Posts from the “Graffiti” Category

Training Days: The Subways Artists Then & Now

Posted on October 5, 2015

Photo: Bil Rock, Min, and Kel in the City Hall lay-up at night, 1983 ©Henry Chalfant

Graffiti is like a virus of the best kind. It resides deep in the heart and it makes its presence known in ways large and small. It travels from writer to writer around the world, bringing different handstyles, letterforms, color combinations, and placements to life. It is here today, gone tomorrow, one of the most ephemeral of all the arts.

Were it not for the photograph, some of the greatest masterpieces of graffiti would be unknown, and so it is with great fortune that Henry Chalfant began taking pictures of New York City trains between the years of 1977-1984. In total he amassed of 800 photographs of full trains from some of the greatest writers working during those years. “I have always been attracted to youthful rebellion and mischief,” Chalfant observes with a gentle laugh.

In order to photograph a full car when it arrived in the station, Chalfant stood on the platform on the opposite side, so that he could have enough distance to get 15-foot sections of the train inside his viewfinder. Using a 50mm lens, Chalfant took four or five photographs of each car, and then spliced them together using a razor and adhesive tape. As a sculptor, Chalfant’s hand was flawless, as he was able to translate the scale of each train to the photographic image. But the skill needed to get these shots? That was like stalking big game.

Read the Full Story at Crave Online

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Books, Bronx, Brooklyn, Crave, Graffiti, Manhattan, Photography

Salut ! NYC, 1981 Nominated for Webby Award

Posted on April 8, 2015

SAMO IS DEAD, New York, NY, 1981. Photograph by Robert Herman

We are thrilled to announce that NYC, 1981 has been nominated for a Webby Award in the category of Website: Blog – Cultural, alongside the likes of Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Pitchfork, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

NYC, 1981 is a culture website inspired by the film “A Most Violent Year,” and a TWBE x A24 production. For the site, I had the great privilege of interviewing Charlie Ahearn, John Ahearn, Barry Blinderman, Joyce Chasan, Joe Conzo, Jane Dickson, Ricky Flores, Arlene Gottfried, Robert Herman, Douglas Kirkland, Joe Lewis, Christopher Makos, Toby Old, Clayton Patterson, and Jamel Shabazz. You can check out these interviews and more at NYC, 1981

We would like to encourage you to vote, and to spread the word, so that this great, independent site dedicated to New York City culture, politics, and art in 1981 will receive the recognition it deserves.

Vote HERE.

Categories: 1980s, Art, Books, Bronx, Brooklyn, Fashion, Graffiti, Manhattan, Music, Painting, Photography

Bonz Malone: Flo-Master

Posted on June 16, 2014

I first met Bonz Malone at Housing Works Bookstore on Crosby Street. I sat at a table in the back, which afforded the best view of the place, both the ground floor and the mezzanine. When Bonz arrived it was as though, and he sat down beside me and composed perfect sentences out of thin air, and made me conscious of the elegance that comes with precision. He also made taking notes utterly delightful. He never spoke so fast as to out run my pen, and more often than not, I could sit quietly, reposed with pen in hand and pd in palm and listen, really listen, as the words fell from his tongue and his lips and splashed on the page.

And so it was, the inevitable needs no plan, as I put fingertip to keyboard to send this note, and it took form in words because it be like that. Words, these words, they never stop, they are but are like limitless flows from the fountain of thought. And so it is that I asked questions and Bonz Malone replied, much to my delight.

Miss Rosen: I have quietly admired your way with words for so long I can’t even remember, but I feel like Ricky Powell is the dude who put me on. He has a photo of you that has a certain je ne sais quoi, and when I first heard your name, I thought to myself, “I better go find out.” And so I did, and thus, my admiration grew. I wonder if you might speak about when you first realized you had a way with words, both in the spoken and written worlds, and how that became a source of power, pride, and .. pleasure ..

BONZ MALONE: Growing up in New York City, you unconsciously pick up a unique swagger that can only be appreciated by someone else who has it or someone who wants to copy it. At home, my mother (An English major from Cambridge) trained me in the King’s English. Whenever I made a mistake in pronunciation or I misused a word, I was quickly corrected and had to look it up. She never told me what anything meant. But in the streets, I paid attention to the way others expressed themselves and it was very different. It was relaxed, abrupt, more general and less deliberate than a scholar of Oxford or Cambridge would ever care for. So I knew not to give anybody grammatical lessons or I’d be picking up teeth. I did notice that there were a selected few “Street Guys” who were very charismatic and had the knack for making people either laugh at everything they said or they made people piss on themselves with their life-threatening statements. Either way, I was diggin’ the way these guys communicated and quietly studied their poetic parlance. I thought that it would help me get “connected” and make me seem more cool and it did, but it took many years. It wasn’t until I began writing graffiti that I started to understand the power that words really had. As a Christian, I had been taught to tell the truth and I believed that nothing was more liberating or more powerful than walking the path of the righteous man. As a criminal, however, nothing was more important in the streets as loyalty, courage and honor. These are part of a code and when they become intrinsic, you become real, which is the street equivalent to True. When I realized that I could both “Keep it real and be True to the game” that’s when I started writing what I thought, but in the way that others spoke. So then I became influential to both by unifying these principles.

I’ve been enjoying your posts on FB for the distinctive mix of brilliance and audacity. Please talk about how the word is a vehicle for awakening the mind, heart, and spirit?

During the 80’s and 90’s, I saw the spotlight shift from hip-hop the culture to rap, its selfish, yet talented sibling. The glamour of guns and violence was fueled by drug sales and record labels were their laundry mats. At night I was on the streets or in the train yards lookin for the “White Whale”, but during business hours, I was either Script Consultant for the movie “Juice” at Island Records/Island Films or at The Source, introducing the Notorious B.I.G. as “The King of New York.” That piece is significant because I created that title as the name of the cover story on him. No one called him that until I wrote that article, in fact, the title (which is coveted by rappers that aren’t even from NYC to this day) didn’t even exist! If I could do that and even now, 90% of his fans don’t even know it, then I most certainly know that writing can do all three of those things you’ve described. If Jehovah God (Yahweh) himself uses written communication to enlighten us and instruct us on how to benefit ourselves, there can’t be a better example of its power. After Biggie’s demise I began taking on social issues. I figured, I had already given hip-hop an alphabet being “The Father of Phonetic Spelling” just to get people who were illiterate in my neighborhood to read; now I was gonna drug the public with phat pieces of sweet gum, which was basically, MC’ing on a white sheet of paper to my own rhythm and makin’ niggaz dance to the “other beat”. The only difference this time was that I was committed to making them aware of their power through social change and not about glorifying rappers.

I am curious about the way in which people respond to your work. Like, for example, this interview is my form of response #moremoremore .. I trust there have been many deeply felt personal moments of on all emotional fronts, be it joy, sadness, anger, and surprise among others. Why do you think words have the power to evoke such powerful responses from those who read them? What does it feel like to receive such strong feedback to your work and how does this feed your creative process?

BONZ MALONE: I’ve had every kind of response I can think of. Just the other day I was in Dunkin’ Doughnut at 1am and a guy walked in recognized me and told me about an article I wrote years ago at Vibe in which I interviewed a Shi Yang Ming, a Shaolin Warrior Monk about the use of the Swastika as a symbol of peace. It blew his mind completely. He had never known that it was a peace sign and that Hitler reversed the image, thus making it a negative the way the Yin/Yan symbol demonstrates the two. We talked for hours. It was very humbling as it has always been such to see and hear the deep emotion that a reader expresses after being affected by your work, especially if it’s positive. I’ve learned, however, not to interfere with their interpretation. If it is something that leaves a positive outlook, then it’s all good. It’s important to say things that after years of understanding, we now have the courage to say. Never would I want to let my society tell me what to buy, what to do, what to think. You have to embrace power in order to use it and many are still afraid of theirs. The pen is only mightier than the sword when it’s in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. Being a dope writer is only sexy to an intellectual. Being a great student of life and a better thinker and connector of principles to applicable situations is by far, more needed, yet both will inevitably make your words necessary should you have the courage to write with authority. It’s not the letters or the reactions from an audience or even the prestigious awards that can be won that you need to give you validation because most great writers don’t have those things, but all great writers know that their work is dope before it has even been proof read or they’ve clicked the spelling and grammar keys on their computer, if you have a computer. What if you don’t have a computer? Auto-Correct doesn’t make you an intelligent writer. Reading and meditating on the rhythm that the writer writes to and understanding it, even if you don’t agree with the reasoning, is making you better. Facebook has made me a better forecaster of trends and more knowledgeable about when to put the word out and to what degree of audacity. Twitter edits my thoughts, which sharpens my words into concise and powerful blasts, so when people come up to me and talk about my past work or my page or a cop recognizes me in a restaurant and asks me for my autograph, I feel the same way I did every time I walked into a subway car looking for my tag and saw my name up there and I remember who showed me how to speak, act and write like that. The ones who validated themselves and I just want the blessing to be able to do it forever.

I remember you said something to the effect that you would rather wait ten years to produce work that would last 100 years, rather than to satiate yourself with instant gratification. Where does that patience and discipline come from?

BONZ MALONE: 50% is conceit and the other 50% is procrastination. Writing is performing brain surgery on yourself! It is a reclusive form of art that’s lonely and that can lead to alcoholism and depression. Many writers hate writing. What they love is haven written something of worth and of interest. Edison failed for years before he stole God’s idea. Einstein meditated for ten years before he wrote the theory of relativity. That is truly amazing when you consider that although, he possessed considerable wisdom, he was smart enough to take the time needed to look at things from every possible aspect. If you are committed and honest and have the patience to perfect something, it could mean the difference in people’s lives! I believe that because I’ve seen proof of it in my own work. The things that I’ve written, both privately and professionally, have neither been outdated or undone. As a graffiti writer, I used Flo-Master because it had a dark, shiny pigmentation that made my name look good when I wrote over other niggaz. Plus, it was permanent and that is the whole point of doin’ dope shit when you’re alive is to leave a permanent mark on people’s minds and on history itself. As an Actor, Writer and Producer, I get paid every time my work appears in almost any form for the rest of my life. Even after I die, my name will still be making money, so I better earn that shit.

RADIKAL magazine *2002 Rock Steady Crew feature. — with R.I.P Frosty Freeze, Capital Q Unique, David Nelson, FeverOne Rock Steady, POPMASTER FABEL, Julio Cesar Umaña Rodriguez, Mitchell Graham, Bonz Malone, Rock Steady Crew, Brina AlienNess Martinez, Cookie Wear and Marc Lemberger. Photo courtesy Jorge “Fabel” Pabon.

Categories: 1980s, 1990s, Art, Books, Bronx, Brooklyn, Graffiti, Manhattan, Music, Photography

Slutlust: A Love Letter to My Sun

Posted on June 3, 2014

I used to write poetry when I was young. Mostly to girls that wanted nothing to do with a introverted and timid me, hence the name SLUTLUST. I loved E.E. Cummings poetry when I was younger, The way he did whatever he wanted to do with a sentence and how it wasn’t the typical romantic I-love-you-you-love-me crap, you really didn’t get a sense of what he was trying to express unless you read it with a decoder or a kaleidoscope. So I would write my poems like that – they were as safe as they were intense and if the girl got it then I would pronounce it true love. Of course that never happened.

I grew up in a poor and emotionally/physically violent household. I didn’t identify with the machismo Dominicans are known for instead I identified with the suburban family’s on prime time sitcoms making growing up very awkward for me. I felt I was better than the constant bickering my family embraced as an everyday norm while my family viewed me as a coward for not. The older I got the further I’d tried to get away from them. At the height of my dark period I hid from my family for a year when I lived only a block away.

Many people don’t know this about me but the first time I tried cocaine I was about 26 years old with a 2 year old Sun and a woman that wanted nothing to do with me. I was so desperate to try to maintain a family built solely on responsibility and not love that I brought my 1st 50 bag and gave it to her as a gift – in hopes that we would have a good time and our “family” would have a fighting chance. She left, the addiction stayed. They say keys open doors, and when I started dealing coke opened up every door you can imagine in downtown New York and Williamsburg Brooklyn. Those photos you selected aren’t photos of people doing drugs and partying – they are photos of a underground NY scene from the last 4 years mixed with blue blood WASPs from the Hampton & poor Midwestern hipsters mixed with New York City natives doing MY drugs.

I loved pop art because of the colors and it reminded me of the comic books I would to hide from my family in. I loved Basquiat because he drew with whatever medium his personal history allotted. I love 35mm film because it can’t be corrupted or easily altered like digital. When I came across Reza (TheArabParrot.com) I became a huge fan, in part because we ran in the same circles and punished ourselves with the same substances while couch surfing with any pretty little rich girl that would let us inside. He didn’t write much though, he would just let his pictures tell the story – mostly shots of him hanging around LA/ NY/ Miami with his friends wasted in bed with flashy and artsy randoms. During that time I was a heavy and well known dealer – without the incriminating evidence.

One day while I was doing a “delivery” during the Memorial Day weekend in 2010 and I was hit by a hit & run in Brooklyn. According to the people that witnessed it I should have been dead considering I flew over 4 lanes of traffic.Instead I walked away without a scratch, only a minor limp as I turned down medical and police help due to my illegal cargo. I completed my runs and went home where I fell in a deep survivors guilt type of depression. The only thought was out of all the great people that suffer these tragic misfortunes why was I allowed to walk away from mine? I was nobody but a bottom feeder parading around like a sad clown from dive bar to nightclub abusing small talk to survive. I wasn’t a good son to my mother a good brother to my sibling nor a good father to my son.

Then I thought about my Sun and what he would know of his father. At the time he had just turned 8 years old and was a pretty smart kid. I was pretty sure all he would know of me is whatever poison my estranged and very bitter baby mother knew of me. So I said fuck it, the future is now and these kids grow up with smartphones and web access. The next day I brought a cheap Polaroid film camera from a 99 cent store. I wasn’t even sure the camera worked. I got a bunch of film and started talking photos of everything I saw and documenting them in a blog I started to write just for him. I used all I learned poetry wise and just stretched it into a autobiographical depiction of my every day life complete with crappy film photos. Thorns and all I didn’t hide anything. the one thing I wish I had from my father (who I wasn’t raised with and barely know and don’t have the desire to) was the truth, and idea of how he lived. I felt that was the greatest gift I could give to my Sun.

After a couple of posts somehow through Twitter my friends found it, loved it, then Mike (MINT) got a hold of it and the rest is history. The mother of my child always said that I was worth more to my sun dead. Now I do art to prove her right.

Art & Text by Slutlust

Categories: 1990s, Art, Graffiti, Manhattan, Photography, Poetry

Some May Never Live, but the Crazy Never Die

Posted on September 19, 2013

.
Life has become immeasurably better
since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.

Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex.

We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance magazines —
we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company,
we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely — at least, not all the time —
but essentially, and finally, alone.
This is what makes your self-respect so important,
and I don’t see how you can respect yourself
if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up,
totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone,
but they’ve always worked for me.

~*~
Photographs by Dave Schubert
Quotes by Hunter S. Thompson

Categories: Art, Graffiti, Photography, Poetry

Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion

Posted on June 5, 2013

Music, art, fashion, style. For a glorious moment these things all combined in an ethos of Do It Yourself. In New York City during the 1970s and 80s, the culture of Hip Hop first began to assert itself as DJs, MCs, b-boys and b-girls, created a way of rocking unlike anything the world had seen before. At the same time, graffiti had taken hold, a kind of public art so powerful and profound it became the most epic form of writing on the wall. But as the police began to crack down, buffing the trains and issuing more than desk appearance tickets to its practitioners, graffiti found new ways to express itself.

Airbrush was just the thing to allows for a smooth transition to a new kind of surface. Customized jackets, jeans, sweatshirts, and t-shirts, became the means to express yourself. It was the Shirt Kings who took this form to its highest heights, as Phade (Edwin Sacasa), Nike, and Kasheme (Rafael Avery) joined together to form the Shirt Kings, the first black clothing line straight from the streets. They went on to produce a style of clothing so iconic that it has become synonymous with the place and the time from which it spring, a zeitgeist in the making as no one could have ever predicted, not even the artists themselves.

Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion by Edwin PHADE Sacasa and Alan KET (Dokument Press) is a vibrant photo album of their greatest hits. Phade began his graff career while a student at Art & Design, during the years when its student body included Daze, Doze Green, Lady Pink, Lil Seen, and Marc Jacobs. Outside of school, Phade was bombing the trains, living the life as it was meant to be lived.

As he recalls, “So what’s so special about the 80s? For me it was the graffiti cars swirling through New York City like canvases painted for the world to see. It was watching school comrades transform into the next generation of graffiti artists and joining the Rock Steady Crew. Getting calls to mentor and give out the wisdom I got from Kase 2 and Butch 2. Going to clubs like Harlem World on 116^th Street and Lenox Avenue, Broadway International, T-Connection in the Bronx, Disco Fever, P.A.L. 183^rd, Galaxy, Skate Fever, Skate-City in Brooklyn, Roseland USA and Empire Skating Rink in Brooklyn. Watching the Old Gold Crew from Brownsville, Brooklyn, fighting with their hand skills. Hearing the Supreme Team Show on the radio. Mr. Magic and Eddie Cheeba late night on the radio. Listening to hip hop with a hanger for an antenna to get some bootleg station.”

With an education like this, Phade’s evolution as an artist was natural. In 1984, he Sound 7 taught him how to airbrush, and once he acquired this skill, he began producing work, selling “Money Making New Yorker” t-shirts on the corner of 125 and Lenox Avenue. He went on to partner with Kasheme and Nike to form the Shirt Kings and launched their business in the Jamaica Coliseum in June 1986.

Jam Master Jay, a personal friend of Kasheme, came through to the opening with a crew of at least fifty. Back in the days, as hot as Hip Hop was, it was still of the people and it was grounded in the art form itself; it has not yet gone pop, had not yet hit the suburbs, or transformed into an international powerhouse. Back in the 80s, Hip Hop had an edge and it was a language spoken in the art, the dance, the music, and the lyrics.

As Alan Ket notes in his introduction, “The Shirt Kings style of airbrush design became a fashion statement made popular by the hottest rappers and deejays of the day. It seemed like overnight that their designs were everywhere from Just Ice’s record to the Audio Two’s popular album to the stage of the Latin Quarters where all the best emcees were performing weekly. As the Shirt Kings’ business took off their style was copied across the Northeast and they themselves expanded and covered Miami. Pretty soon they had deals with rappers and singers alike to provide the wardrobe designs for tours and music videos.”

Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion takes us back to this era like nothing else ever could, the casual portraits and snapshots of the people, the art, the love of style, originality, and glamour itself. The book features portrait after portrait of some of the era’s greatest stars, along with personal quotes that remind us just how deep the Shirt Kings legacy goes. As Nas notes, “It wasn’t just rap celebrities, it was like street celebrities that had them on.” And that makes all the difference to the culture as it began to transform.

There is a joie de vivre that appears on every page, that same joy that came from Hip Hop as it made its way off the block and before the world stage. The Shirt Kings take us back to a time when Hip Hop was on the cusp, embodying the spirit of greatness itself, from one work of art to the next.

Tasja from South Side Jamaica, Queens, a proud customer wearing Dapper Dan and Shirt Kings, 1986, from ‘Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion’ by Edwin PHADE Sacasa and Alan KET

Categories: 1980s, Art, Books, Bronx, Brooklyn, Fashion, Graffiti, Manhattan, Music, Photography

JR: Women Are Heroes

Posted on December 12, 2012

Since its inception in the late 60s, graffiti has been the most public of public arts, the ultimate statement of self, a mark of existence that enlivens the streets. Since it began with tags, it has since expanded in all manners including beyond its original letterform. As it shifted into an image-based lexicon, it took on new forms, and was dubbed Street Art as a way to differentiate itself. And while many have succeeded in any number of mediums, there is only one photograffeur: JR.

JR has taken photography to new heights. By employing the ideals of graffiti—scale, placement, and proliferation—JR’s work creates its own expectations. The 2011 winner of the TED Prize, he works on a global scale using art to effect a change in the world. Women Are Heroes: A Global Project by JR (Abrams) showcases one his most noble efforts, a tribute to women on a massive scale, with public art works produced in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Kenya, Brazil, India, and Cambodia. Mural size photographs of everyday women were created on monumental scale from simple black and white portraits that are at once intimate and outlandish, evocative and emotional, provocative and profound. The cumulative effect of JR’s work allows for a new understanding in the representation of women, as well as in the discourse of public art.

Public art, such as it exists, has been a tool for the establishment to reinforce itself. Whether it is the monumental sponsored work of the church and state, or more recently, the art world’s ever-present self-veneration masquerading as a “profitable investment” most public works have been imposed by external forces upon the community it claims to serve. Graffiti and street art also impose, but they do so by way of the anonymous insider making his or her presence known. Here, JR takes the insider to the furthest possible reach, making heroes out of the people themselves, effectively saying, “In you, beauty exists.”

JR’s installations serve the people by becoming part of the whole, by transforming the landscape by fusing the internal and external at the same time. The placement of the works are as telling as the choice of subjects themselves, for the art of Women Are Heroes exists only in lands of extreme poverty throughout the world, in lands where people are marginalized in ways we of the first world all too often forget.

But JR won’t let us forget, and he takes us deeper into the abyss by granting access to the personal side of his subjects in “As Told To” narratives throughout the book. As Chantha Dol of Cambodia reveals, “I agreed to have my photograph put up so that the men in power in Cambodia would open their eyes and take a look at our condition. The reason my eyes are so wide open is to show my anger. Words are no longer enough. I want people to ask themselves why these photograph of women were put on the walls of their houses.”

But Ms. Dol might not know that when she agreed to be photographed, the question she wanted people to ask themselves would be a question to travel around the world. JR’s continued success allows the work he is doing to reach new audiences that go far beyond the traditional realms of photography and street art. As his audiences expand in both size and prominence, the questions his work raises gain power and strength, inspiring us as individuals and as societies to look at ourselves with fresh eyes.

Women Are Heroes is a sumptuously produced tome that pleasingly combines the grand scale of the public works with the directness of the photographs and stories being told. It provides context at every turn, allowing for a more complete experience of the installations themselves. This book is equally provocative and pleasurable, as each turn of the page reveals an unexpected angle on the power of photography to tell stories and touch hearts. Imagine eyes softly shut, black eyelashes lain thick, now imagine this image pasted to the side of a garbage truck at a dump in Cambodia. JR reminds us women are worthy of a veneration that goes deeper than the flesh, that celebrates an inner beauty in every being that only art can truly make manifest.

Categories: Africa, Art, Books, Graffiti, Photography, Women

I Want to Go Home

Posted on March 19, 2012

I Wish I Could Explain

Categories: Africa, Art, Graffiti, Photography

searching .. searching

Posted on November 16, 2011

i’m always curious what brings people here ..
these are a few of my favorites ..

Malcolm X * Harriet Jacobs * Bronx Concourse Robbery in 1987 * Red Sexy Toes * Jim Jocoy * Maripol * Sade * Bunny Wailer * J Dilla * Leigh Bowery Trojan * Sid Vicious * Girls Fight Club * Nat Finkelstein * Huey Newton * Alpha Male * oOo Love to Love You Baby * Eazy E * REVS * Martha Cooper * Rock Steady Park * Rhapsody in Blue * Urohobo Language You Are the Love of My Life * Pee Porn * Danny Lyon * Blade Graffiti * Tuna Tartar * 70s Fashion Men Super Fly * Norma Desmond * Salome * Candy Darling * Anton Perich * Flatbush Brooklyn * Eric Johnson * Bobby Seale * Joe Conzo * New York State of Mind * Errol Flynn * Champagne Breasts * Anya Phillips * Pedro Paricio * WeeGee Crime Scene Photos * Paris is Burning * Tough Wigger Coked Out * Ellen Jong * Tiger Heart * Morticia y Gomez * Christmas Blunts * Martin Eden * Fuck SCAF * Two of Swords * Images of Love * I Dreamt I Was Jogging * Elephant Texture * Black Israelite * Brooklyn 1980 * Delayed Gratification * Women Are Beautiful * Cherish the Day * Martha Graham * T La Rock * Lady Jumps Out of Empire State Building Lands on Car * Fat Guy With Afro in Speedo * Madonna Polaroid * Slava Mogutin * Tupac Thug Life Tattoo * Call Me…Choclate Dinosaur * Grand Concourse 1971 * April Flores * Dance Is the Hidden Language of the Soul * The Cover Girls * Stiletto Heels and Loose Morals * Park Jams South Bronx * Egypt Revolution Graffiti * Roads to Nowhere *

Categories: Art, Graffiti, Photography

TAP: Staten Island Represent

Posted on October 24, 2011

Nothing is ever random. Not even the fact that my cousin’s husband, who I have only met twice, used to bomb on Staten Island back in the days. Though I missed the glory days, I’ve been catching flicks on Facebook and thought it was time to post up. Tom Petronzio aka TAP, representing SI, telling it like it was ~

When did you start writing? & what was the scene like in SI back in the days?

TAP: I first started writing in late 1980. I was a freshman in HS. I happened to like this girl Melissa.B. I wanted to get her attention so I started writing Tom loves Missy. everywhere. As I pursued this M/O. In HS I sat next to this Black Girl named Kecia. She would write Kecia Kee -N- Easy Gee. I then became T-A-P -N- Missy B. Eventually Missy had no interest so she was dropped.

I created this toy connecto which looked more like a logo than a tag. In the beginning it was TAP, KELP 3 and STAR 2. Those were my initial partners. We would Tag fire boxes and NYC busses with these Hurt Tags. Eventually people started giving me recognition of seeing my Tag and the fire was lit. I think I stayed with the connecto for about 2 years.

In HS dudes with style noticed I had an uncanny knack for getting up. They would tell me. “Yo TAP drop the connecto the shit is hurt”. OMEN 2 was a West Brighton cat who brought me up to par. EROS, who wrote CAM at the time was another dude who was always showing me tagging style. I got better but more importantly I was getting up.

I think in 1981, 98.7 KISS FM first went on the AIR. I remember Fantastic Voyage was the first song I heard on this brand new station. Suede Pumas were in and, in fact, I remember bringing a toothbrush in to clean mine. The Heartbeat trilogy was out. Sweet GEE, Tanya Gardner, Treacherous 3 . We would go up to the Old Forty Duece and watch Kung Fu flicks. Saw the Nesting up there and all the black dudes in the theatre were adding there own ad libs to the scenes, We brought that skill back to our suburban movie theatres (LOL).

I could say so much more about how the commercialization of Hip Hop was just taking place. I had the Nylon BVDs, The Adidas, The windbreakers, Fat Laces, Le Tigre shirts. The sewed in creases in my Lees. I was the only MF in my area to wear that gear prior to 83 and caught alot of shit for it.

What were your favorite spots ? What was your greatest hit of all time ?

TAP: The Train Tracks on SI were peaceful. As i got more into it, I used my climbing ability to get on bridges, We had a bus yard under wraps for awhile and we would kill it. We went off schedule one evening and it was game over. Stakeout.

My greatest hit off all time was for me the Train Bridge cause I went solo on the 4th of July. Giant snow owls migrate there in the summer as I found out at the top of my climb. There are far more talented artists in the city but I got a pic with the Twin Towers in the Background that can never be duplicated. Its my moment in time. Now that I think of it. I will probably be cremated with that pic in my pocket (LOL).

Another hit which was pretty cool to me was the road to Great Adventure. I did it with a non graf friend but put Richie LUF for him. He died several years later and I am on that road alot. Even though the Tag has been buffed for years. I think of him immediatly. I actually got a tear in my eye writing about that. He was a punk rocker and he had a pet rat that he dyed Tiger stripes (LOL).

My final is a dumb one there was an old NYPD car that was bought by a security company. It still was Blue and White but I rocked a tag on it and at first glance people thought I hit the 5 O’s car. Its all smoke and mirrors (LOL).

You describe yourself as a bomber — what inspired you to take that approach to graff ?

TAP: There are artists and bombers, some are blessed to be both. As for my peers (dudes I competed with) MARS, LASK, GANO had both talents. There are alot of older dudes that carried that role but I will tackle that in Next question. I got alot of props for the older cats. ART takes talent for one and if you are not talented alot of patience and practice. First off I only got the fire cause I liked seeing my name on things, as recognition comes your ego gets involved. I didnt like putting my time and energy into something and it get buffed. To me it was heartbreaking watching pieces get buffed.

I put a 1000 tags you cant clean them all in one night (LOL). I was destructive by nature, I guess I picked quantity over quality. As far as bombers go the heavy hitters are to some degree loners. I never got caught on my own, it was always someone else’s misstep that jammed me up.

Whose work do you most admire, both artists and bombers ?

TAP: For work I admire most, for artists I am gonna stay on Staten Island. There was and is enough talented artists to occupy my memory bank for a lifetime. I am gonna pay props to different dudes for different reasons. If I miss someone its cause im alittle burnt LOL. Well I admire CASPER out of West Brighton first and foremost. He had unbelievable work on the west Brighton Pool. I was 15 and just learning the beginnings. I got all my friends to go to the West and see his work. I CAN”T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS POSTED ANY CASPER PICS ON FB.

AIDONE, I admire his work from the Late 70s. He did some styles in the his day that were way ahead of his time. His pieces were cool but more than that he was a ferocious bomber, i look at old pics and I know how hot those spots were. He definetly was a ballsy writer in his day.

RINONE. Is The KING of SI GRAFF to me. He killed the North shore/ brought it to the South Shore which was like Waltons Mountain in the 70s. He had big 5 boro respect. He made a nasty one/ two punch with AID but then also ran with what I Regard as Hall of Famers from Stapleton. MENIC, SAINT, BASIC, BENO, SIK, FLEX. RINONE just killed it before Grafff was glamourous.

BRAZE, Was another Legend to me, Great artist and Bomber, did pieces in Ballsy spots as well. His style to me is one of a kind.

MIRAGE,MONIE,were great artists who took chances. Thats the mark of greatness to me.

JADE and KEKA were south shore Pioneers, I remember searching the train trestles for new work from these 2.

There are plenty of old school cats I missed especially from North Shore and I apologize.

My era, who I regarded as flat out competition was LASK and CEAL. LASK was that duel bomber/artist, We got together once and tore shit up. I will always see LASK fat cap tags when I think Bombers,

My man CEAL, He achieved BOMBING fame with 2 names. Definite BUS KING on SI in his day. LIKE ME, wasnt into the artist side of things, MAD BOMBER, WE got together on several occasions. To me one of the best friendships I made in graff.

I admire CASTER a phenomenol Artist, SYRE (RIP) who was a real good friend of mine, that CEAL introduced me to.

GANO IS EVERYONES ERA. GREAT ARTIST/ GREAT BOMBER. What I really respect about Him is he knows the ART of self promotion. He is a smart Dude. I cant walk away from North Shore Bombers without Giving ON2, ROM, and TIN there props, I know I forget many from my era but these guys stood out to me

Now my fellow South Shore brothers who I hit with. RAD3, NS and MARS, MARS is that BOMBER/ARTIST super talented and if you could call a MF a graffitti genius its him,

I started out with KELP3, who later became GE, KART and STAR2. I pay them respect because they were there when we were battling to be king of the Great Kills Train Station LOL.

The final admiration is for My Man KID who doesnt settle for 2nd Best. KID and PK are kings as we read.

There are so many bigtime bombers in the 5 Boros to name but OE3 P13, GMAN and BS 119 plus SES from BKLYN were the biggest bombing inspirations for me .

All adult responsibilities aside, do you ever get the old urge to go bombing ?

TAP: Yes, I think talking to this younger Dude from SI, EVEN and the Original Gangster AID ONE make me realize what good times it was. Maybe someday, right now I got 3 teenagers to raise. (LOL).

Graff gave me friendships that will last a lifetime, You make new friendships with dudes because your common thread is the passion of your past.. Graff makes you determined wether Artist or Bomber. You wanna be the best.. As a bomber on SI, I strived for all out.. I peaked in 85 but you know because of my graff intensity I know there is no quit in everyday life. Graff, short of my wife giving birth to my 3 kids was the best times of my life..

Categories: 1980s, Art, Graffiti