12ozProphet KEO and DASH167 Interview

Recently, the 12ozProphet Crew got a chance to film KEO and DASH167 of the FC TC-5 X-MEN art conglomerate whilst they work. The duo also made themselves available for a brief Q&A, which details their beginnings, mentors and the progression of graffiti as a contemporary art. The interview can be found in its entirety over at the 12ozProphet.

Why do you write?

KEO: I started out just to belong to something, to have something I was good at. You know? I wasn’t the best ball player, or the best dancer, or the toughest kid on the block, or popular with the girls, but I had some artistic talent and I figured this was something I could do. Everyone says they do it for the fame, but I was never really motivated by that. I still don’t care about being the best known writer; I just want to be the best writer. I just want to burn, I’m very competitive. I always painted different names and didn’t even care if anyone knew it was me or not. The pieces that influenced me when I was a kid, I never knew who painted them, dudes had mad aliases, I just knew they were fresh. I guess I’m like that in my life as well, I’ve done lots of well known graphic work, I’ve even ghost written albums and worked on best selling books, I just don’t attach my name to it. Those who know know. I like that.
DASH167: From a graff perspective, I still write because I feel a responsibility, in fact, an urgency, to preserve and defend the true aesthetic of this culture from the epidemic of Kitsch that has infected our ranks and is taking over the scene on a global level.
From a social perspective, I do it because writing on walls is the last uncensored form of social discourse. In a society where we are drowned in utopian propaganda, and public space is controlled, people need to see that somebody other than the government and the corporations has something to say, that real people are going to lengths to communicate.

When did you start?

KEO: Wow. I have been writing as long as I could write. I guess I started hitting my neighborhood and school yards around 1976, but I say I started in 1979 because that was the year I first hit trains. Back then if you weren’t on the lines, you were just a neighborhood toy. Street bombing didn’t really count then. I wrote from ‘79 to ‘86. I was never a king or anything, but I was in the mix. I quit in ‘86 and didn’t come back til ’96.
DASH167: I got into graff in the Fall of ‘82 and started tagging up around the way later that year. That was the beginning of 7th grade, which was my first year attending public school. By ‘83 I had started drawing in black books and I tried my first pieces in the summer of ‘84.

Who influences you stylistically, and why?

KEO: If I had to pick one guy whose style had the greatest impact on me, it would be DONDI. I used to try to get him to teach me stuff, back at the Fun Gallery and Washington Sq. Park, but he only ever wanted to talk about bicycles. But I bit more off that dude than a little bit. Early on, a lot of dudes in my neighborhood influenced me like ROTO, SCAR56, DEAL NSA, and SAM NSA. I also really dug the older stuff, SLAVE, HURST, HATE168, all the DEATH SQ. dudes CHAIN, PART, KOOL131, PESO, NOC. KASE2, DOZE TC-5. I‘m influenced by a lot of dudes, if only to inspire me to try and burn them.

What is the foundation of your style?

KEO: It’s really all about proper letter forms. I’m striving to get to the point where, if you removed all the color, all the arrows, connections and embellishment, it would STILL be a burner. Characters and backgrounds and all that is secondary. Not even secondary, that’s what you do if you have extra paint left over! A lot of dudes can dazzle you with embellishment and ornamentation, but if you stripped all that away, you would find out they had put rims, ground effects kit, and candy paint on a busted geo metro. No letters under all them arrows. It’s like trying to build a house from the top down. Picking your curtains without pouring your foundation. Get a level and a plum-bob, Buddy.
DASH167: I can tailor my pieces to reflect the style of the crew I’m representing, but the foundation of my style is a hybrid of FC and IBM style, circa 1985. At that time WEST and POKE were contemporizing letterforms and design elements that had been passed down through generations of style masters.

What makes your style unique or original?

KEO: I don’t think I have done much that’s original; I am still trying to master traditional letter forms. Most style was perfected already by 1977. There only so much you can do with ‘em, only so far you can bend a “K” until it turns into an “S”. I guess I did a few little things that were innovative here and there. Like when I combined the Softy style with a Mechanical, hard-edged skeleton busting out. I’ve seen a lot of dudes bite that one.
DASH167: Somebody once commented that my letters looked like they were “doing the wop”. That’s because I use a typographical approach, so the rhythm of my tags, carries over into my pieces. I capitalize on that flow, then push it further by experimenting with line, curve and direction. I’m also concerned with the unseen understructure of my pieces so I’m very particular about white space, juxtaposition and how the letters interact. Sometimes I’m inspired more by Geometry and Physics than I am by actual graffiti. My philosophy is both minimalist and complex, but basically I try to design advanced letterforms without compromising the traditional aesthetic. I think that’s something writers have come to expect of my style.

Where do you see graffiti writing going and how has it changed?

KEO: I don’t know where it’s going, hopefully back on the subway where it belongs. It has changed significantly since the trains got clean. The game is more in the streets where there is less time to really flex style, it has kind of devolved back to the earliest days of single hits and primitive throw-ups. Also the internet has had a huge effect on the game worldwide, graffiti is just too accessible now. You used to have to know someone, to part of an inner circle, now any kid in Knucklebuck Iowa can type “WILDSTYLE LETTER ALPHABET” into google and feel like he is on the right path. But the truth isn’t always on wiki, you know?
DASH167: People are always going to write on walls, the tools and techniques will continue to improve, but STYLE as we know it, is in trouble right now.