statement, the hipsters and japanese are holding paper, marketing to them is a no brainer.
Quoted post



yup!

money is money!

[Misteraven]

back on topic...

[the_gooch]

thank you raven!

[student loans]

IRAKY FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[B][SIZE=14]IRAKY FREEDOM[SIZE=14][COLOR=red]

[positivementalattitude]

i can't see the diference if you are willing to rock any designer name label etc...

for me it's all equally stupid, worthless, pointless,,,

IRAK
GUCCI
PRADA
GAP
etc...

[shameless self promotion]

Way to be positive!

[SkumWurm]

http://static.flickr.com/26/52371891_51741316e8.jpg

IRAK NY Interview - High Snobriety (http://highsnobiety.blogspot.com/2005/10/irak-nyc-interview-and-preview-of-new.html)

[The Hipster]

FUCKING GOOD WORK WITH THAT POST MAN MADE MY DAY.

[GLIK$]

The summer 06 line is looking hot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/gliko/irakmeshtanktop.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/gliko/irakfannypack.jpg

[methadone program]

^^^

that fanny pack is kinda dope....i would easily let that replace my pink pepto-bismol one.

[JohnMC]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

irak for girls - hot!!!

Any more of the '06 line? where are the pics from?

[fatbastard]

^^
Um...you guys serious? I think he's making fun of them

[fatbastard]

Goes to show though, that when somethings hyped you can put the logo on ANYTHING (in this case bum bags and tank tops) and people will be all over it.

[GetOver]

YALL OBVIOUSLY ARE RETARDED...
NOBODIES MAKING THAT TANK TOP OR "BUM BAG" (wtf??)
REALLY THO, YALL ARE ALL RETARDED.
EVERYTHING THAT GETS PUT OUT IS OFFICIAL TISSUE...
DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!
www.irakny.com

[methadone program]

^

haha...jesus bro chill....it was a joke.

[trackstand]

The Price Busters shirt is hype.

[imported_b0b]

Originally posted by GetOver@Jan 7 2006, 08:53 PM
YALL OBVIOUSLY ARE RETARDED...
NOBODIES MAKING THAT TANK TOP OR "BUM BAG" (wtf??)
REALLY THO, YALL ARE ALL RETARDED.
EVERYTHING THAT GETS PUT OUT IS OFFICIAL TISSUE...
DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!
www.irakny.com
Quoted post


a bum bag is a fannypack in English (as in the language spoken in England). See we call a pussy a fanny so it is funny to hear people say Fannypack.

[Rodney Trotter]

Originally posted by b0b+Jan 13 2006, 11:30 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (b0b - Jan 13 2006, 11:30 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-GetOver@Jan 7 2006, 08:53 PM
YALL OBVIOUSLY ARE RETARDED...
NOBODIES MAKING THAT TANK TOP OR "BUM BAG" (wtf??)
REALLY THO, YALL ARE ALL RETARDED.
EVERYTHING THAT GETS PUT OUT IS OFFICIAL TISSUE...
DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE!!!
www.irakny.com
Quoted post


a bum bag is a fannypack in English (as in the language spoken in England). See we call a pussy a fanny so it is funny to hear people say Fannypack.
Quoted post
[/b][/quote]

Isn't 'fanny' American slang for an arse? Better not tell people you're a 'fanny magnet' when you're over statesides. I think all those t-shirts are awful.

[PUMPKIN ESCOBAR]

I fucking hate british slang.

[GetOver]

Lemme guess "RODNEY"...
youre a toy.
youre prolly form europe.
you dont get money.
you dont get respect.
so basically, youre not even on the radar, youll never get any shine, youre a fan.
shout out to all those putting in work overseas, whas goooood.

IRAK NY 06 shit COMING REAL SOON...
blam blam :hatred: :hatred:

[Rodney Trotter]

Aw, did I hurt your feelings by saying your t-shirts were shite? 'Get over' yourself. Wanker.

[GLIK$]

YEAH WORD. THE 06 LINE IS A LITTLER BRIGHTER AND MORE IN YOUR FACE.

THIS SHIT IS THE REALLY REAL.

[GetOver]

this nigga beefeater has waaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on his hands.
hmmm... probably a security guard, possibly unemployed.
anyway i'll let yall get back to believing whatevr the fuck you want.
Ill keep the fans updated when theres new news.
:haha: :clown2: :haha: :clown2: :haha: :clown2: :haha: :clown2: :haha: :clown2:

and the brit, he is clever.

[Jack McCoy]

You know what, nevermind.

There's really no need to hate on this dude though in my humble opinion. Snot payed his dues.

[Shark Hammil]

Thumbs down.

[hungoverseas]

beefeater, that shit was hilarii.

[student loans]

IRAKY FREEDOM 2006!
BAHLEEDAT!
DONT GET BLAM BLAMMED!

[$2 dollar well drinks]

i got one of those shirts for free and a i love shoplifting sticker

[foneiz2]

Originally posted by PUMPKIN ESCOBAR@Jan 15 2006, 09:26 PM
I fucking hate british slang.
Quoted post


what language are you speaking ??
think about this .

[iloveboxcars]

^um what? why does it matter if we use the same language. he doesn't have to like the slang.

[Spuds Mckenzie]

Originally posted by BEEFEATER@Jan 16 2006, 05:43 PM
YEAH WORD. THE 06 LINE IS A LITTLER BRIGHTER AND MORE IN YOUR FACE.

THIS SHIT IS THE REALLY REAL.
Quoted post


HAHAHAHAHAAH!!

[student loans]

Originally posted by $2 dollar well drinks@Jan 29 2006, 02:22 AM
i got one of those shirts for free and a i love shoplifting sticker
Quoted post

no you didnt, because the stickers say "shoplifting is not a crime" not i love shoplifting.

[WhiteOx]

yo the green pigeon shirt would be good if the graphic was centred? whats up with desgins all over the place these bunk. is bunk