This is the first of my videos about my stay in Los Angeles with Rime and Revok. This is a wall we painted in Hollywood with LA based/Australian artists Dabs & Myla. These guys are doing some incredible paintings for an upcoming show – was totally blown away by their canvas work.Rime did this piece in memory of his friend Semz.

Additional camera duties were taken on by Jersey Joe aka the Coach aka Joseph-Style.

The music is Oddisee – Bloom off the “Odd Spring” album which is available for free download here.

ENUE x TATIANA SUAREZ x ASKEW x JAES from Askew One on Vimeo.

In June 2010, Jaes invited a handful of his friends to paint a school yard in New York. Amongst those were Enue and myself, both of the Ironlak Team and also Miami born/Brooklyn based artist Tatiana Suarez who we met out at Primary Flight last year. This is a video I shot a cut of the mural collaboration that ensued.

The music is Daru Jones ft. Kissy Asplund “So Good”.

I’ve been missing in action the last couple of months, it has certainly been a really busy time for me but as I will explain there has been ample on my plate. About 2 months ago I agreed to take on a project for Dawn raid Entertainment art directing the (potentially) final release from Auckland Mainstays The Deceptikonz. It has been demanding and seen me don a couple of well-worn hats as well as one fresh from the shelf – namely trying my hand at directing some music videos.

I shouldn’t have to explain why Dkonz are so iconic and remain one of my favourite local hip hop acts but there are plenty out there ready to detract and perhaps they are only seeing a very small part of the decade long legacy – and it is a legacy. In my opinion there are only a very small handful of local Hip Hop artists who’s influence has transcended as far as Mareko’s. Personally I feel that Danny Haimona aka Hyper D from Dam Native and Johnny Sagala respectively hold the title for having an unparalleled impact on our local Hip Hop sound and subsequently empowering Maori and Samoan MC’s to believe in their ‘own’ voice. I can’t tell you how many people rapped like Danny throughout New Zealand after Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted dropped but I can tell you, no one spawned as many imitators until Mareko. I sincerely believe in the timeline of New Zealand Hip Hop there is before Mareko and after Mareko – he is that significant in my eyes. Albeit he may not have pioneered certain ‘isms’ when considered in the international sense, there was his use of the battle attitude and clever punch line driven raps that were not commonplace prior to his emergence.

TMD member and Mareko’s older brother Rimoni and I reminisced recently about JC’s first Battle For Supremacy at Factory in 2000 when Mareko stepped onto stage as a completely unknown MC – No one would have considered him in contention for taking the title let alone flipping the entire scene on it’s head. I remember looking at this big, quiet looking- very low-key dressed Samoan in a (now trademark) bucket hat and rugged skate shoes step on stage. At first he looked shy, sifting side to side a bit and looking at the floor – just for a second though before he went into battle mode. Prior to this NZ battles consisted of people that just looked stoked with them selves that they could freestyle consistently (often about nothing and also with a habit of inventing fictional words) once Mareko launched into battle, with razor sharp punch lines that made clear reference to his opponent, the game was changed. I just remember my sides hurting as he just came line after line making a mockery of MC’s – often the crowd response was so loud he had to pause between punch lines to allow for them to calm down again. It was like improvised stand up but didn’t fall short there – it was clever, he had great word play and most important he had flow.

Mareko went on to win 3 consecutive titles yet unlike a lot of renown freestyle MC’s – he could also deliver a great song and this was proven with the Deceptikonz first album ‘Elimination’. The reason I love this album is that it’s grass roots garage feeling Hip Hop – the majority of the beats were produced by Mareko on a demo version of Sound Forge which only allowed a dozen saves before you had to uninstall and reinstall the software. He used a home PC that by today’s standards would likely be reserved for using word or playing solitaire but most importantly this album introduced us to his crew, Savage, Devolo and Alphrisk. Dkonz have all the bases covered with this line up – Savage’s eventual success in the US was really not that surprising to me especially after his appearance in the Scribe “Not Many Remix” video directed by Chris Graham. At this point we see the emergence of another calibre of Hip Hop artist – the type rarely seen here. He’s the guy that can just growl out a hook and make it an anthem and quite frankly look so fucking cool doing it. Honestly I think you are lying if you say your hair didn’t stand up on end when you first heard his part at the start of ‘Not Many Remix’ – I know mine did.

Devolo is a really unique MC, he’s always had an almost rigid and mechanical delivery and seemingly simple lyrics but he is one of my favourites. At the heart of why he is so good you might have to be an Aucklander or at least have grown up around Islanders but there is such an inexplicable swagger that he has that is ‘so Tongan’ – just the way he phrases things, the nuances in his pronunciation, it’s so dope. I never knew quite what it was but David Dallas was at my house speaking about it when he had just recorded the demo version of ‘Indulge Me’ and was planning to get him to sing the bridge part. Saves also said the same thing the other day. Devolo is time and time again one of the local MC’s who will leave me reflecting on a line for ages because maybe they aren’t really that ‘simplistic’ at all in fact sometimes they are really complex. I rate an MC that can do that – It’s an art. Devolo also has the X-factor on camera, working with him is a breeze and now after editing his performances on 4 videos I really appreciate that!

Alphrisk is really the most understated member of Dkonz but someone I believe has been so consistent and now really emerged so strongly on this new album. I had seen Dkonz play a few times before I actually met Alphrisk and just assumed he was the same age as the other guys. I was at Dawn Raid in 2002 working on the Disruptiv Logo with Tim Checkly and Alprhisk walked past in a school uniform! I turned to Tim and said “What the?!” and he was like “yeah, he’s still at school!”. It spun me right out at the time but also makes me appreciate where he was at lyrically even more. Alphrisks ‘Best Kept Secret’ street album still remains a favourite of mine and truly stands the test of time. His verses on Evolution are killer and I believe this guy has a long career ahead of him.

So now you understand, I’m a big fan of these guys and a friend and over the years have really followed them. When Andy Murnane asked me to art direct the entire Dkonz project there was no hesitation. In my typical form it required me to leap into the deep end a bit and hone my video and editing skills to bring 4 internet videos to fruition. This was done on a shoestring budget and in a rapid time frame all while on deadline at my regular job laying out Rip It Up.

The videos were shot in 3 days with my Panasonic HDC-SD1 video camera equipped with a very basic DOF (Depth Of Field) adapter and a collection of Nikon lenses I gathered from markets, garage sales, second hand stores and on Trade Me. A fact a lot of people don’t know is these videos along with Urban Development videos I made were all shot upside down and flipped in Post. This is because I couldn’t afford a vibrating DOF adapter so everything is captured this way. It was disorientating at first but I’ve mastered the art and retrained my eyes! Assisting, lighting and general sharing of knowledge and opinion was handled by my good friends Rimoni and Lucko Prawito, make up by Alphrisks wife Vanu Maoate and everything else from scheduling to hitting the playback was handled by Safia Sayid. It’s a small but great team and the shoots were heaps of fun – I learned a lot during the process too, it was like a crash course!

Evolution – Album Intro

‘Like What’ ft P-Money

‘We Here’ ft David Dallas

‘2012’

The other part of the project was the general art direction and illustration which I did with some last minute help from Elliot Francis Stewart aka Deus. The first thong was the reworking of the brand, primarily via my reinterpretation of the Dkonz logo into a ‘NETCH’ treatment. There is a limited edition hand signed print of this available with a copy of the album when you buy a ticket to the farewell concert on July 10^th!

Then there is the cover art – The front is featured at the start of the post but here is the full fold out poster, which also includes a looming ‘Pyramid Dude’. Deus helped out with the Church and the bats!

And lastly I got to shoot the video for the first official single and title track ‘Evolution’. This was shot on a Canon 5D Mk II and if you get a chance to check out the photos over at Rimoni’s and Mareko’s blogs. It was a historic night with a lot of NZ Hip Hop royalty in the building.

So people, there you have it. Check out the videos, if you like the tracks- buy the album and if you are in Auckland July 10^th then see you at the concert. It’s my birthday that night so I’ll be in high spirits and most likely in the front row singing along to my favourite Dkonz songs. Let’s party like it’s 2012!!!!

A selection of albums we were listening to in 1993. Not all of them were released that year but this is essentially my life’s soundtrack in my early teens.

1993 was one of the most pivotal years of my life when I look back on it. As I mentioned in the last post it was my first year of High School and I attended Western Springs College in central Auckland. It was there that I met a lot of people who really helped me refine my tastes in music and art. The school itself always held a reputation for celebrating creativity and so my mother felt it was the natural choice of the secondary schools in walking distance. During that time, there was no strict school zoning as such and so Western Springs had students from a wide range of neighbourhoods, which varied from lower, working and middle class areas through to reasonably affluent parts of town. The school population was made of people from Western Springs, Pt Chev, Mt Albert, Kingsland, Morningside, Sandringham, Grey Lynn, Ponsonby, St Marys Bay, Herne Bay, Freemans Bay, Westmere, Avondale, Waterview, New Lynn, Glen Eden, Devonport, Takapuna… The list goes on. Aucklander’s will appreciate how crazy a mix that is.

Aside from Bonus and Bart, there were many other taggers and people at Springs that would come to emerge as personalities within the Auckland graffiti and Hip-Hop scenes. Risk (DFH, MCF) was two years ahead of me and was already famous amongst our peers for his versatility in tagging styles and his fearless approach to skating. He seemed impervious to pain – one of his party tricks involved bottling himself repeatedly without even flinching. Ironically, he is now a glass artist. I recently saw an article on him where he was quoted as saying: “I used to be famous for breaking it not making it!” which I thought was brilliant. Early in my 3^rd Form year, Risk and Bart invited me to skip school with them and chill in the park for the afternoon, smoking weed and tagging in vivid all over an over grown flax bush. Perhaps it was the smoke – actually I know it wasn’t but I just sat there in awe of their ability to pull out tag after tag – each different to the last. They did them linked, backwards, upside down… They made it look so effortless – like it was breathing to them.  Actually, a fair number of the Auckland KOA kids went to my school. From memory there was Erupt (also a class mate from Kowhai Intermediate), Rapid, Junkie, Varns, Kurupt and Avias. A few of those guys made my first two years at school pretty hard but eventually became good friends during 4^th and 5^th form.

Gasp RFC was a year older than me and in my form class. He had been writing Rocket the year before that, mainly with a kid from my area called Dylan -he wrote Sneak. Dylan played a rather major role in motivating me to actually get out tagging – I mean properly, as in at night with real spray paint. I came up with a few names that year – my first name I tagged about was Scribbles, sometimes shortened to Scribs. I even played with the name Scribe (imagine that!). The reason I absolutely had to have a name with ‘S’s’ in it was because of the yin-yang S’s that were current at that time – popularised mainly by the crew ‘Ebony Society’. Our early tags were mostly around school, down at the spacies at the Morningside shops or along the tracks at the local train station.  Eventually I moved on from those names and tagged Twice and then Meth (totally bitten from Method Man… Shame!). That was until sometime towards the end of 1994 or early 1995 when I finally settled on the name Askew.  I got that name from a Freestyle Fellowship lyric in the song Park Bench People. I chose to stick with it immediately loving the symmetry that was possible with that letter combination.

Chilling with Dylan. I don’t know why we each have a pair of headphones on. I also can’t begin to tell you how much my mothers fluro green, purple and pink paint job on my bedroom walls tormented me!

Those that know me well will tell you that my first element was MC-ing. Ever since 1990 when I was in standard 4, I had been trying to make music. I started out making 4 bar tape loops from the beginning of my favourite rap songs and writing verses to those. I then acquired my Stepfathers rather basic drum machine and started sequencing beats on that. I also learnt piano since I was Eight years old and used to practise on a Synthesizer. It had a sequencer on it and so what I did was make my bass lines and general melodies on that. The main concern though was that the drum sounds were unauthentic and I knew it, so I would manually synch the drum machine and synthesizer (which took work!) and then rap over the top of those in my bedroom. To encourage me my Stepfather set up a simple PA in my room with a microphone to practise with, even though they had to deal with the annoying ruckus that ensued. I often tried to rope all my neighbourhood friends into rapping with me, going as far as to write all their verses for them. No one had the same enthusiasm for making music as me and so it became a solitary pursuit… That was until I started High School and I found a tight bunch of friends with a kindred love of Hip-Hop.

Within the first few months at WSC, I met Danny England and Guy Davey-Heap. For starters, they were infinitely more knowledgeable about Hip-Hop than I was and it showed. These kids were ahead of their time in regards to how they dressed, what they listened to and the way the conducted themselves. They were from Ponsonby and Grey Lynn and had attended Ponsonby Intermediate prior to Springs. There was certainly a lot of sizing each other up before we struck up a friendship and because of my naïve and generally scruffy way of dressing I know I was being judged. These guys wore flash sneakers and Workshop jeans, fitted hats and starter jackets. They always rocked backpacks and listened to walkmans with big Sony headphones. I wore a pair of imitation name brand sneakers or Chuck Taylors that were falling to pieces. My jeans were my Stepdad’s, I borrowed them because they were baggy and so I thought they looked cool, even though they were probably stonewashed and tapered.

We started talking because we all had a love of the Hip-Hop Music but it has to be said that they had far more discerning tastes than I did. For example, I would listen to everything from Public Enemy to Mc Hammer and everything in between regardless of whether it was commercial or otherwise. Rap was Rap to me and I was by no means a snob about it. They were elitist’s, they listened to groups like EPMD, Gangstarr, Pharcyde, Black Moon, A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders Of The New School… They knew their shit. I soon Learnt that Guy’s older brother was Oli Green from Urban Disturbance (early 90′s Hip-Hop group consisting of Oli Green, Zane Lowe and Rob Salmon) and a lot of the influences and tastes were trickling down from him to my crowd. (This is a whole other post so stay tuned).

Through Danny and Guy I met one of my very good friends Vents RTR, who was also much into all the same music and Fashion. He was two years ahead of us but had grown up with Guy, so he would often give us the time of day. Eventually we all became a very tight knit crew and our focus shifted quickly from just socialising to making music. This was the start of our infamous ciphers at the Ponsonby Community Centre. Danny’s mum ran the place and on the weekends she would allow us to use the facilities, sometimes we would literally camp out there from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Between Danny and Dylan we had a complete DJ set up consisting of one Technics 1200 turntable and one miscellaneous belt driven turntable off a home stereo system plus a very basic mixer. I had the PA and a microphone and that was all we needed, the platform was set. We used to drink terrible cheap alcohol like Gimlets Vodka and Lime, Screwdriver and Bahamas ’62 and rap for hours. Occasionally we would be blessed with a visit from some of the older guys, for example I remember Che Fu during the Supergroove days rapping the verses that eventually became immortalised on DLT‘s track ‘Chains’. It’s almost surreal to fathom that when I look back now – considering how iconic an artist he is. Oli Green came to one cipher and drilled us about how to ‘really freestyle’ and told us we needed to bring something more honest with our subject matter and delivery. That is advice that could benefit many local artists still today.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Usually most nights ended when we were literally too messy to even talk, let alone deliver a coherent verse. Perhaps Danny and Dylan would have an argument about who was the DJ for the group and Dylan would storm out with his portion of the equipment. Either way, some times we would walk back to Kingsland and Morningside and drop some straights along the way, likely in Spraykote ‘Azure Blue’ or some ‘Dazzle’ – That’s what graffiti was to me then. It wasn’t structured or overly ambitious, it was just part of our chosen ‘lifestyle’.

I have to credit a small handful of people for really changing my outlook on graffiti around that time. Firstly, my friend Vinnie who wrote ‘Duck’ and another friend Liam who wrote D.Dare (after comic character Dan Dare) but eventually he changed it to Skare. They were the first people to show me ‘Subway Art’ and my first friends that started really drawing pieces with any real vigour. About this time Cripes (MCF) started attending our school – and he was another one with a very natural style and a lot more understanding of what graffiti was supposed to look like. About this time we actually consciously started thinking about doing pieces and wondering where and how to acquire enough paint to do so. About the same time, Webs was coming to a similar conclusion and he did a few basic bits and pieces around. This in turn motivated me to find some paint and do something slightly more elaborate than a tag – I did a filled in scroll with tags inside it and drop shadow. It could possibly have been the wackest thing ever painted in spray paint. Through Webs I met a kid named Shawn, who had spent some time at school in New York. He was interested in the same music as us and also dabbled a bit with graffiti. He introduced us to his friend who would eventually become known as Ikon RTR. From that point, literally everything changed.

To Be Continued…



Download this free A3 Poster of the finished wall and details here

Photos pillaged from the internet except the first one which I shot in 2006.

It’s arguable that the movie ‘Colors’ was to adolescents and teens my age group what the aforementioned movies were to the youth of the 1980’s.  In 1984 after ‘Style Wars’ screened on TV One, there were literally kids spraying and B-Boying the following day. After ‘Colors’ came to VHS here in New Zealand, it seemed there were ‘Crips and Bloods’ overnight. Some gang names I remember were MSC (Morningside Crips), TCG (Tongan Crip Gang), SOS (Sons Of Samoa), OHB (honestly can’t remember what that stood for!) and GBK (Ghetto Born Kings). It seems almost funny to say them now because they certainly don’t strike terror in my heart like they did back in those days. Writing this post has been an interesting process because it has forced me to dig a little deeper and delve into the origin of these types of gangs in Auckland and how that shaped the environment I came up in.

For the most part, it was undeniable that there was plenty of imitation at it’s worst. It seemed people chose their allegiances purely by which colour they preferred. Of course, it wasn’t all that simple and plenty of other factors contributed – some can be traced back to historic racial divides, geographical, cultural and religious factors and of course New Zealand’s rife gang history.

In New Zealand we love to pull out the old ‘Highest Per Capita’ quite frequently. Usually it’s something like ‘the highest STD rate per capita’ or ‘the highest youth suicide rate per capita’ or ‘highest teen pregnancy per capita’.  It almost never relates to something positive like ‘greatest amount of geniuses’ for example. Perhaps this all just comes with being such a small nation but apparently we boast the highest number of gangs per head out of any country in the world.  According to Wikipedia we have roughly seventy major gangs with around 4,000-patched members despite only having a current population of 4,000,000 people. This can leave a person wondering what the fixation is? How do we get to this point?

Photos all found on the internet. I would give credit if I knew who to credit… But thanks.

A selection of New Zealand gang patches

To get to the heart of this you must consider that New Zealand is a nation steeped in tribal and warrior tradition. In Auckland and Wellington particularly, the influence of the indigenous Maori and migrant Polynesian culture is paramount and woven so thoroughly through the general psyche of our population regardless of whether people are aware or not. Concepts of extended family and our approach to hospitality for example borrow greatly from Polynesian culture but extend right across the spectrum of our society. I believe over time this has become a defining Kiwi cultural trait. The other thing that I feel has been lent from Maori and Pacific Island culture is the particular type of ‘staunch’. This is very hard to explain to outsiders but Kiwi’s know what I’m talking about. It is almost inexplicable. It seems to draw its power from ancient custom and is particularly unique to this country and perhaps the pacific islands.

One possible suggestion why gang culture resonates with our youth here you must consider the parallels with Polynesian tradition. Now I enter this spiel with a lot of trepidation. I don’t want it to be perceived in the wrong way, this is not the only factor but it could be a key contributor. While European families built prestige and status with elitist and capitalist ideals, the Maori class system (for example) has forever been governed by mana. This is the concept of pride and respect, which can be inherited or earned. Financial status has little bearing, for example the young will show respect for their elders. People with presence or who achieve in their chosen path are treated with the utmost dignity regardless of what they earn. One could work a menial day job but be a great speaker, thinker, musician and be given the same respect as someone who has millions of dollars, maybe even more. The warriors in life are also bestowed this type of respect. The physically strong, imposing and fierce also have a kind of mana.

Throughout the 1840’s Maori and Pakeha fought intense battles over land and unlike most indigenous people fighting colonial rule, the Maori were a formidable opponent. Despite lacking the modern weapons and technology of the English their knowledge of the land, adaptability to a variety of terrain and skillful tactics played a major part in dictating the shape of our nations culture today. One key thing that Maori relied on tactically during battle were their fortresses or Pa. Creating a barrier against artillery shells, the English were often forced to fight hand to hand rendering weaponry advantages useless. This makes me think about what a Pa symbolises. I think to today’s fortified gang pads and some comparisons can be drawn.

Some of the major ethnic gangs of New Zealand wear their patches and related tattoo’s on their faces. This obviously borrows in part or greatly from the tradition of Ta Moko (traditional Maori tattooing, often on the face). Moko was generally reserved for high-ranking people or those with a high social status. In a way, the aesthetic of these gangs is like some Mad Max type urban warrior. Interestingly some of the major gangs were born from the feeling of displacement Maori youth felt during the urbanisation of New Zealand.

Paintings of Maori dignitary’s with Moko by Charles Frederick Goldie.

Displacement also played its role in the origins of the Pacific Island gangs of Auckland city. The ‘King Cobras’ the first major inner city gang in Auckland, mainly consisting of Samoan members although not strictly. The 1950’s was a time of prosperity and rapid urban growth, this promoted an influx of Polynesian migration, the opportunity for gainful employment was alluring and it often enabled Pacific Island people to support family back home as well. Like all recent migrants to any society, Pacific Islanders fell prey to racial prejudice from the more established racial groups, Maori and Pakeha alike. The King Cobras were most likely spawned from a reaction to this but fast became one of Ponsonby’s most notorious gangs.

Incredible image from ‘Polynesian Panthers’ book of activists rolling a Police car on Onslow Road, Kingsland during the 1981 anti Springbok tour protests

Image of King Cobras and associates outside Ponsonby’s Gluepot in 1990. This is from the book ‘Urban Village’.

If I could recommend any additional reading I would suggest you get these two books, ‘Polynesian Panthers’ by Melani Anae with Lautofa Iuli and Leilani Burgoyne from Raupo (Reed) publishing and ‘Urban Village’ by Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow from Random House. Incredible books and explain things a lot better than I have here.

Through the 1980’s there was a general shift in social influence in New Zealand society from one that was inherently British to something much more Americanised. Eventually the majority of popular media and entertainment became American dominated and this impacted our society greatly. The demographic of Auckland was possibly not too dissimilar to a lot of major US cities in appearance. As youth looked to television and popular music for their role models it makes perfect sense that the Pacific Island and Maori kids mostly identified with the African American and Latin American figures they saw. When considering the impact of the American street gang culture and how that came to be, you must also recognise that Eastern Samoan has been an American territory since the turn of last century. Samoan people from that region fought for the US in WWII. 60% of the American Samoan population live in the US, particularly in the West Coast, including Hawaii. Look also at one interesting religious factor, the popularity of the Mormon religion in Samoan society. Western and American Samoans alike, travel to do their ‘mission’ in the US and also inhabit Mormon strongholds like Utah. This meant that a lot of Samoan kids I knew were culture-bearers of sorts, bringing back knowledge of music, dance, fashion and graffiti. One such example is Mangere writer ‘Finer FDKNS’ lived in Los Angeles during his teens and was one such culture-bearer. On his return to New Zealand he brought photos and knowledge of tag styles from LA and is subsequently considered the godfather of the ‘Straights’ tag style now synonymous with Auckland graffiti.

Despite the popular perception that the adoption of the ‘Crips and Bloods’ was solely from ‘Colors’ there was also a fair amount of direct influence from kids having observed things first hand. The SOS or ‘Sons Of Samoa’ were a Blood gang that originated in Carson, California.

Historically the Tongan people have maintained the legends of early expansionism and it is common belief that they once governed the entire of the Pacific Islands as their empire. This notion is still considered controversial as it relies greatly on oral history, as this was the only documentation method of Polynesian people prior to European colonisation. Regardless though, there have been racial divides between Tongan and Samoan people referred to in the folklore of both cultures. These tensions have flared up in different ways through history and recent New Zealand society presents no exception to this. Like Samoans, Tongan people also migrated to Los Angeles throughout the 1970’s. Some Tongan youth aligned themselves with the predominantly black gangs like the ‘Raymond Avenue Crips’. Eventually they sought their own independence though and so you find the origins of gangs like TCG or ‘Tongan Crip Gang’. I couldn’t explain the exact mechanics of how SOS and TCG established themselves in Auckland in the 1990’s the emergence of this style of youth gang became the catalyst for a lot of violence between these two communities.

Some examples of TCG Flat Top style tags from around 1991. Photos by Ikon RTR

Outside of the major cities, the adoption of Red and Blue by the Mongrel Mob (red) and Black Power (blue) has often meant youth gangs identifying themselves as either Crip or Blood have served as their feeder gangs. It is not uncommon to encounter entire towns that wear one or the other colour to show allegiance or avoid conflict.

When I was 11 years old and in my first year of Intermediate school, I was immediately struck with the types of pressures you would expect.  These years are so important in the formation of the person you become. You become exposed to social hierarchy’s that don’t exist earlier in life, you discover niche sub-cultures for the first time and start to explore music and fashion tastes that come to define you through your teen years. For me, only one type of music spoke to me at this age: Hip-Hop. It’s hard to fathom how much of a minority that made me, being one of the only white kids in my neighbourhood to be visibly ‘into’ this music. It may have been the combination of my extremely naïve idea of what constituted Hip-Hop fashion, the fact I was far less ‘gangsta’ than the Pacific Island and Maori kids or possibly that only a year or two prior I could be seen walking around the same streets in full makeshift superhero outfits – but some days it felt like I had a giant target on my back and a neon sign above my head saying “bully me”. It may have read “Stock me for my shoes and cap” but I never owned anything even close to cool enough to warrant that.

I liked Hip-Hop because I saw the creative side of it. I saw art, dance and music. I think the other kids in my area saw that too but mostly they saw ‘Gangsta’. For some of them, legendary reputations were built off rolling people or fighting well. For a guy like me, although I had plenty of fights out of necessity I was never particularly skilled with my ‘knuckle game’. I had to find other ways to survive and participating in the creative aspect of Hip-Hop came to function like a defence measure once I started exploiting it right. I can’t take full credit for this realisation either, I have to acknowledge someone else for planting those seeds of thought for me: Bonus KOA, who I met in 1991 at Kowhai Intermediate.

Bonus was a year older than me and possibly the only other white kid from around the same area that was into Rap music and graffiti. Back then he was a reasonably short and scrawny kid, quick witted and street smart. He had a way tougher upbringing than me always tended to gravitate to mischief. I don’t think he tagged Bonus back then but he was tagging. I remember him putting in requests with me for to draw gangster looking characters and he would give me instructions like “oh put this label on his overalls” or “give him shades like Eazy-E”. One time he was like “man, you should get into graffiti, you’re good at drawing, imagine how bad you’d be at graffiti!” and I was like, “Yeah man, that’s a good idea!” I could totally see already what he was getting at because in the context of the conversation we had been having, he was telling me it was my ticket to get some street-cred with the other kids we knew. I said to him “You should like draw me up a tag alphabet so I can see how all the letters are done.” And he did. The next day he gave me a piece of lined refill with all the tag letters done in TCG flat top style. I was really stoked but almost immediately started having grand plans of how I could improve on the letters and went home and started drawing pieces based on his tag shapes. I chose the name ‘Krewl” as my first tag.

Auckland KOA roll call at Mt. Eden station from 1993. Photo by Ikon RTR

New Market cinema carpark stairwell in all it’s former glory circa 1994. Photo by Ikon RTR.

Being that I was only 11 at the time I never made a serious commitment to doing graffiti after that short stint. Jump forward to 1993 and I was starting High School, attending Western Springs College. On my first few days of school I was reintroduced to a handful of 4^th formers who had been the 2^nd formers at Kowhai when I was in 1^st form. With their one-year head start at high school life, a lot had happened and I learned pretty quickly I had a lot of catching up to do. For starters, most of them now had tag names and Bonus alongside his friend and partner in crime Bart (R.I.P.) were amongst some of the more prolific writers in the school.  The originally had their own crew IGz or Immature Gonerz but by the time I was reintroduced they were representing the now infamous KOA (Kiss Our Ass) crew. KOA was also a well-respected Sydney crew and I’ve always been a bit vague as to whether there was a direct correlation between the New Zealand and Australian chapters or if it was looser than that. Either way, members of the Australian KOA and the KOA that Bonus represented both played major roles in 90’s Auckland graffiti culture.

To be continued…

In this episode Berst One conducts a thorough interview with me about the motives and technique behind my current approach to painting. We speak in depth about what it is for a Graffiti Writer to embrace being an artist, the influence and thinking behind our current aesthetic and shed some light on some local graffiti history and how that has impacted the piecing style of today.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s amazing to consider how the course of your life can changed so dramatically with a move from small town to the big dirty inner city. In 1984 my Mother and Stepfather packed us up and we made the move from Palmerston North to Auckland. Initially we lived around Levonia Street in Western Springs, spent some time in Grey Lynn but eventually ended up settled at the bottom of a dead end street on the cusp of Morningside and Kingsland.

First Avenue, Kingsland 1987.

These two suburbs (which are almost the same suburb, only divided by a park and a bend in the road) are two old but small inner city suburbs located in the Mt Albert ward in Central Auckland.  When we moved there the area was in a transitional stage, an eclectic mixture of industrial area, run down shops and old villas inhabited by a diverse range of people from many cultures. Our street was mainly Samoan and Cook Island families, a handful of Pakeha families and one Maori family who were part of the Twelve Tribes Of Israel and threw epic parties at the bottom of our street. My school, Mt Albert Primary was even more diverse. My class had every type of pacific people you could think of from Maori, Cook Island, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Tokelauan, Fijian, Fijian Indian, Korean, Malaysian… The list goes on. It’s fair to say that 1980’s Auckland city was as stark a contrast to Palmerston North as you could get and one I’m very thankful to have experienced first hand.

In the park next to my house was an old school building owned by the Waipereira Trust and practise room for the legendary Herbs and later on Che Fu and the Crates. Across the park was School Road and parallel to that the infamous Don Croot Street. It’s hard to fathom that these were considered some of the roughest parts of town when compared to today but my first experiences walking down Don Croot left me in shock.

Directly across the road from our house lived the Satele family. It’s still their family home ’til this day and at any time as many as Four generations of family have been in that household at once. The father, Fatau Satele (Perhaps someone from the Satele family can help me the that spelling? The whole Samoan T as K’s thing gets me all the time!) is an icon of First Avenue, the neighbourhood patriarch. As a kid I always remember him being out the front of his house, just chilling on the steps, almost keeping an eye on the street and keeping up to date with his neighbours and everything going on in their lives. Any one that was around the Auckland scene during the 80’s and 90’s will talk about the Satele’s because brothers Marvin (R.I.P), Junior and Andrew were some of the earliest B-Boy’s and DJ’s in my neighbourhood. My awareness of Hip-Hop as a culture that you participate in as opposed to one you merely consume literally came from seeing and hearing these guys hone their respective crafts in their basement bedroom and front carport.

The Megazoids: Junior Satele, Troy O’Dea, Lua Iusitini, David Lynch, Jason Rowe. Lua, David and Jason were also members of Smooth Inc, one of New Zealand’s Pioneering graffiti crews. Photo from Nick D’Angelo

Having never seen much more than the odd bit of political or crudely done gang graffiti in Palmerston North, the standard of the writing around my area was hard not to notice or be impacted by. I used to walk to school Through the School Road Park, past the ‘FLY’ piece on the old school building then on to the Morningside shops, dropping in to Sima’s Superette, then continuing on to the tracks across from the KDV building and down past Morningside Station. There were some pieces painted there by the first Auckland kings of graffiti ‘Smooth Incorporated’ or ‘Smooth Crew’. The ‘Merry Xmas Smooth’ piece with the two characters really stuck in my mind for a long time and particularly the way the characters were depicted, specifically their outfits which shaped my primary school aged perception of what writers must look like. Even after the council buffed the center portion of the wall, the characters on the raw brick remained for another few years.

Image taken from the 1986 book ‘Street Action Aotearoa” by Mark Scott. These photos were taken by Gil Hanly.

Morningside Station. Photos by Jamie McCready

The Book ‘Street Action Aotearoa’ by Mark Scott came out in 1986 although I only discovered it by accident at the Auckland City Library one day in the mid 90′s. The book is very rare given that Mark Scott ended up self-publishing a very limited run after struggling to convince any mainstream publishers of the projects historical and cultural importance. The book mainly focuses on the explosion of Hip-Hop, mainly the B-Boy element throughout New Zealand during the 1980′s. It is a really special book in that it discusses Hip-Hop in the Aotearoa context and why it resonated with Maori and Polynesian youth at that time. The last section of the book is a feature on the Smooth Crew with incredible photos by legendary photographer Gil Hanly. This section shows my neighbourhood the way it was when we moved there and has some quotes from Claude Iusitini, the leader of Smooth that still hold true today.

“Our initial ideas might come from New York but we have to fuse our own identity as well… Eventually our bombing in Aotearoa will become our own style, not an imitation.” -Claude Iusitini/Street Action Aotearoa

A photo of Claude From Street Action Aotearoa, Photo by Gil Hanly

Smooth Crew at work. Later on I sort of took ownership of these walls and painted them into the mid 00′s. It was always felt like it was my duty as one of the only writers from that area painting pieces to represent there. once again, photo by Gil Hanly

“They can say, Shucks, them’s my roots up there… All the kids who don’t know about their culture in the broad spectrum of things, it would help in a really big way to bring all of us together.” -Claude Iusitini/Street Action Aotearoa

Smooth planning a wall. I love this shot, so crazy seeing such young photos of Lua and Jason Rowe. Jay has always been one of those iconic Auckland Hip-Hop people. Photo Gil Hanly

The Pacific Cinema in kingsland, now the Royal Jewelery Studio. Photo by Gil Hanly

“Every group here has its own culture, its own art and we can bring it together for everyone with our art… Take the designs you get in Tapa… Or like Maori has a flowing style, Rarotongan has a natural style wit flowers, hibiscus – You could use Hibiscus instead of clouds and the Samoans have a formal style, straight organised style… All these styles we could use. Do Koru instead of arrows.” -Claude Iusitini/Street Action Aotearoa

Smooth Crew ‘Monster Sale’ wall on Queen St, 1984. Photo by Gil Hanly

Another really influential piece from my area during that era (1985). I will discuss this more but note the Copyright signs on the tags. Photo by Nick D’Angelo

Of course for good measure here is a really classic joint and maybe one of the better known works by Smooth as it was printed in Spray Can Arts Auckland section. Photo by Nick D’Angelo

I will continue this soon with more great old stuff and tributes to NZ’s kings of old. Thanks again to Nick D’Angelo for use of the photos and thanks to all the influences mentioned in this post. If you ever get your little mitts upon a copy of Mark Scott’s book, know you are holding treasure!

Images from L to R: “Hip-Hop ’86″ by Lost Art, “AaronB” on the old Astor Hotel, Auckland 1996, “Merk” during the Wall Of Fame Project, 1995*, “Mean PFB” Auckland 1999, “Tank” Auckland 1998, “Loomit” Auckland 2000, “Mr Quink” Auckland 1997, “Acre” Auckland 1999. All Photos by Jamie ‘Deap’ McCready except * by DLT.

I feel it’s important to speak about my current thinking and motivations behind this block of writing. It’s a fairly daunting task to lay everything bare and typically I think writers tend to shy away from putting them selves out there in this manner of exposed situation but personally, I find it intriguing. In most forms of art, debate and discussion of influences is not only commonplace but considered an essential part of defining streams of work by giving it a reference point. In ‘Writing’ it’s often spoken about in very narrow terms, usually limited to tedious debate about ‘Influence vs. Biting’ and ‘Style vs. Technique’. I can’t even begin to explain how much these clichés pain me. Generally writers masquerade these clichés as some form of intelligent debate but don’t consider for a second how redundant they are in the bigger picture. At this present juncture I find these two debates as mundane as when mainstream media discuss ‘Art vs. Vandalism’ when introducing a news story or printing a newspaper article. I’m glossing over the issue a bit here and I will address it in more depth soon, I promise.

Before we enter into another huge discussion on the theme of ‘Biting’, it needs to be understood that what I said above is in no way intended to be a justification of such an act. It’s obviously a hot topic for me right now in the wake of recent events… Those that follow the blogs and love the scandal know what I’m talking about! It’s no secret that I became a major point of contention in the eyes of a few people and that has been put out there pretty publicly lately. I believe positives can always be made from negative situations and bringing these conversations to the forefront can become the catalyst for constructive debate. I really hope that it’s never come off like I’d downplay or forget those that have impacted me deeply. For this very reason I also feel that its time to shed light on all of my influences across the board. There are a lot of people dotted through out my journey that shared insights big and small that ultimately shaped me into the person I am today. I would like to attempt to pay homage to all of them as best as I can in some type of chronological time-line. The people range from Writers to illustrators, graphic designers and even just some interesting thinkers. Mostly they are from New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the United States and are people that I encountered locally or on my overseas travels. Just off the cuff I’d really like to acknowledge Smooth Crew, The Satele family, Fly, USP, Oli Green, Danny Haimona, AaronB and Merk and DAF Crew, Tank, Mystery, Kwink, Ikon, Webs, Kens, Duck, Mean PFB, Fury, Phat1, Addict, Dyle52, Exist, Acre, P-Money, Mike Weston, Otis Frizzell, Martin Emond (R.I.P), Daim, Loomit, DJ Sir-Vere, Can2, Atom, Wow123, Smash137, Revok, Ewok, Rime, Wane, Dash, Skinz, Doze Green, Futura, Chris Graham, Vans, Deus and Berst. Those are just the few more names of people that have shared their knowledge or opinions (whether knowing it or not) that have shaped or influenced my practices as an artist and person right until this day. There are many more I will remember along the way but I just needed to put those people out there from the get go, I owe them all that at least.

I am going to do my best to tell my whole story, share as many photos from the archive as possible and recount events as I remember them. This stream will take a while to unfold and may be interrupted with other tangents but ultimately I hope it will enable me to reflect on where I’ve come from to better understand where I am going from here.

Urban Development is an outdoor art project, the objective is to provide the platform for collaboration between artists across a wide range of mediums and stages in career. The project centres around street influenced mural work but will also draw in a variety of creative’s, both emerging and established. The concept is to think outside the conventional confines of graffiti, fine art, sculptural work, performance and beyond, blurring the lines and creating a dynamic and interesting project worthy of international attention.

This Episode introduces the project through brief interviews with the founding collective, Berst, Askew, Snek and Tim Webber. Stay tuned for regular updates including profiles on collaborators and the murals progress.

Click here to view the embedded video.