Piece by Piece Page #8

where immigrants and he was a minority

and the fact that he was doing graffiti,

in the middle of an illegal activity

that case didn't get followed up or paid

attention the way it should have been.

he was praised in the newspaper as killing

a robber you know, they just covered it up.

And they didn't really mind that an 18 year old

- young boy was murdered

in the tender loin by a person who owned

property, they didn't care about that.

I was really hurt, and when this

guy got off like it,

that was you know its f***ed up

like its where's the justice in that?

I mean if the kid was just hanging out maybe

climbing on the roof with some girl to drink a

beer and like fool around with some

girl it might have been a different story

it might have been like you know

but ohh sh*t this kids a menace to

society and his parents don't even

speak English ohh my god you

know you know whatever, just sweep it

under the rug it's a tragedy. Oh well.

his blood was there like for a week afterwards.

His blood was still there a big puddle of blood.

You know what I'm saying a little f***ing

little kid you know just turned 18.

unfortunately the way it worked

out his piece of history is a tragic

one but at the same time he influenced all

of us and he brought a lot of people together

and he is now definitely a martyr for graffiti.

You knowthat's TlE, TlE is a legend now.

that kid could have been king well

he did king SF,

but you know he could have just

really,... I would have liked to seen

giving the proper time and

influence and encouragement,

I would have liked to have seen

what that kid had to offer, you know?

Everyday was dedicated graff and

honestly I've never met anyone

in kind of medium or any kind of lifestyle

who has dedicated so much of their life

to one thing. You know he was

fully full of graffiti.

I've been asked a million times why do I

write, certain things you just can't explain,

but I do it for the love, the love of

writing.

because I love painting, just simply for

that in fact once they're done their done

their only as good as the next one.

I just... You know once it's finished

I'm like "what next?" I just have to

be in the act of pressing this cap.

it gave me character, it gave me a

sense of purpose, gave me a community,

and it was all-underground. It was

all... hidden out of the way.

So it was really cool cause it was

rebellious.

you know everyone has levels of respect what will

they respect, what they not going to write on.

For me I have a certain amount of respect but if

I do choose to put my art somewhere its really kind

of yeah I know the consequences and so what.

you know and its really cause I just don't care.

why do I do it? Oh man what do l

get out of it?

Head aches.

I mean the reason why I continue to do Graff

is just I have this love affair with letters.

I mean I love letters man that's

what keeps me in it.

Why do I do it? I do it for myself,

and I do it, I do it cause I can.

And I do it because I run this sh*t.

This is my city its where I'm from

its where I was born and raised.

And it's kind of like my mark; this

is where I crush.

it probably,... in a lot of ways it

probably saved my life you know,

who knows what I'd be doing if it

weren't for graffiti.

you don't really choose the arts

the arts chose you.

You know you don't pick to choose

the clarinet, the clarinet picks you.

You don't choose to paint water colors

or oils or.. Your medium picks you.

I don't know man I dig paint, I dig

spray paint so it picked me.

I could be doing still life's I could

be doing realist painting

I could uh just be doing graphic

design behind a computer.

But the artwork I do speaks to like

probably tens of thousands

of other kids across both the

United States probably Europe.

and its just like on the way to work

I want to see my tag.

It's like me looking at me you know what

I'm saying I'm alive I'm here you know.

I'm f***ing something and I will be

something, why cause I make myself something.

their not getting paid for it, you know their not

getting any kind of like congratulations for it

their just out there risking their lives to

paint something that hopefully a few people

might be ableto appreciate and that's it and

I think there's some thing to be said forthat.

You know? I think that's definitely

something worth taking note of.

Yo, like there's graffiti here it's got

to be here for a reason. Instead of

saying like they must have you know problems

to they must be a malicious person they might

actually look at the society and be like you

know the way the government and society is

being controlled by capitalist big business is

messed up and we should do something about it

or whatever. Instead of looking at

the person doing graffiti maybe

they should look at the cause of

why that person started you know?

I mean I'd no doubt still be doing

art if I wasn't in graffiti but graffiti

gave me a voice, it really gave me

a voice.

You know I didn't realize this for a long time

but after I got older it dawned on me that you know

I can walk up and write my

message, all the other messages

that we get are controlled by newspapers,

and radio, and television, and billboards

and print adds and magazines and all these things

and they're all paid for,l could walk up for free

and put my message out there and as long as

your willing get arrested for it and you have

that mentality you can write whatever

you want and put any message you want up.

You know graffiti is really the last

true free speech.

consider this:
98 percent of the works

you have seen in this video are gone...

forever.

They no longer exist. It's extremely

temporal just like life

The tag is the essential part of writing

it's the most fun the most offensive

and to some the most visually

unappealing part of our culture.

But it's the essence.

Being out late at night you experience

a completely different world.

Writing is a culture of experience.

And it's a craft that will never vanish.

So this is our writing history

and it will carry on for years and

years...

Peace.

and now were going to Paris!

Yeah and now where going to

Paris to do canvass bro,

we maid it!

is this on? Twist! I want my black book

bac kyou've had it for two years now.

I want, I want my black book back

Barry. Barry where's my black book?

You'd better have like 30 pages

done in that sh*t.

I wish there was some sort of rule where if a

cop was going to give you a ticket if you guys

could have a fist fight and if l

could beat a cops ass,

then he'd have to be like "Word,

peace out dude you beat my ass."

That would be so fresh it would be

a totally different world.

You know TMF crew would be ruling San

Francisco right now, you know what I mean?

in my opinion I don't like most graffiti

writers and I don't have anything in common

with most graffiti writers besides

the graffiti.

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