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NICER TATS CRU INTERVIEW
When and where did you begin writing graffiti?
- I first started seeing trains painted with Graffiti in the late 70’s as a kid then I started paying attention to all the tags in my neighborhood while playing in the streets with my friends. I grew up in the Longwood section of the South Bronx. When I got to High school in 1980 I was so open on wanting to paint a train but it wasn’t till I met Bio and Bg 183 in a major art class my freshman year that they took me for my first time to a train tunnel, since then I was hooked.
Were they’re other writers at the time that inspired you to paint?
- I was always inspired by the guys that were painting on the line, guys like Seen, Duster, Panama, KEL, Crash, Daze, Dondi, Futura, Nada & Lase, the list is endless but this was before Google so learning about this art form meant you had to go out and see it for yourself.
What’s your interpretation of the train era back then and being able to be apart of it?
- The train era was something hard to explain to people sometimes cause in all reality we were painting on city property but the excitement of jumping in the tracks at night with your friends walking half way into the tunnel, unloading your bag of paint and cracking that first outline was as to a teenager like you broke into Fort Knox and saw a bar off gold for the first time. We all felt like James Bond on a secret mission. Plus in the 80’s there wasn't a lot of police because the city was coming out of a recession so the new mayor at the time Ed Cotch tried to clean up the look of the city and turn it around and soon came up with The Vandal Squad targeting Graffiti on the subways in NYC. At the time we didn't care because we were younger and faster than them.
What was it like transitioning into the art world?
- After creating the first graffiti company in NYC in 1994, it was a struggle trying to get other companies and ad agencies to accept at the time that traditional artwork, was a way of the past and that what spoke to their new URBAN consumers was Graffiti.
Would your style be different if you started writing graffiti during this era versus back in the 80s?
- Graffiti has always been something that is growing with each generation and always will. So from the first writer that picked up a can and decided to write a tag to the next guy that saw that and said to himself I’m gonna do the same thing but put an outline around it I’ve seen this art form evolve to where today we can design a piece on the computer, print it out, then paint it on the wall. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Do you have any advice for the new generation of writers?
- As far as the new generation involved in this movement globally just keep pushing and trying new things I mean you have YouTube, caps , thousands of colors etc. etc. I mean we just pushed the door that was cracked open for use wide but you have the chance to walk threw those doors, and trust me I’m following right behind you to see what you do with this thing called GRAFFITI.
NICER
TATS CRU