“Nel-One Tc5”

Little-Man and I walked out his building and up the block. Several buildings away stood a tall, lanky, funny looking kid with a short afro and somewhat bad skin.

“Little Man, what’s up? Still perpetrating the Five?”

“What are you talking about? I ain’t perpetrating no Five! You’re bugging.”

Supposely, Little man had told some toy that he was down with Tc5 and it got back to the tall, lanky kid.

“That’s not I heard.”

“Whatever. This is my boy, Psycho Rock!” Little Man introduced me proudly. “Psycho, I ever told you I was down with Tc5?”

“Nah, man.”

“You see. And my boy Psycho is a down by law nigga!”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

The comment took me off guard. I thought oh shit! Who does this clown think he is?

Nel had a snug look on his face. He caressed his chin as he checked me out.

“I heard of you. You’re suppose to be that ill kid.”

“I guess so.”

“You guess so. Are you ill or not?”

I thought I ought to punch him in his face to show him how ill I could get.

“I’m ill when I need to be ill.”

“Hmmm. Why you’re hanging out with his guy for?” He asked, referring to Little Man. “He likes to perpetrate the Five.”

“I don’t perpetrate the Five!” Little Man exclaimed, frustrated.

“Little Man’s my boy.”

“Loyaty. I like that.”

“Yo, we gotta go.”

Little Man and I walked off.

“That motherfucker talks a lot of shit.”

“You don’t even know.” Little Man agreed.

I kept on seeing Nel-One around the way. We always talked. I found him rude, arrogant and obnoxious, but I liked him anyway. I liked him a lot. He was also animated, funny and always entertaining. He always had a story to tell and he told it well, often acting it out with the best facial expressions. He would have made a good comedian.

he embraced me and welcomed me into his house, where he showed me all his art and numerous black books and pictures of his work on the trains. He didn’t have alot, but he was involved in a classic one line production. The “Poke, Nel, Rize” end to end whole car. It’s was rare, but sometimes it only took one or two cars to solified an artist’s place in graffiti. This was such a case.

Not only was Nel down with the legendary five but he attended the High School of Art and Design. His books were filled with A&D alumnus such as Mare 139, Son-One, Tack as well as Tc-fivers, Doze, Seen, Poke, Eps and Par. He had pages and pages of B-Boy characters in the Tc5 vein. All very Doze influenced. He introduced me to the Five style that I fell in love with. To me, the style had so much soul and attitude. The letters weren’t stiff or contrived. They had movement and a life of their own. There were plenty of styles that were more wild, but their was a sophisication in the simplicity of 5 style. It burned most styles with little effort.

Nel-One and I would smoke blunts and drink 40 ounce bottles of beer in the park as he schooled me to the ways of the Five. His arrogance started to make a lot of sense. It came with the confidence of being an alpha male in the graffiti world. Nel-One declared me Five material. He said that it was only a matter of time because I would be put down. I was destined.

One day Nel-One got an opportunity to design a record cover album for Africa Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force. He invited me to go with him to meet Bambatta in the Bronx River Projects to discuss business. This was a very big deal and we were both excited. It was a glorious Saturday afternoon and the two train was practically empty. The ride from Manhattan to the Bronx was long and Nel and I had a lot of nervous energy in common. We were both the types that couldn’t stay still for too long. Nel-One took out a marker and started motion writing.

“Chill nigga.”

“Come on, this joint is empty.  Let’s bomb this shit!”

“Come on, Nel...chill the fuck out. I’m telling you.”

“Fuck that! I’m bombing this shit. I’ll put you up. Watch my back.”

I went to look over into the next car of the train. Two white guys were watching us. I knew what was up before they they smiled at me and flashed their badges at me.

“Nel!!!” I yelled out, pissed off.

We never made it to Bambatta’s house.

I ended up skipping court and as a result, I was walking around with a warrant out for my arrest over a bullshit tag. I eventually got myself arrested for something else and had to deal with the charge then. It ended up getting dismissed. After that, I kept my hanging out with Nel-One limited to his house and his block. My reckless behavior was a liability to myself. I was wise enough to know that I didn’t need another one.

One day I went to visit my friend and he just wasn’t the same. Something was wrong. He was ten times more animated and spoke in an abstract manner that made little sense. Days later he was hospitalized in a mental health facility. West One and I went to visit him. It was a very sad affair and we both left stunned. Nel’s sister explained to me that he had taken between 4 o 5 tabs of mesculin, a type of acid and never came down from his high. This scared me a lot becuae I was guilty of the same kind of excessive behavior with drugs. Just never taking a second out to consider the consequences of my actions. I could have easily been in Nel-One’s postion many times over. Because of Nel, I never indulged in mesculin ever again.

I continued to visit Nel, even though it was always challenging, but I thought it was important that he had company from time to time. Nel’s condition alienated him from the world and he was painfully aware of it. He was very sad and lonely.

He attempted to take his life but failed miserably. He jumped out his window. His building was built on top of a small mountain and the back of it was supported by a steel beam skeleton. Nel hit just about every beam and tree on his way down. He survived, but he broke countless bones and his body was covered with scars from head to toe. To say that Nel-One suffered a lot would be an understatement. He lived hell on earth.

About a year later, I recieved a phone call from his sister. Nel-One jumped out his window again.

“Oh my God. Please tell me that he’s dead.”

Nel-One had succeeded and my friend was finally resting in peace.

Posted on October 13, 2007 at 08:51 PM   |   Previous Entry   |   Next Entry   |   Entry List   |   Email Entry   |    Digg

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