Ghost, one of my old writing partners and one of the graffiti world’s most recognizable throw up kings has just released a limited edition book with the clothing company Stussy along with some new shirts. The book showcases some of his bombing activity as well as the illustration style that he is now known for. Cop one online at: Stussy.com.
Here’s stuff I yanked from their site.
STUSSY: What were your earliest memories of graffiti?
GHOST: Just by riding the train, when I would go to Yankee games was when I first started to take notice. Didn’t know what it was or how they did it. I asked my mom and she replied with “don’t bother me with that bullshit.”
Since I grew up on the 7 line the first names that stood out were: Caine-1 Roger, Chino174, Vinny, Dean, Pro-1, Son-1, Fuzz-1 Quik, Killer56 Demo, Joey, Vade, Ex-1, Savage aka KB. Then when I moved back to the Bronx around 79/80, I saw: Blade, Comet, MG’s boys like Mark198, Fritos, Boots119, Russ, Kit17, Mitch77, Dr. Pepper, Ban2, Noc67, Part, Chain3, Skeme and Dez. The trains were bombed inside and out, stations were killed. It was a pretty dope time in the city.
STUSSY: How did you come out with Ghost?
GHOST: I was in a comic book shop looking at a rack and saw a “ghost rider” comic, thought it sounded cool. I went through numerous names trying to come up with something and finally just took that and it stuck.
STUSSY: Can you talk about the photo in the book with the upside down “Ghost” piece? Is there a story behind that?
GHOST: Not really, I just wanted to bug out and have a few laughs.
STUSSY: What is the story behind your favorite picture in the book?
GHOST: There’s a story behind every photo I guess, except the legal walls. There’s no story or fun to that. I would have to say when I did the 2nd story tower on the tracks on 103.
I told Bruz and Bri-1 what I wanted to do. Bruz then took me to Roosevelt hospital (to get my head examined you might think) where they had a 16ft. ladder lying around. So we took that shit and hopped on the train (which was crazy- everyone on the train was staring at us). We got off and I started to paint. I had bucket paint and since I’m not really a bucket paint kinda writer, I threw that shit away and did it with spray. Bruz and Bri-1 were doing a piece on the smaller house and I’m doing this piece on the ladder, trying to pay attention to the train so I wouldn’t get spotted. These kids were on the station running around copping tags and I knew that would be trouble if they got spotted because they would bring the heat on us. So I ran up to see who it was and it was my cousin and some of his friends. I believe Cro-1 and I forget who else was there. They bugged out to see me there, asking me what I was doing. Then I explained that I was doing a top 2 bottom and that you guys were gonna make it hot so you have to leave… Anyway, they left and I finished up my piece.
The next day I heard that when these kids left, they got raided at another station and I forgot who it was that got caught. They said that while thye were in the precinct that a call had come over the radio that there were three men walking the tracks with a huge ladder. At that point, we had finished up and took the ladder with us and went to the next station. We threw the ladder on someone’s roof and split the scene. The next day we rolled up to catch flics when the workers came out the tower to talk with me. They were cool. They were trying to figure out how I got up so high. I think I told them I was smoking angel dust and that’s how I had gotten up so high and laughed. You could see them in the photo hanging out. Yeah, we had a lot of fun back then, the shit we used to get away with.
STUSSY: What’s next for you? Projects? Shows?
GHOST: I have a few things in the works.
Posted by Alan Ket on April 29, 2009 at 08:13 AM
