12ozProphet

Rushing for the last couple Christmas gifts, I went to my favorite bookstore in Brooklyn and found that dope book from Jon Naar named “The birth of Graffiti”
The book features the early stage of graffiti with OG’s like Stay High 149, Taki 183, Phase 2,etc… in the 70’s. Amazing photos, good introduction by Sacha Jenkins… Jon Naar was also the author of a prescious book published in 1974 called “The faith of graffiti”.



You can get that book on amazon for dirt cheap.

Just great light, texture, Krink and simple style…

I just got face to face with this flat rat on Ludlow Street this morning… You see bad ones in New York but this one was from far the most crazy I ever seen…

You might have already read that on AM NEW YORK or on HIGHSNOBIETY  but this is quite amazing. More flicks on the AM New York website… A graffiti wall with drawings by original graffiti subway artists Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000 and some traces by Jean-Michel Basquiat is seen Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 in New York. The large mural, created by some of graffiti’s earliest pioneers, was discovered recently in a 10-story limestone building just as developers were converting it into luxury condominiums. (Mary Altaffer, Associated Press / November 27, 2007)

I know I am not supposed to be a sport editor for 12 Oz but to see how people reacted to the Mayweather posting, I had to do this one. When I was in Art School in Belgium around 1996, I used to hang out with that kid Alain who was from Congo, Africa. We were in the same class and one day we were talking about the Ali / Foreman fight in Kinshasa 1974. He told me to remember that conversation… I forgot about the all thing and couple of weeks later, he brought to the school the most incredible photo album I ever seen. His dad was basically an Olympic Boxer for the Republic of Congo and he was fighting in the opening fight before Ali / Foreman. He trained with Ali and was able to take 100’s of pictures of that memorable fight… He allowed me back then to scan the ticket of his dad and a never published photo. This is flick is for the first time ever online here on 12 Oz… Alain, if you read this, please contact me!!!  I would love to post the entire album of your dad…
Love Kimou

I am not an expert in boxing but I like to watch it since I am a kid… I have to say that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the most impressive boxer I have seen fight since the Leonard Hagler era in the late 80’s. Like my friend Chris from NO MAS said, people will look back in 10 years and said he was as good as Muhammad Ali. He might not be as political and popular and for sure he is a pretentious asshole but you can’t deny that he is the best boxer in the game right now. By winning last night against Hatton via a 10th-round KO, he brought his record to 40 Wins, 0 Losses, 25 KOs If these numbers dosen’t speak to you, he also won an estimated $50 million just in 2007… Make it Rain!!!!

I have seen recently more and more people biting my graphics… Poor street wear companies for the most, but also uneducated designers that spend more time on the web looking for stuff to steal. For lucky people like me, I went to design school… For unlucky people like some of my friends, they learnt how to develop a unique style by working hard and being creative. Tee Shirt Design (that’s what I do the most) is like producing a Hip Hop beat. you can be like Dj Premier, Dj Shadow, Just Blaze, Timbaland, Notz, Dre, etc… or you can be Puffy. If you in the first category, you will find a 2 seconds dusty sample and make an amazing head nodder’s beat. If you like Puffy, you will take a Sting song and loop it. You feel me? All I am trying to say with my poor english is that it’s ok to “sample” a graphic as long as you flip it, chopped it and add your own touch to it. So please!!! Don’t be the Puffy of design. Instead of posting the last 5 lame mother fuckers that stole my art, I decided to take a positive approach and show people some of my “crates of graphics”. Those photos are my inspiration. Most of it represent stuff that I have been collecting for the past 15 years. It basically represent who I am as a designer… So if you do mascots, scripts, mexican looking shit, cartoons, etc….I don’t own any style neither invented any style…But please, do your own….I didn’t find my stuff online overnight…It took a great amount of time, traveling and diggin’ to come up with stuff I design… Blessing!

My tools

My trip to Mexico

My Dad’s scale models

My Varsity collection

Hip Hop as a culture

The Modernist

Grown ups Toys

My Friends Artworks

Thanks to Jim from Geneva for the link…