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_______ _ ________   /  _/_   _____     __/ _  __ ____    ________ ___    /__
\    _/__ _   .__/__/  /     \   ___/   __     /_  _\_  _ _/_  /__ /  /
_\_     /  \  |    / \___/ _/   |   \_ __\ /  \   __/_ \   __   / /  /___/
\______/    \_ ___/___\    \_________/     _/    \_____/  \__/   /____/   -M-
_  __ _______/ ____________________________\______/________ /___/_________  _

        [    w E ' r E   j U S T   s i C K   o F   i T   a L L  ]
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  \    /                                                          /\
   \  /    2 Interesting interviews with 2 active graffiti artists    /  \
    \/                                                               /____\
_  __ ____________________________________________________________________  _



Reas Interview

       

This interview was conducted in February 1996 through email for Art Crimes and was edited by Brett Webb. Thanks go to
Reas for taking the time to answer all of the questions and get this thing going so quickly! Interview  copyright 1996
Brett Webb, Art Crimes. Do not republish without permission. 

Art Crimes: When did you start writing? How'd you get started?
Reas: I started out writing in staircases of these buildings with friends of mine around 1980. It was something we did for
fun,like sneaking into abandoned buildings some older guys told us about. [It was about] tags and the basic bullshit and
that you had to have an original name. I picked Flash from that movie Flash Gordon. The 's' was a lighting bolt. Then I
came up with Ninja and some other crazy shit. It was me and my friends and we didn't know that much and we sort of
interpreted what we saw being done around us as best we could. At that time I wasn't travelling very far or anywhere by
train. It wasn't taken serious but [it was] probably the most fun time. We weren't even in Junior High, everything was new. 
       

When I got to 8th grade in '82 I was introduced to trains. I met a writer who wrote CIST ONE in the hallway. He invited me
to go tosome layups in Brooklyn and introduced me to a lot of writers in the school:SEK, REC, ARC, KEPSTER, IE,
DASHER. These guys all knew more than me about what I was getting into. They had better handstyles. SEK was really
good at piecing. I was really hyped on the whole thing. I could draw so I could piece, but I was being introduced to styles I
couldn't comprehend. 

Every morning I also rode the train, the cc and the a, to school. So now Iz the Wiz, Min, Quick, Sr, Python, Bo and all the
writers from those lines were catching my eye. And some days I'd go to the 1 line and see CIA, FBA, RTW or TNT's latest
work, or whoever, roll through and just sit waiting for the next train. 

It would take me about 20 minutes to leave a station because I was studying those trains and I'd be afraid I'd miss a
good lesson if I left.

The moment I saw that Sab Kaze by Tack and Kaze with the shark roll up I freaked out. It was brand new and they drew a
shark character in a style I'd never witnessed. The whole thing blew my mind. By that time I had been hitting insides and
done some crummy outside pieces. 

       School was shit so I focused on getting good at writing. That whole early era was a very rough ride. A lot of beef I
couldn't handle. A lot of going through turbulance, but I continued. Everyone had beef everyone wanted to rob each other.
And down in a subway tunnel there's no law. And even if I got out of there OK the chance your piece or throwups and
insides get gone over were 50/50. There was no room. So you usually had to go over something. And guys that did lots of
throwups treated them like their pieces. Eventually whoever sticks with it stands out and you become known. Most people
get bored, quit and fade out. I'd say by '85 I was starting to get some good notice. By '87 I stopped to come back in '89 and
rode the trains out. 




Swatch1 Interview

       

This interview was conducted in 1995 through email for Art Crimes and was edited by Brett Webb. Big props go to Swatch
for taking the time to answer all of the questions and not hold back. Interview  copyright 1996 Brett Webb, Art Crimes.
Do not republish without permission. 

Art Crimes: When did you start writing and how did you get started?
Swatch: I started writing when I started at a new high school in 1985. I was going to Theodore Roosevelt High School, in
the Bronx. I have articles from the newpapers that list it as one of the worst and most dangerous in the city. Being Puerto
Rican and Mexican but looking white and coming from a prestigious private school in Manhatten I stuck out like a sore
thumb at that school. So I started hanging with these crazy guys who called themselves the Desperados. Originally they
wanted to beef to me about talking to some girl, so they called me over by saying, "Hey Swatch." Swatch had a big clothing
line in the better days, and I had a few shirts and lots of watches that I lifted for that fivefinger discount. So the name stuck.
Back then everyone had a tag or a codename, it was just part of living in the ghetto.  

We had some problems with these guys who called themselves the Four Horsemen, you know like of Apocalypse. So we
challenged them to a football game on the field outside Yankee Stadium. This was a really big event and maybe about 50
people came to watch. Back then not everything had to be settled in a fight. You could battle on the mic, on the turntables,
on the floor (breakdance),or in a football game. If you had to throw hands, it would be the fairest fight you could ever get.
Those were the rules back then, because it would be better to fight one on one then jump someone. And to jump in on a
fight would mean that your man couldn't handle his own shit. Then what's the point of hanging with him if he can't look
out for himself? How can he look out for you? We beat these guys big time. Even dislocated someone's jaw, and we made
the crew famous. We all ended up at this pizza shop back home and hung out. We decided to become one crew and
consolidate the ranks. We decided on the name The Rebels, but I told them that it was a graff crew and hooked up by
Zephyr. So I called it The Rebels Movement, TRM, also The Roosevelt Mob. So we became a high school gang, and not
everyone was a real graffiti writer. Since I killed the school with graffiti, TRM became even more infamous. 

I really got started when I hung out with writers from outside the school like Kace, Kraze or Tru2. They introduced me to
the outside world of the graffiti underground. And from then on I got into the graff scene, and became famous very fast.
Back in the days, I was more of a marker and sticker man. The first real writer to hand a spraycan to me was Zone TCT, and
he's still a good friend of mine. I mostly took motion tags, and my ventures into the layups and yards weren't impressive
enough to warrant a spot in any books. But I know that I killed all the uptown D line stations, and I was one of the rooftop
kings of the 4 line. 

       AC: What crews have you been down with?
SW1: I have been down with all the best crews that have existed in NYC. Writers who list about 25 crews behind their tag
have a problem. The best crews I could name are TRM, FLY id, KD (Cope & Co.), TFO (The Fresh Ones, 2&5 line
KINGS!!!) TFT (Too Fuckin' Tuff), UMXS(Urban Mechanix), OTB(Out To Bomb), TPT( Braer & co.). 

I really think that the "crews" that are just letters that people hook up are wack. If you go up to a writer and spit on
their piece and dis their crew, they probably wouldn't care, because they just hook up the letters for fame or to
validate themselves. But a real crew wouldn't take that kind of shit and squash any dis like that quickly. Those writers
from back in the day NYC know the real truth of what crew out heads out and what crew was just some fluffy
letters....


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              ||         | /________/   |     |      \     //
              ||         |      _|      |     |       \___//_____bY!
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                     - --[  siCK oF iT aLL  ]-- -
