LONDON GRAFFITI- the 80'S EDITION

I really got into Hip Hop through graffiti.In 86 i started school and would have to take the Big Met from Wembley Park to Bush in West London. I was amazed at all the tags i used to see SET3, KIS42, SIR BEAU, CAST, INK, ROBBO, YESE ETC, i used to wonder,who are these kids? A month later i saw Style wars and then the book Subway art and all was explained. By the end of 86 i would always carry a pen with me,met other writers and started to get up.

A year later i was hanging round Kilburn Park hard and was in a crew called LA (LOOKING AHEAD) Along with DAME,REMIX,ARTIST,FAIR,AND EVIL 87. Evil wasnt evil at all, he was chubby kid who was a year younger then me, and was the best racker i'd ever met. When we went to get cans or pens he would always get the most. I remember being with him outside Kilburn park tube station and we arranged to meet up the next day. The next day when i got into school a writer called Drone from Edgware rd told me he was dead... When we used to hit up Kilburn Park, we d cross the live rail, and then hide in a little Workman's hole, then your mates would get on the tube, and hold the doors so the train couldnt leave the station...this gave you about 3 minutes to do a few dubs and get up before the train driver came out of his carriage...Evil was doin this but when the train pulled away he got dragged under......EVIL 87 RIP




After Evils death we all gave up Graff for about 2 months....Then it was back to business. More and more pieces were running daily, and writers were hitting train yards more then hitting walls.. By 88 writers like KAST,MIZE,STEAM, RATE&EVENT, FOAM,CAZBEE,SHOK ETC were painting the sickest pieces, and London had never and would never see this amount of art running on its tube network. Below is some of the pix i took from back then, we all used to share are photos so i think some of them were CASTS.

The sickest graff website you NEED to check is WWW.ROCKINGTHECITY.COM. They have photos of literally every single piece ive seen running on the tubes and you need to check it..

Graffiti is the one part of Hip Hop culture that always gets over looked,as the bigger corporations cant really exploit it as they can do with MCing...I gave up Graff in 1990 after being caught and sent to Feltham. I thought maybe i should stick to djing, which i did.













In the 90's a new generation of writers came through, and they were more hardcore than ever. By this time cameras were on more or less every platform and in most if not all yards. It was getting harder to paint but that didnt stop writers like FUME,TEACH,ELK,SUB,DIET,FIASCO, as well as the 80's writers who were still doing there thing (PRIME, SHUTO,RATE)

In the present day, trains get hit but most dont run. Shout out to TOX who has been doing his thing. Check out this mini documentary on him which was on SKY.