Kenos Ack Tds Interview

Sight Zilla interviews Kenos from Ack Tds crew. Kenos has years in the game and is well respected in the graffiti community. This interview was a special request from Gizm.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up, what's up? We right here. We're right here in the McDonald's parking lot. Uh keynote is right here. He rolled up a paper plane. He hasn't passed it yet though, but uh he just um so he he met me over here. I appreciate him meeting me up um on a Sunday. Um the weather is wild right now, like uh kind of like playing with it. Is it gonna rain or you're not? Just go ahead and do what you're gonna do. But um he knows man, like shit, man, like OG legend, triple OG. Like Suave says good things about you. Jism Jism has a lot of love for you. She said she you're inspired you inspire her in so many ways. Like, like what's your story, man? Like, like what what what area are you representing? What crews you represent?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Um I represent Long Beach and I represent ACK and TDS. Okay. And uh ACK was a crew that uh that's like my my home, like pretty much home to me. Uh that's like an actual crew that um I grew up with all these cats. Uh it wasn't really too big of a crew. Um we did have a lot of clicks later on, like when we started uh when social media started coming around. We s you know we have cats in Canada, New York, and Mexico. Um but the ACK that I'm from started in Cyprus. And um yeah, it's pretty much just a bunch of cats that I grew up with. And uh, you know, at some point it was just me. Just me by myself doing it after, you know, a few years. But uh that started in like 92. How long you been riding for, man? Since 91, actually. Damn. 91, yeah. And uh I got into it a little earlier before that. Um probably like 89 and 90. My I had a cousin uh shout out my cousin Scat um aka Snow. Uh he moved he moved in with us when we were living in Long Beach, and um he moved in from New York. And I guess he was getting in trouble out there for for graffiti. But when he when he moved out to out here from New York, he brought that whole like the B-boy shit, like the Kango, you know, the jumpsuit. And I never I haven't, you know, that was my first time ever seeing anything like that in person. So just his look and everything just like, you know, uh, it stood out to me a lot. And then um he painted the uh there's like a rail tracks by our our house. Um and we would walk to the to the supermarket and uh he paint, he did like a little like a it was like a silver, pretty much like a throw-up. But that would be like the first time I actually seen graffiti in in the flesh, you know. And uh because most of the time, like in Long Beach was just a bunch of gang stuff, you know? Yeah. Um and that that was the first time I seen like style and letters, but uh I was like probably nine at the time. Okay. So uh I was just tripping out on it. I thought it was like a big ass sticker at first, you know. I I didn't know what, you know. And then he's like, nah, spray paint and this and that. And then uh he painted our our garage um later on, and uh my brothers had like a little band called like the Wildcats or some stupid shit. But uh he did like some clean ass letters in the in the garage, and that time I actually saw him doing it. Yeah. So uh that shit just stuck with me, man, since uh since that time. Uh our house caught on fire in Long Beach, so we moved to uh Cyprus, which is Orange County, and that was around like 1991. And then when I did that move, it was like fucking day and night, you know what I mean? Like, you know, like because Cyprus is a nice area. Um, you know, it was quiet. Like I remember me and my sister like like damn, it's like quiet. You can hear birds and shit. And then uh I linked up with a couple cats in the in my neighborhood that you know were on the same kind of shit, you know, like uh just like some outlaw shit, you know. And then um my boy Tyler, my homie, I had a homie Tyler, uh we started writing uh well I started writing Rasta at the time because I would I would I always used to rock like cross colors and all like the Rasta clothes back then. And uh I wrote that for like a like probably like a month or two. But uh that'd be like the first tag time I ever like tagged. Like with like spray paint. Okay. It was like in the side of his house, like a little wash.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Anybody anybody still active from those days? Did you see today, man?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Man. Well that's the thing, shucks, man. Okay uh my boy Shucks, man, I I met him in like 9093. He came around and uh uh he he happened to go to the the the junior high school in Cyprus, I don't know why, but he just ended up being there. And then uh we that's when like we all linked up, like pretty much. And then as we got older, you know, uh a lot of people, you know, got into gangs, a lot of people uh just just left the shit, didn't even care about it. And I would run into him and he was still in the same shit. Okay, okay. And um, yeah, that's pretty much one of the homies that still still was you know repping since since back then. Um I still talk to a lot of the cats, you know, like we still like we'll meet up, but you know, a lot of fools are like family men, fucking, you know, businessmen now. But I they still, you know, they still come out just to link up, we'll shoot the shit or whatever. But um, yeah, and then uh TDS, uh, that's a crew from New York. And uh I got actually me and Shucks got into that around the same time, and uh part actually put us down. But actually, uh it started with Dove. I gotta give a shout-out to Dove uh from DCV, UTI. Okay. Um he he moved out to New York, and uh we would take trips out to New York probably like 10 years ago. We started taking like an annual trips and uh we linked out with Dove because Dub used to live out here, like in the area we're from. Uh Fear and Dove used to live right there in Cyprus. Yeah, Fear of the Homie. Yeah. Shout out to Fear. Shout out to Fear, man. So like yeah, like growing up, them cats, you know, them cats used to be like, you know, like like the gods for us, you know? Because the the they were doing it like they're doing shit ahead of their time, pretty much, and uh we we got to witness that. And uh he uh Dove always would show us love as you know as youngsters, you know. He wasn't like, get out of here you little shits, you know, like he was actually like embrace us. So um when we went out to New York, uh hit him up, and then he linked us up with uh a couple cats out there. We got to paint some spots, and then we met uh the homie Neil from uh from FC T D S. Okay. And first he wanted to get us down with FC. And uh me personally, I would turn down a lot of shit, like cause I was just so loyal to ACK um since since '92, you know, like I I never got into any other crews. And uh I was like on the edge of like I don't know. I told Shucks, like, I don't know, man, because Shucks, you know, he's been he's been to a bunch of different crews. And uh Yeah, I was just like, I don't know. And then uh the homie Neo was like, well, uh in or in order to get from FC, you gotta, you know, you gotta rep T DS. Okay. And I was like, fuck, man, I'd rather just rep TDS. That shit is just mad legendary, you know. Shit's gonna be like. I mean, I I I wouldn't mind it, but I I feel personally like TDS is more of a legendary crew. Okay, you know, like they they were there before, you know, before a lot of shit. Uh the whole subway movement pretty much started with that crew. And uh I even did my research, like, you know, like when he told me about it, I started looking it up, doing my research about it. And, you know, like I just you know found out so many heads repped it, you know, like Don D and T Kid, just a bunch of heads, you know, that actually repped the crew. So I was like, damn, like that's pretty fucking legendary. Yeah, yeah. So I I I remember we went to uh it was uh they call it the graffiti temple in New Jersey. Yeah. And part uh read, a bunch of cats were there painting. Flight was even there too. Uh rest in peace.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

And uh uh I mean we're saying teal. Oh yeah, teal. You come down to the West Coast, yeah, and B blessing LA.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

The simple, nice, clean.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah, it's simple, broadways, colorful, yeah. It's just dope, man.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

But yeah, fucking uh part was sitting there, you know, and this is when I first met him, and they're bumping salsa, and like, you know, like I grew up from you know, at Latin home. My my parents are Peruvian, so it just felt like home right away, you know. I was like, damn, like that's dope. And these guys are old, you know, they're like in their 50s, 60s, you know, still painting. Damn. And it just felt like I just felt right right there. So I was like, this is it, you know, like I'm down for this. And then you know, started repping TDS since then. And uh I think uh being out here and repping it, you know, like uh they will show me my love. Like every time I go back, they're like, you know, they always tell us like uh, you know, we love that you guys got in. Good uh contribution to the crew. So yeah, it was pretty dope.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

You got any um you got any graffiti heroes, man?

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah, man. I do uh I grew up always admired Twists. Okay. Twists was like one of my favorite. Twist is dope, man. Cause I'm a character guy. I like characters. Like I I I was I felt uh I was forced to do letters just because it's graffiti, you know? Yeah. And then um, but I always like characters like when uh when you know from cartoons and shit like that. So when I would see twist is shit, like that shit would just, you know, like simple, the simple characters that he would do, or just like the twist fucking uh the screw that he would do and shit like that. Yeah. Um and then Mo 2, I liked his shit because like uh it's like characters as well, sketchy. Uh of course Hex, Hex and uh Mirror. Like that was like uh Yeah, shout out to Hex and Mirror, man. Like you could see it in my work too, man. Like a lot of a lot of them cats fucking inspire me too. My homie Shucks too, just painting with that fool. Fucking he's always been good since a kid, you know. He just didn't he's just the artist, so because I even to this day I I don't think I'm good, you know, like uh there's a lot of shit that I I feel like I I gotta fucking uh like level up on. Yeah. But um painting with cats like that, like so much, like I end up picking up, you know, techniques and different, you know, he would tell me like oh you gotta do the backgrounds, you gotta make sure everything's color covered, you know, like don't show no tags in the background and shit like that, you know, like it just uh made me made me a better painter. Um but yeah, like those those are some of the guys that like I really look up to. Okay. I mean, of course, Don Di and like you know, Scene and those cats, but like the cats that I I mentioned, those were like the prime, you know, my prime fucking influences. You got some graffiti villains though. The graffiti villains?

SPEAKER_01 12:47

For real. I never thought of that. Oh fuck, man. I mean because we got the buff monster, we got the cops, we got we got uh family, you know what I'm saying? Like who were some of the graffiti villains?

SPEAKER_00 13:03

The villains, I would say, are like some of the rollers, man. Yeah. Like I never really got into the like I I like the clean shit, yeah, but you know, there was this a time where it was just fucking just too much, bro. Like you couldn't do you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a bunch of fucking, you know, rollers. I mean, and I get it, because graffiti just keeps elevating and like you know, like, you know, it it just the more the better. Yeah. But um it tend uh it's to me personally, it seems like a lot of people been steering away from style. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Yeah, I mean, my the virtual said in the interview that vandalism and vandalism. But my other homie said, my homie Cass said, it's not real graffiti. And someone, and then the other homie said if they just would like tweak, put some funk on the lettering, it'll probably be more considered graffiti than versus like the block lettering any that anybody can do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I mean, like I felt like I don't know, like growing up in the 90s, like you were forced to be original. Yeah, I mean, I f I feel like all that shit just went out the window nowadays, you know? Yeah. And and I get it, you know, graffiti is graffiti, and I love that shit. Like, I I love like destroying shit and like, you know, being rebellious. That's like that's the whole reason why I got into it, you know, it's like fuck the system, fuck the government type shit, you know. But uh when you get older and you grow up and you still love it, you at least want to make it look good. You know what I mean? Like you want to make it look presentable and like be like, alright, like this guy isn't just a kid anymore, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Who who started the roller shit, man? Cause I'm like, Man, you know what? I would I feel like revs and cos. Okay. You know, like uh I think we I first started seeing rollers in the graffiti magazines back in high school. And then everybody started imitating that. But I don't know who the original right, right.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

I mean there was there was crews, you know, like the crews used to do like the big blockbuster rollers and shit. But uh Yeah, I don't know. I feel yeah, that shit just really just came out of left field and just hit hard. I mean like But there there's a handful of people that do it right though. Yeah like I give it up to them, you know, like you know, like the there's there's a there's a handful of people that actually are clean with it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

I mean like it well for some people, for some crews, it well for the act of it, it starts a lot of beef sometimes because Yeah, because they go over fucking shit that's been old.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, yeah. And and uh I feel that too. But uh especially in LA, you know, like that shit is cutthroat out here, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Yeah, LA is crazy though, because it's like I gone to other places around the world, and they don't do that capping shit. They don't do like the rules are different.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Yeah, so they hold a lot of respect.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, you don't go over, like I went to Italy and I bombed over some tags because over here where I'm from, yeah, it's taxed. You always go over to the tags, yeah. But some people commented on that shit. I think they were from Brazil, and they were just like, you think that's cool to bomb over people's tags? And I was like, hold up. Damn, they probably got different rules over there. That's what I'm saying. LA's a whole different thing, man. Like, and then even on the East Coast, like, there wasn't a lot of capping going on over there. But then LA niggas is going over there capping over there. So everybody's like kind of changing the culture over there because like even in uh when I was in Berlin, it wasn't like nobody was nobody's capping like that. Everybody had their space, even in Baltimore, Maryland, nobody's capping. Like you see shit that's been there since '92, '93. It's a lot of capping. It's a lot of like it's not a lot of capping where when I go outside of LA. Um, yeah, I'll hit that. But uh, you know, what's your take? What's your take on that, man?

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Um, I just feel well one thing, yeah, I feel like the gang culture out here. You know, that that kind of like spews down to like the like Stro, we we we interviewed Strohl not too long ago and he he said it in a perfect way. It was like like graffiti was like like the the little brothers of the gangs. Yeah. You know what I mean? And um, yeah, I feel like it's uh, you know, out here it's uh it's pretty much uh if we go over it, you know, you're either gonna deal with it or fucking go back and and get your shit back, you know? Yeah. And uh unfortunately a a lot of I feel like that's how a lot of beefs and a lot of you know shit starts out here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Um I guess the real estate is the real estate market is small, so people are like going over each other.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah, oh especially now, bro. Like my whole lifetime, I never seen LA get like like how it is right now. Yeah. You know, with the graffiti and shit. It's dope, but at the same time, it's like it's just like like you really can't find a fucking spot.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah, yeah, you drive around. Yeah. I was with Erup, Erup one night years ago, and we just driving around, driving around, driving around, couldn't find no spots, they're all taken. So now like you gotta like make a list. Like Kat had a list of like 50 spots. So it's like you gotta make a list just to come back to it because the real estate is so uh small out here.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

And and I think I think it pushes us to get like creative too. Yeah, yeah you know, like find like the creative little weird cuts or corners or whatever, you know. Well a lot of niggas is repelling now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Repeling and hanging off of buildings, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

But even with that, like uh that shit I give every anybody that does that shit, I give them the props because that shit is like fucking, you know, it's like the ultimate high. Man, I heard stories that end them almost dying.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yeah, like I'm like, my my hat goes off to you. That's not good. I'm grounded. I'm a land lover, man. Yeah, I'm grounded. I like Snow Walker, yeah. I don't know, I'm cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

But yeah, like like it's it's dope, but like I said too, man, like you know, like uh you gotta have some style with it, you know, like and I'm not like trying to dog anybody out or nothing like that, but I'm just saying, you know, like I'm just being honest, dog, you know, like shit is dope, shit is up, but you know it's just too easy. Yeah. It's too easy, yeah. Yeah. I I feel like uh creativity, you know, like that's what gets me. I like I like creative shit.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

I think it just reflects uh not trying to put nobody down anything like that, but I think it reflects where we're at right now as a society. I mean, like, you look at the 80s and 90s, it was like it was just tons of creativity. You know, I'm talking about like movie style. Yeah. Like the movies, like the movies were like more creative. You had the Terminators or Robocops. Like part three and four and five, like. No, it's just like we're gonna remake the shit back then, or we're gonna imitate something that already existed, but it's not a lot of originality. Yeah. Uh so um I just I'm wondering what happened with the shit. But it's like, was that the real Y2K? That the shit was like. Because even the shoes were dope. The shoe game was dope in the 90s and 80s, like, and then we hit this Y2K and it just like did we go into like a reset? Yeah, it went into like a weird fucking glitch or some shit. Cause it hasn't been the same, like, it hasn't been the same. The shoes, even the J's got ugly after the 2000s and shit. Like, you know, so it's like, what happened, man? So uh, I mean what where'd you get keynotes from? And what was where that one comes from?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

So keynote's uh it was keynote originally. Um and uh that uh it was just the letters, really. Like I used to write it funky. I used to write like the K and like one of the K's would go into the the E bar. And uh I just I was it was pretty toy actually. But uh I got that name in '93, okay, and then uh I got busted. I got busted at school. Okay. And for some reason I thought if I added an S on the end that they would think it's someone else. Okay. And uh they didn't, I got busted with that name too, but um, yeah, it was just mainly the the Letter style to it. A lot of people thought it was from the game, but it wasn't. Okay. Yeah, it was just from just putting the letters together.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Um man, like I know, I know you see it. There's a lot of females doing graffiti right now. A lot. Like, how do you feel about that? Like, because I was hanging out with the homegirl yesterday. I'm not gonna say her name. And uh, you know, she was saying that basically it's been a it's been a a little bit of a challenge on the graffiti journey. Because dude is just douja just thirsty, disrespectful, and uh not helpful.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Yeah. And you know what? That's what that's why I give it up to to the females, because graffiti is like the raw, the most dirtiest, the most grimiest sport that you can get involved with. And you know, most graffiti writers are perverts and fucking, you know, like uh just you know, fucking just uh it just it's it's hard to deal with with cats, you know. So you have to have a strong, uh, strong skin pretty much to fucking. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

I could barely do my own crew sometimes, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

So but uh females, yeah, but I give it up, man. Like I shit, like I I see it all the same, you know? Um and like you said, like, you know, like I I didn't even know there's some people that that were writing that were even girls, you know? Yeah, yeah. So I mean when I find out that the it's a female doing it, uh it's more, you know, I'm like, alright, that's that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Who's a who's a who's a mother I'll make it hard for you, so you know you triple OG will make it hard. Uh who is top all-time greatest uh graffiti writer for a girl, for a woman. For a woman. There's a few, man. Um but you can only name one. One? Who would that be?

unknown 24:24

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Let me think this. But we could do one, because you you a vet in the game. We're gonna make it a little, we're gonna give you a uh super jeopardy question right now.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Cause I mean I could go like, you know, you can go old school, new school, new school.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Um I just wish I had that sound. Who wants to be a millionaire? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like fuck.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Um females, man. There's so many, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, there's not one that just stands out. I would have to say reminisce, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Reminisce. Yeah. I don't think I ever heard of reminisce.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

She used to do the the the horse with twists. Okay, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Um I gotta look her up, I gotta do my research.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Yeah, it's she was out of the bay. Okay. She was out of the bay. But uh I and and I'm kind of being biased because you know, she would do characters. Yeah. Or like character strip massage.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

This is your this you. This is like how you feel. Everybody's gonna be different. Yeah. But at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

But I I feel like for her time and her skill, yeah, I would say she's she's up there.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Yeah. So like, you know, if if people in the 100 years from now, when they're like some art curators talking about you and your art, they can say, this is what Kinos. Kinos said this person was the top number one. And they can have a little class, debate, discussion about it, you know what I'm saying? Um, but wherever you are, this just know this is how he feels, and that's how he sees you.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Now I don't even know, never met or nothing. This is just from growing up, you know, and seeing seeing the work as a youngster.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Like, okay, so I'll make it a little easier on you. Like, top two men graffiti artists of all time. Talk to men. Men. Um only two. I know you probably got twists at number one or two in that in that. Does he make the cut?

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Of course, for sure. Um I would say him and Mir. Mirror? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Okay. Alright. I can see it. I can dig it. Why why those two? Well, I mean, I know why twist, but why mirror?

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Because Mirror, uh, fucking mirror is just like he he really like would blow my mind just by uh some of the shit he would do, you know, like and seeing it in the flesh, like you know, instead of like in magazines, like actually going to Meryl's and uh La Brea and fucking uh what do you call it? Meryl's right there, the the Jiffy Lube behind the Jffy Lube by the Pink's hot dog, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so fucking seeing all that shit, man, it was just like um techniques, uh the style, and then his development. Yeah, yeah. Smear was dope.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Shout out to Smear. I mean not Smear. Shout out to Mir. Yeah, Mir was dope as fuck, man.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Yeah, so like um Yeah, I get I I say those two um actually.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Okay. What's your take on um what's your take on anti-style, man?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Man, I don't even know it, bro. You don't know it? Nah, I mean I know it, but like, I don't know. Like it to me it's it's all graffiti.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

I mean there's a lot of there's a movement, there's an anti-style movement. Like, to me that shit reminds me of like the 60s and 70s kind of style, you know? I mean, it has no form. It's like some Bruce Lee shit. So it's like the It's like it's like they try to be whack on purpose. Yeah. Yeah. But like to me, like I anti-style is like evolution. Because of course of course the OG's gonna be like keep this letter format. Right. You know, keep that, but then it mutates, evolves, and becomes something else. Like uh LTSs have their own style style. Some will call that anti-style, some wouldn't, right? Right. Some people call it spaghetti letters, my homie called it spaghetti letters and shit. But um I think it's all evolution, and that's what graffiti is, that's what art is. It's not gonna just stay the way it was in the 70s. Yeah. It's gonna spot.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

I mean, and and some of that anti-style works with certain riders, you know, like uh it it like pretty much uh it it gives them that that identity, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah, I think it matches their personality or however they exist as a person. Cause some people are just really abstract and and weird, and some people are smart and strategic and on point, some people are geeks. Yeah. And you can see that being reflected in their art. Yeah. You can tell, like, if they go really big all the time, then they probably got a big ass ego. Yeah. Or a little ego. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

That's true though, that's true. Now that you say that, I could see that a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Yeah, like the more simple that person is, that style, it's probably reflecting how simple the mentality they have, you know what I'm saying? But if that person's complex with multiple styles, tags, pieces, bumps, that's a m that's a person that's like a really deep philosophical person that sees things in a lot of different ways. Because he has a lot of different styles. True, and that goes to character too, man.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Like because um that's one thing too, man. Like, you know, whenever I come across like anybody young younger than me, you know, I always try to like steer from like the bullshit, you know? Yeah, yeah. Even if they're going through it, you know, like whatever they're going through, I'll try to like try to do this instead, you know. But uh, yeah, build character builds a lot, man. And um a lot of a lot of graph has in in LA, you know, like they get caught up in shit. W whether it's drugs or, you know, fucking street shit or whatever it is, you know, like even love. Yeah, even love, yeah. People been killing themselves over love, man. I I think that's been happening since the beginning of time, but mental health and all that. So, you know, like graffiti is like a escape for for a lot of people, but at the same time, I feel like it's good to like build, you know, like build yourself, you know, like uh, you know, like um, how can I say like because most of the time when people think of a graffiti artist, they think of the worst. You know what I mean? Yeah. And a lot of the times, especially like now, nowadays, because a lot of us grew up and we're you know, we're fucking grown now, um, we're changing that shit, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The culture's changing. Yeah. But it's just like, you know, graffiti is that sport where you want to stay unknown. So a lot of people don't know the mysterious who that person is or what that graffiti means. So I like that. They uh, you know, they they judge, people love to judge some something they don't know, right? Yeah. And and it's just like a hunter. Um the hunter always hunt, you know, hunts the lion or the either or the beast, but they don't they don't know if that knew that animal's story, yeah. If that animal's like, look here, let me let me talk, let me talk to you about this. They probably don't even even come at them like that. They don't even kill them like that. Like, hey, I know I know their story, I know who that is. I respect that. I'm gonna go shoot some ducks now. I'm gonna go, you know, I'm gonna go after something else that's more relevant, and I think that's the thing with graffiti artists like this.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Yeah. That's why I always try to like be cool to anybody I meet, you know, like uh I try not to do anybody dirty and nothing like that, you know? Because there's nothing anything really anybody could say bad about me, you know, because that like I try to do everybody right, you know. And if they do say something bad about me, they just don't like me, and that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Yeah, and that's okay. It's okay. I mean, I didn't I didn't have no mentors growing up, so I made a lot of mistakes, pissed off a lot of people. Um you know, it's like kill bills like if I offended you, you can come back for me later. You know, we could duke it out or whatever or squash it. Um, but uh, you know, it's the beauty of graffiti, man. Um it's if you had a spray can, scribe, streak, or a dripper, which one would you pick? Scribe. And why why the scribe, man?

SPEAKER_00 33:39

Because the scribes, I I feel like the scribe is the true essence of vandalism and graffiti. Okay. And that shit ain't going nowhere. Okay. Unless you you replace it or break it, you know, like like that to if you want to piss someone off really bad, yeah, a scribe will do it.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Oh yeah, scribes will be like. I mean, sure about just the scribe though? Yeah, I mean What about the acrylic on the seats back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Yeah, that's that's true. The acrylic.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

I mean, even even on the floor, man, I don't even see that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

They don't do that no more.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Because we used to go to the art store, rack a bunch of acrylic, and we'll be catch tags on the ground, but now it seems like I think I don't know. I I guess it's not as effective anymore because it can get pressurized. They got the pressure washers now that like just blow that shit off, you know. But when I was coming up, acrylic tags were everywhere on the ground. Everywhere, yeah. Yeah, that shit was like I had you had to stay with some acrylic in your in your own.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Just like the bus era too. Like I tripped on on that too, how the bus era just stayed during that time. It's not going on anymore now. I mean, there was probably a couple people doing a couple tags and shit, but it wasn't like motherfuckers hanging off the shit, tagging, you know, yeah, riding on it while the bus is going, you know. Like I felt like that was a moment right there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Well they got cameras all on the bus now. Well then, you know, like they they fucking the police, they got the Metro police police now that will build a case on you. And yeah, Metro is even worse. Yeah. They'll build a case on you, prosecute you, they got all the money in the world to do it. And and you know, enhance. They they be doing enhancements on your time too. So um, yeah, like that was an era I wish people can live where we mob the buses. I'll be on there with search, charm, smack. We we were bus killers, man.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

And um, I I met Search, my bad. Uh I met Search in '97. Yeah, rest in peace, search, man. Rest in peace at the B-Boy Summit in San Diego. And he he showed me his book. Oh my god. That book, he had one book where it was like, he's like, you can tag in this one. But this one, you just look at it. Yeah. Don't touch it. But the one, that one, every front and back page was just.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

He had a book for tags, he had a book for throw-ins, he had a book for stickers, where he collected everybody's stickers. Yeah, man. Like here's his archive should be, like, his stuff should be in a in a museum. And I don't know if his brother or his family ever gonna release that. They should. But that needs to be uh uh documented even with the stickers too. Like he had like two suitcases full of stencils. We'll go to the house. Yeah, that's to do like he started that, uh-huh. Like he took it to another level because we will be in his house making stencils by hand. We'll go get free stickers from UPS, a big roll of stickers, or music store, like music uh companies and shit, or the US postal ones, and we'll make stickers for like five, six hours, and then we'll be like, all right, let's go out into the night. And then he had stickers for certain things. He had stickers for the mailboxes, stickers for the signs, he had stickers for this surface. He had a whole science to it, and then people started printing stickers. Yeah. Now now that now it's easy, but it just goes back to like what you said. Yeah, yeah. There's no style in it. Yeah, because search put style into each sticker, each and outside. Stencil is like a different style. He really, but now it's just like it could be this is like regular block letters on stickers, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Or just a font or something.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Just a regular font, yeah. And uh, you know, and but to be honest, I mean I've used the stickers too. I don't have time to make stencils and shit like that. But it's easy, it's easier, and I guess it's just another way of it like the game evolving, evolving in certain ways to make it more compatible with the society that we're in like now. We're gonna work to death with crumbs and shit. So yeah, man. Um I mean, like, what what is graffiti to you, man? What is it? W what is it? If you can explain it to somebody that's never seen it before.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Um didn't never at first I would say it's you know vandalism, it's rebellious, but now it's a culture, um it's a way of life. I I feel it's therapy. Um and it's uh it's an outlet to a bunch of other stuff that you can actually make money off. Okay. You know what I mean? Like uh design logos, um, all that shit, man. All that shit. All some of the greatest logos, some of the greatest designs were made by graffiti writers, you know what I mean? So there is outlets that you could actually, you know, get out and actually fucking make a living out of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Just make sure you get paid right. Because these people be trying to take advantage of artists and pay them little. Look what happened with the dude that made the um Rolling Stones uh logo. He only got paid like what 50 bucks, 50 pounds for that? That's crazy. So like, but right now we're sitting right here in the parking lot uh in front of us. We got a T6 on the rooftop right here, and we got this big ass Woody tag. Um how do you feel? How do you feel about Woody and his approach to graffiti? Because he catches a lot of tags, man.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

That's a that's a that's a like he's an OG too. Yeah, yeah, he is. Uh that's like a tiger, like a true definition fucking of a tiger right there. But I like I like his stuff because it's like it uh it has that gangster to it. Yeah. You know, like he does a little gangster style to it.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Um what about T6, man? T6, I like his letters right there. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yeah. That shit's dope. It reminds me of some 90s shit. Yeah. And it's dope, man. Just to like even just, you know, this is LA. Yeah. Wherever you go, you're gonna see it.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Yeah, we got like the graffiti and root top, right to the left, with some palm trees. And then right in the middle, you got the corporate shit. McDonald's. We got the mural behind us, too. People have been capping each other left and right over there. What about the NBC crew, man? How you feel about them? Uh and the evolution? Because they've been they've been growing and coming up.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Um I I I ran into Anti a couple times. Okay. Um because I would paint a lot in San Pedro. Uh that's where you know a lot of them cats are from. And then uh uh the the train yard too. I always run into them um over there at the train yards. But then them dudes are dope, man. Yeah. I give it up to them. Uh like nice clean, you know, nice clean stuff. Uh your crew too, UPN. Oh, yeah. Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

I haven't been kicking it with them like that because they all youngsters and shit.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

But it's, I mean, still, you know, they're still killing the torches shit.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

I mean, Soraka, big shout out to Soraka Swabi.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Yeah, man, them two guys, man, them them dudes are killers, man.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

And Jism old ass. She's old ass. I call her uh I call her uh little mama, she little grandma, because she she down there, but she she old. She put it in the work. But she's still out there active, though. Yeah, big time. Yeah, that's mama right there. That's auntie. Um, yeah, man, I appreciate you coming out, linking up with me, doing this quick, quick interview. Yeah, man. Um any shout-outs you want to give to anybody, any rest in peace?

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Uh yeah, um my mom, man. Rest in peace with my mother, um, my family, shout out my family, my crews, shout out you. Shout out Jism. Um And yeah, man, anybody that knows me, man, shout you out, man. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Alright, man, thank you. I'm gonna do your I'm gonna do your podcast next. Yeah, y'all tune in for that. What's the name of the podcast? What you write. What you write, what you write. We're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

So we gotta get site on there for sure.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Yeah, I'm trying to find out who that is. Uh what that dude is, uh what's that dude's name that does that shit right now on Instagram? Um I can't even think of it. He got the big mustache and be calling out, uh talking about old graffiti stories everywhere. Oh if you would or yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

I've seen that. I've seen that dude. Yeah. I like that. Would you like to get him on your show one time? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

So if you hear this, man, we want to get you on, bro.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

You know? Everybody trying to figure out what he writes. Like, what does he write?

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yeah, I think he was just probably just one of the homies or something. They say he used to write, though. Yeah. Because he has some good stories, man. Like, yeah, like that's some real LA shit. Yeah. That's why I like watching those. Those are funny. Yeah. All right, man. All right, y'all. We're gonna we can close it out.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

Peace.

unknown 43:10

Peace.