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Sampler from the book, Visual Orgasm: Early Years of Canadian Graffiti, including the Foreword by Zephyr, Introduction by author Adam Melnyk, Table of Contents, sample chapters and index.
Citation preview
Visual OrgasmAdAm melnyk
Visual OrgasmThe eArly yeArs of CAnAdiAn GrAffiTi
AdAm melnyk
Frontenac House Media Ltd.
Published by Frontenac House Media Ltd. Building B1, Suite 136 2451 Dieppe Ave. SW Calgary, Alberta T3E 7K1
Text and photographs copyright © 2011 by Adam Melnyk
Printed and bound in Canada
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Melnyk, Adam Visual orgasm : graffiti in Canada / Adam Melnyk.
Includes index. ISBN 978-1-897181-50-8
1. Graffiti--Canada. 2. Street art--Canada. I. Title.
GT3913.15.A2M45 2011 751.7’30971 C2011-906038-8
Book and cover design: Epix Design Inc.
All rights reserved, including moral rights. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or placed in any information storage retrieval system without permission in writing from the author or publisher, or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), except by a reviewer or academic who may quote brief passages in a review or critical study.
Frontenac House Media gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We would also like to thank the Government of Alberta Multimedia Development Fund for their support of our publishing program.
This book is dedicated to my father, who motivated me, encour-
aged me and pushed me to complete it. Without him it would not
have been possible. It is also dedicated to the graffiti writers who
let me into their lives.
Acknowledgements2Fresh; Afex; Akira; Artistik; BenOne; Buddha; Cameo;
Chrome; Coder; Conz; Cosoe; Crumb; Dabs; Daser; Daub;
Dedos; Der; Dooer; Dope2; Dstrbo; Dubnut; Duro3; Dzine; Ephx;
Ethiks; Evoke; Fatso; Hans Fear; Flow; Galooch; House; Hype;
Imp; Kaput; Katie; Kid-C; Kome; Krewz; LaBomba; Lep; Levi; Lisaf-
er; Loves; Mark4; Mesa; Joshua Miller; Nazo; Neos; Note; Other;
PD; Phsyk; Plas; Ren; Reset; Rove; Sady; Chad Schultz; Sear; Sebo;
Sectr; Sinex; Spek; Stack; Stage; Stelth; Syzeo; Tars; Theory; Veks;
Virus; Randy Wong; Word; Russell Wyse; Zephyr; Zer; Zilon; Z-lok
FOREWORD BY ZEPHYR 11
INTRO BY ADAM MELNYK 13
ZILON 16
BUDDHA 20
DASER 29
SEAR 37
DAUB 45
DOOER, DUBNUT & THE
PAID IN CRIME CREW 50
GHOST 54
REN 61
LA BOMBA 73
GALOOCH 80
SADY 82
COSOE 90
VIRUS 103
DEDOS 117
Z-LOK 125
DOPE2 131
EPHX 135
KREWZ 145
DEZINE 151
WORD 159
NEOS 163
PD 174
SINEX 183
INDEX 188
CONTENTS
Visual Orgasm
11
FOREWORD BY ZEPHYR Zephyr is known as the Graffiti Dinosaur. He started doing graf-fiti in 1975 and wrote Zephyr for the first time in 1977.
He is most known for the pieces he painted on the subway trains of New York in the 70’s and 80’s. He was featured in two classic graf-fiti movies Style Wars and Wild Style, which helped spread graf-fiti world wide.
He has a mean tag that is the es-sence of style and when he isn’t dabbling in graffiti he is a lec-turer and author.
My first adventure to the land of the Maple Leaf
was equal parts unforgettable and forgettable.
Group shows had already been on my “things to
avoid” list for decades when I received the in-
vitation to exhibit a painting or two in Toronto.
The appearance of the names “Twist” and “Frost”
prompted me to quickly reconsider. Three weeks
later I was in Canada.
The Toronto exhibit was not sponsored by an
established gallery, but by a 30-something, well-
meaning (but clueless) millionaire that we’ll call
(for his benefit) Malcolm Chestnut. Highlights (or
lowlights) from that trip include: 1) Painting the
back of the gallery from a swaying electric cherry-
picker ten meters in the air — believing, the entire
time, that I was going to end up on the pavement
below. Can you say, “Change my diaper?” 2) Lis-
tening to Twist lecture some of the artists about
the dangers of marijuana. I thought he was joking
before realizing—much to my amusement—that he
was completely serious. 3) Discovering that Loom-
it had been attending two or three CONSECUTIVE
screenings a day, at a local movie theater, of the
film “The Fifth Element”. He mentioned this casu-
ally, as if it were as normal as farting.
It was also the week that Princess Diana was killed in
a car crash, August 31, 1997. That was weird too, but
not nearly as weird as Loomit, that fuckin’ nut job.
Being a veteran of the school of hard knocks that
making graffiti in New York City is, Toronto was a
cakewalk — pure Nirvana. Alleyways that went on
as far the eye could see were covered with pieces.
The residents seemed to have no problem with the
graffiti, so you could paint in broad daylight. I kid
you not.
We dined on falafels, and afterward tagged and
stickered the streets with wild abandon. On a
beat-up bicycle, Twist became king of the city
over the course of the weekend. But like Twist’s
Skam, Ren & Zeph by Zephyr, 1999.
12
rusty bike, the benevolent attitude toward graffiti
in Toronto was not made to last.
My next trip to Canada was for a Toronto tattoo
convention. I got to the hotel and dropped my
bags. I was itching to paint, but pissed because
I wanted to get in touch with Skam, but I didn’t
have a phone number for him. I walked out of the
hotel and headed down Queen Street. I walked
three blocks, and lo and behold; there was Skam—
walking right toward me! At that moment I knew
that Canada had some kind of spacey magic crys-
tal shit going on—a notion later confirmed in Cal-
gary when I met an amazing lady named “Boots”,
but that’s a story for another day. Maybe.
On that second trip to Canada, Skam, Wysper,
Meats, Ren and I painted up a storm. On one mis-
sion near Simcoe Street, Skam and Wysper had to
leave early and planned on leaving me to finish
up. They got a big laugh out of my public display of
panic. I was pretty concerned I’d have a hard time
convincing the local constables that the wall was
being improved by the application of my name to
it. But Skam assured me that the local policeman
was a friend of his, even a fan, and that his son
was actually a graffiti writer. Having been shot at
for painting graffiti in New York City, I appreciated
Toronto’s benevolent vibe A LOT.
Canada, around the turn of the millennium, was a
lot more fun than New York City to me, and Amer-
ica in general — particularly during the period I’ll
refer to as “The Horror Years,” or The Bush Presi-
dency. If it were not bad enough that America had
a psycho in the Whitehouse, we also had a psycho
as mayor of New York (Rudolph Giuliani), who was
committed to wiping out graffiti, and utilized a
broad variety of illegal measures to try and do so.
While future trips to Canada included, among
other things, freight adventures with local legend
Kwest, and walls with Bacon and EGR, the piece
de resistance of my Canada adventures remains
my summer 2006 trip to Calgary. On that trip I
was shown incredible love at the two talks I gave,
and at clandestine painting sites too—threatening
growls from wild coyotes notwithstanding. When
asked on a morning television show what I liked
about Calgary, my answer was simple: “The people
here are smart.”
The amazing collection of indigenous Canadian
graffiti you are holding in your hands is the result
of years of documentation by Adam, a truly hum-
ble, righteous guy who I’m proud to call a friend.
No one else has devoted the time and effort to
chronicle, for decades, the handiwork of Canada’s
aerosol artisans like Beast-man has. After hosting
the site Visual Orgasm for years, he has now effec-
tively put a binding on it, pasted it between two
covers, and provided us all with a very important
book.
With extensive coverage of graffiti created in The
States and Western Europe, it is long past high
time that the extraordinary painters of Canada,
and their distinctly impressive handiwork, get
their due.
So kick back, put your feet up, and enjoy this
book. This is not a book to just place on the shelf
and/or the collection next to Subway Art. It’s a
book to peruse, scrutinize and absorb. Fully. And
when you’ve read this book, a bunch of times,
cover to cover, look for me in Canada. Because,
plainly put, Canada is so damn fun. Oh, I almost
forgot. When you see me, make sure to ask me
about “Boots”. We’ll talk …
—ZEPHYR
New York City
Zephyr, New York
13
INTRO BY ADAM MELNYK
Graffiti – love it or hate it, enjoy it or despise it.
Most people have a hard time understanding graf-
fiti, perhaps because of the challenge it presents
to the concept of personal property. Everyone
learns from a young age that if something is not
yours then you don’t touch it. This goes as far back
as the year you were born, being told constantly
to give back toys that don’t belong to you. As you
grow up you learn to control your property, ob-
tain more property, build your wealth.
Just as children develop ideas of property and
wealth, they also acquire an understanding of
what it means to be well known, even famous.
Professional athletes, movie stars, musicians,
doctors or police officers all achieve recognition,
sometimes in overwhelming measure. And while
most people do not make graffiti a career, simply
being involved can bring you gratifying levels of
recognition. The fame is often limited strictly to
the subculture, but you still get acknowledged for
the creative work you do. Quality of work is es-
sential for gaining peer respect, but – given the
fact that longevity for graffiti is all but unknown
– quantity is essential also.
The artists featured in this book did not take up
graffiti to challenge the idea of property, and in
the 1980s the idea of fame and recognition was
less evident than today. Often artists came across
this unique art form by travelling to the United
States, or learning of it through the media or word
of mouth. Something intrinsic to this new sub-
culture pulled them irresistibly to learn about it,
develop it, passionately immerse themselves in
it, and create a movement that has grown across
the country. They are the ones who took that first
step with that previously unknown artistic tool,
the spraycan. The intrigue with graffiti has now
spread around the world. It was inevitable; it was
only a matter of time.
It is entirely appropriate that Zephyr, who first
created graffiti in New York in 1975 and is recog-
nized universally not only as an early pioneer but
also as one of the great masters of the artform, has
written the Foreword for this book. Zephyr was
a part of the heyday of painting subways in New
York and was featured in the most famous graffiti
movies, Style Wars and Wild Style. Now the guys
who watched him in Style Wars in the 1980s got
the opportunity to paint with him in Canada in the
2000s. In graffiti it is essential to know your histo-
ry and that is why a book like this is so important.
More than virtually any other subculture, graffiti
has an almost microscopic lifespan, ranging from
just a few hours to a small number of years, al-
though, miraculously, some of the artwork shown
in this book has done the unthinkable and lasted
15+ years. It is hard to understand the drive to pro-
duce something that could be gone the following
day but really it comes down to the fact that the
excitement of creation, the feeling of accomplish-
ment, is everlasting. Sure people will say: why
don’t they do something more productive instead
of writing on someone’s property? But if life was
just that simple then we wouldn’t have rebellion
against the norm in any context. Graffiti is a way
that individuals do what they want, where they
want, how they want. This type of freedom can be
scary to most of society.
The challenge of preserving an artform such as
this one is one of the main reasons for making this
book. Compiling photographs of graffiti art from
the 1980s and preserving them in a book is es-
sential to knowing the history of this subculture.
With the internet it is easier to keep these im-
ages from disappearing, but over time the physi-
cal photograph can easily disappear, fade, get
stained, folded, tattered, or otherwise rendered
unusable. It was a challenge trying to dig up old
photographs but that is why having them featured
in this book is so important. Commemorating how
graffiti started in Canada and showcasing the men
and women who created it is the main purpose of
this book.
If finding the photographs was a challenge, track-
ing down the graffiti writers themselves could be
equally daunting. I compiled this book over an
8-year period; it has been a long journey but see-
ing the photographs and meeting the artists has
been the best part. I wanted this book to be as
comprehensive as possible about the history of
Canadian graffiti, though that is easier said than
done, and there are a few artists I could not con-
nect with who played a role in developing graffiti
in Canada. One example is Akira, whom I did not
get to interview, who did the first large scale mu-
ral in Montreal, in 1989, which was sponsored by
14
the American spraypaint brand Rustoleum; amaz-
ingly, the wall he painted is still up to this day, at
W.H.S Gymnasium in that city.
All the artists featured in the book bring their
own flavour and thoughts to this subculture. The
most interesting part is hearing about what they
are doing now: tattoo artists, graphic designers,
businessmen, social workers, a doctor. A number
of graffiti artists from the early years are no lon-
ger with us. Galooch and I talked frequently over
the internet, but he passed while I was working
on this book. Ghost had a huge influence on the
Victoria graffiti scene and is remembered with
great affection and respect by fellow graffiti writ-
ers in that city and elsewhere. Aero, who is not
featured in the book, was often mentioned as a
writer who tagged all around Vancouver and was
one of the first to go all city with his tags. I hope
this book keeps their memory alive and shows
the role they played in building the foundation
for Canadian graffiti.
When I personally got into graffiti in the mid-90s I
was taught to know your history and respect your
elders – not just in general, like everyone else,
but in the particular subculture. These are the
ones who did it before you and went through the
trials and tribulations to get the culture to where
it is now. While documenting Canadian graffiti,
which I have been doing since 1995, I developed
an ever-increasing fascination with delving into
the past to learn where this all creativity came
from. I knew about New York and Philadelphia,
where modern graffiti originated, but I knew vir-
tually nothing about where it started in Canada. It
was interesting to learn that it wasn’t like a wave
across the country but more like spurts of interest
occurring more or less simultaneously in most of
the major cities during the 1980s. The subculture
spread as graffiti artists travelled around Canada
and the United States, meeting other artists and
bringing back graffiti-related items like spray
caps and magazines. The influence was divided,
with writers from Vancouver absorbing the styles
and techniques of Los Angeles and San Francisco,
while writers from Ontario, being closer to New
York, were more readily affected by the ideas of
that city. Ephx, for example, made a name for
himself in San Francisco for a couple of years as
well as painting in New York; and Virus travelled
across Canada and spent time in Toronto before
landing in Vancouver. As graffiti grew in the early
90s, graffiti magazines appeared and people began
trading photos of graffiti by postal mail all across
the country or even around the world; then, about
2008, the internet took over. The website I run
with the same name as this book, http://www.
visualorgasm.com, has been promoting Canadian
graffiti since 1998 and is one of the longer-lasting
graffiti websites on the world wide web. The use
of the internet to share photos, talk on forums
and promote your work is common practice to-
day. Even though I run a website, however, I agree
with most people that the internet has changed
the feel of graffiti. Rather than wandering around
searching out pieces in the street, people share it
online instead. Is this really just feeding our need
for instant gratification? The audience has grown
for artists to show off their work, but has it come
with a price?
Graffiti can be a stealthy, dark and literally dirty
passion. It takes people to places less travelled,
at least by most citizens. Dark alleys, transit lines,
warehouses and under bridges are the locales
where most graffiti is created. Graffiti is married
to the urban setting but one element that changed
some of that was the popularity of freight trains,
which enabled graffiti writers in small towns to
achieve national fame. Daser and Ren in Ottawa
and Toronto respectively got into it quickly in 1993
and Virus and Cosoe did the same in Vancouver.
Not only were showcases of graffiti from the Unit-
ed States travelling to Canada but now we could
do the same, both for our own audiences as well
as for the Americans. Freights are a rolling canvas,
an open gallery where the featured artist changes
daily – you don’t have to leave your city to see
graffiti art from places as far away as Los Angeles,
Mexico, Miami and Texas. Freight trains may well
be the closest thing to the painted passenger and
subway trains that rolled through New York in the
1980s. And just as those are long gone, so are the
majority of the pieces shown in this book. That is
why sharing the preserving and the sharing of the
early years of Canadian graffiti is so vital.
montréal
16
ZILONZilon is not your typical graf-
fiti artist. His simple but unique
faces started popping up around
Montreal in the mid-80s. He is a
well-accomplished artist who
has always played with a spray-
can. He now is a painter-musician
who does live works of art and
plays with all types of mediums.
His work certainly pulls people
in who might not have paid much
attention to graffiti. Zilon’s art
installations are very aggres-
sive and in your face – exactly
how his graffiti has always been.
When And Why did you sTArT usinG sprAypAinT?
I use spraypaint like a photographer uses Pola-
roids – I like the roughness and the quickness of
the medium, plus the fact it’s portable compared
to an arsenal of paint jars and a load of different
size paintbrushes.
hoW did your TAG Zilon Come AbouT?
The tag Zilon was born at the end of the 70s, around
76. It was a crossover between my real family name
and Zorro. The sound of Zilon when you say it is like
a super-hero’s name in a comic book.
WhAT WAs your relATionship To GrAffiTi bACk Then – did you knoW AbouT The movemenT GoinG on in neW york?
I was doing graffiti then like I was doing painting
or drawings on canvas or paper. It was the heyday
of that form of expression, it was the era of Har-
ing, Basquiat. The only exception for me was that I
was not fortunate enough to be able to live there,
I was quite poor, it was tooo expensive to live by
yourself in NYC. The walls, the bathrooms from
night clubs, the alleyways and abandoned objects
like old TV sets – these were my canvasses. The
city provided me with rich supports to exhibit my
urban works.
Above: Zilon 1987, Montréal; below: Zilon, 2006facing page, clockwise from top: Zilon, 2007; Zilon, 2003, Montréal; Zilon, 2009, Montréal
17
18
WAs There Any oTher GrAffiTi-Type Work beinG done Then in monTreAl?
At that time there was not much being done on
the more refined ways. It was more statements
of some frustrated people like “I hate you fuck
you!!!!” Some statements were very good: “Silence
we kill!!!” It was like in-your-face stuff, something
to make you think, but there were not that many
people doing it.
you Are Well-knoWn for The ChArACTers you pAinTed, And The fACes – simple yeT very AGGressive, ConfronTATionAl, espeCiAlly The siZe. WhAT Were you TryinG To Convey?
I simply expressed the moment that I was during
the procedure of drawing them. My signature art
works consisted only of faces, figures and some
bodies attached to them. Very comic book – pop
with emotions and looks.
did you do Any of your sTreeT Work in oTher CiTies besides monTreAl?
I did some of my urban works here and there. I did
some in NYC, Berlin, Tokyo and other Canadian
cities like Toronto and Vancouver. They were very
discreet and practically silent. Ghosts. Recently,
in 2010, a girl I knew who went to Berlin saw one
of my signature faces that I had done in 1998.
lookinG bACk on your Work WiTh GrAffiTi, hoW do you relATe To iT noW?
I still love the rawness of spraypaint and black
markers, especially with big tips. I always carry
a thick black marker with me in my bag or pock-
ets. I’m working on a series done exclusively with
black markers. Like I said, I love the portability,
like the iPhone. To be portable is essential for me.
I can be in Paris, Berlin or whatever and zap a face
on a wall instantly.
Graffiti is now overground in a way. The gallery
owners are like sharks around the poor young art-
ists. They know they’re gonna suck all their blood,
their energy, and make a load of money with the
pureness of the art form. Graffiti is for the streets.
It is beyond the censorship of so many gallery ass-
holes. Those owners only choose the ones that are
going to sell well – if it doesn’t work with those
fuckers, they simply replace you with a new, a na-
ïve one. Business kills art, so let’s use art to kill
the businesses.
Zilon, 1982, Montréal Zilon, 2007, Montréal
Ottawa
20
BUDDHAI did not know much about Bud-
dha before searching him on the
internet and talking to him over
the phone. By the end of the in-
terview I was so excited and
hyped after hearing of his dedi-
cation to hip hop, graffiti and
his drive to help others that it
continues to inspire me every
time I read it. In 1983 he cre-
ated the B-boy crew Canadian
Floor Masters with Kid Quick, and
helped build a foundation for
breakers across Canada and be-
yond. In the 80s he and his crew
did large pieces that conveyed a
variety of messages. He travelled
to England, where his work lit a
fire with those involved there in
hip hop that continues to burn to
this day. Even though his Mohawk
has disappeared he still wears
his Canadian Floor Masters cutoff
shirt showing off his tattoos, and
continues to not fit into any nor-
mal standards. Buddha’s company
Blue Print For Life is helping
kids up north and across Canada
build confidence and a sense of
self worth. I hope as many people
as possible get to meet him in per-
son to take in his inspiration
and commitment, while maybe even
having a chance to rub his lucky
Buddha belly.
you Are knoWn for your involvemenT in b-boyinG, buT hoW did you GeT involved WiTh GrAffiTi? CAn you TAlk AbouT some of The siGnifiCAnT pieCes you did in oTTAWA?
That term B-boy has now become a term used
specifically for a dancer. It wasn’t in the early
days, you could be a dancer but not a B-boy. You
could be a breaker and not a B-boy. For us a B-boy
showed a level of commitment to the culture and
that meant understanding, appreciating and rep-
resenting all the different elements. In some ways
it was a healthier kind of vibe in the early days.
That is how we got involved in doing graf. We ac-
tually felt compelled as early hip hop participants
to represent with very little direction what that
meant because there was very little graf that had
gone up.
I was a bit into the punk rock scene too. I had a
Mohawk and all that in the early days. I would put
up big anarchy graffiti, a big circle and an A, and
might outline it. Those were my throwups and that
was more like my politics coming out. But I was also
involved in hip hop and then the more I learned
about it, it was like no shit man, you can put up bus-
long burners. In Ottawa we have these things called
the transit ways where only buses are allowed to go
but there are big concrete walls. I remember one of
the first ones we put up. All of us stayed up all night,
6 of my crew. The burner drained from yellow at
the top to lime green to dark green. It was maybe
2 buses long and it just said Headspin and I don’t
know for sure but I think that was the first big one
to go up in Ottawa, it was in 1983. It scared the shit
Buddha, 1985, London England
21
out of them at the city. I know it did because they
had it buffed off in 2 days and no one wanted to talk
about it. Everybody was starting to talk about hip
hop and the city knew they couldn’t let this get out
of control. But it was a lot of work for us and then
just go “oh shit it is gone already.”
Then we switched to going to some broken-down
alleys, some walls where it is not the bright clean
concrete where the public is going to see it daily.
We did a big one behind Bank Street in Ottawa,
one of the oldest night clubs called Barrymore’s. It
had a large alley behind it and we did a huge piece
saying Crack Don’t Do It. Crack was starting to hit
the streets and we were really enthused by the
song The Message by Grandmaster Flash. That one
we tried to do in an orange and red blend with big
huge letters with lots of cracks running through
the word Crack. I think the oldest piece in Ottawa
we did with blue and a white trim and a big ma-
ple leaf hanging on the edge of it that said Floor
Masters, because that was the name of our crew.
That one is still up to this day, so that is a 27- or
28-year-old piece. If you duck down into this alley
in the ByWard market, which is our tourist area
behind a restaurant, it is still there. Sometimes
when cats come from out of town I show them
that, it is like they have come to a little shrine and
they freak out. It is pretty cool that way, it is a rare
thing that a big piece like that would still exist that
many years later.
Another one I am proud of was featured on CBC,
on a show called Switchback, which was a nation-
al youth show. They decided to do a thing on hip
hop, they had us on and we danced live but they
also did a little section on graffiti. It was probably
one of the first national TV stories about graffiti in
Canada, maybe 1984, 85. That was when Ronald
Reagan was coming to town. I was like we got to
fucking do something. So we went down to the
market and on this white wall, me, Kid Quick and
Trevor Walker did a huge bubble letter piece with
small letters Reagan is a … and then, in huge let-
ters, Psycho. That was cool because CBC was ask-
ing around on who knows about hip hop and I was
doing my master’s thesis on it at the time … .
i hAdn’T reAliZed ThAT you hAd done A mAsTer’s. WhAT Were you sTudyinG?
I was doing a master’s in social work. I like to help
people but I also like to look at the structure of pol-
itics and bureaucracies. I actually did my thesis as a
9 hour video documentary on hip hop in 1985. Most
people think it is the first academic piece ever done
on hip hop. The CBC interviewed me on this na-
Bando, 1985, London England
22
Clockwise from top left: FloorMasters, 1984, Ottawa; Danni, Mode 2 & Pride, 1985, London England; Graffiti by Beat Street Kid, Kid Quick and Buddha, 1983, Ottawa; Graffiti Fest by Trevor Walker, 1985, Ottawa
23
tional news story about graf standing in front of the
Reagan is a Psycho piece. I made some comment
about this is what is beautiful about hip hop – you
can bring your politics into it and it doesn’t have
to be the McDonald’s billboard – you know, who
asked for the McDonald’s billboard? I went into this
long tirade about the politics of visual spaces.
lookinG bACk on hoW muCh hip hop CulTure hAs developed sinCe you firsT sTArTed GeTTinG inTo iT, WhAT Are your ThouGhTs AbouT iT noW?
I don’t pretend that we were good, but I am proud
that we were getting up when nobody else was do-
ing it. Of course everybody does their own thing
these days but what we did back then was pretty
substantial. We did a parking lot jam or mini block
party in front of one of our pieces, we had a DJ with
turntables, we put down all the refrigerator boxes in
the parking lot and had emcees on the mic and we
battled and the public came by and saw it. No mat-
ter what you did, like beatboxing or emceeing, we
all hung out together and that goes back to the word
B-boy. B-boys were the ones who kind of celebrated
that we were counter-culture. It was a lot like punk
in that way. There is a feeling inside when you walk
down the street with your Mohawk – I ain’t buying
into everything of mainstream culture. We would
create and celebrate our own identity. It was based
on honesty and a deeper level of commitment. It has
to do with real culture and superficial culture. The
media is always chasing to grab a piece of what we
got because we got swagger, we got street cred, we
got all that. Then of course it really gets distorted
over the years. Now the media co-opt it for their
own devices like selling music videos and let’s put
it in video games to make it look raw and rugged.
That is a whole other thing. I am really proud there is
still a group of us that are still in contact and we talk
about the early days. My homeboy, who was just a
big strong black guy who hung out with us and didn’t
even dance, he was more of B-boy than a lot of other
cats. He would hang out and play bodyguard with us
if the skinheads came by and spit on our cardboard
when we were trying to street perform. But he was
down and committed to support this vision. We may
not have fully known where hip hop was going but
we were excited to celebrate that kind of energy and
spontaneity and creativity together.
i heAr you noT only hAd A biG involvemenT in The sTArT of CAnAdiAn hip hop CulTure buT Also you did sTuff over in enGlAnd?
I moved to England in 1985. I had to do one more
placement in my master’s program. The first one
I did was in a group home in Ottawa. I roll into
England and had no place to stay for a while. I’m
Graffiti Fest, 1985, Ottawa Canadian Floor Masters, 1985
24
sleeping in squats and in Hyde Park with a hundred
punks. I connected with the English hip hop scene
and at that point in 1985 it was largely run by the
record companies who did the big events. First of
all they had never seen a guy that looks punk rock
who is a B-boy who can do windmills and head-
spins. There were mostly black youth who were the
dancers from Brixton. They were excited because
I had stories and connections to the Bronx in New
York because we used to go there all the time. The
New York City Breakers who were in the movie Beat
Street in the big battle scene at the Roxy were per-
sonal friends of ours. We would go to the Bronx and
stay at their houses. In fact they used to be called
the Floor Masters and we were passed our name
from them to us, so there is that nice history piece.
Anyway, I’m in England and I’m practising with all
these black guys downtown at this drop- in centre
called St. Mark’s Field. All the youth would go there
to practise. There was a lot of tension because the
skinheads would come too. The skinheads would
hide razor blades in their mouths and shit and
sometimes it got kind of ugly. I started talking to
all the hip hop heads and was like, you guys are
fucking artists, so why don’t you run shit? They
respected each other but never really worked to-
gether like the graf artist, the emcees and the DJs.
I am almost finished my thesis and I have a lot of
ideas about structural analysis of cultures, like
why subcultures pop up in capitalist societies. I got
a bunch of theory ideas but they don’t mean shit,
how do you use this knowledge to do better street
work, social work? Here I am in England and why
don’t I put some of my ideas into effect? I brought
together England’s best graffiti artists, guys like
Mode2, he is known for big breasted women with
machine guns, his stuff is off the hook, then there
were the Chrome Angels, Pride, Scribla, Zaki and a
famous New York graffiti artist called Bando. Ban-
do moved from New York City to Paris and then
back and forth from Paris to London. At that time
they were all fairly young. We all got together and
I was like let’s do England’s biggest hip hop festival
over 3 days but it will be entirely owned and oper-
ated by you guys repping all the elements at Jubilee
Hall at Covent Garden, arguably tourist central in
London. I bite my tongue at times because it can’t
be my project. I’m just trying to facilitate. To me
the social work or empowerment comes from all of
those people doing the shit for themselves. Simple
things like you have to learn to sit and listen to
someone else’s opinions. How do you pull out the
opinions of the shy people like Mode2? Mode was
one of the shyest kids I have ever met. How do you
do it so it is not run by the one loudmouth emcee
in the room?
There were lots of struggles but there was a lot of
personal growth. They had to contact the media,
they had to find out how to get free things. I love
it because to this day they reference Freestyle 85
as possibly the most important not just in England
but in all of European hip hop. Because the power
went back to these dudes. People talk about it
as a pivotal turning point where the culture re-
gained control of itself. A lot of these cats went
on to have lifetime careers in hip hop. Imagine
the pride! It is great looking back that some of
my ideas actually turned out. Incidentally, when I
was in the UK I went by the name Negative G and
my B-boy name changed because my crew gave
me the name Buddha because I developed a little
tummy. My crew used to rub my tummy for good
luck before we would go on stage.
Kid Quick, 2005
25
One quick story about the way things worked at
the Freestyle 85 festival. I got Mode2 to phone up
the manufacturer of Buntlack spraypaint, in Ger-
many. He does all this and literally one week later
a flatbed truck pulls up to the youth centre, cases
and cases of free spraypaint. They were all jump-
ing out of their seats, they couldn’t believe it.
There was a huge art show component to the
event too. Henry Chalfant even came over from
New York and I got pictures of him with the
Chrome Angeles. It was great to see the interna-
tional connection as well in graffiti and hip-hop,
or even if you just look at the B-boy thing. B-boy-
ing went back underground in a lot of places in
Canada. It was 1986 to 89, BMX biking and skate-
boarding took over as the rage in the media and
we were just really getting started. We said fuck
it, we love this shit, we aren’t going to stop. We
actually danced through that downtime. But what
happened in Europe is Freestyle 85 was heard
about and inspired Italy and France and then they
started Battle of the Year in Europe and that in-
spired North America again.
When did you beCome AWAre of GrAffiTi? WAs iT When you Were TrAvellinG To The bronx?
I don’t remember what I saw first, there was al-
ways tagging around and some punk rock graffiti.
But not like big burners, you know. I don’t know
if it was wildstyle or Style Wars but it was one of
those where I realized the complexity and the size
of graffiti as a culture, a bigger culture. Certainly
when I went to New York and the Bronx we would
see lots of it, but I was already aware of it before
then. Beat Street came out in 1985, there is a big
graf component to Beat Street. I started dancing
in the 1970s, I started B-boying in 1982 or 83 but
I grew up near Windsor across from Detroit, De-
troit in the 1970s was the motherland of funk, so I
had a 1970s mentality. All that Earth Wind & Fire,
Isley Brothers, George Clinton, that stuff just got
etched into my brain as a teenager at the roller
rink. If you make the argument that hip hop is
also driven by the music and the vibe for the mu-
sic – and you could also make those arguments
for graf – then these things are an extension of
that vibe. That 1970s funk was the precursor to a
hip hop mentality. It’s easy to see that evolution,
especially at the roller rink because we danced on
roller skates and did acrobatics on roller skates.
That makes me one of the oldest B-boys in the
world, from the original generation – when I saw
Flash Dance and saw them spin on their back I was
already 23 years old; most of the kids in the New
York City Breakers, Rock Steady Crew, Dynamic
Rockers that got involved were 15-16 years old at
the time. So to your question, I was aware of graf-
fiti and because of the punk rock political thing I
already had an interest in putting up alternative
signs, sort of we are here, don’t blink, there is a
counter-culture. Looking back it felt like a natural
evolution, the timing was right for hip hop to drop
on me.
GeTTinG bACk To your mAsTer’s Thesis – hoW WAs iT reCeived When you finAlly CompleTed iT?
I got the highest mark of all the students. I got
honours with distinction. It was cool because ev-
eryone else was writing 300 page papers and I was
like hell no, how am I going to write about a visual
and audio culture, I can do it but it won’t be pleas-
ant and it won’t really rep it properly. It was cool
because I was in the culture, I wasn’t like a jour-
nalist student trying to interview a graffiti artist
or a beat boxer. It was like ya Buddha is a B-boy,
ya I’ll talk to you. I got kind of candid interviews.
The thesis is in the National Library of Canada on
VHS tape. Every once in a while I run into some
cat that goes, yo I pulled out your thesis. Dope! It
is ghetto editing, I didn’t have production stuff. I
bought one of the first video cameras every avail-
able, I’d sit in front of a plant in my house and
film myself talking. But the content was ill. I never
really totally fit in. When I was doing my master’s
of social work, you know 90 percent were nice
young women who wanted to be social workers
to save the whales and all that. There I am in my
trench coats and big spiky hair thinking this is cool
but this ain’t who I am. I think a lot of my early
ideas probably did form me to get where I am now
in my politics of what we do in the North.
Could you explAin WhAT you meAn When you sAy “my poliTiCs of WhAT We do in The norTh?“ i’ve heArd A biT AbouT your blue prinT for life CompAny ThAT runs soCiAl Work ThrouGh hip hop proGrAms, buT i don’T knoW Too mAny of The deTAils.
I have a family connection to the North. My sister
moved to the North 18 years ago and married an
Inuit guy. It kind of started like this, I was always
bitching at my sister, I’d be going what are you
doing up there, you got 3 beautiful girls you’d be a
great mom but what if their best friend gets raped
one day, because that shit happens up North.
I could see that just bitchin about it wasn’t good
enough, I needed to do something meaningful. I
was still a social worker full time doing child pro-
tection but I got a leave of absence to design this
26
daily per diems and they make between $1,000 and
$1,500 for the week. I think last year I paid $120,000
in contract salaries for B-boys. I’m really proud of
that because it normally doesn’t roll like that in
hip hop, sometimes people go fucking gangster on
stepping on their brothers and sisters, you know
what I mean? I like the hip hop hustle of being on
point and street smart but I don’t like stepping on
someone to get to where you got to go.
Anyway, here we are 6 years later. Michaëlle
Jean, the former Governor General, gave us a big
award. We were also nominated for the first in-
ternational reward for the arts, called Freedom to
Create, out of Hong Kong. They get thousands of
applications a year and we were the first group
from North America to be recognized as one of the
top 5 finalists. The other piece I am really proud of
is that we are not like a hip hop afterschool pro-
gram. I think my credentials are both that I’m a
father of 3 and that I’m an older guy so they can’t
go who is the angry kid. Secondly I actually have
a lot of experience as a social worker so police
and all these other people would be foolish not
to listen to some of the stuff I have to say. They
don’t have to agree but I’m not just blowing it out
my ass, right?
This whole thing has really opened us up to being
looked at a deeper level by the education system.
Like I said, we are not an afterschool program.
Most hip hop programs around the world are after
school or they come in for one afternoon. With
us, we become the replacement school. There is
no other school, besides my school, that goes for
5 days straight. I make teachers do my program to
humble themselves as if they were the kids. I think
that is a brilliant part too. We are always talking
program and applied for crime prevention money.
We rolled it out in Iqaluit in 2005 with 15 kids from
the secure custody jail, this is the 24-hour lock-up
jail. They were sceptical that we could transform
those real tough, angry kids. Anyways it was so
successful that people were saying shit, this is the
most important youth engagement in the Arctic
ever. I went back to my job and my phone started
ringing off the hook from other communities. The
North is kind of like that because everybody has a
grandmother in the next remote community and
word of mouth is how we grew. I had to make a
decision to quit my job to do this fulltime. I love
the fact that I probably pay hip hop artists more
than any company in the world. I don’t take ad-
vantage of the B-boys and B-girls. I got about 30
staff across Canada that are some of the illest Djs,
B-boys and B-girls, they go and have this amazing
experience, their expenses are covered, they get
Arctic Bay NunavutDJ Creeasian and Elder
27
about building relationships and a lot of times
teachers, social workers and professionals they
get these credentials and they move away and
close down communication with the youth even
if they don’t realize they are doing it. I’m kind of
like no, we are all human beings together, we all
have our stories.
We use a lot of our personal stories about pain
and suffering and perseverance and survival to
inspire the kids. I got a couple of B-girls that have
never talked about being raped before but they
talk to the young girls about it, that is pretty pow-
erful. Especially some on my team are First Na-
tions. Every time I talk to the kids I always say
thank you for being a respectful listener and who
wants to hear my own story about when I was 15
and I was doing break-and-enters and smoking
dope every day. Well you know why I was doing
this, well here is what happened and I thank them
ahead of time because by listening to my story
you are allowing me to continue to heal. I think
that is such a healthy mental health thing that we
don’t do enough of. We don’t lead by example as
adults, that if bad shit happens to you then that is
probably a lifelong healing process. If you keep it
inside you are going to combust. I tell my story of
being put in garbage cans in front of 500 people
in the school cafeteria and 500 people laughing at
me as I crawled out covered in garbage and mus-
tard. Then I talk about how I turned that anger
into becoming the best rollerskater in southern
Canada, even though I was tiny and got beat up all
the time. It is kind of like you need to recognize
that anger is real but it is what we do with it, we
can either sabotage or we can turn anger into a
healing tool. That is the big theme of what we do.
I really love the fact that it is not just dance but
when I guest lecture at universities and stuff I can
hammer people and show them 15 best practice
clinical techniques that we do but why the fuck
would I call this cognitive therapy even though
that is what we are doing, why would we call it
that when it would scare the kids? But when I
break it down we are probably doing better cogni-
tive therapy for kids who have been traumatized
than psychiatrists do. I think what has happened
is that I have become much better at articulating
our story in hip hop. It is not like we are taking
a round peg and putting it in a square hole. It is
kind of like I can prove to you that maybe we are
a better education model for some places. I can
prove to you that maybe we are better at deal-
ing with post-traumatic stress disorder than your
traditional ways of hypnosis.
Come on man, this year I was a keynote speaker to
all the chiefs of police and gang specialists in Ontar-
io and apparently they have never given a standing
ovation to anyone and I got a 10 minute standing
ovation. I come rugged, I unzip my coat and I got
on my cutoff shirt with my tattoos and I’m wearing
my Canadian Floor Masters shirt and – you’re gang
specialists, you know what this is – these are my
colours. But I want to talk to you about the impor-
tance of colours in a dance crew. How my guys
have horrific backgrounds but we came together
as a family and are young men and women sup-
porting each other.
I really felt like they got it. That would not have
happened in the 1980s or 1990s. People are starting
to open their eyes. We have already spent billions
on shit that doesn’t work. I remember I was in Cal-
gary a few years ago talking to bylaw officers about
the first Live Style event on graffiti. I’m trying to get
them to understand that it doesn’t matter if you put
a million bylaw officers on the street in Calgary,
that will probably just make things worse. Shouldn’t
you try and understand and try to find creative
ways to working with and supporting youth creativ-
ity through graf instead of going power and control
as the only option? As a parent, does power and
control work? If you do that to your kid your kid
will say fuck you and go hang out at the mall for
the rest of their life. These are smart, high profile
people that are starting to get it, and in the scheme
of things these programs don’t cost anything com-
pared to when big bureaucracy gets in the way and
messes everything they touch.
CAn you desCribe WhAT hAppens over The Course of one of your proGrAms?
The buzz words I would use are transformation
and hope. Honestly, I go to places where the shy-
est girls in the world live. I love the fact that we
aren’t just working with the athlete kids. I got half
girls and half guys – 100 kids and I got a team of 10.
We are intensely moving them through different
stuff. By the end of the week the kids who wouldn’t
take their hands down from their faces, the girls
up north typically have their hoodie up and they
put their hand over their mouth, you can’t even
see their smile. The body language is just out of
this world. We do a big battle in front of the whole
community. Often it is the largest community gath-
ering that has ever happened and we try to put
some traditional culture into it, which is all part of
our messaging. Imagine these girls strutting with
their arms up like ya what you got, in one week.
People are in such state of shock, parents and el-
28
ders. I know the kids are going to be fine so I don’t
watch them, I watch the parents. Let’s say 800 par-
ents came out, and that many people don’t even
come out to bingo in the North, and that is serious.
Many of them are tearing up and some are openly
sobbing like their chest moving up and down be-
cause they cannot believe what they are seeing. In
one week to have a transformation, maybe not ev-
erything sticks but some of them don’t even have
one happy memory in their fucking teenage life,
you are going to begrudge them that?
We hear stories all the time that these kids aren’t
trying to commit suicide anymore, they aren’t
sniffing gas anymore. I have testimonials out the
ying yang. A lot of parents and elders had given
up on their kids, believe it or not, and there are
different political reasons around what happened
in residential schools and stuff like that. We want
to create these human moments where we can
re-bridge generations. Our DJ elder pictures show
this. That is a very important symbolic moment. If
we are asking kids to take a risk with something
they are not used to, like graffiti art, B-boying,
then we got to lead by example. How cool is it for
them to see grandma, who knows fuck all about
Wheels of Steel, and she is up there in her tradi-
tional Inuit caribou outfit scratching and pound-
ing on the MPC? Every place we go the kids have
done a 9-by-5 foot graf piece. I got 45 graf pieces
done in their own language. Syllabic is a cool let-
tering style. This is their idea. We went to Cape
Dorset with 200 kids in the town and 6 had killed
themselves in 2 months just before we got there.
The kids did a graf piece saying Never give up.
Respect Each Other in Inuktituk, Kuujjuaapik Nunavik
29
DASERDaser is a hidden gem on the Ca-nadian graffiti scene. He has been leaving his mark since the early 80s and is one of the first in Canada to transcend his physical boundaries by putting his name on freight trains. Daser battles the often generic graffiti style of today with his own complex chunky pieces and abstract imag-ery. His passion for graffiti is as intense as his pieces and he con-tinues to promote the art form after 28 years.
hoW did you GeT inTo GrAffiTi?
I saw a CBC documentary on the poverty in the South
Bronx in 1982, it showed the subways covered in graf.
Trains in North America back then, they did not have
spray paintings on them like in New York, so that
shocked me to see them all painted up. Train watch-
ing was my hobby back then, I’ve been really inter-
ested in trains, passengers and freights since the late
70s, I watched them and drew them a lot back then.
Living in Kingston, I saw thousands and thousands of
North American freight cars roll through town and
no spraycan graffiti at all on them ever did I see, so
this New York subway situation was just another
world of its own on your TV set. Later that year I
saw Dreams Don’t Die premiering on ABC and I be-
gan painting graf in the spring of 1983 with one piece
that year painted illegally. All of this was inspired by
Dreams Don’t Die.
In the very early 80s I would travel to Toronto,
out west, or through Montreal. I had my eyes
opened for damn sure, the walls and trains were
bare, completely clean everywhere, everything!
Graffiti art based on what you would see in the
media about New York was simply not yet a part
of people’s thinking or culture here in Canada. All
I know is that back in the 70s and the real early
80s you did not see the New York City-inspired
spraycan art here in Canada. Yeah, we know some
hits were done in New York, but that’s like a drop
in the ocean for the size of North American rail
activity and its mindset in the 70s.
I was also doing a lot of breaking back then, it
took right over, and I was always trying to figure
out moves by watching rented beta video tapes of
Beat Street. Then by 86 it was deemed dead by a
lot of people, but rap music kept growing, and I
spent a lot of time taping radio stations. Later on I
caught the original airing of Style Wars on PBS out
of Watertown and the whole hip hop culture blew
up globally and took me over.
obviously you sAW GrAffiTi develop in CenTrAl CAnAdA; CAn you shAre A Timeline of your experienCe?
In 87 I moved to Ottawa and found some stuff
painted around. There was this street legal piece I
liked in the transit tunnels and it was hip hop kids
who did that stuff, but who? The Canadian Floor
Masters did some stuff circa 1984. I caught one of
their pieces done on Bank Street in 1986. In the
Daser, 1994
next spread, clockwise from top: Ren2 by Daser, 1993, Kingston;Ren2 by Daser, 1992;Solon by Ren2(Daser), 1993, Kingston;Daser, 1995, Ottawa;Hip-Hop by Ren2(Daser), 1989, Ottawa
30
31
32
later 1980s I would find the odd attempts, some
rare, rare tagging or hip hop-inspired spraycan
activity. There was no communication back then,
you just really hoped you would find someone
with the same interests. Between living in Kings-
ton and living in Ottawa I painted the words “hip
hop” a few times, and in 1986 I painted a piece
that said Funk Rules. It wasn’t until 89 that I had
even come up with a name: Ren.2.
My family moved back to Kingston and that sum-
mer I figured I would take a look for pieces in To-
ronto because I saw some on a TV show that had
been filmed there. I took the train and coming into
the city I saw the letters TCM spraypainted on a
bridge, there were highlights coming off it, it had
that hip hop feel. Further into the city, in around
Kensington Market, Toronto revealed a scene that
was rich with tags.
I saw really cool handstyles done with thick mark-
ers. One such writing said The Crime Messiahs – this
was TCM, their stuff all had that ill New York feel. I
thought to myself these guys had to be into rap or
breakers or something, the vibe was just pulsating!
painting for a while. Vancouver’s scene was con-
sidered really fresh back then, with the AA crew
leading it in hip hop graf for Canada, stylewise.
It was something a little bit closer to home than
the American stuff we were seeing, it was good to
see Canadian heads coming through. Toronto was
real close behind and then Montreal coming into
play over the years in a real big way. I used to go
through Montreal and see nothing but a little po-
litical graffiti in the 1980s. The mid-1990s seemed
to be the flashpoint spark for Montreal.
did The TAG ren.2 hAve Any ConneCTion To ren in ToronTo, mAybe from your Trip To ToronTo in 1989?
I came up with the tag Renegade 2000 on paper,
then I reduced it to Ren.2. That’s the name I was
known by around Kingston and Ottawa. It was
truly inspired by the Tommy Boy mega-mix with
the song Renegades of Funk in it. I just wanted to
see the elements of hip hop, but I could not find
dedicated people back then. By that summer I was
back living in Kingston and had already taken that
trip to Toronto where I saw the TCM hand styles in
I found a tag, Ren, on a pole on Spadina. Kid-C was
on the loose with tagging, his handstyles were little
pieces. The TCM crew was known for that.
In summer 1992 I had found more pieces in To-
ronto, names such as Sec and KS, and more stuff
by Ren, these guys were running the graf scene in
Toronto that year, Kane was in there, Sady was a
painter muralist from Scarborough. Ren was the
best of the bunch for his grassroots street tag-
ging and bombing on up to piecing and fills. Even
Virus, then known as KS, put some time in with
TCM in the early 90s. In 1994 I met Ren and Hope,
Reck, the whole crowd. I got in contact with Ren
and Hope, we traded photos, I ended up living at
Ren’s house that summer. That was the best year
for graf I have ever had. I was not the perfect
spraycan artist back then, but the heart was really
there. I gave to that crew, and I learned from it.
TCM took off as a second wave. Canada had so few
writers up to that point, but now graf was really
taking off. I met Shamus in 1993 in Ottawa, there
were kids there just starting out, the Puzzle crew
was making noise and seemed to have done some
Daser, 2000, Ottawa
33
the Kensington market and a Ren tag, but this was
over a half a year after I came up with Ren.2. I did
not know he was piecing until I saw flicks of the
Midas wall in 1991. In 1992 I came up with the Daser
tag, a new name that was not around, I wanted a
5-letter tag so I could stretch out a little more on
the freight car racks. It was an option to go along
with Ren.2. There was no Daser catching fame back
then in the books or mags anywhere on the planet
that I ever saw or heard of, remember we are talk-
ing the 1992, 1993 era. I had a Daser piece on a train
appear in Skills magazine out of Boston that year.
I had already been piecing certain very, very small
little areas in Kingston since the 1980s and the
early- to mid-1990s, but the TCM crew was like go-
ing to college or university. We were all different
types of people coming together, we were paint-
ing ahead of the kids that were just starting out on
Canada’s east coast back then. TCM had a very se-
rious influence on so many writers from the East
Coast and way beyond, a lot of those guys don’t
even know it. It’s like I say, “TCM is in you, but
you ain’t in TCM.” I learned so, so much from all
of them, but then again I brought strengths of my
own to the crew that they learned from, and the
photo trades I was doing globally, the magazines,
they all brought influence.
By that time, 1994, The Crime Messiahs were made
up of Sec, Reck, Kane, Hope, Ren, and myself – Das-
er, as I was becoming more known. Before that you
had Kid C, Ren and Cyber. I met Cyber in the 90s at
Ren’s house but never did any runs with him. He
was a cool tagger that rolled with Ren, a dope hand-
stylist for sure. Ren and Cyber put TCM together,
LaBomba was down with it, there were affiliations
types of thing, people that could put it up.
Hooking up with TCM in 1994 and through on down
the line was where I learned about flavour, seeing
Rock Steady Crew at the Toronto waterfront that
year. They brought back the art of the B-boy and
B-girl styles and straightened out the game for
what a B-boy is. The writer Hope was good at chal-
lenging things, he made me realize some shit, Ren
brought his extra-loose tagging abilities and let-
ter fills, Virus was swinging on the lettering. You
would start to figure out your own with time and
how to get spicy after a while, set your own mark.
A lot of kids now can paint, but it’s very generic,
transparent, you can tell what they’re made of, it
may look fresh out the box to some little kid, but
true players know the deal, and can break the shit
down. When I look at pieces, I just scan them in
an attack mode – where is that strong point that
makes it legitimate?
Daser, 1993
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35
WhAT WAs The feelinG When you Were pAinTinG freiGhTs And reAlly no one else WAs AT The Time?
I started painting freights in January of 1992. In
Kingston they were only parked maybe 3 times a
year, and that’s if you were lucky. I would piece
them when I could. The summer of that year I
started seeing the occasional spray tag on double
stack trains. I kept piecing when the cars were laid
up in Kingston, although that was rare. The can
control mags I was getting were starting to reveal
some freight piecing action. In the winter and
summer of 93 I was still piecing racks. In the fall
of that year I started corresponding with Ren and
he had just started piecing boxcars and was mail-
ing out photos to the west coast. Then came their
stuff, the Vancouver vibe on the trains in 1994. I
was the first to start piecing freights consistently
here in Canada – I’m sure of this unless someone
can honestly prove otherwise with dated pieces
photographed, and I don’t know who that could
be. We are talking the start of 1992 from my own
personal documentation. You could practically
count all the writers on your thumbs and fingers
that were any good back then right across Canada.
The spring of 1994 was when I started seeing and
photographing stuff go by, saw a top-to-bottom go
by for the first time one night when I was out rock-
ing the steel. From that year on it just became a
reality with writers in general.
And Then of Course There WAs The IGT Zine ThAT sTArTed up in 1984 – did ThAT influenCe you AT All?
You mean the International Get Hyped Times? Ab-
solutely! Get hyped is exactly what it was about,
the first-ever aerosol art chronicle. It was put to-
gether back circa 1984 by Phase2 and Vulcan, 2 of
the scene’s king stylists and a ridiculous influence
on me and so many writers all around the world. It
was a kind of zine foldout that talked politics and
showed the piecing that was New York and other
painting from around the world. I can remember
back in 1992, just pulling it out of the mail box and
opening it up before you even got in the house.
Finally getting a good look at hardcore New York
culture after 10 years of wanting to see stuff. You
could put your address in it, and swap photos,
that’s how I hooked up with the first crew I ever
got down with, Tem CMD from Europe. I was not
in any crew so I asked them if I could write CMD,
and yeah, so I did some CMD freights in the early-
to mid-1990s. Because of IGT I corresponded with
lots of writers globally. It was a great year, 1992,
corresponding through IGT, getting hooked up
with writers and flicks of their scenes all around
the world. So the Ren.2/Daser name got out there.
The photo swaps were fun, crazy hype!
CMD by Daser, 1993; facing page: Daser, 2002, Ottawa
186
187
Clockwise from top left:Sinex, VancouverSinex, VancouverMouse by Sinex, VancouverSinex, VancouverSinex & K by Virus, 1994, VancouverSinex, 1994, Vancouver
188
INDEXGraffiti Crews
2See (alternate name
for The Graffiti Knights): 82
3Eight (alternate name for The Night Crime
crew): 45
AA : 32, 103, 107, 108, 114, 117, 119, 120, 125, 134, 160,
163, 166, 167, 175, 180
Aerosol Army (alternate name for AA crew): 120
Aerosol Arsenals (alternate name
for AA crew): 120
AK3: 39
Amoral Self Promoters: 39, 45
Bink: 51
Blessed With Style: 155
BSM: 48
Burning America : 142, 146
Canadian Floor Masters: 20, 29
CBS: 143
CBW: 45
CEY: 48
Chrome Angels: 24, 25
Crime Messiahs, The: 32, 33, 62, 63, 103
D5B (abbreviation for Dash Five Bionica crew):
175, 181, 183
Dash 5 Bionica: 155, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171, 174, 175,
180, 181, 183, 185
DVS: 117
Dynamic Rockers: 25
East Side Posse: 155
ELF: 45
EMC3: 163
Graffiti Knights, The: 82, 84
Graffiti Shamans: 62
Graph-X: 125, 155, 160, 164, 169, 183, 185
KGM (abbreviation for
Kings Gone Mad crew): 146
Keep Suckas Nervous (alternate name
for Kings Stop at Nothing crew): 146
Kings Gone Mad: 146
Kings Stop at Nothing: 142, 143,
Kool Style Network (alternate name
for Kings Stop at Nothing crew): 146
KSN (abbreviation for
Kings Stop at Nothing crew): 143, 146
KWOTA: 39
Mad Bombers, The: 39
Msias: 54
New York City Breakers: 24, 25
Night Crime, The: 45
Paid In Crime: 50, 51
PIC (abbreviation for Paid In Crime crew): 50
Puzzle: 32
Raggamuffin Rascalz (alternate name
for Rascalz crew): 119
Rascalz: 108, 119
Rock Steady Crew: 25, 33, 112
SK8s: 45
Swarm: 37
TCM (abbreviation for
The Crime Messiahs crew): 32, 33, 62, 63
Tem CMB: 35
TMB (abbreviation for
The Mad Bombers crew): 39
TMF: 135
189
TNC (abbreviation for
The Night Crime crew): 39, 45
TNT: 82
TWF: 135
TwoSee (alternate name for
The Graffiti Knights): 82
Two-Sicks: 45
UPC: 45
WCB (abbreviation for
We Crush Boxcars crew): 92
We Crush Boxcars: 90, 92
Who Cares Bro (alternate name
for We Crush Boxcars crew): 92
Wild Canadian Boys (alternate name
for We Crush Boxcars crew) : 92
Wrecking City Blocks (alternate name
for We Crush Boxcars crew) : 92
Graffiti Artists Entries in bold face indicate a
complete chapter for that artist.
2fresh: 91, 132
12 Midnight:159, 168
Absorb: 166, 167, 170, 175, 180, 185
ACB: 76
Acrow: 92, 134, 142
Aero: 14, 126, 149
Ajax: 46
Akira: 13
Amok (alternate tag for Sear): 41
Apaul: 117
Bacon: 12
Bando: 24
Base: 132
Bdp: 46
Billygoat: 38
Bio: 159
Blaze: 92
Bonzo: 91
Buddha: 20-28
Cameo: 92
Chefo: 45
CMD (alternate tag for Daser): 35
Code: 175
Code 7 (alternate tag for Daub): 45
Cope2: 137
Cos (alternate tag for Cosoe): 90
Cose: 45
Cosoe: 14, 90-102, 157, 159
Crayone: 135, 159
Crime: 91
Crush: 159
Cyber: 33, 62
Cycle: 137
Darrox: 90
Daser: 14, 29-35, 63, 114
Daub: 38, 39, 45-48
Deceit: 107
Dect: 128
Dedos: 92, 103, 111, 117-124, 125, 126, 128, 131, 132,
134, 137, 142, 143, 169
Der: 38, 39, 46
Derfer: 54, 55
Dezine: 132, 151-158, 164, 169, 175, 183
Dino: 104
Dondi: 90, 91, 92, 103
Dooer: 45, 50-53
Dope2: 128, 131-134
Dream: 135
Dubnut: 50-53
Duster: 91
Dynamo: 90
EGR: 12, 48
Electro Boogie: 45
EMC3 (alternate tag for Neos): 163
Enzone: 90
Ephx: 14, 53, 91, 132, 135-144, 146, 149, 155, 157, 159,
160, 163, 167, 168, 169
Ethiks: 54
190
Ewok: 39
Fatso: 92
Fever-One: 117
Finzl 15: 159
Frost: 11
Futura: 159, 164
FX (alternate tag for Ephx): 137
Galooch: 14, 77, 80-81, 104, 107
Ghost: 14, 50, 51, 54-59
Gonzo: 77
Haze (alternate tag for Neos): 164
Heat: 92
Hews: 96, 117
Hex: 143, 155, 157, 164, 169
Hope: 32, 33, 63, 79
Hopi: 54, 55
Hung: 51
Imposter: 46, 48
Insight: 134
Insist (alternate tag for Krewz): 145
Jaler: 96
Jase: 96, 142, 146
Jay Skin: 37
Jesus Saves: 134
Jimbo: 132
Jinder (alternate tag for Dooer): 53
Jon156: 164
Juice (alternate tag for Dubnut): 50
Jzone: 91, 132, 134, 137, 159, 160, 163, 164
Kane: 32, 33, 63, 79
Kaput: 92
Karma: 57
Kazal (alternate tag for Word): 159
Kemo (alternate tag for Dope2): 108, 119, 128, 132
Kev: 146
Kid-C: 32, 33, 61, 62, 77, 107
Kid Quick: 20, 21
King84: 90
King Ada (alternate tag for Sear): 38, 41
Krewz: 53, 91, 126, 137, 142, 143, 145-150, 159, 160,
163, 164, 166, 168
Krooze (alternate tag for Krewz): 53
Krs One: 46
KS (alternate tag for Virus): 32, 103
KSone (alternate tag for Virus): 103
Kurve (alternate tag for Dezine): 155
Kwest: 12
LaBomba: 33, 72-79, 80
Lep: 170, 171, 174, 175, 177
Loomit: 11
Maad: 84
Mars: 137
Mber: 39
Meats: 12
Mediah: 48
Mix Master Mike: 135
Mode2: 24, 25, 184
MSK: 77
Myth: 92
Negative G (alternate tag for Buddha): 24
Neos: 119, 137, 163-173, 175, 180, 183, 184, 185
Nicer: 159
Ozone: 90
PabloFiasco: 90
Pause (alternate tag for Virus): 103
PD: 111, 166, 167, 170, 174-182
Pez: 61, 104, 107
Phase2: 35
Porn: 95, 112
Posh: 96
Power: 157
Pride: 24
Punisher: 90
Pure (alternate tag for Ren): 105
Puzzler: 159
Q-bert: 135
Ranks : 92
Razor: 111
Reck: 32, 33
Recka: 63, 77
Red One: 119
Ren: 12, 14, 32, 33, 34, 61-72, 77, 79, 103, 104, 107,
114, 117, 119
Ren.2 (alternate tag for Daser): 32, 33, 35
Renegade (alternate tag for Daser): 32
Resist 2: 91
Rey One: 117
Rip1 (alternate tag for Ephx): 149, 160
Riske (alternate tag for Cosoe): 90, 169
Sady: 32, 82-88
Scribla: 24
Scuf (alternate tag for Dooer): 45
Sear: 37-44, 45, 46
191
Sec: 32, 33, 63, 107
Seek (alternate tag for Virus): 103
Seen: 91, 92, 159
Shamus: 32
Sight: 54
Sinex: 164, 168, 169, 170, 175, 180, 183-187
Skam: 12, 143
Skeme: 91, 92
Skully: 38
Slick: 143, 155, 157, 164, 169
Slomo: 45
Smoke (alternate tag for Word): 159
Sneke: 117
Soul One: 117
SP: 96
Spirit (alternate tag for Cosoe): 90
Spy: 135
Stage: 92, 142
Stelth: 57, 167
Stone: 107
Sug: 96, 114
Swirls (alternate tag for Ren): 61
T-Kid: 159
Take5: 114, 145-146
Tones: 117
TooFly: 76
Trax One: 82
Treach: 82
Tribe: 137
Twist: 11, 142, 155, 159
Tyke22 (alternate tag for Dubnut): 50
UFOUBA: 38, 46
Vandal (alternate tag for Cosoe): 90
Virus: 14, 32, 33, 92, 103-116, 117, 119, 121, 125, 126,
131, 132, 134, 137, 142, 164, 168, 169, 180
Vulcan: 35, 135, 159
Wall Wizard (alternate tag for Daub): 38, 45
Word: 91, 159-162, 164
Wysper: 12
Zaki: 24
Zap (alternate tag for Neos): 163
Zephyr: 11, 12, 13, 159
Ziggy (alternate tag for Dooer): 53
Zilon: 16-18
Zine: 92
Z-lok: 103, 117, 119, 125-130, 131, 132, 134, 137, 164,
167, 169, 183, 185
Zori-4: 76